User reviews

Beautiful tale about nature, magic sea wild connection with humans and universe. Don't try to understand the meaning, just enjoy the mysticism.

The anime was beautiful and a stunningly presented. The background score was simple and unobtrusive, but soundly reinforced the imagery.

The story itself involves a young girls journey through a single summer, evolving from childhood into adolescence. The major theme is the linking of the cosmic with the mundane and how they are essentially the same. The primary story deals more with the cosmic while the postscript after the ending credits deals with the mundane and links them as equally fascinating.

My major criticism of this film does not involve a lack of artistry within the production as every aspect was exemplary. The problem will be with the Western audiences lack of understanding of Buddhism in general and it's philosophical association with everyday life. What may seem entirely sensical and logically told as a story in Japan may not even be recognized as a such in say North America. Still, I found it highly beautiful and enjoyable. Sadly, others without an understanding of the philosophical underpinnings will not.

Beautiful scenario and great soundtrack. Bring out the mystic feeling of the deep sea. However, the story is quite difficult to understand, a bit obscure. The original comic is better about the storytelling.

I went to see this film, mainly because the French critics were rave and eulogistic. Do I have the right to be honest? I did not understand anything about this overly complex and dreamlike cartoon. This metaphysical fable immerses the audience in the deepest seas, in a stream of visually stunning but incomprehensible sequences. I managed to stay until the end hoping for an explanatory denouement. Thus, I left the movie theater both frustrated and disappointed.

It was a colorful animation but i did not understand the story, may be I should have smoked some weed and then watched this movie.

Almost a week after seeing this movie and I'm still trying to digest it, I'm honestly having a hard time placing my feelings for it.

The one thing I can say without a doubt is that Children of the Sea is absolutely stunning to look at. The animation on display here is like nothing I've ever seen.

My main hang up is the story. The characters are likable and the plot is intriguing, but it absolutely goes off the deep end in the last third and that's where my hangups lie. It becomes incredibly hard to follow which makes its ending not quite land the way it should have. Some plot threads don't feel entirely fleshed out, but are simultaneously wrapped around the plot at large to make them thematically relevant.

I think I walked away glad that I saw it, but it's going to be a hard sell to people I know.

It starts surprisingly mundane. then mystery is added to drama, then romance. and it all goes ok, but then everything is abandoned for a mix of an early religion, cosmology etc. and that goes for a very long time and gets extremely boring.

The beginning of the movie was slow paced and not that interesting, but in the last half there are some absolutely stunning sequences. The message that was conveyed was also very beautiful and thought provoking.

As Ghibli studios pushed us into both Anime and Japanese Culture, Now, Ayumu Watanabe has pushed Japanese anime into exploring the meaning of life. Away from the stereotypical anime subcultures. A wondrous and life affirming portrayal of how connected we are with each other and that we are all sons and daughters of the stars. The depiction of inception, the biological miracle that comes with fertilization is a central theme. This is a cerebral film that can be enjoyed purely for its superb visuals.But understanding that science still cannot explain how the universe functions, and dark matter, you have to appreciate that art has a role to play. What a magnificent anime, film and thesis. If you do not understand it, be aware that this is deeper than you think. Enjoy the cartoons.

As evident from the majority of the reviews here, this film presents incredible and unique animation-- and a story line that will confound the best. It is beyond me why an entire production team would create a film that absolutely no one in the audience is going to understand. This is a very self-absorbed non-story that builds up all kinds of suspense and mystery, with zero delivery. That's not a spoiler; that is the essence of what (at this time) is stated in every viewer review.

There are so many strings left hanging here, with "clues" that go nowhere. Where did the boys come from? What part did the girl play? What did the computer data have to do with anything? What actually happened... at any time during the film? None of these questions are answered nor even close to answered. Perhaps the writer and director thought they knew what story they were telling, but one would have to be psychic to understand it. When a director stumps the entire audience... he's failed to understand the difference between art and absurdity.

I understand that art doesn't necessarily require a story, but it is so much better when it does. This movie is so "Zen" even a Buddhist Monk would be scratching his head. At least we don't see the typical, "I got it and you didn't nya nya" type of reviews... because everyone has had the honesty to admit, "I didn't understand a thing that happened here". Kudos at least to the reviewers who admit that this one is WAAAY over the audiences head.

Or maybe the director and animators had way too much weed easily available. Who knows? It was an interesting roller coaster ride, but in the end one can't help but wonder if the car actually moved.

I see that many viewers of this film dislike the movie for its enigmatic storyline and message, and at first I felt the same way. But the movie and its imagery really stuck with me afterward, and upon reflection, I came up this interpretation:

Perhaps the message the movie is trying to convey is just that: the universe contains vast mysteries that humans do not understand, and perhaps are not capable of ever understanding. We try so hard to bring order to the world by explaining everything with science and reason, but sometimes, that just isn't possible. Sometimes, it may be better to simply marvel at and appreciate the miracles of the universe, from the creation of the stars to the birth of life. That's what I came up with, anyway.

