Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~

[FireChick]

I wonder if the subs are gonna come out soon?

[M.Marangio]

Originally Posted by FireChick

I wonder if the subs are gonna come out soon?

Remember that the english title is "Sea Story".

[FireChick]

The first episode is subbed and out!

[MeoTwister5]

Lol I placed this show on my To Try list but I didn't realize it was already out. Will now start trying. I'm not a fan of the Magical Girl genre but I'll see where this goes for a while.

[DmonHiro]

Actually, why do people keep saying this is a "magical girl" anime? I see almost nothing that defines that genre here. No transformations, no monster to defeat, nu super-powers....no nothing.

[Doraneko]

Originally Posted by DmonHiro

Actually, why do people keep saying this is a "magical girl" anime? I see almost nothing that defines that genre here. No transformations, no monster to defeat, nu super-powers....no nothing.

Because all officially available information suggests that it is.

Just take a look at the information about DVD vol.1 from Amazon. Similar descriptions can also found in the press release on Anime-anime.

Spoiler:

「ARIA」シリーズの佐藤順一監督、待望の最新作!! 海と空の少女が出会うとき、もう一つの「海物語」が始まる―
美しく描くことを軸にした、全く新しい変身魔法少女アクション。ピュアな少女たちの心の絆を美しくも詩的に描くひと夏の物語。『ARIA』シリーズ『カレイドスター』の佐 藤順一監督が新境地に挑む、魔法巫女ファンタジー! この夏、海と空の少女の心が世界を包む。
<ストーリー>
第1話:「海の心 空の心」
海の世界で生活する海人、マリンとその妹、ウリン。
ある日、空(地上)から落ちてきた美しい指輪を拾った二人は、指輪の持ち主を探すため、関わる事を禁じられ ていた空(地上)の世界を訪れる。
天神子島に辿り着いた二人は、指輪の持ち主である女子高生・夏音に出会う。
しかし夏音は、それは元カレからもらった物で、もういらないから捨てたのだと言って、再び指輪を放り投げて しまう。
マリンは、空人にも美しい心があるはずと信じて、再び指輪を探しに行くのだが……。

第2話:「指輪の心 巫女の心」
石棺に封じられていたセドナの半身が復活し、天神子島に暗雲が立ちこめる。
夏音たちの前に突如現れたカメの長老、松本。彼が持っていたバミューダストーンが反応し、マリンは海の巫女 として選ばれた。
人語を喋るカメに光る石…現実離れした出来事の連続に、事情を飲み込めない夏音は、マリンや松本たちの言う 事をインチキ霊媒商法だと言って、その場を立ち去るが、その帰路、海から上がってきた怪しい女に襲われるの だった……!
【特典】豪華11大特典
<初回生産限定特典>
◆ストーリー原案 築地俊彦書き下ろし 小説版「うみものがたり」
◆ダブルビジュアルカード2枚セット
◆飯塚晴子描き下ろしスリーブケース
<音声特典>
◆オーディオコメンタリー(第1話阿澄佳奈・寿美菜子/第2話未定)
<映像特典> ◆さとじゅん&あすみんと行く奄美大島 その1
◆プロモーション映像
◆夏音と行く天神子島
◆先行上映会イベント(出演:佐藤順一監督・阿澄佳奈・寿美菜子・儀武ゆう子・marble)
◆CM集
<ジャケット&レーベル> 飯塚晴子描き下ろしのジャケット
ピクチャーレーベル仕様
*尚、初回生産限定の特典は数量に限りがございますので、お早目の御購入をお願いいたします。

I am not going to translate the whole thing as it contains spoilers for the unaired episode 2, but the bolded line reads "a completely new transforming magical girl action show."

Still, I sincerely pray that Sato Junichi is trolling here and it turns out to be a YKK/Aria like slice-of-life show, or at least something along the lines of Kaleido Star.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by DmonHiro

Actually, why do people keep saying this is a "magical girl" anime? I see almost nothing that defines that genre here. No transformations, no monster to defeat, nu super-powers....no nothing.

It's not much like an ordinary magical girl anime, so far -- fortunately, in my opinion -- but we may indeed have caught a glimpse of a monster, and there may be super-powers and transformations that haven't shown up yet. The Japanese publicity certainly claims it is magical girl, anyway, as Doraneko says. But it does say that it is "completely new magical girl action," so it may not follow the canon exactly. A mix of magical girl with slice of life could be interesting.

[fict_ticious]

Actually, why do people keep saying this is a "magical girl" anime? I see almost nothing that defines that genre here.

Dude, it's been one episode, and I'm pretty sure Junichi Sato knows what he is doing. Besides, if non-human characters doesn't spell "magical girl", I really don't know what else does.

