Children of the Sea

MOVIE 2019/ 112 min

Manga artist Daisuke Igarashi continues to enchant readers with his unique line work and artistic expressions. His first long-form work, Children of the Sea (published by Shogakukan IKKICOMIX) tells the story of a summer encounter between a 14-year-old girl and two brothers raised by dugongs. With a theme of respect for nature, this masterpiece transforms into pure entertainment through mysterious story development and the overwhelming power of art. The film engrosses its audience with animation and music that virtually overflow from the screen. It brilliantly realizes themes that were present in the original manga such as the silence and roughness of the sea and the scent of the ocean. This latest work is from STUDIO4°C, known for producing films such as Tekkonkinkreet. The studio has received international praise for its cutting- edge visual expressions. What they created is an ocean adventure tale born from the interweaving of the Japanese animation world’s greatest treasures.
The Japanese cast is full of renowned talent. Mana Ashida, an actress who appeared in Hollywood movies after first becoming known from the television drama Mother, plays the female protagonist. Hiiro Ishibashi, a voice actor who gained notoriety for his angelic voice as Miguel in the Japanese dub of Disney’s Coco, and Seishu Uragami, an actor who portrayed Sanada Yukimaru’s eldest son Daisuke in the NHK Taiga drama Sanadamaru, play the mysterious brothers. Win Morisaki, an actor whose talents were recognized by Steven Spielberg and cast as Toshiro in the movie Ready Player One, also is part of the film. Most of the main voice actors were close in age to the characters they portray in the film. Supporting them is a team of talented actors who each contribute their unique personalities, including Goro Inagaki, Yu Aoi, Tohru Watanabe, Min Tanaka, and Sumiko Fuji.
World-famous Joe Hisaishi composed the film’s music, his first time working on a feature-length animation film since last composing music for Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya. Additionally, musical artist Kenshi Yonezu was so smitten by the film that he was inspired to write his first-ever theatrical theme song, Spirits of the Sea. One could say that the “sounds” developed by this team, which add so much color to the dangerous, dense, and profound world of the story, serve as an alternative face to the film.

STORY
When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does. As the three children's relationship grows, strange phenomenon are frequently occurring above the Earth.