海獣の子供

KAIJUU NO KODOMO

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
5
RELEASE
September 24, 2011
CHAPTERS
43

DESCRIPTION

When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does.

Ruka's dad and the other adults who work at the aquarium are only distantly aware of what the children are experiencing as they get caught up in the mystery of the worldwide disappearance of the oceans' fish.

(Source: Viz Media)

CAST

Anglade
Ruka Azumi
Umi
Sora
Masaaki Azumi
Kanako Azumi
Jim Cusack

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO KAIJUU NO KODOMO

MOVIE DramaKaijuu no Kodomo

REVIEWS

Krankastel
80/100
Where sky touches the sea: nature's transcendence at its finest.
The seas are fascinating, and have always held a special place in mankind’s history. Beautiful yet also turbulent and treacherous, they have divided or bridged cultures and destroyed or benefited civilizations in equal measure. Mythologies and sailors’ superstitions are among the most prominent examples of mankind recognizing the seas’ majesty.

Kaijuu no Kodomo pays homage to this, but is also a unique sample of ecological storytelling, although Daisuke Igarashi is following an approach different of say, Hayao Miyazaki.

__[1. Beginning with the story…]__
Taking place at a typical modern setting by the seaside in Japan, the story begins during summer. The protagonist is Ruka, a teenage girl with divorced parents. Her father works in an aquarium, where she gets acquainted with two mysterious boys named Umi and Sora.

At this point, readers are introduced to supernatural mystery. And gradually, more and more anomalies connected to the sea occur, which baffle marine biologists. However, Daisuke Igarashi does not limit his scope here. Instead, he expands the mystery towards a bigger picture and connects human condition with nature, from which mankind attempts to detach, but in reality remains but a thread of a grand tapestry. This is not unlike what is expressed in the Nausicaä manga.

Retracing to the introduction however, I mentioned how his approach differs from Miyazaki’s. The latter connects in Nausicaä many ideas from social and natural sciences with personal tales to forge a big picture, and the setting covers the land environment. On the other hand, Igarashi connects marine biology, mythology and cosmology with personal “testimonies” connected to the sea.

The result is simply put, unorthodox. I could summarize it as “abstract and monistic, sensual and symbolical”. Some chapters are dialogue-heavy, whereas others go for “show, don’t tell”. Questions are left unanswered, the story has a lot of disbelief to suspend and interpretation is more recommended rather than taking it at face value.

__[2. Continuing with characters…]__
Ruka is a not-too-ordinary teenage girl. She is quite athletic, independent and mature but also highly introverted and dismissive/aggressive towards her peers. Overall, she gives off the impression of being a true person, warts and all.

The main trio is composed of her and the titular “children of the sea/marine mammals”, Umi and Sora. They too are mature yet detached from their peers but also much more unusual, for they were raised in the sea under unusual circumstances. Their origins drive the narrative, whereas Ruka and the rest of the cast act as observers. The rest also help bridge human condition with the bigger picture, by being part of “personal testimonies” connected to the sea. No true antagonist exists, only humans with conflicting views and different pasts, influenced by the sea in their own ways.

__[3. And concluding with the artwork...]__
Character designs are realistic if somewhat crude and odd-proportioned at times, but sufficient for the goals of this manga.

The true stars however are the depictions of landscapes and of wildlife and the textures. Oceanic and land environments and marine wildlife - be it e.g. starfish, cetaceans or manta - are brought to life by meticulous (almost photorealistic) sketchy drawing, characterized by rough yet rich linework. There are also colored (and some colorless) pages whose textures and shading resembles watercolor, adding to the already unique artwork.

Artwork is at its finest during the “show, don’t tell” moments of the narrative, when it becomes purely visual and lets nature do the talk in the place of the characters. Mythological elements are also portrayed quite vividly.
Hope you enjoyed my review!
Continue on AniList
MattSweatshirT
85/100
Living Within Incomprehensibility, a Modern Folktale

Living Within Incomprehensibility, a Modern Folktale

Children of the Sea is a story bursting at the seams with things it wishes to tell us and ideas it wants us to consider. Its unrelenting fascination with the mythologies and folktales of various cultures give it a raw passion with which it handles its own story—grasping on to the spiritual nature of these mythologies and cultures in many facets for its aesthetic and presentation of ideas. In some ways, this leads it to fall into a certain level of romanticism in its approach. However, in spite of this romanticism, or perhaps instead because of it, children of the sea is able to make a reserved and pointed observation on the things it explores. Namely, the incomprehensibility of the universe and our very existence in relation to our understanding of ourselves and our identity. It approaches these issues by embracing their ambiguity and simply asking the audience to reflect on them for ourselves. It’s a story in which ambiguity is core to what it wishes to portray. Any depiction of life, or emotions, or the world without a level of ambiguity to it is simply unrealistic. It is Children of the Sea’s execution on this ambiguity—and the messages it relays so passionately through it that make it such an impactful story to me.

