_Children of the Sea_ was quite the ambitious think piece, adapting a manga series that was written over the course of 6 years and condensing it down to a 111 minute animated film.

That aside, it was ==gorgeous== being animated by Studio 4 °C, whose works have always been above average. Not to mention, it was scored by the Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi, who you may know by his work with Studio Ghibli.

If you're looking to get whisked away on a magical adventure that will overwhelm your visual and auditory senses for a spectacular stretch of time, this movie is definitely for you. It definitely is a think piece, though, and my brain do be hurting still.

Need a break? _Children of the Sea_ is an idyllic seaside get-away where you ignore life's distractions for awhile and immerse yourself in the gorgeous views.

While the story is dispersed like a drop of rain in the ocean (which is to be expected when adapting a 5-part manga into 110 minutes), the stunning visuals and the subtle innocence make the film a prefect place to lose yourself.

I really can’t describe this fever dream of a movie. The visuals and auditory feelings that the movie provided were phenomenal and captivating. There was so many tiny bits of philosophical food that were narrowly tethered together by the overall story. The largest downfall of the piece, is certainly not lack of imagination but rather the failure to create of characters that were interesting enough on their own.

The first half of the movie was not as carried the constant stream of visuals and the characters themselves were not shown to be complex enough. By the end of the movie, I was able to understand some additional complexities of each character, but the film itself failed to convey these complexities in a way that would keep the viewer entertained by their interactions.

Still, it was a beautiful masterpiece of visuals that can only be described as a dream of epic proportions, even if the film could only show a drop in the ocean.

Children of the Sea takes a big swing and misses just by a small fraction. While the surreal elements are breathtakingly beautiful and profound, the realistic aspects used to tether the fever dream sequences to some form reality fell short. Blown away by the final act but the first two acts feel like a slog. Happy I watched it to the end.

every frame in this movie was a painting, the art style & animation are so unique, if you've ever watched Puparia on youtube, this has a strong similarity to that short film, and its absolutely stunning
music by the legend himself, Joe Hisaishi
ending song by Kenshi Yonezu
this movie felt like a studio ghibli movie, almost
& it had such a vivid summer vibe, down to the core, perfect

the camera movement and directing were so surreal, almost as if i wasn't even watching an animated movie, but an actual live action film