Children of the Sea finds plenty of beauty and purpose in the watery depths but doesn’t provide enough grounding first: It’s all too easy to get lost 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Children of the Sea(海獣の子供)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Japan · 2019
1h 50m
Director Ayumu Watanabe
Starring Mana Ashida, Gorô Inagaki, Yū Aoi, Sumiko Fuji
Genre Animation, Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Ruka seems like your standard disillusioned and lonely teenager. That is until the day she meets Umi, a boy who was raised by dugongs and has supernatural connections to the sea. As she explores the new possibilities before her, she must also to get to the bottom of some unusual events occurring out at sea.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
By simply witnessing the grandeur of the sea, by allowing us to glimpse that symbiosis between ocean and universe, the film ends up resonating powerfully, a feast that will stimulate both the eye and the cerebral cortex.
Full of interesting concepts and accomplished animation, Children Of The Sea is less than the sum of its many parts and just seems to lose its way after a very promising beginning.
This wide-eyed loner may be “just” an anime character, but she’s as relatable as any live-action teenager you might meet on screen this year, thanks to the splendid attention to detail and seemingly boundless imagination that characterizes Children of the Sea, director Ayumu Watanabe’s stunning adaptation of the prize-winning manga by Daisuke Igarashi.
One thing is for certain, you haven’t seen an anime movie like this.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
A surging tsunami-crash of creativity and beauty.
RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams
Children of the Sea is consequently yet another animated fantasy based on hackneyed tropes, like sprite-like martyrs, the guiding hands of fate, and vague nostalgia for a pre-technological past.
Users who liked this film also liked
An Angel at My Table
Divided into three sections, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and based on the biography of famed New Zealand author, Janet Frame.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom • 1990
- Director Jane Campion
- Cast Kerry Fox, Alexia Keogh, Karen Fergusson, Iris Churn, Jessie Mune, Kevin J. Wilson
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Amazon Video
Steamboy
(スチームボーイ)
Ray, an inventor, is caught in the middle of a deadly conflict related to a revolutionary advance in steam power.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2004
- Director Katsuhiro Otomo
- Cast Aiko Hibi, Anne Suzuki, Manami Konishi, Keiko Aizawa, Sanae Kobayashi, Katsuo Nakamura
- Genre Animation, Fantasy, Science Fiction
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Freevee
Happy-Go-Lucky
Poppy is a thirty-year old schoolteacher with a relentlessly positive attitude that is often in contrast with those around her.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2008
- Director Mike Leigh
- Cast Sally Hawkins, Alexis Zegerman, Eddie Marsan, Samuel Roukin, Sinéad Matthews, Kate O'Flynn
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Hoopla
The Burmese Harp
(ビルマの竪琴)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1956
- Director Kon Ichikawa
- Cast Rentaro Mikuni, Shōji Yasui, Jun Hamamura, Taketoshi Naitô, Shunji Kasuga, Kō Nishimura
- Genre Drama, Music, War
- Available on Criterion Channel
The Comics
(Le comiche)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 1990
- Director Neri Parenti
- Cast Paolo Villaggio, Renato Pozzetto, Enzo Cannavale, Alessandra Casella, Fabio Traversa, Tiziana Pini
- Genre Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Sorcerer and the White Snake
(白蛇传说)
- ✭ ✭
- China, Hong Kong • 2011
- Director Tony Ching Siu-Tung
- Cast Jet Li, Eva Huang, Raymond Lam, Wen Zhang, Charlene Choi, Vivian Hsu
- Genre Action, Fantasy
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, FlixFling, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, VUDU Free, DistroTV, Plex, Plex Channel
The Garden of Sinners: Recalled Out Summer - Extra Chorus
(劇場版 空の境界 未来福音 extra chorus)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2013
- Director Ei Aoki
- Cast Maaya Sakamoto, Kenichi Suzumura, Takako Honda, Risa Taneda, Mamiko Noto, Yuka Iguchi
- Genre Animation, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Drama
- Available on Crunchyroll, Crunchyroll Amazon Channel
Tamako Love Story
(たまこラブストーリー)
The end of school, the beginning of love…
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2014
- Director Naoko Yamada
- Cast Aya Suzaki, Atsushi Tamaru, Yuri Yamaoka, Yuki Kaneko, Juri Nagatsuma, Rina Hidaka
- Genre Romance, Animation, Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Last Warrior
(Последний богатырь)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Russia, United States • 2017
- Director Dmitriy Dyachenko
- Cast Viktor Horinyak, Mila Syvatska, Ekaterina Vilkova, Konstantin Lavronenko, Sergey Burunov, Elena Yakovleva
- Genre Fantasy, Family, Adventure, Action, Comedy
- Available on Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, Apple TV
Penguin Highway
(ペンギン・ハイウェイ)
A fourth-grader investigates the mysterious reason behind the sudden appearance of penguins in his village.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2018
- Director Hiroyasu Ishida
- Cast Kana Kita, Yu Aoi, Rie Kugimiya, Miki Fukui, Megumi Han, Misaki Kuno
- Genre Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll Amazon Channel, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Shout! Factory TV, Freevee, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
The Wonderland
(バースデー・ワンダーランド)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2019
- Director Keiichi Hara
- Cast Mayu Matsuoka, Anne Watanabe, Kumiko Aso, Nao Toyama, Keiji Fujiwara, Akiko Yajima
- Genre Animation, Fantasy, Family
- Available on Crunchyroll, Crunchyroll Amazon Channel, Apple TV, Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Shout! Factory TV, Freevee, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
Crazy World
(Ani Mulalu)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Uganda • 2019
- Director Nabwana I.G.G.
- Cast Dauda Bisaso, Kirabo Beatrice, Alex Ssemwogerere, Charles Bukenya, Isaac Newton
- Genre Action, Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Toxic
(Tóxico)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Argentina • 2020
- Director Ariel Martínez Herrera
- Cast Jazmín Stuart, Agustín Rittano, Alejandro Jovic, Martín Garabal, Lucila Mangone, Marcelo D'Andrea
- Genre Thriller, Science Fiction
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Freevee, Hoopla