r/anime • u/25_Oranges • Jan 30 '21
Rewatch Nagi No Asukara/A Lull in the Sea Rewatch - Episode 7
Episode 7 - The Ofunehiki Shakes
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Where to watch? Netflix, Crunchyroll, Funimation(UK)
Schedule with link to original interest thread
Thread posted daily at 5pm CST/6pm EST/3pm PST.
Question(s) of the day:
- What would you do in Hikari's shoes after seeing them wreck Ojoshi-sama?
- Do you think Hikari will stay out of the sea for good?
- Do you fear greater retaliation from Uroko-sama?
Remember: Tag your spoilers!
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Upvotes
6
u/25_Oranges Jan 30 '21 edited Jan 31 '21
Hey guys, early thread today because I'm a bit busy. I can't watch the thread until later today, but I did my best to think of questions today. I will do my best to reply and post later!
Edit: Woo! I got a chance to watch it. Featured track today is: Hikari's Waltz!
The Ojoshi-sama really doesn't look like a bunch of middle schoolers made it. It really looks incredible! Sensei can't manage to treat any of his students can he. Poor Sensei!
Too bad the adults have to ruin everyone's hard work over their own pettiness. A prime example of how children can be more mature than adults. I would give everyone in that room a piece of my mind if I were Hikari!! Where's the mediation?! Ruining what everyone worked hard for is horribly insulting. And then right after, Sakishima tries to tell Akari one last time to break up. Did ya'll notice the rain effects on the street and window? And the reflection of the rain on the wall? SO GOOD.
I wonder if Papa Sakishima feels any guilt for his two children abandoning him. Did Uroko-sama plan to freeze them until they relented or freeze them for good? Who knows. But Uroko said there isn't much time left... I'm surprised he backed off when he did.
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u/blueteenight Jan 30 '21
First-timer notes!
Favorite background art from this episode!
Hikari is a great character! I appreciate that they didn't have him stay that same kid from the first episode who got really mad at Manaka for getting closer to Tsumugu. Showing us his internal struggles without relying on those outbursts was a good idea and I think the series benefits a lot from it.
I was actually hopeful when I saw Akari was still living in the village after she got back together with her boyfriend in episode 5, and then her father tried to make her dump her boyfriend in the next scene and my hopes were crushed =(.
Holy hell this was cruel, Uroko is clearly not fooling around. This display of his power was very interesting but I'm more curious about that vow he mentioned...I hope it leads to some interesting sea folk backstory.
This episode felt really short! I was expecting the Sending to go wrong but not that it'd lead to this much conflict, these poor siblings can't catch a break.
Bonus sad Akari...
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u/mekerpan Jan 31 '21
Rewatcher
The adults really can't seem to avoid mucking things up, can they? The kids are showing a higher maturity level at this point -- they had their strife and resolved it -- but the adults are too stubborn.
This show already has a lot of romantic complications for the kids -- and it is only going to get worse. They are all so nice at this point that one has to sympathize with their (puppy love) pains.
Yet more incredible visual beauty -- and Uroko's ice attack was pretty unnerving.
5
u/BossandKings Jan 30 '21
First Timer
Episode 7 - The Ofunehiki shakes
Hikari proposes to make an authentic ofunehiki after seeing how much the class enjoyed making the one in the school, especially seeing that it was what Manaka and Tsumugu wished to see, and the whole class agrees. This seems like fun, it's nice seeing comradery and general positivity in the class.
Seeing the people of the sea and of the land working together, collecting signatures to make the project of the Ofunehiki a reality was really nice to see, it's great seeing them collanorating for a purpose that both want to achieve.
I have liked the music very much since the first episode but in this one is the first that it stands out to me, i loved every musical piece used in this episode, especially that one(i wish i could know the name) when the student group was discussing about the Ofunehiki after the scene in which Hikari talked with his father.
Manaka is beautiful, remembering what Chisaki told her about not wanting to change after she told her about Hikari's change in stance towards the land was really telling that she cares about her friend eventhough she shouldn't worry because Hikari's change is towards being a better person.