Much of Children of the Sea’s story is spent illustrating the interconnectivity of all life. Our dependence on every other form of life creates a connection between us and thus the earth functions together as a single living organism. Upon death, an organism’s cells become engrained with another’s—whether they decompose into soil or are actively consumed by another. The role we humans play in this planet-wide flow of life is but one of many. As the oceans and its currents connect the land masses of our planet, the Antarctic krill play a crucial role in limiting the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere; without them, life would be unsustainable. Every living being on the planet acts as its organs, and together they perform the song of life. And it’s vital that this is expressed as a song in the form of the whale song throughout the series. As the series argues, human language is incredibly limited. It creates boxes that we force our feelings and thoughts into, distorting their image in the process of transferring them to other people. Every word we use is saddled with an individual’s experiences that shape their own connotations of them, and therefore change the impression received of any description of one’s thoughts. Emotions, much like the universe and the flow of life, simply are. They are an ultimately incomprehensible phenomenon. Unlike language, music simply exists as it is as well—an untethered expression of itself.

“The entire universe is singing in unison”.

Thus, the whale song is used as a representation of this transcendental flow of all interconnected life; And Ruka, upon becoming aware of this flow, is able to use the song as a catalyst for an intimate reflection on her own emotions and identity.

“There’s a universe inside us too.”

Children of the Sea puts an immense value on lived experiences. From its inclusion of the mythological testimonies about happenings in the sea, to its prevailing messages about finding your place in the world. These testimonies have a certain mystical aesthetic to them which mangaka Daisuke Igarashi seems to be fascinated by. So much so, that he brings this aesthetic to his own story. The supernatural happenings within it are always carried out with a certain level of ambiguity, and many obfuscating, unexplainable details are included for the purpose of this mystification. While also plenty aware of scientific analysis and the implausibility of these stories in reality, Igarashi argues that these folktales still have value. They often serve to teach people important lessons about the lives they will be living and the world around them within the context of their cultures and peoples. Children of the Sea wishes to itself be a kind of modern mythological folktale, which is why it adopts this aesthetic. Because of this, it isn’t concerned with conventional narrative consistency or expressing its characters in clear-cut, necessarily efficient ways. It strives to craft a moment in time and illustrate its message. As is with many mythological tales, it is steeped in allegory and impressionistic storytelling—aiming to not explain its message to the viewer, but to have it connect with them on a more fundamental level, just as cultural folktales were used to internalize specific, often simple messages into children instead of simply telling it to them to no effect. Within it all, Children of the Sea is a measured examination of human limitations and our understanding of our own existence in the universe—a folktale with plenty to teach us.

Your place in the world isn’t something you realize, or strive for, it is something you simply experience. Ruka later describes her experience of the climactic scene at the end of the story in which she experiences the whale song and a connection with the universe as a promise that she made. A promise she made without words, and a promise she has only a vague sensation of as her life goes on. This promise is an awareness of her place in the world. A living in the moment, and a viewing of the world around her with accurate proportions. Language, along with humanity’s selfishness developed through our sentience have caused our view of the world and universe around us to be obstructed and inaccurately proportioned. We view ourselves as the center of it all, or above the rest of the forms of life, even if unintentionally, and often lose sight of our minuscule roles as a part of an incomprehensibly bigger picture. Our capitalist organization of the division of labor separating us from a more experiential connection to our work has contributed to this alienation from the ecosystems of the world as well. Without this living-within experience of the world, the incomprehensibilities of ourselves and the universe become increasingly difficult to come to terms with. When too concerned with finding answers to the impossible, you forget to live, and the sustained flow of life goes on without you. This is something we’ve understood since the moment we were born, but often forget. Children of the Sea wants to remind us of it.

