Nagi no Asu kara

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 Asu kara 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.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shiodome, Miuna Main

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Hiradaira, Chisaki Main

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Mukaido, Manaka Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Kihara, Tsumugu Main

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Sakishima, Hikari Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Isaki, Kaname Main

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Hisanuma, Sayu Main

Ishihara, Kaori Japanese

Uroko Supporting

Toriumi, Kousuke Japanese

Sakishima, Akari Supporting

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Shiodome, Akira Supporting

Ishigami, Shizuka Japanese

Horikawa, Kenji Producer

Nagatani, Takayuki Producer

Shinohara, Toshiya Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Aketagawa, Jin Sound Director

Reviews

Nov 17, 2025

Clueby

Recommended

I first watched this anime at 14, focused only on which ship would sail. Now that Muse Asia release it on YouTube I rewatched it and I'm blown away how mature it all actually is.

The core theme is that nothing in love is fated and throughout the story we're shown hows how love can change, stay the same, or blossom unexpectedly. Chisaki learns that love can change, Manaka learns how love is fleeting and Kaname how love can be unexpected.

It's a story about freeing yourself from the idea of "one true love" and accepting that love is messy, painful, but ultimately human.

And hey, my lizard ... 14 year old brain found it entertaining so it's pretty good!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Clueby (4)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jul 24, 2024

MsJiya

Mixed Feelings

Nagi no Asukara (NoA) or a Lull In the Sea (it's English title) is an interesting anime with lovely art and a wonderful score of music. I feel like folks who are a fan of high school shoujo or drama anime/manga/shows will probably enjoy this one (especially if y'all like tsunderes).

That being said, I do have some critiques:

1. The main character: I'm sure there are a million other reviews that cite this critique as well, but the main character, Hikari, is incredibly annoying. He's stuck up, rude, unwilling to compromise, and overall, gives the viewer very little to root for in him. That being ... said, he is a child and while irritating, his childishness is upfront and center in all of his negative qualities. There is a plot twist that changes things at about the half way mark of the story and past that twist, Hikari becomes much more digestible (in short, he is forced to mature), so there is a light at the end of the tunnel with this one, but the tunnel is long and at some points, viewers are crawling through it.

2. The pace: This may be a slightly invalid take given drama anime tend to be slow and, well, dramatic, but this anime can be very, very, very slow at times. The first half of the story centers on the dynamics of the 4 main characters from the sea (Hikari, Manaka, Chisaki, and Kaname) and a land-dweller who is adopted into their group (Tsumugu) as they navigate middle school together. Middle school is that exact tween time where hormones start to kick in and suddenly the opposite sex seems more interesting, so it makes sense that this group starts to form feelings and then proceeds to trip over said feelings toward one another. But regardless of how relatable that may be, there are definitely some cringe-worthy, needlessly dramatic problems in this soup of feelings and vibes that take up whole episodes (or god forbid, multiple episodes) to resolve. I wouldn't consider this a deal-breaker for watching this show, necessarily, but I do advise that viewers multitask (get something else to focus on while watching) or grab pillows to scream into, because there are parts where you will be frustrated. Even the second half of the story contains some of these moments, but there are markedly less given that the characters have somewhat matured.

3. The world-building: This one is going to go into the con and pro category of this review, because some of the world-building interesting and beautiful, while other parts can only be described as shoddy. An overarching conflict of the story is that between those who live in the sea (sea-dwellers) and those who live on land (land-dwellers). The story starts off with both parties in this conflict being angry with each other due to issues with fishing territories and consumption of the resources offered by both the land and the sea. Seems interesting, right? Well, unfortunately most of this remains unexplored even by the end of the story. I think a part of this is a conscious decision to focus attention on the drama of a very small group of people, but given that they exist in a world where these conflicts are a part of the daily lives of many of these characters, I expected a bit more. Additionally, the sea-dweller's home village is stylistically uninteresting and mimics the land-dwelling village more than I think it should have. They live under the sea. Why would they build a fishing village under the sea? There was so much room to creatively think about how the sea would function that is entirely ignored (for examples, the sea-dwellers still drink out of tea cups in the sea) and it would have created interesting storytelling (for example watching a sea-dweller on land letting go of a tea cup randomly and expecting it to stay there since being in the sea would allow that to happen) that would feel more realistic. Don't just tell me that sea-dwellers and land-dwellers are fundamentally different, show me!

