Nagi no Asukara is about people who live under the sea. It focuses on a group of junior high school kids that are being forced to go to school on the mainland after their school closes down. Being introduced to the mainland brings up a lot of the differences that the seapeople have and why there are less seapeople than there should be.
Nagi no Asukara starts out looking pretty interesting with the artwork having an interesting take on what it would look like under the sea to someone living there at home in the environment. It appears a lot like on land, but with subtle things to show that it is going on under the sea. Unfortunately too much of the focus is not on the cool seapeople, but on teen relationships. Hikari is interested in Manaka, but she appears to be interested in a person from the surface which causes Hikari to be mad all the time. That being said all the characters are pretty one dimensional at this point. This point for me being three episodes into the show. Hikari is mad. Manaka is immature. Chisaki pretends to be mature while pining for Hikari. Kaname is just there to tell Chisaki to throw Manaka under the bus. I am really hoping they do more with the characters soon, or this will get very old quickly.
The best part of Nagi no Asukara is learning about what makes the seapeople different than normal humans. It seems like no matter what happens to the teen main characters the seapeople are doomed. There do not appear to be that many seapeople to begin with and they can not have children with surface dwellers that can live in the sea. So they are slowly losing the people that they do have. As there are less options for young people they will lose more unless there is some other way to get more seapeople. Now that the teens know the situation I wonder if they will try to do something about the situation, but that does not seem to be the focus of the show.
Overall the show is starting to stray from the intense teen drama, which is the best thing that could happen. If it focuses more on seapeople problems it could be a great show.
Status: Still Watching.
