Aoi Umi no Tristia

An ocean city, Tristia.
Tristia used to be prospering playing an important role of the maritime trade, and it was as beautiful as to be praised as "marine jewelry".
However, that was a long time ago.
The attack of the dragons deprived the city of their original brightness. The people in Tristia worked hard to reconstruct their city, but everything they did went wrong, and the city became desolated on the contrary.
At the end of their hope, they asked a Great Artisan for the recovery of the city, Prospero Flanka. Prospero was a legendary inventor who had revived cities that otherwise would have been ruined.
The long-awaited day came when the Great Artisan Prosper arrived in the city... However, it was only one girl who stood at the port of the city. Prospero sent his grand daughter, Nanoka, for him.

(Source: AnimeNfo)

Flanka, Nanoca Main

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Tornado, Panavia Main

Chiba, Saeko Japanese

Carat, Faury Main

Oono, Marina Japanese

Tenzan Supporting

Kirii, Daisuke Japanese

Rafarew Supporting

Tomonaga, Akane Japanese

Whitley, Val Supporting

Kazama, Yuuto Japanese

Guliani, Mayor Supporting

Kashii, Shouto Japanese

Griffen, Arthur Supporting

Nakamura, Hidetoshi Japanese

Hampden, Nene Supporting

Nogawa, Sakura Japanese

Kutanie, Reygurett Supporting

Hatamiya, Kanoko Japanese

Kondou, Hikaru Producer

Takechi, Tsuneo Producer

Matsui, Hitoyuki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Aketagawa, Jin Sound Director

Reviews

Sep 13, 2024

SgtSalamander

Recommended

Tristia of the Deep Blue Sea is a simple, archetypal mid-2000s OVA, rising out of obscurity, and slipping right back beneath the waves, as it were. It's not really anything special, but it is simple, straightforward, and at times nostalgic fun. Beginning with the story, it's pretty boilerplate- a town called Tristia has mechs as a major industry and the granddaughter of a famous inventor lives there, whose goal it is to revitalize the town via inventions and urban planning. However, we don't really get much of that in the show, as it's instead completely focused on a tournament arc ... where the mechs have big robot battles. You're dropped right in the middle of a story without any context or introduction, but it's not necessarily jarring as there isn't much more to 'get' beyond what you see. Like I said, not anything to write home about, but not bad by any means. I certainly had fun, if for no other reason than this entire show, from the way the story is constructed down to its art direction, is unapologetically a product of the mid-2000s, the era of anime I grew up watching. Plus, if you're looking to kill some time, you could certainly do worse.

This brings me to the art, which I will say is the strongest aspect of this anime, if by a thin margin. It, like the story, isn't necessarily special, but it is colorful, fun, and engaging, communicating both action and visual comedy in a way which feels smooth and, once again, nostalgic. Though, I must make particular note of the outro animation. The decision to go completely claymation for the end credits sequence is simultaneously brave and bizarre, but it's also well-executed and betrays a certain love for the show as a project you wouldn't necessarily expect the team behind it to have.

The sound meets all basic standards of quality for the time, so no complaints there, even if it's not necessarily remarkable.

The characters also meet all basic standards of quality, serving their purpose as personified archetypes with little depth, who nonetheless manage to have lively interactions within the confines of the show itself. Of them, my favorites are the easygoing genius Nanoca Flanka and her spiteful second-fiddle Panavia Tornado, the protagonist and antagonist respectively. They embody a simple back-and-forth which provides some necessary narrative motion to the show, and manage to be fun characters in their own right as well. One last note on the characters here is that I noticed a little detail which made me chuckle- the Mayor's name is Mayor Guliani, undoubtedly a reference to the Mayor of New York between 1994 and 2001 of the same surname, though a slightly different spelling. Why did Ufotable do that? Oh, also, this is an Ufotable production, now known for Demon Slayer. These little details say something about this anime, I just know exactly what that is. Overall, this obscure, unremarkable OVA from 2004 isn't bad, but it doesn't really have anything specific going for it outside of its nostalgic production and design. I say give it a watch, especially if you're looking for something quick, or a simple watch that delivers exactly what's advertised up-front- a straightforward show about anime girls and their giant robots.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 25, 2023

rathlin

Mixed Feelings

This is an OVA based on the Deep-Blue series game 'Tristia of the Deep-Blue Sea'. I'm frankly baffled as to how such an obscure series managed to get any animation at all but the mid-2000s were a strange time. I have played some of the games so I can comment that this OVA does a pretty good job at conveying the basic jist and tone of the game, but it's definitely not a stellar anime overall. It really depends on whether your love of mid-2000s anime tropes dialed up to 11 in some bizarre comedy of a mecha anime fights through. Deep-Blue is a bit ... of a weird mix between a visual novel and a city-building sim with mechas bolted on, it's sortof like if an Atelier game was set in a Aria-esque universe which i really dig, it's a shame that style of world fell out of fashion in the 2010s.