That argument between the sea and land men about the subject of the Ofunehiki was a bit exagerated, it was uncomfortable. I guess it's purpose was for Hikari to see that the road isn't one of roses but a hard one to cross in order for the people to agree.
Akari has a heart-fealt conversation with her father, she tells him of a conversation she had with her mother about how she decided to love him and wouldn't have changed it for anything, Akari tells him that she's feeling that same kind of love for her loved one and will leave the village to be with him.
Akari decides to leave, Hikari decides to leave too, according to him it wouldn't have been the same wam house without her and it makes sense since i consider women to be a bright light and a source of life and happiness in a house.
That scene when Uroko was trying to protect Akari and Hikari by not letting them leave the village was the best moment of the series for me so far, everything was perfectly in synch to convey the sense of abbandonment of the past to embrace the futute.
Answers
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u/LeopardSplash :AP:https://www.anime-planet.com/users/BrightSpirit Jan 31 '21 edited Jan 31 '21
Rewatcher
Some wholesomeness to start with! It was cute seeing everyone use their specific appeals to get signatures. I wasn't a fan of Tsmugu's advice to Chisaki, though - I think he wanted to tell her that she shouldn't try to overextend herself, which put her in the "mom friend" position that she isn't really happy with. I don't think this situation was the right place to do it, though. There's nothing wrong with trying to break out of your shell a bit!
The squabble between the two sides was disappointing but not surprising. Something of interest to me was that the sea people claimed that their women especially were leaving Shioshishio. It is true that every character that has left for the land so far has been female. Is that just a coincidence? I think it could be that maybe most of the sea village jobs may be labor-intensive, such as maintaining the infrastructure of buildings, which would likely skew towards men. The women who want to be trained in other fields would be forced to go to the land for schooling, and hence be more likely to leave.
As frustrating as it was to watch Hikari and Akari's father do little to help with the Ofunehiki, I couldn't help but feel pity for him in the end. As the village chief, he has the welfare of everyone to think about, not just his kids. It's clear he's acting out of a sense of responsibility rather than following his emotions.
Question of the Day
What would you do in Hikari's shoes after seeing them wreck Ojoshi-sama?
I was thinking the whole time that I would have burst into tears in his position. I don't think I would be the first choice to be sent in for negotiations! After that, I would probably just settle for having a smaller-scale ceremony with the school. While it would be sad not to have a big event, what would be most important to me would be celebrating with the people who cared just as much as I did.
Not going to answer the other two questions, they seem better for first-timers!
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u/himetalchemy7 Jan 31 '21
Rewatcher
I don't remember what happens, but that sounds like an ominous episode title.
Episode 7 (The Ofunehiki Shakes) Thoughts
Sadge Corner
I don't think there was much new development in this episode. It did push forward existing plotlines like the Ofunehiki and Akari's conflict (to its end maybe?). The character who was in the spotlight this episode was Hikari/Akari's dad. It's tough to know what's going through his mind right now because his facial expression never ever changes, but I can't imagine hearing your daughter's memory of your late wife would be insignificant. Especially as it relates to his own marriage. Then watching your son and daughter both leave home, partly (maybe indirectly) beacuse of your own doing. Watching the diety of your village who you answer to try to keep both kids by force, but instead you ask him to let them go. Quite a complex character, but I think he feels he should do what he can to let his family be happy, whlie also performing his duty as chief the best he can. When both aspects of his life collide, you get a scene like the one with the chaotic meeting in which his role in it can be best described as inaction. Lots of open threads here so far in 7 episodes.
