Anime: Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau 2g5d1t

Children of the Whales was something many were interested in it, since it had an unconventional setting that had nothing to do with high schools for a chance. It was even hyped as the new Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind because the backgrounds were very detailed and had a similar post-apocalyptic feel to them.

I on the other hand was not impressed since the very trailer, because the character designs looked bland and expressionless. It’s ridiculous how almost everybody forms expectations based on the premise or the pretty colors, while completely disregarding the attention given to the characters. You don’t need to watch 50 episodes before you can get used to them. All there is to them is there on the trailer.

And I don’t mean it in the sense the colors need to be pretty, what I mean is they need to have some sort of visual identity. If they look generic, then all you can expect is generic personalities. If their body language is simple, then all you will get is simple characterization. We are living at a time when character appeal is more important than content, so when you are doing such an obvious mistake you are sabotaging your own work.

And I am not saying you can’t make an enjoyable show with generic characters. Moeshit and ecchi anime are thriving on barebones visual identity. They are so generic, you self-insert and project whatever you like on them. But this can work only when you have a mundane setting, in a contemporary society, with a high school slapped on it. When you have a story about everyday people in a setting that is simulating reality, you don’t need to bother much with designs. It’s all about the comedy and the sexual frustrations of commoners. They can be barren in of creativity and the majority of the target audience won’t give a shit.

On the other hand, if you have an unconventional setting, where people are not behaving normally, and there are superpowers, then you need to try much harder. It’s that simple. Children of the Whales suffers greatly on that regard, since everyone is mostly expressionless and look like everyday people. And yes, that’s a big problem, since many of the characters die during fights, the rest are in constant danger of dying at any moment, the show wants you to feel sad about it, but you can’t because you have nothing to care about them. There are a few amongst them, who are far more proactive and expressive than the rest, but they are not the main characters and you are not going to see them as much as the boring cookie cutter self-insert emotionless main leads.

Even if you can somehow look past the horribly uninteresting cast, the exposition is complete shit. They are doing the typical “time freezes when someone speaks” and it’s not for a few seconds, so they can yell the name of their special attack. They talk for minutes, and everyone else around them stops doing whatever they are doing. This is extra bullshit when it happens in the middle of a fight, since you literally see someone being about to fire a gun, and doesn’t do it for three minutes because someone is talking.

And even if by some miracle you don’t care about the terrible writing, the plot is left incomplete. As much as you might want to see the characters getting catharsis, as much as you like to get answers behind the mysteries in the plot, or as much as you want to see more of the pretty unconventional setting, you are not gonna get any. Complain all you like about Shinsekai Yori being slow with bland designs, but it has a complete story, all its main characters are part of the plot, and the show as a whole is very memorable because it lasted long enough to flesh out the setting and the cast. That’s why it’s still a good show despite its problems. One the other hand, Children of the Whales is nothing more than pretty backgrounds.