Rightaway, the core plot premise of Shiroi Suna no Aquatope is clearly defined in its title: "The two girls met in the ruins of (a) damaged dream." A story about the realities of growing up and moving on from the dreams that clearly hasn't worked out, and finding new meaning in things yet unseen and unimagined. Not all things are bad, and a life-changing tonal change can be good in the long run. And that's the case of Fuuka Miyazawa, a girl whom was once in the idol scene, only for that ambition to wane out and the internal monologue of running away from all the fame that she has amassed in search for something new for life outside the main city of Tokyo, and wandering into the state of Nanjou, Okinawa, where she met yet another girl named Kukuru Misakino. Like Fuuka, Kukuru is a high school student working for her family's business named Gama Gama Aquarium, which is on the brink of collapsing due to the rancid state of the aquarium and the small visitorship numbers, which is needed to recouperate costs and maintain the pristine shape of the aquarium that's literally quite hidden away from the Okinawan outset. The knife edges deeper because the aquarium is handled by her grandfather whom seemingly didn't know what to do with the place (which became Kukuru's 2nd home), and while his intentions to let go of Gama Gama spells out the disaster quick, the motive to let Kukuru take over the aquarium as a means to revive the place creates a haven for both girls and the characters around them. And that's where the story surrounding both Fuuka and Kukuri in a bubble starts.
For realism's sake for the overall slice-of-life story (since this is a 2-cour), I will divide it into 2 halves of the entire plot of Aquatope: the Gama Gama section, and the Tingarla section. Mild spoilers if you wish, but I won't dive too deep on that end.
The Gama Gama section covers the entire 1st half of Aquatope, and dare I say that if this show was ever only made in a batch of 12 or 13 episodes, this would've been the perfect standard of P.A. Works in achieving some great storytelling for once in a 2-cour setting. The introduction between the two girls that coincidentally met out from their damaged dreams, Fuuka having winded in Okinawa after running away from her idol issues, comes to Gama Gama after being severely dehydrated and found by the tourist manager Karin Kudaka, who transports her to the aquarium to get some recovery assistance. Over there, while Fuuka is recovering, she observes the huge aquarium and receives an out-of-body experience, to which after meeting Kukuru, pleads with her for a job just to get along. And simultaneously over the course of the Gama Gama section, converses with each other about their dreams/ambitions and uncertain futures, together with the other staff of Kukuru's childhood friend Kai Nakamura, fish breeders-cum-attendants Kuuya Yakamashi and Umi-yan, alongside Kukuru's grandfather and the two girls as well. Through the out-of-body supernatural visions experience, both Kukuru and Fuuka initiate sentiment feelings that parallels with the Yuri feeling, because Kukuru has an attachment to her parents that passed away when she was young, and all she had currently is her grandparents to speak of in a familial setting. Fuuka being there for her provides that bit of queerness akin to a family's love, and everything about Gama Gama just feels naturally and magically surreal being Fuuka-centric altogether from its short existence from a family business to a total collapse of demolition. In all, the Gama Gama section is truly the start of the new and beautiful potential of the show.
The Tingarla section section covers the entire 2nd half of Aquatope, and with the term "growing up" comes the major decision route of the show in its direction to shape the entire series as a whole. However, I feel that the 2nd half really wavers on for far too long with everything that's done from the 1st half, making it drag on until the series' core message comes around being about environmentalism and sustainability as the main narrative, then leave everything else behind in the dust: plot narratives, characters that can feel like they're after-thoughts or just only make cameos in wishing that we, the audience, would never catch on. The sad part is that the Tingarla section feels somewhat haphazard with the execution of the themes that were great in the 1st half, made worse with the whole schmup of having your dream to be defined when you don't get what you want. And that's the case of Kukuru, now being hired by Akira Hoshino, an acquintance of Kukuru's grandfather and simultaneously the head honcho Director of Tingarla Aquarium, which Kukuru's assigned position given from him isn't all about being a sea creature attendant, but rather to the marketing department instead. Kukuru, to the chagrin of a rebellious teenager, builds a reputation for being so pent up because she couldn't get her dream job that Fuuka got the position instead, and had to work from scratch with a different view. Remember that change can be good or bad depending on the person, and in this case, the Kukuru-centric plot takes a whirlwind of our emotions and slowly caresses with it until there is no more wind to blow.
