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!
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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.
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