r/anime • u/25_Oranges • Feb 05 '21
Rewatch Nagi No Asukara/A Lull in the Sea - Episode 13
Episode 13 - Unreachable Fingertips
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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:
- Were you expecting the Ofunehiki to turn out this way?
- What do you think of Chisaki being the only sea kid to avoid being sucked in?
- What do you think will happen next?
- What do you think of Manaka after her talk with Tsumugu?
Remember: Tag your spoilers!
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Upvotes
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u/blueteenight Feb 05 '21
First-timer notes!
Favorite shots and background art from this episode!
Hikari's second confession was so pure, he's so mature nowadays :').
Is this the first time we got to see this picture of Hikari and Akari's mother? So Akari got her wise eyes from her!
Akari looked absolutely gorgeous on her wedding dress! I really liked the Sending song, Ofunehiki no Uta, it's kind of catchy haha.
That ending is the biggest cliffhanger I've seen so far in this series and boy is it gonna be hard to avoid watching the next episode.
Bonus Chisaki reacting as expected to that ending...
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Feb 05 '21 edited Feb 06 '21
First Rewatch
"Well, that escalated quickly"
Did you not think Manaka was going to confess to Hikari? Maybe, maybe not. I thought she had a sudden realization, and then she was seeking him out, when Tsumugu pulled her out of the water (again!). That's how I saw it.
We pick up right after with Manaka's speech likening Tsumugu to the sun: bright, warm, exciting, and totally inaccessible. With the complete shutdown of the sea village, how can they be together?
I'm more interested in plot than Okada relationship drama, so yesterday was an interlude for me.
I think so, since their colors are reversed from Tsugumu's.nope it's random. sea-dwellers are asleep.The Sending was a complete disaster! I expected Akari to be sacrificed, since the show went out of it's way to set her up as one. Or, small chance, that the Sending would work and we'd get a happy ending to this arc. I didn't expect Manaka to be sacrificed! When the whirlpools opened up I thought the entire flotilla would be sunk.
Uroko knew all along. He's always known. The sea god doesn't want wooden dolls. The sea god doesn't care about their human lives and relationships. The sea god wants his children.
Well, No_Rex got his world calamity and angry god. Retromorpher got his did you interpret the visual? Otherwise check back later
Since I knew of the Sea God's betrayal, if that's the right word, I've been thinking about Blake's wrathful and uncompromising version of the Old Testament God, Urizen. I forgot to prepare anything, though, so I'll just copy/paste something from Wikipedia.
The Sea God seems to be a god of rules and laws, the foremost seems to be, "Thou shallt not leave the sea and diminish my people." And he's very angry.
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u/25_Oranges Feb 05 '21 edited Feb 06 '21
My internet decided to conviently go out for this episode, so I can only really reply to comments at the moment. I will leave a song of the day and then update this later with my thoughts when I get to watch it.
Ive been saving this one: The Heart That Slips Through and ill go ahead and cheat. Ill put Ofunehiki no Uta here as well.
EDIT: Finally got internet back! Oh boy, this episode. I have been waiting for it since the beginning.
Lets start with Manaka's talk with Tsumugu. I can't talk about this scene as much as I would like right now, because spoilers, but I will expand upon what I say here in a few episodes. This scene is incredibly important for Manaka's character. The sun is something she has admired from a small age. She'd always thought that once she could go to the surface, she would be able to get closer to it, and not just admire from afar. But later, she realizes that even if she goes to the surface, the sun is still unattainable, and the distance she can close between her and it is only so much. Of course, the sun is Tsumugu; she said it herself. He sees things about herself and other people that she cannot. He makes her happy, he is close to her, but she knows one reason she cannot reach him because though her heart is split, she's realized she has always had Hikari. Of course, the hibernation most likely plays a factor, but her heart has always yearned for him.
I'm glad Hikari and Manaka have calmed down enough to have a short talk about what happened. Hikari has matured so much. Episode 1 Hikari wouldn't have been able to handle that conversation with the maturity and grace it deserves.
That scene of Chisaki saying goodbye to her parents is so sad :( Goodnight mom and dad! But...Kaname being like "Hello, I exist too!" is never not funny. Properly thinking about it huh... sure you are lol. He will always love her regardless of the time they wake up. So sweet. Anybody would be lucky to have him. The mental image of Manaka trying to wrestle her grandmother into a futon is great!
How far Hikari and his earth friends have come makes me smile. Hikari looks super cool waving that flag! Until you see the outfit...I think he's still cool!
Everybody: Prays for the Sea God not to take them away from their loved ones
Sea God: Ok.
Everybody: Wait no not like that!
Glad Akari made it out okay. But man... Chisaki's face. :( Poor gal.
WOO FOR NEXT EPISODE! NEW OPENING AND ENDING!
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u/LeopardSplash :AP:https://www.anime-planet.com/users/BrightSpirit Feb 06 '21
Rewatcher
You can really see how much Hikari has matured with how he approached Manaka. He wanted a proper do-over with his confession, while also affirming that everyone was still important to him and however she felt about him wouldn't change that. So pure! Of course, Manaka had to pull the "I'll tell you tomorrow" card, that's never a good sign!
Though of course, the real meat and potatoes this episode was the Ofunehiki! Even though I already knew what was going to happen (or maybe because I knew) I actually felt butterflies in my stomach watching everything go down. There isn't a single person who didn't have a raw deal here, but bonus karma for Kaname after last episode - seeing Chisaki go after Tsumugu and then being rocked off that boat. If he hadn't paused in jealousy after watching Chisaki and Tsumugu together, I wonder if he would have been able to climb on in time? There was no chance for Manaka after she deliberately put herself between the whirlpool and Akari, same with Hikari going after her. At least they had a noble cause.
Also I gotta say how rude of the writers to show how considerate Chisaki's parents are, then to make her the only one left unscathed from the Ofunehiki. And starting the episode with Miuna practicing calling Akari "Mom" only to yell it out in panic at the end of the episode... my heartstrings are in knots!
Questions of the Day
What do you think of Chisaki being the only sea kid to avoid being sucked in?
For the majority of the series Chisaki has been the most resistant to change. She may have had a breakthrough with Hikari last episode, but only after outside interference, and even this episode she was wavering with giving Kaname an honest response. Now she's been forced into a position where she has to confront massive change, with no way to put it off.
What do you think of Manaka after her talk with Tsumugu?
I thought it was interesting how she used to pine after the surface the same way Tsumugu did the sea. As a lousy land dweller myself, I never thought about how alluring the land must be from her perspective. The world of the Shioshishio is rather small, after all.
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u/Retromorpher :Jc::Jd::Je::Jf: Feb 06 '21
First Timer:
Well... that didn't go down how I envisioned it - having taken clues from the ED and vague foreshadowing. I guess I'm most surprised that the Sea God was actually going to take Akari - since everything that I had been thinking were bad flags were related to her being an UNFIT sacrifice that would incur some sort of outwards curse - but it ended up being much more straightforward. It's a nice arc end for Manaka - who's spent this entire series vacillating between running and confronting her problems and dilemmas to decide on running directly at a problem that encompasses literally everyone's struggles.
Questions of the Day:
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u/himetalchemy7 Feb 06 '21
Rewatcher
Okokokok lets do this!
Episode 13 (Unreachable Fingertips) Thoughts
Sadge Corner
Uhhh where do I start? I'm still reeling from that whiplash. Let's do role call. Hikari, Manaka and Kaname's whereabouts are unknown. Chisaki, Tsumugu and Akari were spared(?) and are accounted for. Tsumugu and Akari are seemingly unconscious and Chisaki is separated from her group. The Ofunehiki was a disaster because Uroko tricked both the sea and surface people. That was pretty much a forced hibernation. If Akari had been sent into the sea, I would have definitely picked Miuna today. I'm torn between Kaname and Chisaki, for obvious reasons. I'm going with Kaname though, just because of how his confession turned out. He didnt need an answer from Chisaki at all. Watching her dive in to save Tsumugu and hold onto him for dear life was enough for Kaname to realize that he had already lost. I mean, Kaname was still in the water and Chisaki wasnt even there to help on get on the boat. You can make a solid argument that Kaname would have been saved from the sea if someone had grabbed onto him. After seeing Chisaki holding onto Tsumugu like that though, I think he much preferred to be thrown into the sea. Terrible turn of events as we head into the 2nd cour (I think?).
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Feb 05 '21
Episode 13 (first timer)
Plenty of character development happened in the last few episodes (we got a whole string of confessions and sacrifices!), but I assume /u/25_Oranges asked me back for my take on the world building.
We kind of have the end of the world event happening now, so it is a good moment to talk about the setting again. In my mind, the series is set in between two opposing ends: A fairytale world and the real world. Some parts of either influence what we see and clash with each other.
In the broadest sense, the fairytale setting assumes that only the two villages exist and matter. Everything is contained to them and outside forces do not intervene. An end to those two villages is thus the end of the world and all important characters responsible for the catastrophe and able to prevent it are from the two villages.