The dialectic nature of life and existence is something Children of the Sea wants to remind us of as well. Beginning at the Big Bang, creation begins from collision, or interaction. From then, star systems are constructed as a result of the collision of an infinite amount of meteors and planets as they expand endlessly. Life as we classify it is birthed from the immense coincidence that is planets being created with the exactly correct conditions to sustain water from these collisions. Everything from the process of reproduction to the social constructs of our societies seem to behave in a similar way. The interaction that is human communication may be limited and fleeting, and therefore we need to explore other forms of expression as well, but it is ultimately necessary to participate in the progression of our own lives. The climax of the story is also very much akin to this idea. It acts as one interconnected collision of all life, in which the beautiful simplicity of it all is brought to the forefront. The very existence of life is a sublime coincidence and something to be treasured. The quiet moment of Ruka’s sister being born conveys this as well. This story wishes to put all of this into perspective for us, which is necessary in order to be able to experience life simply as it is—which then brings with it your place within it all.

I believe summer vacation for Ruka is her experiencing this change in perspective. Beforehand, she feels much distress at her inability to fully connect with others and her lack of place in the world and with the people around her. She is then exposed to an array of confusing and indecipherable occurrences throughout her journey with Umi and Sora. Seemingly indiscriminate patterns and connections between plot points crop up, leaving anyone trying to understand them floundering. She is exposed to the transcendental flow of life operating at a greater scale than the limited human senses can normally comprehend. In this sense, Ruka is used as an insert character. Her struggles, while at times specific, for the most part are quite vague. She experiences a general tension with the world and those around her. She doesn’t feel as though she has a place in the worrying confusion that is the universe. As this is something that everyone deals with at times, it allows the succeeding messages about how to find your place to resonate more directly for any given audience member—sacrificing individual character depth for thematic execution.

A modern folktale expressing the ambiguous, incomprehensible nature of existence, and a critique of the ways in which humanity experiences the world today. A reminder for humanity on an individual scale on coming to terms with the mystery of life and finding your place in it, and an appreciation of the coincidence that is existence in the first place. There is a beauty innate to life, a beauty akin to a song. This song of interconnectivity is something one can only experience when living in the moment, within the inevitable flow of the universe. Children of the Sea serves as itself an expression of this song, allowing viewers to feel its sensation as they experience the story, as well as a call for them to seize that sensation and find their place in their own lives from thereon out.

Continue on AniList
rfonzx
90/100
Beauty is innate and akin to poetry
Have you ever stumble upon something that looks so surreal to the point that explaining how surreal of a matter it is using words would be futile? And no words in dictionary is suitable enough to explain it coherently; it's as if the most effective way for you to comprehend what it really is by experiencing it by yourself. Even though language exists innately for human to be able to express what they're currently feeling and so on, again there are just some things out there that could never really be explained by words. And how we exactly perceive that is instinctual, instead of following from a logical and rational standpoint, it's rather followed from an impulsive standpoint.

Children of The Sea juxtaposes the idea posed in the last paragraph with how cetaceans are in general. Unlike humans, they're able to articulate anything even emotions, which is something that human is incapable of doing, in a really cogent way. Even if you may disagree with the idea that Children of the Sea is posing, you couldn't help but notice how structured and intriguing of the idea really is. How intriguing you may ask? It's intriguing enough to the point that after reading the whole thing it evoked a passion inside me in the field of marine biology in general. It's a must to emphasize this certain section of paragraph due to how nicely executed it is. To substantiate the previous, a lot of the dialogues from the manga is seamlessly executed in a really digestible manner. Even though some of the dialogues may seem really complex due to how technical, it is done in a way where perhaps a 6th grader would be able to discern what the dialogues really meant. Furthermore, some of the dialogues as well seems really disjointed at the first place, but somehow as the dialogues goes on, the ideas that are posed within the dialogues does make some sense after all, done seamlessly and in a thought-provoking manner.

It would be an understatement if I were to say that the storytelling of Children of The Sea is captivating. It's guaranteed that you'd be immersed to the story due to just how sublime the art is. If I were to describe it to my best, the art style itself is like rough and messy at a lot of occasions, yet there is no denying that from an aesthetical standpoint, it looks incredibly artistical. I'd say that the art really did a good job on setting the tone of the recurring mood throughout the story, if that makes sense.

Though I must aware that reading this manga is a challenge, as corny as it sounds, it is virtually impossible to get the gist of it in your first read, due to how it is packed to the brim with a lot of subtle nuances, it's like in every chapters they're ceaselessly adding nuances implicitly, to the point that processing all of them is going to take a lot of time, so it's rather recommended to reread this manga so that you'd understand the gist of it more, but again just take your time while reading this manga, no need to rush and appreciate the beauty that it offers.
Continue on AniList