Ooyukiumi no Kaina (Kaina of the Great Snow Sea)

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Japanese: 大雪海のカイナ

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 11

Status: Currently Airing

Aired: Jan 12, 2023 to Mar 23, 2023

Premiered: Winter 2023

Broadcast: Thursdays at 00:55 (JST)

Producers: Sony Pictures Entertainment, Dentsu, Fuji TV, BS Fuji, bilibili, Crunchyroll, NetEase

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Polygon Pictures

Source: Mixed media

Genre: Fantasy

Theme: Survival

Duration: 22 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 6.76¹ (scored by 4,149 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #5186²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3341

Members: 37,337

Favorites: 140

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6.76

Ranked #5186Popularity #3341Members 37,337

Winter 2023TVPolygon Pictures

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Episodes: /11

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Synopsis

Humanity is facing extinction. In a snow-covered world where water has become scarce, the last habitable lands are located at the feet of gigantic Orbital Trees scattered about the desolated Earth. According to a legend, there exists a sage who knows the secret to producing abundant quantities of water to save mankind.

Liliha, the princess of Atland, uses an organic hot-air balloon to climb to the top of an Orbital Tree in hopes of meeting her country's savior. Once she reaches the Canopy—an area that appears to be an infinite window of transparent ice—she meets Kaina, one of the last men alive on the Canopy. However, she can not find the man she was looking for.

Unable to return by herself to her country, the princess finds a helping hand in Kaina, who is eager to explore the surface world that he thought was empty. As Kaina learns about the war against Liliha's country, the antagonistic technologically advanced nation Valghan, and other perils of the surface, he realizes that his escorting mission will prove more difficult than he imagined.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Ooyukiumi no Kaina
Sequel:	Ooyukiumi no Kaina Movie
Summary:	Ooyukiumi no Kaina Special

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Liliha

Main

Takahashi, Rie
Japanese

Kaina

Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa
Japanese

Yaona

Supporting

Murase, Ayumu
Japanese

Ngapoge

Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu
Japanese

Jarge

Supporting

Miyake, Kenta
Japanese

Swuro

Supporting

Wakui, Yuu
Japanese

Denigo

Supporting

Tsuchida, Reiou
Japanese

Murunota

Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka
Japanese

Atholl

Supporting

Baba, Junpei
Japanese

Tranada

Supporting

Kamio, Shinichirou
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Mori, Akitoshi

Producer

Hamamoto, Yumi

Producer

Takahashi, Ryouhei

Producer

Andou, Hiroaki

Director

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Opening Theme

"Telepath (テレパス)" by Yorushika

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Ending Theme

"Juvenile (ジュブナイル)" by GReeeeN

More reviews

Reviews

Jan 25, 2023

Kadhel

Recommended

Preliminary (3/11 eps)

Hi there, this is a temporary review (It'll be edited when the whole serie is viewed), but it felt this show should be given some justice, as it seems not as much appreciated as it could. When seeing the preview, it could be like "meh, could be interesting nope ?" or "meh CGI nope". But check the cast and check the show. It is currently good ! After watching the 3 first episodes, I want to continue watching the show. Which is honestly a good point.

Animation :
It is the "weak point"... but not really. As many could have seen, there is CGI. All characters are ... made with CGI, and lot of things. BUT some landscape are hand-drawed (and really exotic to say the least). This CGI is not the best seen... but not the worst too. It's better than average, in the sense we can not focus too much on it. Obviously, it would be better if it was made by hand... but the CGI is not this ugly in this show, it not ruins everything as it could in other shows.

Music :
The music is really good, period. Well, Yamamoto Kohta did some banger when working with Hiroyuki Sawano, so it could be expected good things were being made there... but yeap Music is good (cause OMG VERY GOOD is a personal opinion). Set the right mood in the right situation.

Characters :
Currently, Characters are likeable. It's not that they are "omg how surprising and good", they are... well what it can be expected and a little more. More episodes are needed in order to give the right feeling on this , but currently it feels like the show can be a good surprise. Waiting to see. The voice acting is also good.

