Ooyukiumi no Kaina

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 wears a breathing apparatus outdoors and sports a spear gun for shish-kebabing gourmet 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 boy and their blushing star-crossed lovers gag fest and the two going toe to toe with the evil black-clad meanie empire provide little deviation. I'd like this as much, if not more, as Nausicaä, but the problem? The visuals are ugly as sin. Nausicaä 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 bubbles flop around like a dated computer game, the flying creatures are stiff and poorly integrated, and anything large, such as the ships, the baddie fort, or any structure, are blandly textured eyesores. Only nice guy kingdom is at all pleasing to the eye.

A more thorough comparison would be to say it's a combination of Nausicaä and the infamous Waterworld! The ocean-based fantasy or dystopic sci-fi is rare, and Kaina is notable for carrying the torch, albeit in a more dignified fashion: we're not treated to edgy opening scenes like our hero tinkling into a water purification machine, but the story centers around water wars between the two sides. While there's a sense of urgency amongst the characters, the observed effects of a dwindling water supply are scant, other than water rationing once we get to the hideous raft fort that could have been pilfered straight out of Waterworld. Throwing in a kidnapping subplot, the suggestion of a sage and his panacea, and the reacquisition of written language, reading, and lost knowledge will sum up everything else.

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 & nasty supersized insects leaves 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 does not hold any sway and, above all, has no soul whatsoever. 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 benefits from Osamu Masuyama, who is well-known for his work as an art director on various Ghibli projects. 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 as much as any other average anime, 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! It's perfectly listenable and fits the scenes, but it tends to fall under "competent stock" music more often than sculpting a living, breathing atmosphere. The OP is pleasant enough, and the ethereal ambient tracks used during underwater sequences are more befitting of the mood than anything else.

Characters? The best swordsman and antagonist is a bipolar Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde configuration that has her shifting from the role of discount cat girl to an imposing black knight villain from medieval tales, brandishing a weebish katana because why not? The top dog is a cruel and possibly senile Captain Hook-type who kills people as part of a standup comedy routine—instead of "pull my finger," he says, "hold my sheath." Sporting blonde hair and turquoise swirls, the king has become known as King Tumblr and has a provocative and spicy verified Twitter account. The refugees who help our trio of protagonists look like a gaggle of goomba jesters from Mario's Mushroom Kingdom.

Usually, you would start by mentioning what the main characters are like, but there aren't any details to dissect. They have nothing to define them besides their character designs. These are some of the most innocent, sweet as honey, naive nincompoop character designs I've ever seen for mains. They look like perfect marks, and thieves would be tailing them instantly, so it's no surprise they get robbed for everything they're worth without effort. They're tall enough to be adults, but all grandmothers would instantly tousle their hair—no blood relation required.

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, but later episodes aren't much of an improvement in writing or pacing. Episode 8, in particular, is filled with the most torturous, cliche, and tiresome "innocent couple mating ritual" starter pack (it's impossible to imagine they know humans can even give birth) and R&R vignettes I've ever seen in an anime. Only a few scenes stood out for me: when we first see what is beneath the surface of the snow sea when the two mains plunge into its depths, as well as when the main and the prince trudge through the sea on the roots. The world has potential, but it's a shame that all it offers is a novel world begging to be explored, yet we're distracted from it by the humdrum plotting and 3D & nasty visuals.

The ultra-basic good guy-bad guy setup, storytelling, and character dynamics are so predictable and unengaging that I pondered a toddler must have constructed the script from a storytelling 101 block set with the help of his parents. He'd put a block in place with text indicating "The hero begins his journey," "The hero meets his sweetheart," and "The feisty cat girl confronts and roars at the hero." His parents are like, "You can do it! Yay!" every time he gets a block in place, and he finishes putting Ooyukiumi no Kaina together. He's so proud when his parents congratulate him and reward him with milk and cookies for a job well done! The parents publish the result, and we get Kaina! This fabricated origin story is entirely believable to explain the cute-animal-wearing-a-propeller-cap ineptitude.

Tsutomu Nihei's involvement with the story is what piqued my interest. Thus far, any anime attempting to adapt his work has been a 3D & nasty monstrosity with no sense of atmosphere. Conversely, 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 manga works. On the surface, this series looks fantastical, but the storytelling is too mundane to maintain any sense of wonder and the visuals too caustic to invite awe.

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.