The series is set in a world in which there are two types of human: those who live under the water, and those who live on the surface. The story is about students from an underwater village who transfer schools to a school on the surface, and its main subject (as much as I understood) is the racism between the two kinds of people.
Now, the story has a great potential, but it was very poorly written, and this is the main reason for my mean score. We don't get to know about the background and history of the world (which is essential for a fantasy books and series), so things like the strong racism between the water and the surface human, the sea god and her powers, the salty rain and many other are just left unexplained, although they play a very important role in the series. The characters often act stupidly and without reason (an example - Hikari hugs Manaka after she hears a very bad news. Manaka kicks him hard, and sees surprised of herself). The dialogues are stupid (the characters argue about whenether they should change themselves. But why do they have to change? What should they change in themselves? No clue).
The turning point of the story was quite promising, but from there, it deteriorted quickly. When a disaster comes close, the people on the surface act normally - continue with their life as nothing will happen. The few dramatical dialogues between the characters did not sove this problem. And when they finally found a possible solution, it was just horrible and pointless (I will not spoil), and if you ask me, it was added just for the drama. After that, I dropped the series, because I saw that it was not heading to a good direction.
The characters themselves are really one-dimensional. Hikari just keeps shouting and hitting other people (he is the only character who gets a character development, but it is too sudden and polar to be reliable). Manaka is just cute. Kihara is the only character that I found convincing.
The animation, however, is really good. The character designs, the school, both of the villages were done very well.
Overall, I think Nagi No Asukara is a rather dissapointing series. The story makes no sense, and although the fantasy setting sees promising, there is a lack of information about it, which is essential for the series. So if you try to find a fantasy series with a good story and not just a good concept, I suggest you to skip this one.