World Building :
Honestly, the premise seems really promising. The world seems exotic, in a setting that could recall Made in Abyss or Kimi No Agito in some Vibe (not that it's the same, but the VIBE). It makes you really want to see where the shows go, cause it has potential. But 3 episodes aren't sufficient to guarantee it will be the level expected. So waiting to see ;)

Plot :
The plot seems to adopt a line well know (or at least, we can have some hints of how it'll go...), but the fact this world is special and there are some mysterious elements in it could give an unexpected surprise. At least the story is not bad currently, it's catchy. Like previously said, it really makes you want to see where this is going... and if it finally goes in a standard path, well, at least it'll be well written and enjoyable, if it continues on this style. And the man behind is Tustomu Nihei... who did some good things ;)

Conclusion : Give it a try, don't let the CGI rebuke you. Heck, Kingdom S1 was much, much more ugly than this, but it was one heck of a show ! ^^ At least the CGI here is trying.

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Jan 28, 2023

Gsarthotegga

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (3/11 eps)

The way Kaina of the Great Snow Sea begins and the fantastical realization of its world oozes Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind vibes. I don't bring that up to say this is a "ripoff" or that such a thing would even be a problem. The main character is wearing his custom gear, all tailored to a unique world—he wears a breathing apparatus outdoors and sports a spear gun for shish-kebabing tasty insects the size of a poodle (before returning to his pod). The world's oceans—Snow Sea—consist of bubbly and slushy snow and curious critters—like if you were to run a bubble bath, but ... instead of a rubber ducky, you let a bunch of dolphin horseys bob around. Additionally, massive trees stretch to the sky like orbital spires, and from their peaks, expands a bubble of ice that encloses the earth, and that is called the canopy.

These two fantasy works are similar in terms of the viewer adapting to a new and unusual ecology. The basics of snow sea girl meeting ice bubble tree boy and their blushing star-crossed lovers gag fest, as well as the two going toe to toe with the evil black-clad mean man empire, provides little deviation. I'd like this just as much, if not more, as Nausicaa, but the problem? The visuals are ugly as sin. Nausicaa benefitted from fluid film-length animation, beautiful art direction, and a Joe Hisaishi score—not to mention Miyazaki's direction. As for the former complaint, this is CGI-inflected (rather, infected) 2D... that is, 2.5D. As is almost always the case, the characters and backdrops present an unfortunate mismatch.

The animation can range from stiff to having a solid amount of movement, but it always looks a bit lifeless and dull. Everything from character acting to swashbuckling sword fights to tree scaling to dolphin horsey races to 3D and nasty supersized insects leave a worse taste in the mouth than the bug egg soup they slurp up at dinnertime. Let's just say no one will ever hold this up as an example of great animation. It's functional, but it does not hold any sway. Nothing about the composition or art direction is inspired. When they are climbing down the tree, the descent reminded me of a much more rapidly paced Made in Abyss, except that series has more inspired source material that Osamu Masuyama, who is well-known for his work as an art director on various Ghibli projects, brought to life. By comparison, there's plenty of skin-crawling (often in the literal sense with how many bugs there are!) negative space and emptiness in Kaina.

Hisaishi manages to be accessible but still much more atmospheric and compelling than the stock sounds of most film scores. Kaina, by contrast, needs to improve in sound design (not that anime is ever very notable in this regard other than a few specific titles), and its score tends toward simulacrum rather than sublimity. The music is meek for a series where people glide around on snow sludge on freaking dolphins! I mean, it's perfectly listenable and fits the scenes, but it does not sculpt a living, breathing atmosphere.

It's watchable, but the potential promised by the fact that Tsutomu Nihei (known primarily for Blame!) had involvement with the story is not met. Thus far, any anime attempting to adapt his work has been a 3D and nasty monstrosity with no sense of atmosphere. In contrast, Kaina is an improvement over what I've seen from the Knights of Sidonia or Blame! adaptations, but it screams for the atmospheric craftsmanship of Nihei's best works. The character interaction and story delivery style also don't bode well for an atmosphere-based work. It's silly and childish, and the sluggishness of the second episode is quite the potent sleeping pill. On the surface, this series looks fantastical, but the start is too mundane to maintain any sense of wonder, and the visuals too caustic to invite awe.

