Children of the Sea 4

Daisuke Igarashi – Viz – 2010 – 4+ volumes

For the record, as of right now, there are 2,500 reviews on this site. I am vaguely proud and also vaguely embarrassed. Moving on.

Hmm. I wonder what happened with this series. It looks like a new volume hasn’t come out in Japan since July 2009, and the new chapters on the SigIkki site stopped in October. I wonder if Igarashi is on hiatus or something?

Anyway, I am still extremely torn on this series. I think it is wonderfully cosmic, and a very wild ride into topics that aren’t often explored. With discussions of what conditions have to be like on a planet in order to generate an ocean, descriptions of life on a galactic and primordial level, and the sea life still agitated and preparing for some cataclysm or rebirth, It’s hard not to appreciate the scope of this series. It is ambitious, and studies nature, the environment, life, and its meaning in a way that is rare in most literature.

I also like the continued use of sea-based folklore to inform the narrative. We only get two such stories in this volume, but I really do appreciate the magical touch and local flavor of these stories. They are utterly unlike one another too, not just story after story of someone’s grandmother spotting a strange creature. Their point is mostly to lend an element of mysticism to the sea, something they do very well.

But I still have problems with the abstract nature of the main plot. All these vague things are happening in aid of an outcome that, after 1,400 pages, neither the characters nor the readers can even guess at. The characters are merely tools we are using to observe these forces of nature, and I also don’t really like that. This volume in particular just seemed like a series of unrelated events that take place one right after the other. They illustrate the theories that the characters are discussing, to some degree, but they don’t really mean anything. They mostly just look pretty.

A lot of my issues come from personal taste, though, since I don’t usually enjoy stories that dip this far into the theoretical. But it is kind of hard to read. I feel bad admitting that, but I just have trouble picking a volume of this up, knowing it won’t make much sense or really go anywhere.

I love looking at it, though, and that helps a lot. The art is fantastic, and its strange organic forms and rough shapes suit the discussion of the sea, the creatures, and the people that live around it perfectly. There are actually very few words for as long as the book is, and that’s so that we can appreciate the scenes of Ruka swimming through a whale’s stomach/underground cavern, people covered in jellyfish, the tribal forms painted on the bellies of whales, antarctic landscapes, beautiful scenes of shell divers, extinct shark species, studies of antarctic plankton, and all sorts of other interesting asides. I enjoy the side content more than the main story, and that’s largely due to the wonderful art.

It’s definitely not for me, but I can see that it is a great series. Do I think it would appeal to a lot of people? Honestly, no, and that’s a shame since it is so wonderful. But I’m happy I’ve had the chance to read it. And I do wonder where it’s eventually headed.