Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~

[klare]

Spoiler for eps 12 end:

in the end, the magic of the witches not able to defeat the evil Sedna, it was love!

finally a happy ending series

my overall thoughts about the series:
- cute characters, a relax story
- but it is a bit too slow, the fights are not well designed, Marin as the main character is a boring one
- overall it is something different in this season, a series that can be watched without pressure
- my favourite character: Kanon

[Guido]

I'll be watching the series finale in two more weekends, so I don't need to pressure myself to watch the remainder episodes in one gulp.

Spoiler for Episode 10:

The premise of darkness seeking out light to swallow it is not that new, at least to me.

Most shows of the traditional magic-girl genre depict the archetype (maybe Biblical stereotype) battle between light and darkness.

The power of light usually repels the darkness. Therefore, the minions of the darkness usually target victims who let the darkness grow within them unchecked.

Umi Monogatari reverses this basic plot drive. Sedna seeks out the light in everything but doesn't bother to try possessing those who have some measure of darkness in their hearts, like it was the case of Kanon's love rival, whose name I forgot. I mean, the irony of all this is that Kanon is well protected by her own darkness from possession.

I think that the darkness is everyone's hearts is something borned with in each of all us, while Sedna's power of darkness would be seen as more like an intruding or invading darkness from an outside source, that gets repelled by one's inside darkness.

I do adore this show for its beautiful design of colors, its lighting effects, its use of native and folkloric islander song in its soundtrack, and for some of its main characters.

Kanon by far is my favorite character surpassing Marin for its troubled childhood and dense layer of emotions she exudes.

To me the best scene of the episode was Urin-Sedna's with black, butterfly wings reappearing before Kanon and Marin.
She looked mischievously gorgeous, being sensual with those blank but haze red-dyed eyes; not making her look sexy or something along the lines of that context.

Her voice was playfully malevolent, but her insides clearly hinted at a tinge of sorrow with a light of kindness flickering within her almost dark heart.

[Dop]

What... What...? WHAT?!?!

Spoiler for ending:

Kanon and Marin don't get together? All the sea people go back to the sea leaving Kanon all on her own, even after she tells Marin that she loves her?

Stupid stupid elder turtle! Stupid stupid rules!!

I did like the idea that the big bad wasn't yet another ancient evil but just lots of little bad thoughts clustered, little monsters from the id. I also liked that victory didn't come in the form of some epic battle or magical weapons but LOVE! After all that was the key to the entire series.

Although I did think that everyone going back to the sea and Kanon being left with just her memories of that summer was kind of sad...

[Guido]

Since it's been about a week that the series ended and now the new season has started, the thread is sinking into the forgotten road.

Nevertheless, I have a commitment to myself at reviewing each episode of Umi Monogatari until the very end.

Spoiler for Episode 11:

The show completely turned dark and sorrowful.

I was at the verge of tears when Urin snapped while Marin was watching in tears.

My heart melt witnessing how Marin and Kanon were getting engulfed into the darkness, as the song played. Then, they understood Sedna is everyone's sorrow that was kept bottled up and thrown into the sea.

Their light was losing, because it couldn't grasped the sorrow of Urin's darkness.

She was frustrated and left alone, tormented with the threat of being left behind.

The soundtrack has been throughout the show a beautiful jewel for me to listen over and over. I just can hope it gets released soon.

The show has kept a consistent level at engaging the audience with the characters struggling to express their true feelings rather than resorting to a traditional, magic-girl formulaic story.

I'm so thrilled and anxious at what's going to happen for the last episode, that I'm craving right now to go download it at once and watch it, but I have to remain patient.
It's only going to be one more week of waiting to conclude this beautiful story.

The eleventh episode left on a last cliffhanger with Urin absorbing all the islanders' sadness and growing-up physically around Urin's age with her black, butterfly wings grown full-fledged.

[Fate21]

I already expexted that kind of ending in the beginning from when Elder Turtle said sea beings and sky beings are living separately.
The ending is so sad...but it gives more impression to me.
At first I thought there will be a battle in episode 12, but it turns out not
I want season 2 desperately T_T too cute and has many potential

[Guido]

I only approach this show, because I learned that Junichi Sato was involved in the staff. Hence, I did not think it twice to join the water ride.

With all due respect to the whole magical-girl genre, Umi Monogatari delivered and exceeded my expectations.