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Jan 25, 2023

Machine_of_Ice

Recommended

Preliminary (3/11 eps)

TL;DR: Beautiful visuals, passable animation, excellent world-building, generic (so far) plot

This is a cute little show that, regrettably, will probably get passed over by a lot of people who genuinely would have enjoyed it due to the animation style. I get it, most shows that are fully 3D CG like this are of questionable quality (though most of those are actually mixing 2D and 3D, which is the actual problem, though that's neither here nor there). But, honestly guys? The animation here is quite good. Admittedly animation quality isn't what I look for out of shows so maybe it really isn't ... all that great if it's your number 1 concern, but if your big problem is that you think the animation will make your eyes bleed, that's not going to happen here. The still images in particular look fantastic, being genuinely pretty while still reinforcing the otherworldly, alien feel the setting calls for.

The show's main strength is its excellent (so far) world building. Information is presented to you piecemeal, allowing for a gentle, natural understanding of the world to be developed within the viewer, while still presenting just enough information to understanding elements of the world relevant to the plot. The show is very good at show don't tell; what dialogue directly explaining the world exists makes sense for the situations such exposition comes up in. The plot itself is not unusual, but that's only because of the unmistakable similarities to Made in Abyss. I wouldn't call it a rip-off, though obviously a lot of inspiration was taken from it. Unlike Made in Abyss, the focus is not on exploring the giant thing they're descending (they get down it quickly), but on the state of the world on the actual ground. At the time of writing this focus has only just been made apparent so it's hard to really rate it. Most of these early episodes have been very character-focused, and in that regard our two leads are both likeable and enjoyable to be around.

To balance out this thus far positive review, I'd like to emphasize that so far the plot has been quite generic. It's a standard rescue the princess story, no more no less. Hardly something that'll set the world on fire. If you're not someone who can just vibe with some decently-written characters who are pretty cute together in a compelling world you're probably not going to like this. Let me also emphasize that Made in Abyss was definitely better in every way even at this early stage, so set your expectations accordingly, though that also doesn't diminish what this show does well. Made in Abyss lite isn't exactly an insult, it's honestly a fine way to explain what this show is.

This show is for people who want to drink in its otherworldly atmosphere or for weirdos like me who just enjoy good storytelling techniques regardless of the qualities of the story it's attached to. The worst I can see this ending up as is a forgettable, generic adventure story with some cool visuals to remember it by. And honestly, compared to the mountain of unwatchable garbage that usually pollutes the bottom of the MAL charts, that ain't a bad thing to be. If you're even a little bit intrigued by what I covered in this review, I'd honestly recommend trying this one out and seeing where it goes. It may be someplace wonderful. I'd certainly love to see it. Once the show wraps I'll be sure to update this.

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'Ooyukiumi no Kaina' Gets Sequel Movie

The official website of the Ooyukiumi no Kaina (Kaina of the Great Snow Sea) television anime announced a sequel movie on Saturday. The original television anime by ...read more

Jan 7, 11:27 AM by Hyperion_PS | Discuss (13 comments)

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Poll: Ooyukiumi no Kaina Episode 10 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 15	24 replies	by EmmyMoomin »» Mar 19, 3:56 PM
It's this season's Hiroyuki Sawano-anime! MyllerPhiem - Jan 11	15 replies	by Roch2001 »» Mar 19, 1:10 PM
Poll: Ooyukiumi no Kaina Episode 8 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 1	20 replies	by StateofOhayo »» Mar 17, 5:06 AM
Poll: Ooyukiumi no Kaina Episode 9 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 8	20 replies	by MegamiRem »» Mar 16, 6:31 AM
Poll: Ooyukiumi no Kaina Episode 4 Discussion Stark700 - Feb 1	36 replies	by Roch2001 »» Mar 6, 5:40 AM

Ooyukiumi no Kaina

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