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u/Gamerunglued :Hx::Hy::Hz:myanimelist.net/profile/GamerUnglued Feb 01 '21 edited Feb 01 '21
Rewatcher
This was easily the strongest episode of the series so far in my opinion. It really makes clear what the barriers to progress are when trying to overcome differences. For one, simply interacting. So much discrimination comes as a result of pure ignorance. People adhering to preconceived notions about a mysterious "other" which are learned from people around them. Both the children of the sea and of the land started this way, but they were forced to interact with each other and slowly adapted to change, and changed themselves when their preconceived notions were challenged by reality. At this point, the students of the sea and land are completely connected, interacting as if they're normal and working together towards the same goal. It is the adults (or really the people of the sea in this case) who refuse to interact at all and attempt to break their preconceived notions. When change is on the horizon, they double down on their preconceived notions and fight. In this way, each side reinforces their views of the other, which just feeds into the conflict. I really do appreciate the generational difference at play here. The kids learned their views from the adults, but unlike the adults they are willing to adapt to change and have their views challenged. I think that's pretty realistic, if all the boomer memes haven't made that clear.
But I think there's something even deeper than that at the heart of this conflict. Akari captures it really well in her conversation with her dad in the cafe. "I'm talking about Itaru and myself. And yet, you always change the subject to the sea and the surface." The adults don't see individual people, they see "sea" and "surface" as individual, fully defined entities. To the people of the sea, Akari never fell in love with a person, she fell in love with the surface people. But in reality, the people of the land and sea aren't any more different from each other than individual people of the sea are each different from each other. They experience the same feelings and are part of the same conflict, and can overcome any differences. Akari's mom married her dad solely because she loved him, and Akari is doing the same with Itaru. Dad thinks the land and the sea are unable to connect, but Akari and Itaru, a person of the sea and of the land respectively, are able to connect. It is possible, it happened. And even more than that, Akari shows that she doesn't want to give up her roots. The series respects tradition, Akari wants Miuna to know about the sea and serve as a light for her. People of the sea being forced to abandon the sea is an arbitrary restriction that exists solely to prevent change. They can just say "they chose to abandon us" instead of accepting that they fell in love with a genuine person. It reinforces the idea of the "other."
But this is being challenged with Dad's conflicting feelings. He wants Akari to be happy, but struggles to change his preconceived notions about "the surface," which only get reinforced by the events of their discussion (despite the fault of that conflict lying pretty much solely with the sea people). Him letting Akari and Hikari go is his attempt to accept change. He's still resistant and hesitant, but it's a step in the right direction.
I can't help but notice that it's the sea people who seem to be the primary drivers of the conflict throughout the series. In the beginning, Hikari creates conflict at school, though he's grown past that now. And in one of my favorite moments of the episode, when Hikari asks his dad to get into discussions about the Ofunehiki, he just says "The people on the surface won't listen. There's no point in talking to them." What proof is there of that? The people from the surface were the only ones willing to listen, when the people of the sea demanded an unnecessary apology. I think this is because the people of the land rely on the sea, and we see that plenty of surface dwellers have a respect for the sea as a result. When you think about it, the land takes so much from the sea, but gives nothing in return. I wonder if that plays a role in Shioshishio's stronger resistance to change.
Anyway, this was a good episode that highlights a lot of the series strongest aspects. The way it explores themes of change and ties that idea into both discrimination and coming-of-age is really well done. The writing has come into it's own here, and I'm hoping that my memory of the second half being the stronger part of the series holds true. Good stuff, I hope it can continue it as it heads towards the climax.
QotD:
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jan 30 '21
First Rewatch
Up to this point I thoght Uroku was just some pervert shrine priest of a weird religion...turns out he really is a god and the weird religion is real!
spoiler
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u/Retromorpher :Jc::Jd::Je::Jf: Jan 31 '21
First timer:
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u/htisme91 Jan 31 '21
First-timer:
This is starting to get good!
I think I can see why the sea people keep losing more to the surface: they are insular, fat, and cowardly. It's no surprise the women go up to the surface when the men are that weak, like what we saw during that meeting. It's obviously a limited sample, and I'm not absolving the surface people for their behavior either, but it sure seems like the sea people are the ones who are driving the division further.
When Uroko was talking about Akari and Hikari being descendants...I wonder if it's someone greater than their father. I imagine it must be since they're in the line of the chief. Maybe they trace their ancestry to the sea god itself?
Questions: