Aoi Umi no Tristia

Aoi Umi no Tristia certainly would appear to have a lot things going for it, upon just looking at the picture you might feel its a cute shoujo with lovable characters and a heartwarming story, and while it does indeed have it in this two episode OVA, its a shame that it does it so by the book!

Story: 5/10
Well there isn't much to it, basically it has Nanoca (our young heroine) fighting battle after battle by way of her own huge mecha called Golems which she herself created, and at this point I was instantly reminded of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, but with robots! Which honestly, ... this series is basically a combination of. There really isn't anything else to comment on about it, basically she must prove her skills as the best of her kind by defeating her rival who challenges her.....and that's it! It can be said though, that if you love this kind of storyline (what with the one on one monster styled battles)then you will definitely be drawn into the story. I just wish they could have come up with something to give it a bit more distinction from the other titles like this, the Golems themselves just weren't enough to do so. To be fair though, there were a few scenes in this title that made me think: Hmmmmm, I wonder how she will get out of this pickle? I also feel I should warn some of you that in episode 2, Nanoca and her friends are enjoying their time at the bath house, and the animators may animate their little female bodies a bit too much for some viewers, so just expect there to be a little light nudity.

Art: 7/10
The creativity that went into the animation is nice, the artwork is pretty good to look at, though no where near as sharp or colorful as other titles out there. But the style of clothing and characters themselves (while some may feel lean more towards the generic side) are well detailed and fun. All the ladies have distinct hair colors, which is good because its pretty much the only way you distinct some of them from each other, since they don't play much of a part in the over story.

Characters: 6/10
Honestly the only ones I got to really know as far as characters went, was Nanoca and her rival, all other supporting characters would stay in the background, and seemed to only pop up when necessary. Their personalities are fair, but again its the same kind we have seen before. (ie. the main girl who doesn't have confidence in herself, the out spoken rival etc.) Their not bad, just lack style and substance.

Soundtrack: 8/10
The best part of the title for sure, it really gives you a sense of adventure and sea filled excitement. All done with large orchestral scores that fill the background for most of the two episodes. I swear, I was actually humming along to some parts! The opening and closing theme work well enough, but felt a bit out of place and seemed like they would have worked better with a romance dating title. (which this title contains none of) The character voices themselves were appropriate, but I never got a real thrill from them, as most sounded pretty basic and lacked an over all sense of excitement to them.

Bottom Line: 6/10
Aoi Umi no Tristia was a nice little experiment with the whole seaside theme and Golem style battles, it just never went to any length at being a better title than it could have been. I really wanted to love this series........I really did. Its an alright watch if your looking for something cute yet action packed to fill your time with. It just doesn't do any of it in a particularly memorable way. A descent enough watch though.

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/