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OP: 「テレパス」 (Telepath) by (Yorushika)
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「天膜の少年」 (Tenmaku no Shōnen)
“Heavenly Boy”
If there was an anime I was really looking forward to in Winter ‘23 is this one. Ooyukiumi no Kaina or Kaina of the Great Snow Sea is a new series animated by Polygon Pictures and written by Tsutomu Nihei. If you’re privy to that name then you are probably aware of all of the works that antecedent Nihei-sensei. Including Blame!, Knights of Sidonia and most recently Aposimz, most of those works have managed to come out of the underground and become their own anime adaptations over the years. Polygon Pictures has managed to capitalize on some of the amazing storytelling and reach a diverse audience. The clean cell shading style Polygon brings to the picture (no pun intended) does take away from some of the grime and speck found in the panels of Blame! However, I believe most fans would rather have any adaptation than not at all. As the only adaptation to ever come close to really nailing Blame’s atmosphere is the 2003 OVA. However, adapting Blame! without CGi might just be incredibly expensive.
So, Ooyukiumi no Kaina is a completely new story, set in a completely new world, as most of Nihei’s-sensei stories always break from the old and start a new, think Final Fantasy, where every entry is a new story, but some of the previous elements remain. Sensei is known for incredibly bleak landscapes, solitary protagonists, and an incredibly harsh environment that somehow humans still live in. In this case, it seems the planet has been covered in a sea of snow, the trees have grown so much, they have created a film-like canopy over the earth. It almost looks like glass. Basically like an atmosphere. The scenery reminded me of Bloodborne, in the Hunter’s Dream, where you see giant towering tree-like structures that extend over the clouds – I believe Ash Lake also shares similar imagery in Dark Souls. Outside of the canopy nothing but space.
The story starts with Kaina (Hosoya, Yoshimasa) an incredibly looking shonen boy that is hunting some type of space bug, he looks to bring the eggs that the creature holds back to his settlement where he can feed his elderly friends, the small village is able to sustain itself by living inside one of the trees, who apparently is dying out, and no longer produces the same results as it once did, including water and other basic needs, the elders worry that Kaina would be left all alone when they are gone, it is then that Kaina is made to bring food to some Ji-Ji type character who speaks in riddles and refuses to explain any sort of practical detail. Kaina asks what any of that means and the old man just replies beats me. Was Nihei-sensei trying to imbue some type of foreshadowing, since it seems Kaina will soon take on a journey, but not without first meeting someone who will change his world forever?! It is here that some worldbuilding takes place, long ago there were sign readers who would teach other people how to read – or something I guess. The scene seems incredibly out of place for me. Couldn’t Kaina have explained all of this himself, did we really need an old man to explain the world around him? Couldn’t all of this have been kept in the dark and later explained for the viewer to put together, Nihei-sensei isn’t exactly good at explaining the world head-on, but leaving it to the viewer’s interpretation. – but I digress. I believe Nihei-sensei is only responsible for writing the manga that is published alongside the show. So there must have been some sort of adaptation going on. Not truly an original show. And it’s already showing. If Sensei might have been in charge, things would be different I suppose.
With the relationship between Polygon and Nihei-sensei, you would think they would have given him a writer role in the actual production of the show but that seems not the case.
Ah~ I digress – the show makes a 180 turn and pans to the surface of the planet, introducing Liliha (Takahashi, Rie) a girl who has made a pact with a tribe on the surface to reach a thing called a floater, a sort of balloon they must hook onto so that Liliha can float unto the canopy. Things turn dire out of the gate and some pirates straight up show up on their tail. Bringing bloodbath with them, they kill most of her crew however Liliha manages to get up on the balloon thanks to some self-sacrificing from the people on her side. She goes up and passes through one of the holes in the canopy, not without Kaina catching her and managing to pull her down, it seems the balloon keeps on floating out toward space.
The whole pacing of the show was incredibly methodical, almost like meditating, when the action rolled around it almost seemed out of place for me, maybe it was trying too hard to imbue the narrative with a half-baked concept. However, calling it that is a disserve in itself. I hate to say that since it was interesting, Nihei-sensei tends to go above and beyond. Like those structures in Ash Lake, there’s a certain curiosity that begs the question. What’s up there? It’s almost simple human nature – wanting to know what’s beyond the canopy might be almost primordial to us. And that’s the concept of his stories, he explains a far-out image and then uses it to tell a story that is human in character.
As the first episode, it was fine, but I see way too much shonen in this, trying its dam hardest to attract the young crowd, there are way too many restrictions and Nihei-sensei should have been left to run rampant on his own in this one. Where are the confined spaces, the abstract solitude, and the metaphysical seclusion? This premiere didn’t do a great job of explaining what hardships the character might endure. The world is separated into tribes and some of them want to kill each other, but the reason is unknown. The premier explained way too much for a Nihei-sensei anecdote and dotted its storytelling into unnecessary plot points. That felt like unnecessary filler.
I’m being way too critical – I know. But only because it’s Polygon Pictures and the show was advertised as Nihei-sensei being in the forefront. But that is not the case. Might this be once again of the adaptation curse Nihei-sensei seemingly carries on like a crutch, or might this show be the next Fumetsu? At this moment, things are not certain. With an 11-episode runtime, I’ll give it at least four episodes to show its true colors. However, this critical eye will remain. At this moment Tondemo is looking way more fun for coverage. And with Trigun showing up everyone how 3D anime CGi animation should be done, Polygon is looking like it might be left on the curbside. We’ll have to wait and see.
Edit: I do realize I’m being incredibly harsh – don’t get me wrong it comes from a place of love, I might just end up covering the 11 episodes, I just need more information to really get intimate with this one. It might be one of those series that eventually wins me over. It’s just a matter of time.