To me the show works in many contexts, because it did not treat the issue of evilness as something supernatural or coming from outside source, like most magic-girls shows of genre do like Pretty Cure, for example.

This show exposed to the viewers as something very natural and everydady that happens to each one of us. The feelings of anxiety, loneliness, frustration, fear, anger, jealousy, sorrow, and regret when we feel we aren't receiving enough attention from that boyfriend or girlfriend with whom we dedicate our time, or even at home when we can mistakenly take for granted that our parents do not care at all for our mishappenings.

To have darkness within us is just a natural part of a whole, which is complemented by the other half which is our light. Those feelings that encourage and move us to keep struggling and going on and on.
In fact, the irony in our lives that the climax's for the final episode showed me is that we burn with more desire to overcome, to struggle against, and to surpass the catastrophe, tragedy, or problem that struck us with an even fiercer determination and even kinder compassionate.

Umi Monogatari taught me those two truths: The bad things and good things are the sum to the whole of the experiences we acquire throughout the course of our lifetime, and when bad things happen we become more active and more engaging to surpass ourselves.

Umi Monogatari isn't like anything I've seen in the traditional magic-girl formula.

This show established its own and original mythos, and I think that the soundtrack is original itself, because it focuses more upon the character's feelings and emotions when they interact with their own experiences and memories, rather than with the course of the plot.

Spoiler for Episode 12:

The opening video for the previous 11 episodes gave me a clue that I did not realize, until Urin became serious to seal Sedna along with her.

Urin nearly suffered a fate similar to the "Little Mermaid" from the Hans Christian Andersen tale; she was to become bubbles of light, once her heart of light had consumed all of darkness that formed Sedna.

Believe that from the start to the end of the episode, I silently sobbed very close to the verge of tears.

The last climax was so beautifully unique in which did not require for Urin, Marin, and Kanon to engage in a futile battle. Rather their battle fought it with their feelings of both happiness and sadness, and through their words channel what their feelings expressed.

The mysterious, red-eyed, Miko explained to the audience that the whole point of this event was for people to realize that light and darkness are not foreign, and they can be reconciled; even the darkness has a heart evidenced when Sedna through Urin also felt sorrow and frustration, and which for itself to have a company.

Sedna was just the sum of all those bits of darkness that the islanders poured into the sea, but all they forgot about them.

The turtle elder was impressed with Kanon and Marin, because they turned out to be special shrine maiden. I believe what he meant was they were the very first "mikos" to fulfill their destinies by reconciling the darkness with the light together with kindness, rather than achieving that fate through the traditional way, as all the previous "mikos" had: engaging in battle and sealing the darkness with the light.

But not everything could become happy, since Kanon was not able to go with Marin, Urin, and the others after they all averted the crisis.
Honestly, I found the rule about the Sky and Sea rather stupid. The mysterious miko said that the sky and sea cannot separate. The whole point throughout the show is that everything is the sum of a whole.

The ending evidently puts up the conclusion in this way: all the events that transpired to Kanon on the summer were a one life-time adventure, that she won't ever experience again.
Hence, Kanon will never get to see Marin again in her lifetime, unless the supposed rule about the Sea and the Sky not interacting with each other is lifted.

Overall, it was delight to me to have watched this anime.

I must say that I'm impressed at how effective Houko Kuwashima plays villanous roles. Her voice character as Sedna matched with the gloom darkness that consumed the sea and the island and had nearly won.

I know this is a goodbye, fortunately, there's still the DVD-only 13th episode that will get released on March 2010. However, I won't my expectations high about that episode being a sequel, continuation, or an epilogue to the end of episode 12.

You know Marin returning from the Sea and reuniting with Kanon.

No, I think it would be more as an extra episode happening between episodes 2 and 5 of the show.

Nevertheless, the show delivered such a slapstick humor courtesy of Kanon's and Ooshima's freaky, traumatic faces and Kanon's evil aura.

This has been the first show that I concluded for the summer season.

[risingstar3110]

Finished the series, the first thing i have to mention is how ridiculous cliche the main plot of this anime is. Random girls or boys accidentally discovered their magical power, then train up (with an old mentor) and use it to battle a big bad evil and its minions to save the day. Super cliche and must be used a zillion times before.

