First Look: Umi Monogatari
“When a girl of sea meets a girl of sky, another ‘sea story‘ begins”.
This “transforming magical girl action” story centers on Marin and Urin, two “pure” sisters who live alongside the fish in the sea, but yearn to be in the world beyond the water and above ground. One day, a beautiful ring falls in the middle of the sea, and Marin and Urin retrieve it. The two decide to leave their waterbound world for the first time to deliver the ring. After an arduous journey, they come across an isolated island where a high school girl named Kanon lives. The encounter between Marin and Kanon — the maiden of the sea and the maiden of the skies — awakens a hidden power as the world is threatened by an enveloping darkness. [ANN]
Umi Monogatari will be one of the first series to open up the summer season Summer (June 24), and will be animated by ZEXCS. For sure it definitely fits the season with its themes so it’s a great choice for them to have it airing on Summer. Plus points for that already~ And also, the one behind this is Junichi Sato, who is the director of the epitome of mahou shoujo anime Sailor Moon, and also the director of Aria, Princess Tutu, and Kaleido Star as well. For sure we’ll be having a mahou shoujo treat with this one.
Here are Marin’s and Kanon’s transformation sequences. Well deal with transformation sequences because it’s a mahou shoujo all right. It’s still up to the series whether they’ll make it repetitive-boring or offer something new to the transormation sequences department.
Umi Monogatari seems to have quite a big cast of characters. They’re divided of the ones in the ocean/Marin’s world, and then there are normal humans in Kanon’s world. …And there’s a grandpa turtle~… yeah.
From left to right: Sea Priestess Marin, her sister Urin, Sam, Warin and Matsumoto
From left to right: Sky Priestess Kanon, Kojima, Miyako, Oshima, Suzuki and Utasya
Seiyuus (and lots of them):
Kana Asumi as Marin
Minako Kotobuki as Kanon
Yui Horie as Urin
Aki Toyosaki as Oshima
Junji Majima as Sam
Miyuki Sawashiro as Kojima
Nami Miyahara as Utasya
Rokuro Naya as Matsumoto
Sachiko Nagai as Miyako Miyamori
Yukari Fukui as Warin
Yuko Gibu as Suzuki
Lol because I totally missed the count on how many shows Horie Yui is in XD. She will be quite busy this Summer ^^.
Other stuff about this anime is that the OP is titled “violet“, sung by marble (which sang the OP for KimiKiss Rouge~ Yay!). The ED theme is “Tomei na Inori” sung by Masumi Itou. Music is by Ken Muramatsu, who previously worked in Kure-nai.
So based from what’s shown so far, here’s what I think:
THE HOT:
– Junichi Sato, the one behind Sailor Moon, Kaleido Star and Aria.
– Based from a pachinko game?!
– Super-shiny animation and art~
– There’s a megane guy that I’m shipping with Kanon already :3.
– No singing so far (whew~ I thought we’ll be having Mermaid Melody again XD)
– I love the ocean ^^.
– Mustached grandpa turtle looks epic.
THE NOT:
– LOTS OF BELLYBUTTONS.
– A title that’s repeated 523780 times already.
– Costumes = ridiculous.. Oh my god Marin, wear something!
– They need to use more tails if they’re mermaids
– Guys are not that hot.
– Miyako looked manlier than both of the main guys combined.
I’m not quite anticipating it, but since it’s one of the early shows that will be airing this Summer, I’ll end up watching it of course lol. There’s no harm in trying to watch the first episode, and who knows that this one might end up being a decent Mahou Shoujo after all, and maybe ZEXCS can pull off a series worth watching and is above mediocre ^^. The outcome might be a hit-or-miss with the Mahou Shoujo fans.
Update >> FIRST EPISODE POST IS UP.
About kanzeon
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 94 comments
saw the trailer/pv of this before
m eyes were bleeding x_x
nah, not my kind of thing. and I don’t want more magical girls to give me headaches x_x
but thanks for the preview though. I might still check out episode one for the curiosity’s sake. but I might not if the spoiler screenshots had already been unbearable to me x_x
Sapphire Pyro’s last blog post..Shangri-La – Episode 10
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
I’m disappointed and had lost hope in Mahou Shoujo since Shugo Chara so I guess I had enough with it :/ I’m gonna pass with this one. The turtle looked kick-ass though lol.
POWUH: iLurker with 8 comments
The bottom image has me a wee bit concerned since it makes Marin look like a Misuzu rip-off.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 371 comments
Every time I watch the trailers, egghhh…music sounds too sad to be a mahou shoujo. Now I’m thinking someone’s gonna die somewhere along the way. 😛
I would still think Miyako is a boy…or reverse trap
too bad Kanon beat her in the flat area *SHOT* XDD;;;.At least the art’s pretty and there’s lots of good seiyuu (<333). Everything else depends on the turtle-jiji the plot, I guess. :/
Xiao Jie’s last blog post..Shugo Chara! ~ Ch. 41
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 57 comments
So bright!! My eyes!!! and I didn’t know turtles could have facial hair?
Might check out the first episode just for fun.
TJ’s last blog post..Amanchu! 07
POWUH: iLurker with 10 comments
I bet this series turns out to be as stupid as Akikan, Utasya looks the coolest, Sam dresses like a gay person, and I am watching only to see if my hunch is correct:
Hunch: Lesbians will be in it. (considering that Sam already looks pretty gay, I’m pretty confident in my hunch).
Glo the Legend’s last blog post..Summer 2009: In Case You Were Curious
POWUH: Metanorn Lover and Metanorn's old-timer with 161 comments
God, everything I see about this anime just makes me want to watch it more. It’s been so long since I’ve gotten to see mahou shoujo that wasn’t based on a shoujo manga. Heck, the last mahou shoujo I’ve watched (or been watching) in general is Shugo Chara! Not enough for a magical girl fan like me. Also Junichi Sato totally sells it. It would blow my mind if I didn’t end up liking this.
And I totally fainted from happiness when I saw there was guys in the cast. No more yuri hijacks please. (Also megane guys, unless incredibly dorky and bleh always win my heart to some degree~)
Though the art still bothers me and the background music in the trailers puts me to sleep. I only hope that it isn’t a sign it’ll be slow or something.
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POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 24 comments
No so strange that this would be the kind of stuff I avoid. Reminds me much of Barbie Dolls series… :mwahaha:
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
I wouldn’t be against some yuri vibes in this series, since the dire dearth of yuri-related series of late. There is definitely some of that vibe in the opening theme. I also thought Kojima was a dunce the second he showed up (and he dumped Kanon anyway). So let the romancing begin!