I also have several reasons why I personally enjoyed this anime:

1. The plot twist: I'm going to have to try very hard to avoid spoilers here, but this is one of those plot twists that I don't think anyone saw coming. The story starts off very focused on a small group of children and zooms in on their petty conflicts so much so that I genuinely thought that managing this group of people was going to be the whole anime, but I was wrong. Through the plot twist, the anime is able to explore many of the themes that they quietly lay the groundwork for in the first half.

2. The characters (generally): I do have my complaints about how irritating some characters can be, especially in the first half, but after the half-way mark, I was surprised to see how many characters genuinely grew on me. Through sitting with the children in the first half of the story, viewers get a very good idea of who these people are. When plot points happen in the second half of the story, viewers are able to reference back to the first half and marvel over how much or how little they have changed. Chisaki, in particular, was one of my favorite characters by the second half, and I did not see that one coming at all.

3. The world-building: I told you this one was going to be a good and bad point. Despite some of the world-building being rather nonsensical, part of the world-building is amazing. For example, the sea-dweller village is headed by a man who is the a scale of their sea god personified. There are legends of how the sea god got to his seat of power as well as other fables, explained in a fashion similar to mythologies told around the world. For most of the story, it is unclear whether the sea god is real or was every real, and that echoes the prophets of modern religion in a way I did not expect it to. Additionally, through focusing on the dynamics of personal relationships, viewers are able to watch some of the broader land vs sea conflicts unfold on a smaller level. For example, Hikari's sister falls in love with and then marries a land-dweller which obviously involves some personal and larger drama (she is exiled from the sea). Later, when she has a child, there is the complicated matter of the child's heritage given that they are part sea and land dweller, but are being raised on land.

4. The art: This is a shoujo drama anime. The art is pretty - no complaints.

5. The theme: The theme of this anime is growth and change. Without giving too much away, I will say that the anime managed to communicate and explore this theme through a variety of different characters and perspectives in a way that felt fresh. Though much of the setting left something to be desired, I would say change is something very well integrated into the background of the story. From the change fostered by the creation of a fishing village right next to a sea-dweller community to the change of having to attend middle school on land despite the 4 sea dweller children being raised in the sea all their lives to the change of growing up and what that can mean to the people around you, this story points to highlights facets of change and growth in each of its characters in a way that is interesting.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by MsJiya (5)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Aug 16, 2025

comfiii_

Not Recommended

*Huge spoilers

Underrated for a reason. I forced myself to finish it and let’s just say I wanted to scream by the end. A waste of time for sure..

So first let’s look into the overall story in general. The story is basically mermaids starting to co-exist with humans and from the start, you cannot tell who is going to end up with who. Basically not one pairing was mutual at the start. That wasn’t bad but then it goes downhill from there.

Problem 1: Elementary kids. ELEMENTARY KIDS, start taking a liking to two of the boys in the main cast ... and one of them was towards her step uncle. This wouldn’t have been a problem but then there was a time skip where the mermaids “ages froze” into hibernation and basically 5 years passed. Now the elementary kids are the same age as the main cast and can have a high chance of ending up with them. I thought this wouldn’t be a problem but one of the main cast was basically rejected and then practically forced to pair up with one of the ex elementary students. This picked me out on so many levels. Not only did he just force himself into a rebound, but it was with someone he saw as a child the whole time until she confessed. Luckily the MC’s niece got over him so that pairing didn’t last.

Problem 2: I don’t remember the purple haired girls name but I loved her. Her character was probably the only well written one. Anyways, she had a crush on the MC since she was very young, but he’s like the only guy in the show that doesn’t like her. So we have these two other guys practically being annoying and forcing their feelings on her even when she was uncomfortable. I understand trying to get her to like them back, but I just think they were too pushy and weren’t considerate of her feelings. What made things worse was when the MC, her crush, was the only one considerate of her feelings, I understood why she liked him and not the others. This made no room for the purple haired girl to be paired with any of the other guys unless it was rushed. I know they did a 5 year time skip, but I think they had to do that because the writer just couldn’t write good development between the purple haired girl and her love interest. This shows that the chemistry was forced and they had to make the purple haired girl have a huge age gap with whom she originally liked in order for it to be impossible.

