Children of Whales Review
Everything about the aesthetic and art kept driving me to try and complete this show, and now, after like 6 years and trying on 3 different occasions, I have done so. Now this is not to say that the experience was even remotely boring or bad, but I would say it’s a piece of work that definitely requires a certain mindset or mood to get through. There’s tons of intrigue and interesting parts of the story and world, though it can be particularly tough to chew through.
The majority of the soundtrack is very vocally driven and primarily acoustic, its more often than not extremely emotional. There’s a sense of longing or want in so many of the tracks that offer an inspiring touch. Now that being said there is a dangerous amount of similar/themed music that a good portion ends up sort of lacking distinction. The whole thing is done masterfully and evokes strong emotions.
There’s a sense of ignorance and curiosity in all the primary characters of the piece, from the lack of knowledge on thymia, the whales, and even their customs to the desire to seek outside their small limited world. A beautiful sentiment wells up strongly because of the hardhips and rough truths that confront them throughout the story and that struggle is incredibly inspiring. I’d say the plot developed well, the characters motivations played out(good and bad), everything was well explained but not over, experiences showed so much more than what was told, and my favorite part of series like this, The watcher was allowed to extrapolate and feel the characters growths and emotions. Overall an easy 9/10 for me and possibly a 10 depending on followup(either a second season or moving onto the source material).
Chakuro is basically everything I love in an main character, he stands out for his honesty and principles and maintains a relatively open mind even while going through such strife. Ouni is a particularly good contrast to me as while he is blatantly honest it is from the perspective of someone who doesn’t have a place he belongs(or so he believed atleast). The contrast between the two throughout the story gives a very heavy weight to the progresssion of the story. My major gripes with characters comes from the ruling class of the whale, particularly the old people and the enforcer, their obvious inclination to focus on their own benefits initially are just aggravating and even felt similar to our current reality. Overall characters were written well and virtually never betrayed their own character for the sake of the plot, however there were a bit too many unlikable suspects to me.
At the end of the day, while I took many attempts to finish the show, there is an incredible gratitude that I hold for this show. It can be a challenging watch because of the conflicts that arise in the show, but that challenge merely makes the experience more memorable. I sincerely do hope that, even though it’s been a decade, the series sees further animation; it almost feels too beautiful not to get it.
Final Score : 8/10