First Episode Impression: "Sora to Umi no Aida"

Synopsis

Set during the future in Onomichi, the Hiroshima fish have disappeared from the seas and now only the whales. To address this issue, the Ministry of Fishery decides to set up giant experimental Universe Fish Tanks in space. From this, the Onomichi Universe Fishery Union was formed. Due to the strengthening of an equal employment for men and women, a demand for female fishermen has increased. In this tale, the focus is on six new female fishermen and their growth throughout their training.

The Good

The idea of the series is unique, to say the least. A concept of space fishing is just the type of piece you would expect not to work but somehow, the anime finds a way to appeal to the viewer even just a tad. For sud=re, the biggest highlight of the episode is in how it presented the whole fish catching segment. It had some interesting animation and the design of the scene overall was not that bad. Simply put, the stand out points of the episode was the concept and how it was presented.

The Bad

As interesting as the concept is, there’s quite a bit of silliness to be found as well. Just the way the episode played out, it felt like it was meant to present a series involving cute girls doing some interesting action but the overall introduction of the characters and story was not that strong. Outside of the fishing segment and concept presentation, the characters didn’t stand out all that much or garner a lot of interest. They felt more like token pieces meant to fit the plot while also presenting the whole underdog trope. Clearly, the protagonist was meant to be this earnest girl reaching for a dream but ends up dragged into something and not doing all that well at first, but personally, she comes off as rather blase.

Conclusion

There’s a good idea being presented in the episode but the overall introduction didn’t really leave a good impact. From what was shown with the characters, it’s easy to gain a general idea on what their roles will be for the story. It may be something worth checking out a few episodes to see where it’s going but from what the first episode has shown, there isn’t much to be expected from this series outside of its whole fishing segment being a fun and silly show of action for the series.

Rating: 6/10