Problem 3: Now I did not hate the main couple, there was originally no problem. But I have to admit, it was rushed. So the MC had a crush on the FL since the beginning already leaving no room for any other love interest. This is good but then it shows the FL likes this other guy. This alone was very confusing because the MC practically made no moves on the FL making it impossible for her to catch any feelings; but suddenly, she had to confess to this pebble saying she suddenly liked the MC. When did this happen? There is 26 episodes, and it could’ve shown any development of her starting to like him but it went straight into a confession instead. This just pmo because it showed how the purple haired girl liked the MC but not the FL. Once again, it didn’t develop another endgame which just made the main couple, which I didn’t think was possible, hated.

Problem 4: The whole time skip thing was for the plot, that I understand, but it was also kinda unnecessary. Obviously the only reason they did it was to make some pairing illegal and some legal, the whole idea of why it happened ended up just being annoying. I personally hate the whole time skip as a whole.

Problem 5: This one honestly isn’t nearly as bad as the others, but the MCs older sister and her husband made me so angry. The older sister basically went after her dead best friend’s ex husband and expected everyone to accept it. Remind you, the ex best friend didn’t even die that long ago. I don’t know, it just reminded me too much of the Kana and Hatori situation in fruits basket where Kanas best friend Mayu ended up with her ex fiancé after she had her memory wiped of him. I’m personally not a fan of this trope whatsoever.

I’m pretty sure I had more issues with this show, but I just can’t remember them since this is solely based off what I remember. Either way, I finished the whole thing and I just can’t say any more it’s correctly rated or overrated enough. There’s nothing that stands out about this show other than its drama which also didn’t really make sense. But overall I’d say its not super problematic but it is annoying.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by comfiii_ (4)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

hidden gems

by peaceink

30 Entries · 33 Restacks

Wholesome-Non-Harem Romance Anime

by Saved2000

47 Entries · 142 Restacks

the anime mix 2026

by meowthed

25 Entries · 1 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for July

Here are the North American Anime & Manga releases for July 2015 Week 1: July 7th - 13th Anime Releases Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky Comp...read more

Jul 8, 2015 7:28 AM by Snow | Discuss (14 comments)

North American Anime & Manga Releases for June

Here are the North American Anime & Manga releases for June 2015 Week 1: June 2nd - 8th Anime Releases 5 Centimeters per Second Expelled from Paradise DVD Expell...read more

Jun 2, 2015 7:04 AM by Snow | Discuss (43 comments)

	Poll: Nagi no Asukara Episode 26 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Apr 3, 2014	660 replies	by ValkyrieAsuka »» Nov 30, 8:13 AM
	Poll: Nagi no Asukara Episode 25 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Mar 27, 2014	353 replies	by ValkyrieAsuka »» Nov 30, 7:33 AM
	Poll: Nagi no Asukara Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Mar 20, 2014	436 replies	by ValkyrieAsuka »» Nov 30, 7:10 AM
	Poll: Nagi no Asukara Episode 23 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Mar 13, 2014	413 replies	by ValkyrieAsuka »» Nov 30, 6:49 AM
	Poll: Nagi no Asukara Episode 22 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Touma94 - Mar 6, 2014	239 replies	by ValkyrieAsuka »» Nov 30, 5:58 AM

In Numbers: The Best Anime of the Decade

What's the #1 anime of the 2010s? Which year was the best? What studio had the most hits? We have the answers to all these questions and more!

by Shymander

683,504 views

The Art of Time Skips: When, How and Why

With flashbacks, plot twists and foreshadowing often being the most analyzed narrative elements in anime, time skips get ignored quite often. However, they offer just as much potential, for better or for worse.

by MAL_Articles

45,329 views

Spoiler