Umi Monogatari: Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto (Umi Monogatari)

Marin and her younger sister Urin are seafolk who happen upon something quite strange: a beautiful silver ring lost beneath the waves. The kind-hearted Marin, intent on returning it to its owner, drags a reluctant Urin along with her to the sky world despite reminders of a turtle elder who left for the surface and never returned. After locating the ring's owner, Kanon Miyamori, they learn that Kanon had tossed it into the sea after her boyfriend dumped her earlier that day.

Though Marin insists that such a lovely item should not be thrown away, Kanon discards it once again. As they search for the ring, Urin becomes separated from the other two and accidently breaks the seal on a stone coffin, releasing an evil being known as Sedna. Sensing Sedna's release, the formerly missing turtle elder, Matsumoto, reveals himself to Kanon and her companions, naming Marin as the Priestess of the Sea. Together with the Priestess of the Sky, she has the power to seal Sedna away again. And as luck would have it, during an encounter with one of Sedna's minions, Kanon discovers that she is the Priestess of the Sky. Though Kanon is hesitant, she and Marin decide to work together to save the world from the evil that threatens it.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit

Background

No background information has been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding background information here.

Episode Videos

Edit

Related Anime

Adaptation:	Umi Monogatari: Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto
Sequel:	Umi Monogatari: Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto - Shinjiau Kokoro
Side story:	Umi Monogatari: Marin no Kore Naani?
Other:	Umi Monogatari: Kanon to Iku Amamikoshima
Character:	Marine Bloomin'

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Miyamori, Kanon

Main

Kotobuki, Minako
Japanese

Marin

Main

Asumi, Kana
Japanese

Urin

Main

Horie, Yui
Japanese

Matsumoto

Supporting

Naya, Rokurou
Japanese

Kojima

Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki
Japanese

Sam

Supporting

Majima, Junji
Japanese

Ichikawa

Supporting

Akesaka, Satomi
Japanese

Utasha

Supporting

Miyahara, Nami
Japanese

Suzuki

Supporting

Gibu, Yuuko
Japanese

Oshima

Supporting

Toyosaki, Aki
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Shibata, Yui

Producer

Tasaka, Hidemasa

Producer

Satou, Junichi

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Tachibana, Hideki

Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Edit

Opening Theme

"violet" by marble

Edit

Ending Theme

"Toumei na Inori" by Masumi Itou

Reviews

Sep 26, 2009

Skadi

Recommended

Man's relationship with the sea has always been one of awe and fear. Awe from its immensity and depth; fear from its power. Because we cannot explore it easily its mysteries that captivated our ancestors still resonate even today despite our technological advancements and control of our surface environment. Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Itekureta Koto~ tells the tale of two worlds fated to be apart but still must coexist as part of the same planet.

Umi Monogatari's story is part magical adventure and part romance. Marin and Urin are mermaid sisters from the sea world. One day they discover a ... ring that has fallen from the sky world and they resolve to go to the surface to return the ring to its owner. They don’t know that the ring was thrown into the sea by the heartbroken girl Kanon, who has just broken up with her boyfriend. Marin soon finds Kanon and returns the ring but she is unwilling to accept it back. Through these actions, a dark power is accidently awoken and both Marin and Kanon discover their secret destinies.

I was quite satisfied with the way the story unfolded overall. Unlike a lot of similar series the show manages to stay on task for every episode and not devolve into a series of filler and service episodes only to return to the main story near the end. There aren’t any "Marin and Urin go to school" or "Mermaids at the Hot Springs" episodes which I found quite refreshing. For the most part the story is told at a very relaxed and pleasant pace. There isn’t a lot of action though so I suspect some people will find its pacing to be boring at times. However, I felt there was a lot of powerful and complex drama, particularly near the end that kept me interested throughout. While not all of this necessarily works it was still quite enjoyable. The ending was also satisfying and complete, wrapping up all of the important story elements.

Marin and Urin are both sweet and likable girls. They are naive to the surface world’s ways though perhaps not as much as they probably should have been. We get a decent amount of back-story on the relationship between the two sisters and their past but it still doesn’t feel like you really know them that well. Towards the series climax the drama surrounding them is much more compelling and powerful.

Kanon feels like the most emotionally deep character in the series. She is a bit of a dark character, especially when compared to someone like Marin who is full of love and energy. Kanon is a girl who wants to be liked but just doesn’t know how to show it to people. Often what she does show is the opposite of what she feels and leads people to have the wrong impression about her. She’s referred to quite a bit as "evil" which I found a bit strange. Perhaps it is something that just can’t be translated well because she’s not an evil person. Her character grows tremendously over the series as she is able to overcome some of her emotional scars and accept and receive love as well as return it.

