30-DAC | Day 16 | Best Animation

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Day 16 – Anime with the Best Animation

If we’re only talking about the best animation studio, I’d probably go for Studio Ghibli. I really love the sceneries, the details, and the ambience of their movies. If it’s an anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Boku no Hero Academia, or Noragami. (All by Bones.) I also like the animation from Hunter X Hunter and Hajime no Ippo. (Madhouse this time.) But I chose to talk about another anime here.

Nagi no Asukara (P.A. Works)

Synopsis:
Long ago, all humans lived beneath the sea. However, some people preferred the surface and abandoned living underwater permanently. As a consequence, they were stripped of their god-given protection called “Ena” which allowed them to breathe underwater. Over time, the rift between the denizens of the sea and of the surface widened, although contact between the two peoples still existed.

Nagi no Asukara follows the story of Hikari Sakishima and Manaka Mukaido, along with their childhood friends Chisaki Hiradaira and Kaname Isaki, who are forced to leave the sea and attend a school on the surface. There, the group also meets Tsumugu Kihara, a fellow student and fisherman who loves the sea.

Hikari and his friends’ lives are bound to change as they have to deal with the deep-seated hatred and discrimination between the people of sea and of the surface, the storms in their personal lives, as well as an impending tempest which may spell doom for all who dwell on the surface.

Honestly, the story is quite messy. Their relationships among each other made me so frustrated! But this anime really stands out for me because of its visuals. It’s my gateway anime for P.A. Works’ shows and I’m kinda grateful for it.

The visuals for this anime are so stunning! I really loved the background art. The characters’ designs may not be the most appealing. I’m not actually that fond of their big eyes, though I really think they would be pretty had they not been that big. (I’d just like to mention how I love the sound design, too. And I like “ebb and flow”, the song used on that OP above.)

Anyway, I love the animation, of course. Down in the village of Shioshishio, you can always see schools of fishes (albeit there are only few species) in the background or foreground moving. Sometimes jellyfishes are there too. There are even shadows and reflections. Bubbles, as well. The spirit fire is pretty. I love how water is animated in most of the scenes. Up in the land, there are birds (mostly seagulls?) flying. I don’t think they did sloppy work animating people in the background, too.

Though it admitted have some scenes which I thought were a bit awkward because the background doesn’t jive well with a moving object or something (as in waves crashing upon poles), but I think it’s not that disturbing.

Katsugeki Touken Ranbu is a good example of one with good backgrounds while the characters look weird with them. In Nagi no Asukara, at least, I thought that they managed to blend them well most of the time. Or they managed to not make it look as weird.

Of course, this is only my opinion.

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