Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~

[SnowSong]

The ED brings back nostalgic memories of Blue Flow, the Hanbenai Renamei ED... And it is cute to boot too!

It is probably the similarity in singing style. But this is quite enjoyable -- It is no where near Aria level yet, but we can always hope.

[Sylphic]

Watched the raw, amazingly simple Japanese!

Man, I swear urin and marin are mentally handicapped :P

[FireChick]

Watched the raw, amazingly simple Japanese!

I know! Somehow, I was able to understand about 70% of it and I understood most of the situations. I guess my watching anime in Japanese for the past 5 1/2 years has paid off! I've pretty much adapted to it by now.

[MeoTwister5]

So I finally saw the first episode. It's actually a very nice intro with an intriguing setup for the main plot which I guess will start in the second episode. How long will this run btw?

The only thing I'm not liking I guess is Marin and Urin walking around in their... bathing suits. Too much space for fan service abuse if you ask me, and given the first episode setup it would be a damn shame because I'm seeing a lot of potential.

Also for some damn reason my gut is telling this will not end well. For the characters I mean.

[Phantasmagoria]

I am wondering if it is going to diverge a little from magical to yuri, haha.

But in any case, this series is definitely my top priority now.

It gives off a vibe that I've been looking for in a couple of years, and certainly, I am looking forward to Miko

Shima-uta reminds me of okinawa folk songs. It seems to be the sanshin instrument in the background, the melody is beautiful and soothing..

[BrokenWingz]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

So I finally saw the first episode. It's actually a very nice intro with an intriguing setup for the main plot which I guess will start in the second episode. How long will this run btw?

The only thing I'm not liking I guess is Marin and Urin walking around in their... bathing suits. Too much space for fan service abuse if you ask me, and given the first episode setup it would be a damn shame because I'm seeing a lot of potential.

Also for some damn reason my gut is telling this will not end well. For the characters I mean.

^^, Well it is Junichi Saito. You should check out his work on Kaliedo Star as for the 'swimsuit' well it's fan service in a sense but nothing ecchi, rather harmless if you ask me. Do people consider Gymnast or female sports player in general fan service if they happen to be wearing something that more revealing than your average clothing
Just be glad it’s not something out of the little mermaid like shells and fins. One thing does irritate me though it’s the character walking and standing in the ocean which loses the atmospheric feel of a sea dweller.

[MeoTwister5]

I'm more familiar with his work on Princess Tutu, which was musically and artistically... unique to say the least.

[NoOneKnowS]

Originally Posted by BrokenWingz

^^, Well it is Junichi Saito. You should check out his work on Kaliedo Star as for the 'swimsuit' well it's fan service in a sense but nothing ecchi, rather harmless if you ask me. Do people consider Gymnast or female sports player in general fan service if they happen to be wearing something that more revealing than your average clothing
Just be glad it’s not something out of the little mermaid like shells and fins. One thing does irritate me though it’s the character walking and standing in the ocean which loses the atmospheric feel of a sea dweller.

Well Gymnast, females swimmers etc. wears those kind of clothing in the you know...appropriate times/events. While those two were completely walking halk nekkid in a festival. It sure is fanservice to me. Anyways as for the EP. Except for those 2 mermaids. I'm liking the main character. The other two should just......get lesser appearances/airtime since having a beautiful airheard w/ a loli more mature sister tandem is really getting old to me.

[BrokenWingz]

Originally Posted by NoOneKnowS

Well Gymnast, females swimmers etc. wears those kind of clothing in the you know...appropriate times/events. While those two were completely walking halk nekkid in a festival. It sure is fanservice to me. Anyways as for the EP. Except for those 2 mermaids. I'm liking the main character. The other two should just......get lesser appearances/airtime since having a beautiful airheard w/ a loli more mature sister tandem is really getting old to me.

lol, getting drag into a pool of discussion. Awell

Let first examine what is fanservice. While I won't falsify what happen you can call it fanservice but as long as you don't think ecchi thoughts it can be judge purely as innocent. The situation arose due to the discovery of the lost ring, the only flaw here is being naive or a difference in culture. What’s reasonable and what’s not. From an objective point of view it is necessary at least to show their naïvety through the difference in clothing. Would it have been more coherent for them to quickly adapt? While we may exclaim how observant we are as viewer our two mermaids never consider their outfits to be uniquely different.

Mermaids are an occupation too, what I'm getting is the fact they are dressed in their traditional attire means a rational decision on their behalf at least to them the opposite is true when they see other land dwellers and think what a strange bunch we are. We can look at the female Islamic dress certainly they or anyone else won’t find their action odd even if it’s a hot summer day.

And can you imagine mermaids with more clothes? As skimpy as they look it does covers more than what Ariel had in the little mermaid. For being only the first episode it is rather hard to judge if this behaviour will be ongoing but with consideration as a first encounter it is playfully innocent. It is fanservice but for all the right reason as I genuinely believe the appropriateness of the situation and the unavoidable notion attach due to naiveté.

[orion]

Well the male bystanders in the first episode were definitely acknowledging it as fanservice. That blond kept getting stares especially when she was bending over.

Nice first episode.

[Tamad]

Full impression of the first episode here. Good start overall, good enough to interest me in a few more episodes at least...

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

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.