Full-length images: 48.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「ジュブナイル」 (Juvenile) by (GReeeeN)
What I found interesting with this title is that the humans are living in an ice age on and above the surface. I would’ve thought Humans would bury underground where it would be “warmer”, (…Did Kurzgesagt get this wrong?) What’s even more interesting is that besides cavemen, modern humans have not lived through an Ice Age yet but there is plenty of time for that later. And here what remains of Humans are now thriving (for now) in the freezing cold.
I mean, I’m going to take a guess here that what was falling wasn’t actually snow or ice. I don’t know what happened here, but I’m pretty sure that those balls were something else entirely.
I’m also not convinced that this is earth. Yes, there are signs in Japanese, but that doesn’t mean this is earth. Anime have used things like that to fool viewers before.
It would be safe to assume that this is some new planet where humanity has been thriving at isolated levels. It’s going to be interesting to get to know what exactly is going on and how this world came to be.
This first episode kind of feels like the misbegotten offspring of Children of the Whale and Robert Altman’s movie Quintet. And it seems to like subverting tropes. So instead of having a girl fall from the sky at the start, a girl rises from the ground at the end like a sort of inverted Patema Inverted. And when the pirates(?) attack, you might expect them to have lasers or blasters or something, but actually their weapons are what looks very much like the positively Biblical “jawbone of an ass”.
And then there are the signs. Apparently it’s important in this world to learn how to read ancient signs without knowing what they actually mean, which is by no means a new concept in SF, but nevertheless opens a whole can of semiotic worms.
My take on the scenario is that the trees and the flies were bioengineered to create a planet-spanning membrane to hold in what remains of Earth’s atmosphere, perhaps after some catastrophic event like a huge solar flare that stripped much of it away and caused a global freeze. But now the trees are dying and the insect population has been over-hunted so that the resulting holes are no longer being repaired.
Anyway, I’m trying to get into the theorycrafting as much as I can so I don’t have to think too much about the atrocious CGI. Honestly, Polygon, you’ve had almost a decade to improve things since Sidonia, but it still looks just as bad!
Well if I remember correctly the Ji-Ji character did mention something about the signs having no meaning until actually read, my only concern is how is that going to culminate into the narrative, why was it given so much importance? What volume is it going to give to the overall chronology? Or was it simply to illustrate that reading has been simply forgotten and is an old trait that becomes a sort of privilege, and no one uses/has a need for it anymore? And with that Kaina is going to set off and change the world around him, a messenger at the end of the world, maybe? It makes me think of the story of Hermes.
And yeah, I agree, the animation is looking outdated at this point.
It struck me more like a mix of Nausicaä and The Integral Trees by Larry Niven. The tribe of low tech descendants of a greater civilization on the end of a giant slowly dying tree lines up very well. But I imagine the story will branch off in a different direction(probably no ancient spaceships in this one).
This looks like it could be my new Knights of Sidonia. I’ve had a hole there since season 2 ended.
If I had to see any similarities it would be with Miyazaki’s first, and arguably greatest, movie: Nausicaa from the Valley of the Wind.
Post-apocalyptic planet? Check. Scattered human tribes clinging to precarious existence in harsh environment? Check. Artifacts of ancient technological civilization? Check. A duo of young characters going on out on a journey of discovery? probably check.
This series definitely got me interested. Even the name of the trees, invoking orbit mean that at some point they were used to reach low orbit, possibly by humans evacuating into space, leaving few hapless individuals whoi didnt get into spaceship alone, some in canopy, some on surface.
Whatever direction the series takes, it definitely will be interesting!
I’ll grant you there are some Miyazaki-esque features, but that’s at least in part because Miyazaki also isn’t afraid to use the classic storytelling frameworks to create his masterpieces. Though so far, despite the giant bugs, I’d say the closest Miyazaki work to this one in some ways was Laputa rather than Nausicaa.
This series would really have a lot going for it if almost any other studio had animated it, as proof of which I didn’t drop it after the first 5 minutes, which is what I generally do with Polygon stuff.
Only from the Screenshots and without knowing anything from this Anime, it looks like Last Exile meets Nausicaa for me. Well my memories are saying that
This giant Canopy could be a try to keep the Heat inside of the Planet, to warm the surface even more up. Perhaps an counter to fight the Ice Age, that did not worked as intended. Because life important Sun rays are now blocked and it even boosted the Ice Age
These Bugs are perhaps immune to this cold or can live there better then humans. The Planet could be in the end state of freeze totally over and this membrane forced it more. So even hidden under the Earth is no option. Sure they would had the Planet’s core warmth. But the Sun not reaching them anymore to power their Greenhouses. Also all is then hidden and buried under an very tick Ice mantel. Air Condition Values got crushed from the ice and no new fresh Air is in circulation underground anymore. So they flee onto this Membrane to receive the “Mother Sun ray’s”. Well, even on the coldest Mountain covered with Snow on their peak you could take an warm sunbath naked and not freeze to death. As long there is no ice chilling Wind (currently Ski resorts). But the Air is very thin up there. So perhaps their Homes are under Pressure like Air Planes, to breath without these Masks. But it is that far in the highs that Sunburns and Radiation is more common. So they also need their Cloths for protection against the Sun
Sorry, this all flowed just right now into my brain, while writing. So offense and try to spoil. it’s just suggestion on my Side
So the real Enemy and Friend is the Ice Age. But why it started is the secret of this Anime, it seems
You got my attention, let’s see if the first 3 Rule get me interested
thanks for you hard Preview Works, all of you on RC
Perhaps these Pirates are the ones living inside Earth and these heaven Tribe are in War with each others over the rare resources this Earth have for them
Okay, enough