However... i have to admit this series was executed brilliantly. Also, even when I was spoiled a little bit, the ending still exceeded my expectation by far.
The characters are not really unique, nor with tragic past or incredible backgrounds. But their common struggles were portrayed very well as i could totally understand the feeling of Kanon, Marin, Urin or Ooshima. Could even feel (almost-running) tears in my eyes during sad and tragic moments (yeah... sorry for being too sensitive...)
The BGMs were also brilliant. It has been long since last time i saw an anime with such a good executed mood flow for all four final episodes. The OP, ED sounded really good at first, and blended onto the story as we approach the end (the change in animation of final OP also really set up the mood).

The ending was bittersweet (agree with "screw the rule..." propose). It's good to see Kanon getting out of her shell (at last) to confess her love to both that guy and Marin(without rushing their relationship). Also her hatred to the sea was changed and now she's planning to move to a high school near the shore (hoping to see Marin again, maybe). I interpreted the "i won't forget this summer" a bit different as to me it means this event will change her course in life

Great series. The final pushed its rate from 7/10 to 9/10 since i love good ending.

PS: agree with Guido about the non-"traditional magic-girl formula" approach.

[SuperKnuckles]

Yeah. I don't think there's any doubting just how extremely cliche the basic story is. if it had an original story, there'd be otaku-gasms about how it'd be one of the best 12-13 episode anime ever.

[molitar]

Originally Posted by Dop

What... What...? WHAT?!?!

Spoiler for ending:

Kanon and Marin don't get together? All the sea people go back to the sea leaving Kanon all on her own, even after she tells Marin that she loves her?

Stupid stupid elder turtle! Stupid stupid rules!!

I did like the idea that the big bad wasn't yet another ancient evil but just lots of little bad thoughts clustered, little monsters from the id. I also liked that victory didn't come in the form of some epic battle or magical weapons but LOVE! After all that was the key to the entire series.

Although I did think that everyone going back to the sea and Kanon being left with just her memories of that summer was kind of sad...

I have to agree.. this is a delete and not keep on my list.. One thing I HATE is stupid endings! If I was her I would of said f*#@ you turtle I have the ring created by my ancestors and their is only one purpose for the ring.. to be able to visit the sea.. Stupid rules.. stupid ending.

[FireChick]

Good news for Junichi Sato, Aria and Umimono fans. It's confirmed that Sato is assigned to direct a short little OVA named Tamayura set for 2010. It's supposedly about a girl who likes photography and lives near a beach. It seems interesting, but I better hope it's not an adult OVA or something.

[Midonin]

Your imagination really ran away with you on this one.

[Shiroth]

I believed that the Umi Monogatari score was the best of the season when it was airing, though the soundtrack was released last week, and listening now, i could easily get away with saying it's the best score of the year. Ken Muramatsu, wow, just wow.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

I believed that the Umi Monogatari score was the best of the season when it was airing, though the soundtrack was released last week, and listening now, i could easily get away with saying it's the best score of the year. Ken Muramatsu, wow, just wow.

Really late to the party here, but I finally got around to listening to this CD set myself, and I have to agree that this is an excellent score. It reminds me a lot of the composer's previous work on Kure-nai; in fact, some of the songs are definitely variations of what he did there (down to the chord structure and instrumentation). That's certainly not a bad thing, of course, as it too was one of the best soundtracks of last year.

I think one of the things that makes his music memorable is the emphasis on having strong melodies and using just enough instrumentation to support. So his music has a sort of "sing-song" like quality that gets used well as theme and variation throughout the soundtrack. You can recognize certain melodies come back in slightly modified forms throughout the work, which is a way of supporting the themes of the story. I saw some question at the time whether the OST was always used most effectively in the anime itself, but it's definitely the sort of OST that can standalone very well.

[Shiroth]

I can truly agree with everything you've said relentlessflame, because i believe the exact same. Also, it's been just about a month now since i first listened to the soundtrack, and i can still honestly say this is the best score of the year for me.

[FireChick]

Your imagination really ran away with you on this one.

It's true! It was posted on ANN some time ago!

[Midonin]

I had to go back to my own post to find context, but it existing wasn't the part I was referring to.

It was this line.

Originally Posted by FireChick

but I better hope it's not an adult OVA or something

[FireChick]

Ooooh. I see. Never mind. >__<

[YuKanda]

episode 13 ? o.o

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by YuKanda

episode 13 ? o.o

Yes, the last DVD of the series was released yesterday in Japan and includes a bonus episode.

[FireChick]

The official Tamayura website is up in case everyone's wondering. And the characters look soooooo CUTE!!!