As someone currently studying a scientific field in university, I think this message is very eye-opening. If you are a new viewer, I would suggest not to try to understand the movie so much as to experience and enjoy it!

Children of the Sea is the story of Ruka (Mana Ashida), the daughter of marine biologist, who befriends two boys at the local aquarium during her summer vacation. The only peculiarity being that the boys have been raised in the sea by a group of dugongs and are somehow connected to a mysterious gathering of sea life soon to be on the way. But what's her connection to all this?

It's a very nice looking film. The character models are somewhat simplistic, which seems to be all the rage in modern anime, but the backgrounds and especially all the underwater scenes are simply breathtaking. Definitely one of the nicest depictions of sea life I've seen, in anime or anywhere else for that matter.

That story though. It starts out nice enough. Ruka is nice and spunky, and I like that she's in no way perfect as shown right from the start. The boys are more of a mixed package. Umi is rather unobjectionable but Sora is so very... anime. He stands out from the other character, who are for the most part more realistic, and in a rather jarring manner. Then again... there's that old woman sea captain, who's simply nightmare fuel, so perhaps Sora is not the only one to stand out.

But back to the story. The first two thirds are fine. But near the end the film suddenly and with no warning whatsoever goes all Tree of Life style art film on us. And I still, weeks later, have no idea what exactly happened.

It's not a bad film and perhaps that ending will find a following of its own as the years pass. But I can't really recommend the film to a more casual anime fan.

The film was really messy and felt sort of pointless. It had some interesting philosophical thoughts, but it didn't seem to explore them at all. The characters feel really distant and I couldn't understand at all why they're in the story and what they were doing. The story didn't work at all since it has no narrative. Sometimes a movie might be telling the story by visuals, but it didn't seem to do it in that way either. I woudn't even say that this looks awesome. It has some pretty looking elements, but I didn't really like how they animated faces.

Carrying the light generated by the birth of a star while swirling with the strength of a perfect spiral, the song of the ocean celebrates life since its origins along with the memories left after every look and breath scattered in a breeze and brought together by the power of a storm... A feast for the senses on an outer journey towards within where the core palpitates in a multidimensional spectrum brighter than a diamond, that one that we carry inside.

Watched January 2020; thought it would be the perfect movie for Seb, and he did appreciate all the Marine animals. The animation was beautiful (somewhat in the style of other contemporary Japanese anime), with a realistic but also fantastic portrayal of those ocean creatures. The story, however, was really difficult to follow, and too much effort was made to ask big philosophical questions without really pursuing them. But the microcosm/macrocosm pairing of sea and space, and the transhuman dugong children were definitely thought provoking, and caught our attention, at least for a little bit. At the end of it, though, the plot was too incomprehensible.

Beautiful story and stunning colors, a nice tales of the sea

I'll be honest, I'm a sucker for these really crazy and sort of big picture type movies, but this one still has me thinking. First off I want to say the animation was beautiful stunning and a majority of the art sequences we're pretty drawn out, yet totally hypnotic, but...They lost me in the plot. Don't get me wrong, I thought the story introduced very intriguing notions about life, but I feel like it started to pile on too quickly and the many questions were being asked, were ones that the story wasn't going to keep up with. I don't think it's the case where a movie asks these big questions just to appear deep, but I think the questions and confusion were part of the story. I won't have any spoilers, but if your watching it, don't try to stress yourself thinking about it too much because a part of it isn't meant to be understood. Really everything that happens just encompasses the wildness of life, and after watching the movie, it really should be called, "Children of Infinity."

I watched this film when it first came out, it was quite good cuz i love the ocean and most of the artwork relates to it. The film stroke me as it expressed the true size of those large, massive animals in the ocean (i'm the opposite of megalophobia, i love large building animals and stuff). However i didn;t get the idea of the film honestly.

I finally got to finish the original manga today (finished in two days), i'm impressed, speechless. It is such a huge world with much more information about the worldview of the whole manga than the film. And i believe that anyone who can finish the manga will understand the core meaning of the film. It explored the loop of birth and death of the universe (especially the birth), sapiens, animals, planet and everything in the world. I love how it uses bold lines on the whales, thin lines on human and the expression of eyes in the ocean. It is a fantastic world and the manga a true joy to read (the film was also good tho).

Please find the manga and read it if you don't understand the film!!

This movie having such a low note is yet another evidence IMBD makes no sense anymore. Probably the best animated movie in many years, with a very nice story and some profound discussions. But too many people today are in the church of "I can't understand it, so I don't like it and it must be bad". Ask the people here writing bad reviews to write a better story and see what you get. These are people who go to a museum and complain because there are no pictures of flower vases and beautiful kids playing with dogs.

