Ooyukiumi no Kaina

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.

Ririha, 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 Ririha's country, the antagonistic technologically advanced nation Valghia, and other perils of the surface, he realizes that his escorting mission will prove more difficult than he imagined.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ririha Main

Takahashi, Rie Japanese

Kaina Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Amerote Supporting

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Yaona Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Ngapoge Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Denigo Supporting

Tsuchida, Reiou Japanese

Murunota Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Swuro Supporting

Wakui, Yuu Japanese

Yuimu Supporting

Gotou, Ayasa Japanese

Jarge Supporting

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Mori, Akitoshi Producer

Hamamoto, Yumi Producer

Takahashi, Ryouhei Producer

Kumamoto, Norio Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jan 3, 2024

fast2611

Recommended

This forms a split cour with its followup movie, so I'll 'forgive' it the aprupt end one got watching this at release.
First off, yes, its 3d, no, you should watch it anyway, you'll get used to it before they finished their first exposition dump
This series greatest strength is its world building, instead of its characters, in fact, I'd like to call the world itself the main character. A higher suspension of disbelief will be required of you than of a hardcover book, but it does not rise to to the all too comnon level of continuing to fight with a stomach stab wound through the ... power of friendship, thus I dont think this is a problem with the writing, as anime is a medium not unfamiliar with such over dramatization of what's physically possible.
Without spoiling the plot, I'd advise to pay careful attention to the unspoken visual worldbulding, As there wont be a omniscient narrator to hold your hand and make sure you don't miss something. Something I greatly respect this series for, but which likely is also the reason for the low audience score, cause let's face it, being expected to pay attention is a thing not usually expected from an animes audience.
Overall, decent show, greatly held back by its unusual look and trust in their audience's intelligence, although I must note that intentionally using the uncanny effect of bad liquid physics for the snow sea to make it terrifying to the viewer is a great show of artistic ability.
Another aspect that makes it obvious the people that made this cared to get it right is how both the sociological and environmental aspects of the world building is generally very clever and well telegraphed if you take a step back and think about this world from the perspective of the audience, instead of the characters.
If I may mention my favorite example that becomes relevant later into the story without spoiling it, the way the great snow chasm, something initially seeming utterly nonsensical, "works" is a great example of this. I do not wish to ruin the "aha!" moment for you, but feel free to DM me if you cant figure it out yourself after youre done with the followup movie.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 10, 2024

Godslayer27

Mixed Feelings

Set in a apocaliptic world where humanity is on border of extintion and drinking water is almost non-existent are the main bases for what is all about this series and the general conflics that surround all the plot.

The settings are interesting and the world building is something that from the first episode hook you though as you move forward on the series you go discovering that the structure that follows is rather pretty predictible and in general terms i should say kinda lazy not only in story but also character wise which provoques losing their most stronger points instead of getting something with ... more exploration on the surroundings and slowsly learning more about the lore as also developing the character in a manner much more mature it just follows an route that feel like you have watched before even started.

The first 2 or even 3 episodes started pretty well introduce us the main characters (kaina and ririha) and still i would mention that there was a farwell scene (early on the series) that felt very cold on the context that happened, we learn a little more of the story and just little after that went straight to the main matter with all the war thing, the truth here is that i just got bore (due to two things "direction" and "characters") even more on the last stretch which felt like the producer go out of ideas and just copy-pasted all the cliches possibles for the final (and last couple of episodes) which i couldnt even name it like that because this seems to not end here but on a movie that serve as secuel.

Also the fanservice on the series made his apparition with the piss scene that cannot miss ohh boy really didnt served to anything for the series but still its there not for less XD.

With kaina i feel the series maked him too naive and clueless (which i dont know if is the right word to describe it) but not even according to his age and the environment in which he grown up which maked for situations pretty frustratings along the series with ririha really dont have much to say you watched one character on the rol that she occupies (the cclasic princess) on this kind of genere and for 90% of the cases you have seen all of them (sadly).

Secondary characters i dont bother too much on talk about it with some that are presented kinda wise and everything to go taking stupids actions and actually being surpirsed on the last moments on how turned out (Hallesora), others that look cool have an misteryous aura and have an promising background to develop that is not even touch (Amerote) or the actual tyrant that i dont get how turned ruling an entire country without anyone realizing that the man was entirely fuckup and out of mind until actually the last couple of episodes which was in a way hilarious (Handagil).

Animation was good is an 3D CG anime with polygon pictures behind which i consider being one of the only studios that produce good series that are not 2d and still remain that vibe of traditional drawing for the characters and backgrounds, it might not be their best work or at pair with others like ajin or knight of sidonia but still at least on visuals looked pretty good.

Sound wise i didnt like the opening neither the ending the melodies were very dull and the soundtrack had some tracks that sounded like some compositions of Hiroyuki Sawano but even then just felt like an mere reproduction of it and didnt gave me the same excitement or evoque the same emtions on the moments that was used.

The experience overall of all the "package" you could say was meh at least on my case maybe because i have watched a lot of anime thats why the reason i just got feed up on seeing the same formaula again with little to no difference from many other ones sure maybe to newcomers give it a try you might like but still then dont expect anything outstanding.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jun 13, 2023

Brightly_Lit

Not Recommended

It is not good. All it has going for it is beautiful visuals and initially intriguing, if nonsensical, world building. The main problem facing humanity is lack of water, though the world is almost entirely covered with ... water -- the titular "snow sea," which is fluffy on the top and simply water underneath .... The longer you watch, the less sense it makes, though it initially seems very interesting. The plot, such as it is, is one you've seen a million times, and there are basically 2 characters: bad guys are simply misguided except for the ridiculously over - the - top main villain. ... Good guys are bland, sweet, occasionally "cutely" obnoxious, "quirky," and dumb as dirt.

All this said, I nevertheless enjoyed watching it until the final 3 or 4 episodes as it ground exhaustingly to its inevitable conclusion, yet once it was finally over, I was disgusted at the time wasted. I can't rate it one star because of the beautiful visuals and how the cliched story was adequately executed, but I can't recommend it to anyone.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Ooyukiumi no Kaina Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Mar 22, 2023	61 replies	by jvcmynmlst »» Jul 21, 7:02 AM
	For people doubting, this anime is much better than the socre suggests if you dont mind CGI theanimefreak95 - May 22	9 replies	by NaMroz »» May 24, 1:16 AM
	Poll: Ooyukiumi no Kaina Episode 10 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 15, 2023	32 replies	by Matheus050 »» Jan 11, 8:31 PM
	Poll: Ooyukiumi no Kaina Episode 8 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 1, 2023	26 replies	by _Entropy »» Jan 11, 10:40 AM
	Poll: Ooyukiumi no Kaina Episode 9 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 8, 2023	23 replies	by Matheus050 »» Jan 4, 8:52 AM