The supporting cast is very well done. The story does a nice job of making many of them fairly deep and interesting while keeping their actual screen time to a minimum to focus on the main storyline. Kojima specifically, as he appears briefly in the first half of the series, he doesn’t speak and he is seen through Kanon's perspective. So by the time we actually see him talking, the audience will have her view about him. Though we find that Kanon's viewpoint is skewed from the truth do to her own personality quirks. For a character that probably had less than 15 minutes of screen time through the entire anime he left quite an impression.

As a villain I found Sedna to be intriguing. Despite not having a physical form, she is a terrifying presence. Mainly because you can relate to that dark inner voice that everyone hears from time to time. She remains suitably mysterious throughout until the truth of her existence is finally revealed.

Visually Umi Monogatari is very beautiful. Both the surface and sea worlds are lovely and the magical effects and action are gorgeously animated. The character designs are also cute and realistically proportioned. I think my favorite piece of animation though was the EN theme which was just completely adorable and matched the song perfectly. The OP theme is a bit sleepy but I thought was very fitting as an introduction to each episode.

I enjoyed this series quite a bit and would give it my recommendation. Though I suspect it will not necessarily appeal to everyone due to it's pacing and lack of action. If you are in the mood for a relaxing series with good drama and romance and some lite action, then you should give this Sea Story a try.

Open

Gift

Sep 25, 2009

SilentFate

Recommended

Introduction:

Umi Monogatari is an interesting anime, at times it seems like a harmless "slice of life" show, with vibrant characters and pretty nice visuals. Although once the story actually starts to show its true colours, you realize the show is not as light hearted as it seems and in 12 episodes, it feels as if the same themes get used over and over and over again.

Story:

The plot is very simple, along time ago a dark entity / witch (whos name is Sedna) was sealed in the sea as well as on land, One of the characters accidently releases the seal and the 2 main characters ...

Open

Gift

Jan 21, 2015

ktulu007

Recommended

Welcome back, Friends, to magical girl month. We've looked at Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha and Magic Knight Rayearth. This week we're going to look at a magical girl series based on a pachinko game. This is Umi Monogatari: Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto, a series written by Tsukiji Toshihiko and brought to us by Zexcs, the same studio that brought us Cheesesteak Suppository also called Aku no Hana, but I don't like to dignify that pile of excrement with the literary reference. Let's take a look at Umi Monogatari and hope that it's better than the one other work of theirs I've reviewed.

Story:

A couple of ... mermaids, mermaids in this look just like humans but with pointy ears, find a ring floating down from the surface world, which they will refer to as the sky. Marin decides that they need to return it, so she takes a magic bracelet that allows mermaids to breathe in air and heads to the surface. Her little sister, Urin, accompanies her because Urin doesn't trust the people in the sky. They find out that the ring belonged to a girl named Kanon, who threw it away because she'd just broken up with her boyfriend, who gave it to her. Kanon gets annoyed and throws the ring away again, this time into the forest. While searching for it, Marin and Urin split up and Urin opens a strange casket-like box, not realising that an evil entity named Sedna. Wait... their villain is named after the Inuit Goddess of the sea and marine life? That seems like a strange choice to name your villain after. A stone turtle statue then comes to life and tells Marin that she's the priestess of the sea and she has to find the priestess of the sky so that they can reseal Sedna and save the world. Fortunately, Kanon is the sky priestess, much to the turtle's surprise given her “evil aura.”

Let's begin with an examination of the problems with the series. The big one is the romantic subplot, which bears a striking resemblance to the main romantic subplot in Mai-Hime. Both feature a guy with no personality, a romantic rival with no personality aside from her aggressive pursuit of the bland guy, and a developed female lead who easily has a thousand times more chemistry with her female “friend” than with her supposed love interest. For more accurate results add 1 to the zero chemistry she has with the guy and then multiply. It's a tedious side element that does nothing for the major story except providing something for Kanon to throw away and they could have had her throw away something related to the family business since there is a far more interesting side plot about her not wanting to be a part of that. In all fairness, it isn't a huge element in the series but it does come up often enough to qualify as a minor plot tumour. There are also some things that really aren't explained well. The big example being a mysterious woman who hangs out in the background and seems to know what's going on, but her identity, her reason for being there and what she's doing are never explained. Can we lose the tedious romance and learn what her deal is instead? I am one hundred percent certain that it would be more compelling.

There are a lot of positives too. The main story itself has some interesting turns, particularly when it comes to revelations about Sedna, and makes really spectacular use of tension, especially considering the short length. There's a lot of creativity in the series and its approach to the genre. It also has a really good sense of humour with a lot of scenes that are simply hilarious and work well.