That would be interesting as honestly the slice of life shows and the magical girl shows are all starting to come of as a touch too derivative these days, even if I tend to have a soft spot for the latter. Maybe marrying the concepts might produce something unique and interesting that can finally get me back into both after several disappointments in a row. All I'm saying is I think it would be folly to reject the concept of a magical girl side to something without at least seeing how it all plays out.

Anyway I'm fresh off the first episode now and first off can I just ask if anybody else though the opening theme sounded more like an ending song? Don't get me wrong I think it's a nice slow piece, but I'm not sure how much it belongs at the beginning of the show. Whatever the case first episode is about what I expected, lots of cuteness and closeness between the two sisters which is shown right off the bat (and with names like Marin and Urin I'm already comparing them to Yui and Ui from K-On), and a whole lot of scantily clad posing/bent over shots. And of course a twist at the end to provide a bit of a hook. Honestly though I don't even think there's a need to question that it's fanservice, what with both Marin and Urin scantily clad as they are (along with just about every other female character) and always seemingly in some sort of pose to show off their bodies. Also I think I even saw Marin bounce a couple of times and Urin is definitely their filling the lolibait quota. They're definite eye candy.

In fact the whole show is kind of eye candy and full of all the colours of the rainbow (and not to mention lens flare) and the music is easy on the ears as well, which is something I've come to take as a given whenever Lantis is involved in any way. Plus I have to say that the guy they got to do the foley came up with some good splashing sound effects. Don't know why that caught my ear, but it did. It all comes across as another light and fluffy show right up until the very end, which I have to say is a godsend because now it looks like this show might have more than on tone and layer to it, and I like that in my anime.

I also have to say that Marin's general cluelessness made me chuckle a bit, mostly because in this case it actually sort of makes sense that she would have little concept of the problems of the "sky-dwellers" or whatever they call them. Nothing about it came off as patronizing (sans the posing/bending over) and in fact she seems pretty sincere. The pure-hearted label from the summary I read definitely comes across. As for Urin, she just comes across as introverted if nothing else, always clinging to her sister and then dimissing the sky-dwellers and "OMG let's go home these people suck!". Well not what she said, but she might as well have. She feels a bit more obviously there to do cute things and to get into trouble then Marin does. And then there's the Fortune Teller girl who I got the biggest kick out of, mostly because she comes across as completely psychotic and cynical with her laugh and general demeanour.

Overall there's enough going on here that it makes me want to watch the next episode, especially with the end where it looks like Urin just unleashed the unspeakable darkness of all unholy terror and evil upon the world. Great job......

Originally Posted by Tempester

Still doesn't look like it can beat K-On! or Minami-ke though.

In what regard? I don't even see room for comparison here, they quite obviously aren't the same kind of show as evidenced by what happened at the end of the episode.

Originally Posted by Doraneko

Anyway, I just hope that they will make it more of a slice-of-life story and maintain the Aria-esque atmosphere, instead of turning it into a generic magical girl show.

I don't exactly see any added benefit of it remaining a generic slice-of-life story either. I'd rather it try something different then try to copy the atmosphere of another show.

[Raiga]

Oh yeah, sorta random little detail I was curious about...

The bracelets that they use to breathe above water. When I watched the raw, I heard "Mercator ring" but I think the subs said something different... was wondering what everyone else made of the name?

[Celestial Kitsune]

Episode 1 Screenshots

The ED is cute

[Ashlotte]

Absolutely lovely first episode. The music in particular did a great job from start to finish of setting and establishing the mood. Nice character designs and appealing animation didn't hurt either ofcourse.

Keeping my fingers crossed that they can maintain this lax pace, good quality, and especially the music...Geh I want the OST already...

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Ashlotte

Absolutely lovely first episode. The music in particular did a great job from start to finish of setting and establishing the mood. Nice character designs and appealing animation didn't hurt either ofcourse.

Keeping my fingers crossed that they can maintain this lax pace, good quality, and especially the music...Geh I want the OST already...

There are so many OST's published by Lantis that I'm waiting on right now it's crazy. This just added even more to the list.

[Fevvers]

The first episode charmed me utterly, from the music (the ed really does remind me of Haibane Renmei's Blue Flow, and that was fantastic in and of itself) to the naivete of the characters which would have normally annoyed me, yet Sato has a way of making his characters so unassumingly adorable (similar with some of his characters in Kaleido Star).

Only beef so far is the lack of mermaid tails. Where are my mermaid tails, Sato?! *is biased*

[scr]

i'm looking forward for this, this season.

the story is easy to digest ("simple Japanese"), the character design is interesting, the animation is fluid and beautiful, and the scenery is breathtaking. not to mention that it has the atmosphere of a real, Okinawan town (like the one in AIR).

judging from the sponsors, this anime seems to be aimed at mainstream audience, it seems?

i'm actually okay with the merfolks having human feet, even if somewhere a biologist is crying

[MeoTwister5]

As a biologist I would actually be crying, as human feet are wholly unsuited for the real needs of aquatic life.

[Doraneko]

There are two versions of UmiMono serialized in two different magazine (Comic Blade and Comic High). The other version is more of a slice-of-life story, with no fighting so far and is mainly about the funny everyday life of the mermaid sisters in the human world.

In that version, Marin genuinely wanted to return the ring to its owner and that was the major motivation for her to get to the "sky-dwellers'" world.

Somehow I feel that the anime is like a mixture of the two manga, with the plot and character design from the Comic Blade version and the slice-of-life essence from the Comic High version.