Reviews

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.