Characters:

The two leads are very interesting characters and the dynamic between them is really spectacularly done. The side characters are mixed. On one hand, you have characters like Blandy Genericson and Aggressive Rival who don't have much, if anything, in terms of personality. On the other hand, you get some really compelling characters like Urin or fun, but also fleshed out characters like Kanon's mother. Most of the side characters are, at least somewhat, interesting and serve their purpose well.

Art:

The backgrounds in this are stunning and nicely detailed. The transformation sequences are nice and short but they also look really good. The action sequences are well handled. The character designs, however, are a bit lackluster. Take the mermaids. They're like humans but with pointed ears and wearing swimsuits. Sure, you could say that at least Umi Monogatari doesn't succumb to the usual cliché of giving them fish tails and seashell brassieres, but at the same time they don't replace it with anything really creative or interesting. There are also several characters, including Blandy, who just look like other character designs we've seen dozens of times with nothing to set them apart. I will give the series that some of the monster designs are nice and creative, but overall the character designs just don't stand out. They also get a bit fan-servicey at times, like having Aggressive Rival compare her breasts to Marin's after Marin's run forward in slow motion and bounced in a physics-defying fashion.

Sound:

They did get some really skilled actresses for this. Kotobuki Minako (Rikka and Mugi), Horie Yui (Sarara and Manabi), & Asumi Kana (Strength) all give great performances as Kanon, Urin and Marin respectively. The big weaknesses are Sawashiro Miyuki and Toyosaki Aki, who aren't bad actresses. Sawashiro was Ginko in Mushi-shi. Toyosaki was Yui in K-on. I know that they can act really well. They just don't have anything to work with in this series since they're stuck as the two characters who have less personality than your average Raisinet, and that's combined. The music is pretty nice. It's not the best I've heard, but it's well composed and suits the scenes well.

Ho-yay:

I've already touched on the fact that Kanon has far more chemistry with Marin than she has with that guy who could easily be replaced by a Labrador, and it would only improve the series if he was, but how does that translate to actual chemistry between the two? After all, characters like that have about as much of a reaction with other characters as noble gases have with other elements. Well, the two do have their moments where they seem closer than just regular friends. There's also a mermaid named Warin who seems to have a thing for Marin. Still, these scenes are fairly infrequent and they don't actually do anything with them. So, the ho-yay factor is going to be a 4/10.

Final Thoughts:

Umi Monogatari certainly has its problems. The romance is tedious and the two characters who are there exclusively for it have no personalities. The art also suffers a bit from standard character designs. Still, it is a solid series with some creative ideas, nicely executed tension a compelling story, a nice sense of humour and main characters who play off of each other very well. It is worth a watch for all of that. My final rating is going to be a 7/10. Next week we'll end magical girl month by delving into another installment of the Precure franchise.

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

Seaside Romance

by 3miL

16 Entries · 39 Restacks

Mahou Shoujo By MAL Members Layers 4-5

by flaresherbert

27 Entries · 64 Restacks

Mermaids

by ooReiko

50 Entries · 39 Restacks

More recommendations

Recommendations

More news

Recent News

North American Anime & Manga Releases for November

Here are the North American Anime & Manga releases for November Week 1: November 3 - 9 Anime Releases Blessing of the Campanella Complete Collection Fairy Tail C...read more

Nov 4, 2015 1:59 PM by trebmeg | Discuss (20 comments)

Q3 2015 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 9/17]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime and manga licensed in the third quarter (Jul-Sep) of 2015. Summer anime which were licensed before the...read more

Jun 29, 2015 12:52 PM by Snow | Discuss (79 comments)

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

Anybody Remember this anime Traxillia - Mar 10	1 replies	by Sekiro94 »» Mar 10, 4:52 AM
Poll: Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Itekureta Koto~ Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 ) ShanaFlame - Jul 1, 2009	73 replies	by demision »» Aug 5, 2022 11:24 PM
Poll: Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Itekureta Koto~ Episode 12 Discussion Lvhina - Sep 16, 2009	45 replies	by Zekkenshin »» Apr 25, 2021 10:36 PM
Poll: Umi Monogatari ~ Anata ga Itekureta Koto Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) dbaranyi - Jun 24, 2009	88 replies	by Zekkenshin »» Apr 15, 2021 2:00 AM
Poll: Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Itekureta Koto~ Episode 11 Discussion daniking79 - Sep 9, 2009	14 replies	by Fario-P »» Jan 6, 2021 3:36 PM

Recent Featured Articles

Top 15 Mermaid Anime Characters that Sleep with the Fish

There's a whole different world under the water, where you'll find the wonderful half human, half fish being - a mermaid. Take a deep breath, we're going down!

by Littoface

489,061 views

Collection Cute Girls Magical

Umi Monogatari: Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Miyamori, Kanon

Marin

Urin

Matsumoto

Kojima

Sam

Ichikawa

Utasha

Suzuki

Oshima

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Umi Monogatari: Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-