Children of the Whales original manga series was created by Abi Umeda. The anime adaptation is written by Michiko Yokote, directed by Kyohei Ishiguro and produced by the studio J.C. Staff.
Netflix has really been busting out anime content and they plan on continuing. As with everything, there are some titles that are just ok, but then there are ones like Children of the Whales that are simply fantastic. I knew that I liked this anime after the first episode, but it didn’t turn out to be what I expected at all. And that made it seem even better to me.
Children of the Whales follows several character, but the main protagonist is Chakuro, the 14 year old record keeper of the Mud Whale. The Mud Whales is an island that floats across the sea, which in this bleak, almost apocalyptic future, is a sea of sand. They know that humanity did not always live on these floating islands, but how advanced humanity was before whatever caused this isn’t addressed. 90% of the Mud Whale population have the ability to use an ability called “thymia” – it’s similar to magic, but there are no elements and seems to be closer to a version of telekinesis.
This seems really great, however, people who are blessed with thymia are also cursed with an early death. No one knows where thymia came from or why it causes it’s users to die early. For the Chakuro and the rest of the Mud Whale, this was the only life they knew, the only world, these were the only people they thought still existed. Until one day, Chakuro goes with a scouting group to gather resources from a passing island, and there he finds a girl, a warrior. A girl who will reveal to them not only the outside world, but the hidden secrets of the Mud Whale along the way.
WARNING: THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS –
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK
The first episode is beautiful to watch. This anime begins in such a peaceful and serene way. Life is simple. A bit too simply for some, such as Ouni and his group who call themselves “the moles”, named so because they are constantly sent to the Internal, holding cells underground, for causing trouble. Ouni is desperate to get off the Mud Whale and see what else the outside world has to offer, he also harbors the most thymia potential of anyone on the island. Ouni joins Chakuro and the others on the scouting trip to the passing island. Finding Lykos is his first real hope of learning about and getting to the outside world.
During the next couple episodes, with the arrival of Lykos, the Council of Elders reacts super sketchy. They know what she is and yet they are the ones who propagated that there were no other people left. They manage to maintain control, at least until they are invaded by the group Lykos was originally traveling with.
A group sent by a country called “The Allied Empire” to execute the descendants of the criminals of the Mud Whale. Oh. They’re very Nazi-esque and they wear creepy jester masks, but compared to the Mud Whale inhabitants they are super advance. They not only have weapons and man-made flying ships, but they have actual cities in the Empire. Not only do we find out that the Mud Whale is actually a prison that was exiled for crimes of their ancestors (“crimes”).
On top of that, this beautiful anime takes a dark turn as the Empire begins slaughtering the people of the Mud Whale without mercy or exception…even children are killed. Like I said, peaceful to brutal in the blink of an eye.
From this point on, the anime continues to have this soft beauty to it, but it is filled with death. I’ll warn you now, don’t get attached to anyone. Because you’re just going to cry. I might have cried (I totally cried). The jump from peaceful serenity to death and despair is sudden, but not in a way that makes it jarring or unappealing. It’s done in a way that pulls at you and even though I would have watched anyway, it’s this moment of change that truly hooked me in.
One of my favorite things is that Chakuro isn’t who you would expect to be the main character. Ouni is more of your stereotypical lead anime character, he has the latent potential, he can do stuff others can’t (I won’t spoil what it is but its really cool) and he may not even be completely human. Despite this, he isn’t the lead. Chakuro is. Chakuro, who’s job it is to observe and record the history of the Mud Whale. I really like this dynamic. Yes, Chakuro has some special things about him, but he is the one telling this story from the perspective of not just himself, but all of his people. These characters and their beautiful/brutal world are accompanied by amazing music. In particular, I loved Aima’s song and ritualistic dance during the battle in the sandstorm.
The only negative thing I will say is that Lykos is under utilized. When we first meet her, she’s holding a bloody sword and is the last survivor from her squad. She is clearly a highly trained fighter and skilled thymia user, yet we barely see her do anything cool. We see Ouni do tons of cool stuff. But he isn’t even trained. Lykos is. Yet the most she really does is use her thymia to disarm some people. The whole time I was waiting for her to start wrecking people and show her abilities but it never happened. Which is such a bummer. Hopefully we get a season 2 and maybe then we will see the Lykos we deserve. Until then I give Children of the Whales…
OVERALL SCORE: 9 / 10
Children of the Whales season 1 is currently available to stream on Netflix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jjy65JE6kc