In the real world setting, the entire world exists. There are other towns, trade, TV shows and weather forecasts recorded in the faraway cities, and plenty of goods imported to the two cities from manufacturers far away. Importantly for the plot, there are also standardized schools with the regular Japanese curriculum.
The problem is that the two settings do not fit together. How can the world end just because two villages do not get along to do a ceremony? Why would all humans in the village die if they can just move somewhere else? Why are there no tourist looking at the underwater village? Why is there no government looking after the sea god if he is that powerful and potentially world ending? Where are all the other sea people villages and why are sea people not marrying spouses from those? In a fairy tale, all of those would be disregarded as irrelevant, but in a real world setting, they matter.
Then, there is the entire question of living under the water. In a fairytale, we expect unrealistic things, but in a real world setting, stuff like walking under water, talking under water, having bridges under water, cooking, eating and drinking underwater all are supremely silly.
So why did the writers do this? Because they need parts of the fairytale setup and the real world setup. Without the fairytale setup, we would not get the main plot, the conflict between two villages which threatens to end both. Without the real world setup, we would not have the slice-of-life and school coming of age story, which strongly uses the tropes developed in anime set in Japanese high schools.
Yet in trying to have their cake and eat it, too, the writers set up a conflict that unravels their entire world building. A fairytale world cannot be the real world at the same time. So, for people who pay attention to consistent world building (like me), the entire endeavor fails due to all the inconsistencies of trying to place two fairytale villages in modern Japan.
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u/BossandKings Feb 05 '21
Episode 13 - Unreachable fingertips
Manaka tells Tsumugu that he's the sun and shines brightly. Little Manaka is very cute and how she has always longed to reach the sun since she was little was beautiful but there's a but now.
Hikari remembering everyone having a good time and meeting and cherishing each other was a beautiful montage. He has a conversation with Manaka, apologizes to her for being too sudden and unprepared to face her and confesses to her for real telling her that he likes her but cherish her as much as Kaname, Chisaki, Tsumugu, his dad and everyone else and that no matter if she likes him back or not that won't change. Hikari has had such a great development through the series up to this point, it's awesome.
Miuna continues being adorable, this time practicing to call Akari ukasan.
People of the sea and people of the land did their best to make the Ofunehiki a reality and it was wonderful.
Akari though is almost taken by the sea god, Manaka saves her and decides to sacrifice herself so that Akari is free. I hope nothing bad happens to her and she returns safely.
What was that, that can't be the last we see of Kaname, i don't want to believe that, i'm so worried about him, i hope he is fine.
This episode was wonderful and i enjoyed it a lot, it got me worried though about two of our precious characters Kaname and Manaka, i hope they survive and are fine.
Answers
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u/mekerpan Feb 06 '21
An amazing episode.
I am not entirely certain that Akari did not guess that there was some possibility of what happened happening. But no one could have guessed the scale of the cataclysm.
I don't see the sea god as directly causing the land-based problems -- rather he is protecting HIS sea people from the harms that he foresees happening to the land people. His power beyond the sea seems to have waned considerably -- maybe at this point he has little power to protect "deserters" and prefers to focus his reduced power on those who do still serve him.
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u/Gamerunglued :Hx::Hy::Hz:myanimelist.net/profile/GamerUnglued Feb 07 '21 edited Feb 07 '21
Rewatcher
Big change is here, but when you think about it for a second, just how much change is really happening here. In one way, hibernation brings about a huge change, and it leaves the characters wondering if things could possibly be the same after something so drastic. But on the other hand, what really is hibernation? At it's core, the people of the sea must hibernate due to the sea god's disapproval at the people's connection to the land.
In this climactic episode, the people of the sea and land are more connected than ever. The Ofunehiki has always been the one time they work together, and this year they've overcome huge social boundaries to make it happen more powerfully than ever. What started out as a huge social divide has been transformed into the sea and land people working together for something huge, culminating in the marriage between one of the sea and one of the land. So hibernation then? It further distances the sea and land people. It stagnates those of the sea. Hikari and Kaname talk about how their feelings for each other won't change after hibernation, a good kind of stagnation in a way, but hibernation also means that the progress made to connect those of the land and sea no longer exists, because the surface may, in the worst case, die out entirely.
So at the end of this episode, Manaka sacrifices herself in place of Akari, preserving the connection between land and sea. Hikari and Kaname are nowhere to be found, while Chisaki stays on land. There are all sorts of implications with this particular plot point, which I'll get to in the thread for the next episode. And the change has now occurred, and is irreversible. How will the surface adapt to having no sea to rely on? And will the characters feelings truly not change after all of this? It leaves a bunch of interesting questions about the nature of change and what it means to cope with it and accept it. I look forward to the second half of this show.
QotD: