(L+CR) Nagi no Asukara (Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea)

[Divini]

I think the dissonance between the heavy handed romantic drama that most of the series was laden with and the really happy, golden ending made me enjoy this episode less than I should've.

With all that empathy between Miuna and Manaka having their feelings and their Ena synchronized and all that, I was half expecting a threesome ending...

[MCAL]

Well I'd rather not talk much about this, so I'm just gonna quote myself...

Originally Posted by MCAL

Despite the fact that the ever present hand of Okada can destroy everything, this anime is still really good.

Welp.... It was good while it lasted and at least the first 19 episodes were 7-8 worthy, but a 6/10 it is!

But you know what? There was no cross-dressing and emasculating male characters... And I call that a 100% positive result.

[Fruits Basket Fan]

I am glad that Miuna was not sacrificed.


But I hate how little focus we had of Kaname and we never saw his parents.


On the other hand, I am happy with the HikarixManaka ending.

[ChainLegacy]

I sometimes like magnificent, grandiose endings, but they have to be really well executed to work properly. Not really the case here. Everything just fell into place too perfectly and quickly...

Despite that, it wasn't a bad ending either. I still liked the resolutions that were presented to each plot thread, even if the presentations themselves were lacking. So I'll give this a so-so ending and a slightly above average series overall. Pretty good character drama, pretty good plot, hampered by pacing issues and a scatterbrained plot progression. Somewhere between a 6.5-7/10 overall. Without the likeable characters, that score would have been lower.

[Thess]

WHAT ABOUT KANAME'S PARENTS?

I found the ending very satisfying outside of that. My favorite part was the tale of the sea god and the woman.

[Tempester]

Fantastic ending for a very good anime. I'm so glad that it was a true happy ending without any pointless bittersweet sacrifices or partings shoved in like what I see in way too many anime out there. I'm a big fan of happy endings as long as they are delivered in a sensible manner, and Nagi no Asukara did that well.

Funny how endings can make or break a show so much; I ended up liking Nagi no Asukara more than Kill la Kill in the end due to the former's superior finale despite being hyped over the latter during the majority of its run.

[Master_Yoma]

Well it was a very nice ending it seemed every thing worked out


7/10

[ReinhartX]

Waited 5 years for hikari, never hated manaka and save her in the process...always stayed and supported him throughout...even saves the village and despite seeing how hikari was really desperate to save her.

Hikari still goes for manaka in the end....

Even thou everyone is kinda happy in the end....but no....

[FlareKnight]

Decent enough final episode. Honestly the series ran into trouble with its time skip and never really recovered fully. Not as good a series as it could have been, but it was still a good ride overall.

[Tempester]

Originally Posted by ReinhartX

Waited 5 years for hikari, never hated manaka and save her in the process...always stayed and supported him throughout...even saves the village and despite seeing how hikari was really desperate to save her.

Hikari still goes for manaka in the end....

Even thou everyone is kinda happy in the end....but no....

Were you expecting him to have a sudden change in heart and start loving Miuna after realizing the fact? This is the last episode you're talking about here. The entire last quarter of the anime was headed straight towards a Hikari x Manaka ending. Having Hikari suddenly go for Miuna in the last two episodes of this anime would be very disappointing. And I'm saying that as someone who likes Miuna much more than Manaka.

[orion]

Originally Posted by ReinhartX

Waited 5 years for hikari, never hated manaka and save her in the process...always stayed and supported him throughout...even saves the village and despite seeing how hikari was really desperate to save her.

Hikari still goes for manaka in the end....

Even thou everyone is kinda happy in the end....but no....

It's a lesson about what Miuna should not have done is she really wanted Hikari.

[Guardian Enzo]

So after all the nonsense we suffered through in the second cour, the hug we get in the finale is - Manaka and Miuna?

I'm reminded of the Graham Nash classic "Wasted on the Way" with this finale - not coincidentally, just as I was with Hanasaku Iroha's last episode. There was so much that was good about this series. and so much of it got shafted in the end so we could get the hackneyed adolescent self-pity and magazine cover posing. It really is a shame, because the last episode did a good job reminding us of all those good things about Nagiasu that deserved better treatment than they got.

An interesting show, and one of the most visually stunning since Hyouka. But ultimately a mixed bag, and a mere scale off the shoulder of what it could have been.

[Huepute]

Just put too good things into Miuna character (for anime's rating? ... or someone personally love this charater in the team?) and try to put too silly act to manaka or hikari characters ... and this is a result (open end) .... Impressive work

But I love the song the scene and manythings ... This just hurt me somehow even finally Hikari tends to choose Manaka ... but I still sick of what the writer try to put into Miuna as an extraordinary wonderful girl who try to win the boy she loves who loves another girl(and being a pure heart? not really try to get him at the same time). Just confuse with what the writer thinking? The story is so far big different from the pv (hikari-manaka-tsumuku) ... Why did they bother make that preview anyway?

Sorry for this stupid post I just so fail with this somehow

[Birdway]

This anime suffered a lot because of its second half and despite the studio work to make up with beautiful animation (dumb physics aside) and música it wasn't enough.

5.5/10

It would be a higher score without the second half but lower without the visuals.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Well that ending was better executed than I expected. Like Hanasaku Iroha and Tari Tari before it, NagiAsu had a solid final episode and ended on a great note. Which passes 90% of anime out there which fails to have satisying endings.

But a great final episode is insufficient to make it a great anime. In NagiAsu's case, I don't even think it's good enough to make it a good anime. The first half of the first cour annoyed me and whilst it did reach great highs in the second half of the first cour, after the first few episodes of the second cour, the series hit a slump that somehow was even worse than the first half of the first cour. I could, to an extent, despite my rather vocal rage at the time, tolerate and forgive the wangst and shipping pandering in the first half, because it's the first half of the series. But this same shit continued in this second half and that's when I couldn't tolerate it anymore.

Characters like Sayu, despite being terrible, I can ignore as she was effectively a supporting character meaning I could shut my brain off whenever she was on screen. But Chisaki... oh boy. If there was a golden raspberry award for worst anime characters of 2014, she would be a nominee for me personally. She spent the entirety of the anime wangsting, moping, crying and being irritating about her personal love problems. Shes goddamn 20+ years old and has had 5 years to get over it and she's acting even more immature than the 14 year old kids in Hikari, Manaka and Kaname.

Which leads to me the main problem of the series, there wasn't really character I liked other than Hikari, and he was no where near enough to carry the series. For Hanasaku Iroha there was Ohana who carried the series splendidly, and for Tari Tari entire cast was great, albeit Taichi got shafted in screentime. NagiKara? No one. For these drama, coming of age or less plot-centric series (and thus more character-driven), character likeability is very important and NagiAsu unfortunately had largely characters that were irritating or characters that evoke apathy from me.

The next problem the plot and how it was presented. NagiAsu had potentially a very interesting premise with potentially very interesting conflicts. The whole landdweller v seadweller hostility. The ice apocalypse. The hibernation. The relationship between Uroko, Sea God, the seadwellers, landdwellers and the sea. The familial relationships. But what did the series do? It spent the majority of time focusing on some cheap teen romance melodrama that you can find by the dozen in various soap operas. Not to mention it was mostly a BAD soap opera. It doesn't help that White Album 2 was previous season, and I can't even begin to describe how much better that series was in presenting romantic conflict. Or PA Works x Okada's own True Tears made 6 years ago, but I'll leave that for another topic.

So in the end, the series was a disappointment. Very beautiful to look at (not quite Hanasaku Iroha tier, but close) and great potential in its premise but ruined by indulgent romance ramblings. Better than your average anime but far less good than I expected it to be. I would rank it only above the likes of Angel Beats and Red Data Girl, but below Canaan and Another in terms of PA Works TV series, which makes NagiKara the bottom third.

Hoping Glasslip is significantly better than this and based on the production staff lineup of that series, all arrows seem to point to it being so.

Originally Posted by MCAL

But you know what? There was no cross-dressing and emasculating male characters... And I call that a 100% positive result.

And no True Tears cameo. I am genuinely surprised that none of these actually happened Though no True Tears cameo isn't a positive...

[Meltyred]

Might be just me, but I got the feeling Manaka and Miuna like each other more than Hikari...

[com_gwp]

What a shame, I had thought PA Works finally had a groove going and were going to have another hit on their hands after the magnificent Uchouten Kazoku. But PA's (and Okada's) curse just had to strike, didn't it. A spectacular first half that seemed to promise so much, only to be brought down by a undesirable second half; the same PA Works situation I've seen far too many times

But despite all the disappointment, there was still so much ambition and inspiration to it. Nagi was stunning visually, sometimes thematically, and it delivered one of the best character development arcs I've seen in Hikari. It might've been a mixed bag in the end, but it had some real magic in its seas.

[Enternal]

Originally Posted by orion

It's a lesson about what Miuna should not have done is she really wanted Hikari.

But isn't that very quality is what makes her so lovable? I mean, even if she really loves Hikari, his desires is what is important to her so she makes sure he's happy. Of course, it will hurt her majorly in the end...

[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

The next problem the plot and how it was presented. NagiAsu had potentially a very interesting premise with potentially very interesting conflicts. The whole landdweller v seadweller hostility. The ice apocalypse. The hibernation. The relationship between Uroko, Sea God, the seadwellers, landdwellers and the sea. The familial relationships. But what did the series do? It spent the majority of time focusing on some cheap teen romance melodrama that you can find by the dozen in various soap operas. Not to mention it was mostly a BAD soap opera.

While I disagree with your opinion about the first half (gave it a 9/10 after all, although there's a significant bonus for the stunning visuals - thinking of the Tomoebi scene right now - and the music). I fully agree with this part. Was very disappointed to see how the second half just put too much focus on the romance part, which was done pretty poorly. It didn't help that the second half looked as if it didn't know what it truly wanted to be. Just wasted so much of the potential that was out there.

[ginger02]

I've been wanting to check out this show, but wasn't sure if it was interesting enough. There seems to be plenty of posts here though. What about it do y'all like about series?