Speaking of lack of character development, one is Kai, who became the love interest of Kukuru. Sadly, this childhood friend was abandoned by the writers and reduced to an irrelevant punching bag. Regardless, this wasn't even advertised as a romance, but that didn't stop all the theories about him and lesbianism. The other is Kuuya, who was actually funny, but got shafted to the side alongside Kai eventually. On a related note to him, the orientation of the characters is another part of the series that is made unclear on purpose to lure viewers in who theorized about what I mentioned earlier. Then there is the mysterious kid which is something that P.A. Works often does in their projects: They put in a mysterious character that is mostly pointless and is there just to add "mystery." But maybe that spirit was always there since it was implied it's what caused the visions, though it's still tragic this spirit had 0 development.
The animation can be very nice, but the music is forgettable. It's sad to say that one of the few things that stood out was the background art.
The story is deeply rooted with what life working in an aquarium is like. The viewers will learn a lot about what it is and means to be an attendant. It isn't boringly educational; it is interesting at least. Subtly, however, Kukuru's life and struggle is often portrayed through the marine life. In relation to penguins, there is the quote "Someone who courageously takes on risks, like the first penguin that jumps into the water regardless of circumstances. It can be terrifying to be the first person to challenge something new, but once you do, the others will follow. A First Penguin has strength within them to have a positive impact on the people around them." Afterwards, Kukuru reassures the viewers after this quote that is about her is revealed by adding, "Someday, I want to have the courage to challenge myself to something new. I made those with that in mind". Though this is all good and well about her, it would be terribly executed in most of the second cour until the series picks itself back up around episode 20.
Fuuka is a failed idol who ran away from facing disgrace at home. She runs into Kukuru, and the two become best friends. Fuuka joins Kukuru in the Gama Gama, and eventually catches on as an attendant. Their story of friendship and support is all the series really had going after it abandoned the aquarium fantasy aspect, since nothing else seemed too interesting for the most part. The second cour would flip this as Kukuru would become the one in need of help. It's a friendship about uplifting each other after failures, comforting and supporting, overcoming, and ultimately learning to let go.
In the second cour, I understand what it is trying to do, but the series drags on far too long with being aimless, and Kukuru doing painfully boring office work. The viewers also felt the pain of how boring and uneventful this part of the series was. Kukuru would go into marketing, which obviously wasn't something she'd be good at for a while since the lack of that skill is why she couldn't raise money for new equipment for the Gama Gama. This was a futile attempt in the end to save it anyways. As ridiculous as it sounds, she just needed training that for whatever reason she didn't get. As a result, her boss, that hilariously calls her plankton, treats her harshly and expects a lot from her. Her boss is a man that though appears mean, is sincere and passionate about running aquariums, and the rest of the staff don't have too much of an issue with him. Regardless, his development was terribly done and he felt awkward and hollow. T-1000 has more emotion than him. Kukuru struggles and ultimately gives up as he never lowers his standards of her and always expects the best no matter how much he sees her struggling or coming up with bad ideas. She abandons her job and he still doesn't fire her. After some soul searching and support from Fuuka, Kukuru overcomes her flaws and comes back stronger.
I myself wanted to give up after episode 19, and it took me weeks to catch up to episodes 20-22. Amusingly enough, I grew up as a child often being taken to the same aquarium many times over those years. Going in, I always appreciated the aquatic life, how mysterious and beautiful it was, and the excitement of the exhibit where you could get a feel of the sea stars, orchids, etc. Because of this anime, I went back recently after so many years, and this series made me appreciate it a whole lot more. I stared at the huge tanks, remembered this series, and went through the memories of being there as a child.
Fortunately, it was these recent episodes that made the series much more enjoyable by this point. Now that the unnecessarily long "work is hard and painful" arc is over with the terrible "just slave away, you'll be rewarded some day" message, it moves back into Fuuka and Kukuru learning to let go as they have finally found some balance in their lives, partly thanks to their friendship. Fuuka had already accepted this, but Kukuru still struggled to at first. Previously, this had lead to Kukuru running away to a nearby aquarium where the sea turtles were about to hatch. I'm sure she saw herself in those turtles where only 1 in 5,000 make it, as they struggled towards their own goals of reaching the sea.
The ending was underwhelming and mostly didn't feel like one, but at least it was bit enjoyable. Besides how emotionally satisfying that meet up was, nothing else really felt meaningful, relevant, or that it really mattered, as most of this series felt that way.
