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]

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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

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Opening Theme

"violet" by marble

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Ending Theme

"Toumei na Inori" by Masumi Itou

Reviews

May 13, 2016

GlennMagusHarvey

Recommended

There seems to have been a trend for -- or at least chatter about -- more mature, and often thematically "darker" takes on the magical girl genre. Arguably started by series like Mai-HiME and Nanoha in the mid-noughties, it became very prominent following the release of Madoka Magica, and has since been responded to in Yuuki Yuuna Is A Hero. While this is certainly an interesting idea to ponder, this approach runs the risk of making the story more driven by theme/symbolism needs than by in-universe setting interactions. Meanwhile, Umi Monogatari -- a lesser-known series spawned from a pachinko game, of all ... things -- seems to have done this idea right, perhaps rather unexpectedly.

Umi Monogatari ("Sea Story") is a 2009 magical girl series that I feel really represents best the idea of a "mature" show, especially one without the pretense that "darker" themes such as despair, philosophical quandaries, and hopelessness of the universe are what are specifically needed to make a story "mature". Instead, it derives, from its characters and setting, a thoughtfully complex yet emotionally meaningful story, and may even prompt the audience to reconsider what "light" and "darkness" mean.

Umi Monogatari is primarily a story about characters, their interactions, and their emotions. It does this not with shock value nor with too much spectacle. Instead, it focuses on those interactions and their consequences. Like you might expect, things are not exactly as they first seem, but rather than subverting tropes for for the mere sake of subversion (only questioning our presumptions about the story), the story also works those tropes in ways that form a coherent whole as well (thus providing meaningful answers to that questioning).

Umi Monogatari is also "mature" is another sense -- it might bore younger viewers. The show is heavy on details of emotion, and dialogue is quite common, as opposed to spectacle or high drama. In a similar vein, the soundtrack -- small-ensemble jazz by Ken Muramatsu, apparently recorded live, improvisations and all -- is often contemplative and features relatively simple instrumentation that's used throughout the soundtrack, as opposed to bombast -- even when one might expect bombast. This suggests a patient and introspective approach to the story. The simple instrumentation also lends a bit of a folk-tale motif to the storytelling.

Overall, Umi Monogatari is an experience that connects thoughts and emotions, but is built by neither alone, instead connecting both in a way that weaves together light and darkness. At the same time, it works with some tropes typical of the genre but redirects them in ways that are well-justified by the setting and present a coherent narrative once all the pieces are revealed.

As some more interesting trivia: Umi Monogatari is set at the fictional island of Amamiko, which is based on the real-life island Amami Oshima, one of the many Ryukyu Islands that form the southern tail of Japan. The story features a number of cultural and geographic cues related to the real-life island, and the song sung by the miko seems to be in the local language called Amami.

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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.

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Jun 11, 2014

Thatguysproblem1

Recommended

When you find a Mermaid like Anime, it always follows the what I call the Mermaid Cliche. That is when a Mermaid and a Human fall in love. But this anime follows more of a magical girl approach.

Plot:

There is a legend on this island where there is a guardian of the sea, and guardian of the land. They have to defeat the darkness.

Kanon is a girl who thought that her boyfriend went for another girl, She throws her ring into the ocean. The ring is found by Marin and Urin and they decide to give it back to who dropped it in. They ...

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