Spectacular manga-based anime proved a tough sell for G-KIDS Stateside with little in the way of a traditional storyline. But beyond the film’s standard summer-break/coming-of-age teen tribulations (young girl with separated parents gets tossed off the summer-league soccer team for acting out), something quite different & fascinating, laid out in stunning animation from Ayumu Watanabe & Beyond C. Studios in a style quite different from Studio Ghibli & other Japanese firms. Philosophical in ideas, more abstract in extended set pieces, we watch as Ruka, the just banned summer-league soccer player, visits the local aquatic museum where her father works. Behind the tank, she stumbles upon a unique sea creature few have seen, a teenage boy (Umi) who literally swims with the fishes. So too his older brother Sora, who Ruka will meet later and who appears to be undergoing some sort of metamorphosis. Not the only seismic shift in the film: sea, sky and earth are also experiencing changes after a meteor strike. Is Ruka falling in love with one of these brothers, or perhaps changing into some sort of ‘Gaia’ prophet, if that’s what they are. No doubt this all parsed out more clearly in the manga series of books, but sometimes lack of specificity, not quite knowing what’s going on, helps rather than hurts if you can ZEN-up and go with the flow of illustrious illustrations. (In the ‘70s this would have been considered an essential Head Trip experience.) Here and there, the plot, such as it is, goes sappy and well-meaning, but wisely holds back from nailing down concepts too literally with exposition & explanation. The story not even bothering to wind things up by having Ruka rejoin her teammates for an uplifting ending. Hurrah! (Though wait thru the end credits to get a bit more story.) Best to put any expectations to the side, and prepare yourself for a climax that draws on 2001's ‘Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite’ . . . and gets away with it.
DOUBLE-BILL: Ayumu Watanabe’s other credits mostly in tv series, but a follow-up feature, FORTUNE FAVORS LADY NIKUKO/’21 (not seen here), looks to be more traditional. (And brought in about a fifth the gross.)
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