This film is visually beautiful, immersive and calming. However, the story, in a way, is the total opposite. I personally found myself become very uninterested in the film quickly due to the story. Continuing to watch hoping there would be 'something' about the story that would catch my interest...it really didn't. Perhaps I wasn't mentally ready beforehand for the films deep story?

For those who have not yet watched the film I would suggest preparing yourself for a complex story that you may not fully understand and to just be swept along for the journey...then you may enjoy this film more.

(Side note: I found some of the characters and their expressions down right creepy!)

First thought, I was giving 7/10. At the end, a single idea of conclusion on this film remain unknown. Besides incredible work of art, the rest of them are hardly understandable.

Second thought. Maybe, the creator wants to gave us the idea that universe are far too complex. And we only saw like less than 10% things in this universe or bigger than that. Conclusion, it is hard to explain with words, but when we saw what exactly happen, we know what happen. And yes, we may don't need to twist our brain to understand.

Just see, it's enough.

I was excited to see this movie: KEYWORD: WAS

The entire movie is 1 hr and 52 min but it makes you wish it was over after the first 30 minutes. Which I have to say are the bests parts of the movie they feel really down to earth and really set the movie up for a great time. But that ends fast when we meet that one sea kid (WHY DID WE HAVE TO MEET HIM). This entire movie would have been at least decent if the entire "CHILDREN OF THE SEA" part was taken out of the movie, so the "THE" part would have been nice. The rest of the movie slowly ( AND SURLY KILLS YOU), with its inconsistent and unclear plot. No joke the plot feels as if I needed to study and take notes to follow the characters. IT MAKES NO SENSE. I get unclear characters and the structural plot is part of movies; to build suspense and all, but here it feels just so off. ( Maybe it's the cultural barrier, but it's still meant for an English audience). Also because of the movie's over complicated and unclear nature you as the viewer start to try and find symbolism in the scenes that don't even fit in with the movie. LIKE THAT BOAT WITH MONEY, WHAT IS IT FOR; PLEASE SOMEBODY TELL ME?. Not to mention the character's designs. I respect the hustle of the detail in some scenes, but it feels more like the movie trying to scare you than anything (I get it it's a custom style they were trying to go for (not the scary part). Plus they did my girl dirty (the fisher(girl) at the end of the movie.

My Personal Complaints: Theirs a scene in the movie that lasts about 5-10 minutes and it's just straight lights and artistic representations, I don't remember liking it, but it drags on and on and never seems to end. Plus the scene before gives me gross and dirty ideologies about what they're trying to represent. ( THE INSIDE OF THE WHALE SCENE)

^^^ As mentioned this was me " the viewer" trying to piece together symbolism where I thought it might go. (BIG MISTAKE) ^^^

The mom gives birth at the end of the movie, but if you noticed she's an alcoholic (it's not really clear if you weren't paying attention), "You're like what the big deal"; IT'S NOT CLEAR IF SHE STOPPED DRINK ALCOHOL OR NOT BECAUSE THE MOVIE JUST ABOUT ENDS THERE. Also, this scene is very graphic and honestly disgusting.

There's this one science dude or girl that like ends up taking care of the children. But he feels so random and creepy; I DONT TRUST HIM WHY SHOULD YOU

THE WORST PARTS: There's a scene in which two characters kiss, "this is where I thought the movie was going to get good but soon noticed it got much worse". And instead of asking about this very awkward moment, Ruka(the girl) just asks "what did I just swallow". It is very soon revealed she swallowed like the heart of the sea or something (this has to do something to do with the end plot).

BUTT BETTER YET,

ONE: Why did you swallow something someone passed from their mouth to yours, THAT'S GROSS AND NOT PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE, GIRL YOU JUST SWALLOWED AN ENTIRE ROCK.

TWO: The girl (Ruka I think) has no question about it and acts like everyone who knows a child that was born from the sea does this. NO NO NO WHY

EXTRA: Because I checked Common Sense Media before watching this movie, I was not prepared for some scenes( of course they didn't get it correct). There weren't too bad but CSM (Common Sense Media) only mentioned there was kissing ( In that one category, you guys know). But comes to find out there is some left out thing Like: (Note these are from IMDB's listing of this movie which is way better and clearer)

Two little boys are shown naked for a few seconds: (IMDB quotes "It is presented in a naturalistic way. (They lived in the ocean.)" and yes it is but it's still very shocking.)

A teenage girl's back is shown as she bathes: ( IMDB quotes: "Nothing detailed." It's technically not bad but is still shocking, very out of place, and kind of weird)

The end credit scene shows a baby who's just been born.