Episode 1:

Spoiler:

- No tail fins = awesome.
- OP is great - the faces and places it shows makes you want to watch even more.
- COLOURS! Reminds me of Kaleido Star
- So us surface dwellers are the "sky" to these merfolk.
- Oh gosh, Asumi Kana HNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGH
- Little sis seems to be at the mercy of her sister's whims. Adorable <3
- MerMAN
- Kanon. I swear, just give her a pair of hair pins...
- Song = FORESHADOWING? Well, the old bag DID say they teach us of the past.
- Poor Kanon. Love sucks ;_;
- Wandering around in swimsuits is AWWWWWRIGHT.
- Looks like little sis awakened the big bad. I guess the action starts next ep.
- ED was superb. I didn't think they would do the actual story of the little mermaid but they did. My hat to you, Junichi Sato. I remember my older sister reading this story to me when I was little.

I've always wanted a SPLASH animu, but this is fine, too. Visually appealing, and since it's 12 (?) episodes, the animation should be consistent. The budget must be godly, though, since the main sponsor is a vendor for those pachinko thingies.

[DmonHiro]

One more thing. I've been reading on lot's of blogs about people complaining about Urin's name. To those people, I'd just like to say that "Urin" means "rain forest" in Japanese.

[fict_ticious]

Originally Posted by DmonHiro

One more thing. I've been reading on lot's of blogs about people complaining about Urin's name. To those people, I'd just like to say that "Urin" means "rain forest" in Japanese.

I'd brave her rain forest, if you know what I mean. Though I imagine sea creatures may not have that much hair... or hair at all.

[Craymel]

I'm glad I put this on my "to try" list. So far I love the animation, the music, the character designs (except for the merman) and especially the atmosphere the anime has (that's really what drew me to this anime). It seems unique in it's own right because of the atmosphere (I haven't watched aria sorry :P). The pace is slow but I don't mind it; does any one know how many episodes this is supposed to have. My favourite part of it all was how the ending payed homage to the original little mermaid fairy tale in it's ending (I wonder if that has anything to do with the actual plot). I uploaded the ending to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55aX38KwE0g

I couldn't figure out how to embed...

[Raiga]

You take the video number and put it between "youtube" tags, like this:
[ youtube]55aX38KwE0g[/ youtube] except without the spaces (for some reason putting this in code tags doesn't work).

And it becomes:

[Craymel]

thanks for that little tutorial. I really do like that ending much better then the opening.

[ThoHell]

What are they? Mermaids? Under water world humans? People like Armuro from Umisho? I dunno, but this was surprising watchable and cute. Think I'll continue to watch this. YURIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!

[Fishfood1]

The first episode is kinda interesting, I think I'll be watching this for awhile.

I'm surprised how neutral Marin is compare to Urin, who's like scared of people on the surface.

[suguru]

Impressed by the first episode - as others have said, really good atmosphere, the character designs, backgrounds, music, and everything else just seemed to click together really well. It'll be interesting to see where they go with the story - Marin seems like the innocent/trusting type, while Urin is more apprehensive, wonder if after a while on the surface both of them will end up somewhere in the middle.

[ARQ]

lol during that scene where everything looks evil and foreboding near the end of the episode, the music was so wildly inappropriate. Its all peaceful and mellow sounding.

[chinaboat]

Originally Posted by ARQ

lol during that scene where everything looks evil and foreboding near the end of the episode, the music was so wildly inappropriate. Its all peaceful and mellow sounding.

Yeah, it was like "Hey, we got this music left over from Aria, let's stick it in this anime even though it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever"

From the way the underwater people's hair and costumes behaved I'm thinking they live in the same ocean as Spongebob Squarepants where sometimes water is water and sometimes it ain't. In a series where: one of female lead is the epitome of fanservice: one is a fine example of lolicon who obviously has super human strength: and the third has definite anger management issues, an atypical body of water is not necessarily a bad thing.

Prior to watching the sub I knew nothing about series which is probably a good thing since the phrase "magical girl" takes my interest level to about zero rather quickly. However the quirkily conflicting elements (non-water water, fanservice, "Aria" type music for no apparent reason, and it seems a bewhiskered turtle) make me want to stay for the at least two or three more. It looks like this might be fun (of course it looks like it might also be really, really stupid, too) so I think I'll stick around for a bit

[Dop]

Just seen the first episode, and I quite liked that. I'll be watching more to see how the storyline develops, but what I've seen so far looks promising.

[ZODDGUTS]

First episode was a good start. Interesting to see the girl get dumped in the first episode looking forward to seeing the guy with the current girl he's with and as to how Kannon will deal with it other then beating him up of course.