The only character of note is Chiyu Haebaru, whom once went over to Gama Gama as an intern, and found that the practices there (such as the "special effects" supernatural visions aquarium experience) aren't so much sustainable from her stint with Tingarla. The real reason is that like Kukuru, Chiyu may come off as arrogant, but that arrogance is supported as she is a young adult struggling to land a job and raising as a single mother after a failed marriage. That in anyway is a far worse shape than what Kukuru felt losing her parents from an early age, and at least that section of the plot is really well done. What comes after that...only disappointment mounts as the staff over at Tingarla, which comprises of sea creature attendants Chiyu, Kaoru Shimabukuro, Marina Yonekura, Eiji Higa, breedmanager Bondo Garandоu, the emotionless no-nonsense assistant director Tetsuji Suwa and Director Akira himself. It just feels like a dysfunctional organization that's reminiscent of Japan's working style of being ordered by management overlords to maintain business, even if minor complaints get seemingly contrived and blown out of comparison. So it's for that reason that with the Tingarla section of the 2nd half, the show really lost its direction and only geared with the main message, which doubled down on the potential that had been lost right up until the final moments. Such a waste of what could've been a great follow-up story plot.
The disorientation of Aquatope only carries on with the characters, and for the same reason above that I've classified both Gama Gama and Tingarla sections, the former feels like a well-knitted close family while the latter is just like your average company-sized ambience. Most particularly with Fuuka and Kukuru, these two girls have been the subject that Aquatope carries the "Yuri-coded" tone wherever they go, and much that we can see that their time together exhibiting much of that Yuri-ness with each other. In actual fact, Fuuka is quite indebted to Kukuru because she helped change her life around to find meaning with being a sea attendant after abruptly leaving the idol scene, to the chagrin of her former members and her mother, while Kukuru is thankful that Fuuka feels like her older sister character that she can act like how siblings would with the whole uncensored, true feelings of vulnerability, much less her only family left alive that is her grandparents. The crux of both characters is that in the case of Fuuka, to "the feeling of being lost and trying to find something" to attach yourself to, and Kukuru as acting as Fuuka's foil, she represents "the feeling of pursuing a vague future you want but can't completely define", capturing the "feeling of being between stages of life, lost but searching." The other characters all serve their purpose to fleet along with the 2 girls gleefully glancing life in their own bubble, but when it all comes down to the main symbolism of the show (which is that magical aquarium "supernatural visions" thingie-a-bob plot device), you can put two and two together to see that overtime, the irrelevancy creeps up when you least expected it. Contrived or not, that's not my decision to make, but I'll let you decide.
Otherwise, everything else is as what you expect of a P.A. Works made anime: nice visuals and backdrops with beautiful artwork that exudes quality (that once again, obfuscates the story plot bit by bit), the one thing that you can never fault the studio for, but is by no means a good way to cover the inherent flaws of the show. The sound design is the same as per the story's tonal shift, and in regards to the OST, Arcana Project's 1st OP is just a simple but great song, only for their 2nd OP to become too busy even with the egregiously long song title. Mia REGINA's 1st half's ED compliments Arcana Project's 1st OP, which I thought was a nice touch all things considered, a duality serving the same purpose. The same however, could not be said for Risa Aizawa's 2nd ED, which is more like visual aesthetics than the upiftling of emotions.
We all love aquariums no matter our age, because it shows the wonder and naturalness of the sea creatures wandering in the sea and living in harmony despite the food chain cycle. Aquatope on the other hand, it's a good show if you want to just relax and watch an unhinged series that leans on the magical part and coping with a coming-of-age story that's all about the difficulties of reality shoved in your face, and learning how to deal with them. But take that away, and what you have is a subservience of a story plot that while manages to stick its core themes from start to finish, leaves some questions unanswered.
Maybe it's me that I'm being patient and tolerant of P.A. Works' original shows for years, and that this problem that has long existed only comes up now to leave a sour taste in my mouth, even if it's a teeny little bit. Don't get me wrong though, I do love when the story plot and visuals go hand-in-hand, especially for one that's an original story. But executions like these just keep me wondering if there's any scriptwriting prowess in P.A. Works shows anymore, and while Aquatope isn't the first, it won't be the last to do so.
Ironically, a great Summer show that by the Fall, it has fallen from grace into decency. A hidden gem from back then, that with the entire material on hand, leaves a mixed bag of an experience. If I have to take a lesson from Aquatope, it's that growing up is part-and-parcel of life, but dreams is what you make of it, so go and achieve it, even if it's damaged dreams and meeting in the ruins of a lifetime partnership.
