You see, 2018 was a year when the Japanese Air Force allowed women to become fighter pilots for the first time ever. This was an event high-profile enough that in the anime medium alone there instantly appeared multiple series exploring the topic in some capacity. Sora to Umi no Aida is one of them: it took the premise of women entering a male-dominated industry for the first time ever to justify an all-girls cast and give some gravitas to what they’re doing - which otherwise boils down to a 9-to-5 job. And that’s the extent of it. Sounds innocent enough? Well, in the meantime, the western anime fandom was busy with outrage over High Guardian Spice, so when Sora to Umi no Aida dared to usher the words “equal opportunity hire” everyone just lost their shit and branded it SJW-propaganda. Despite, you know, it being an anime, made in Japan, having nothing to do with western politics, or any kind of politics for that matter. The fact that I even need to talk about it is, frankly, a waste. Now, let me just tell what about this particular series makes it worthwhile to watch:
Story. All the fish in the oceans had vanished, so people had built orbital fish tanks to breed giant fish monsters that they catch/battle with the power of mobile app-based gods which are basically Stands-for-hire. Got it? Good, now you may forget it, because this is not what the show is about. Space Fishing here plays very much the same role as Giant Robots in Evangelion: it’s a workplace and the reason these characters are gathered together, but the focus is entirely on the characters - who are they, what drives them, what they want from this life. The early episodes might appear as a CGDCT fluff, but the story eventually picks up and develops a single cohesive narrative. The final parts are, in fact, way more gritty and serious than one would expect, which might look like a case of Cerebus Syndrome, but the tonal shift is properly foreshadowed from the beginning, and even incorporated into the story itself. “Wasn’t space fishing supposed to be about hopes and dreams?!”, asks the exasperated MC, while standing under a rocket nozzle, body-blocking it from ignition.
Characters. While the early part of the show is about training routine/slice-of-life, and the last is the story culmination, the middle one is dedicated entirely to the development of the cast. It’s an ensemble of six girls and each one of them gets a focus episode and a legit story arc. What’s more - they have actual relationships between each other. Many ensemble shows suffer from a problem of the cast only existing as a single entity - this is not one of them. For example, the MC is your typical hyperactive idiot, yet another girl is an even bigger hyperactive idiot. What happens when they interact? A positive feedback loop of hyperactive idiocy that threatens to tear the space-time continuum and demands the intervention of the other cast members. Meanwhile, the group leader is a straight-laced no-nonsense type, and the MC seriously rustles her jimmies. Yet they quickly find a common ground - competitive spirit and desire to succeed, leading to a healthy rivalry that drives them both to improve.
Production values. This series has a very distinct “independent movie” feel to it. Meaning, it’s unconventional/refreshing/bad because the creators are either incapable of following medium conventions or choose not to. The most obvious area is voice acting: many VAs has this as their first job ever (which you can hear) and are deliberately doing regional accents that are equivalent to irish/scottish accents of English, i .e. unintelligible eldritch chanting. To me it sounds refreshing and unique, not being “generic anime girl voices”; to others it may be grating. Same with the writing/storyboarding - often the only appropriate reaction to a twist is “lolwut?”, which can be seen as either entertaining or aggravating. Use your own judgment.
Humor. More precisely, comedic timing. Deserves a special mention for being really good. Many sudden cuts made me burst into laughter.
8/10 because this series is fun and compelling with forgivable issues that don’t detract from the enjoyment.