The animation is quite good, there is a bit of visual flair going on but this does obviously come off as a budget production. It definitely isn't anywhere near as bad as some other stuff from this generation like the IDEA Factory crap. I trawl through alot of trashy OVAs from this period and I can honestly say that this probably has some of the best animation i've seen in all of them all things considered. One thing that's really standout are the colours, they're alot more saturated than most anime and make it look alot bolder, and the way that they adapted them in various lighting conditions was really well-done. Especially in darker scenes where they still keep most of the colour which I haven't really seen done before and was quite memorable.

The voice acting is pretty decent, though nothing standout. I don't know for sure whether the same VAs reprised their roles for this animation but they do sound pretty alike regardless. But fun fact: there is a Russian dub floating around on the internet and it is actually quite good. If you can track it down it definitely adds a little bit if you're getting bored. The music is also really really good, as alot of the tracks are taken from the game verbatim.

I think the worst part is the story and the pacing, it feels like they tried to balance too many storylines for 2 episodes, as well as have some character development and mecha fights. If this was maybe 4 episodes long and a bit more segmented that wouldn't be so bad but it can't be helped given there's only 60 minutes. I think it definitely makes alot more sense if you have played the game, which most people watching likely haven't since none of them have been released or localised outside of Japan until recently. Kogado as a whole definitely caters to a more dedicated customer base (with alot of fandiscs and merch) so the fact this OVA assumes some knowledge makes a bit more sense.

One of the things I like the most that might be lost on alot of people is that all of the characters are named after aircraft, Nanoka is named after the Sukhoi SU-37 Flanker, and the villainess is named directly after the Panavia Tornado multi-role aircraft. I still haven't really been able to find a solid reason as to why this is but I can only assume it's just mid-2000s quirks showing up again. You really just couldn't have an anime like this again.

If you were interested in following the series a bit further there were the following games:
* Tristia of the Deep-Blue Sea - PS2, PSP, PC
* Neosphere of the Deep-Blue Sky - PS2, PSP, PC
* Amaneka of the Dawn and the Deep-Blue Titan - X360, PSP, PC
* Silver Cal and the Queen of the Deep-Blue Sky - PSP, PC

The series does seem to be on hiatus but Tristia is getting a localisation and remake now for Steam luckily.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2244160/Tristialegacy/

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 18, 2009

Skadi

Not Recommended

Aoi Umi no Tristia (Tristia of the Deep Blue Sea) is another example of a series that just throws together cute girls, mechs, explosions, fan service and hopes enough suckers will watch it. Consider myself hoodwinked.

The plot for Tristia starts off simple enough, with a domestic Golem (mecha) competition. Yeah it’s what it sounds like, robots doing housework... exciting huh? Of course it soon turns into mecha battles between rivals Nanoca and Panavia. Panavia seems to be bent only because she finishes second in every inventor contest the two of them entered. There is a mysterious man seemingly behind Panavia ... who is after information about Nanoca's mecha Tenzan. This might have proved to be an interesting plot element, except for the fact that there is no resolution to it! None, zero. So when the show is over it doesn’t really feel like it ever ended and leaves you with an unsatisfied feeling. Well that is if you could work up enough emotion to care about the story in the first place.

In addition to the bland unfinished story there is unrelated bath scenes, boob jiggle and other examples of pointless service. The action isn’t good enough to be noteworthy either. They aren’t exciting or interesting and the battles between the mechs have a feeling of been there, done that. The script is also pretty silly, with a lot of dialogue that will just make you wince. This could have been the translation, but call it intuition, I suspect it is equally cringe-worthy to native Japanese speakers over the age of 15.

The characters could best be described as bland. They are all stereotypes of personalities everyone has already seen many times over. While the girls are all cutely animated that’s about the most redeeming feature any of them have. We learn almost nothing about any of them, besides a little back story about why Panavia dislikes Nanoca and we get a little of her background mainly in passing. Honestly you will learn more about the characters and the town of Tristia by reading the plot summary than by actually watching the anime.

Animation is good but not great. The characters are cute looking and the backgrounds are pretty good but the fights and action aren’t spectacular. Despite having a couple of respected actresses, I would have to give low marks to all of them. Mostly due to the poor material they had to work with. I found the music, in particular the background sound to be really dreadful and cheesy.

In the end, Aoi Umi no Tristia has few redeeming qualities. There are a few laughs but overall it feels uncompleted and boring. It doesn’t have enough mecha action to appeal to fans of that genre nor is the fan service good or even plentiful enough to attract fans of that. Spend your time with something else.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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