Kaikisen

Jul 26, 2013

yuridice

Mixed Feelings

Well that was just a little heavy-handed.

Kaikisen: Return to the Sea falls into a classic trap. Is the greedy land-developer character not perceptibly evil enough despite the fact that he literally wears sunglasses indoors? Let's also have his driver almost hit the main character in his fancy car then, just to show that he really isn't someone who cares. It should be enough to let the motives and major actions of your characters speak for themselves, but sometimes authors just can't resist adding that extra little "kick."

Yes, our villain actually kicks a dog.

The absurd portrayal of the people behind the development project ruins what what ... would have otherwise been a relatively reasonable portrayal of the trade-offs between sticking to tradition and accepting modernization. (Well, it would be a little biased still, but we can accept that fiction in general has an inescapable fondness for the days of yore.) Instead, what we get is some hackneyed pseudo-profound mash-up of "respect nature/tradition/something" and "Magic and Miracles are Real!"

The climax and conclusion of Kaikisen, I feel, are similarly poor. A poorly-integrated extended car chase and a gratuitous all-out brawl at a festival might be excused perhaps, but some things are unforgivable. Not only is the age-old (and just absolutely tiresome) trope of Faithful Dog Companion Frees Hero By Attacking Evildoer invoked, but a similarly cringe-worthy moment is when the main villain has a complete change of heart in the space of two pages. And how can we be so sure that he's a good guy now? Well, just look at how sympathetic he looks without his sunglasses! Clearly, the sunglasses had been controlling him all along.

All that said, there is one major redeeming quality. As others have mentioned, the art is superb both technically and stylistically, and the confident linework, solid panelling, and careful shading and texturing can feel like a clinic in how to actually draw manga that looks good. Stylistically it's nothing to write home about, but that's just fine. Not everything needs to look like Gogo Monster or not simple, and if I were to borrow for just a moment that good old MAL system of assigning sub-scores for art, characters, and et cetera, I'd give this a full 10 in that category. First and foremost, the particularly strong art saves Kaikisen from being an unengaging read, but it is also valuable in one other notable respect. The subtly expressive way in which figures are sometimes drawn by mangaka can bring instant yet meaningful characterization to a character if done properly, and some of the best characters of this manga are not the main characters, with the exception of Natsumi, but characters like Yosouke's father, the mermaid, and the less caricatured of the townfolk.

Ultimately, however, it is difficult for Kaikisen to save itself from its heavy-handed moralizing, and while enjoyable enough most of the time due to the excellent artwork, the shallow build-up and entirely empty conclusion will not leave very many readers satisfied.

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Nov 23, 2012

_Rika

Recommended

If I have to sum up Kaikisen in a few words, they would be: Mesmerizing, Serene, Euphoric, Profound, Phenomenal. A modest coastal town, the tranquil sea and an intriguing legend about a mermaid that engulfs the town. It might not be the most original setting or premise but it is done so well, the first few pages were all it took to draw me into the story.

While the manga’s charm without a doubt lies in the mystery surrounding the mermaid’s existence and her ‘egg’, the characters and their portrayal are yet another of its redeeming points. We have our protagonist Yosuke who is ...

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Nov 15, 2015

Chinomi-san

Recommended

I can't say that this plot is very original, the struggle between breaking tradition and changing for the better. Nevertheless, the story is made interesting by the incorporation of the mythical mermaid, and that is what really kept me going: the hope that Yosuke would get a glimpse of her. The thought of a mermaid egg is also peculiar and original. Otherwise, the plot moves along at a good pace over the span of seven chapters, and it is nonetheless inspiring and intriguing.

Yosuke is obviously the main character here, and he does shine as an individual. He doesn't have the strongest will in the beginning, ...

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Feb 16, 2017

Xaerith

Mixed Feelings

I'm usually a big fan of Satoshi Kon. Some of my favourite movies are his own creations, Paprika and Tokyo Godfathers being prime examples, and I adore his artwork. Kaikisen--or its English 'Tropic of the Sea'--is itself beautiful on paper, yet falls short while trying to convey something significant beyond the pages.

On the surface, Kon divulges a potentially profound story of a seaside town at risk of being commercialized while trying to maintain the tradition of keeping safe a mystical mermaid's egg gifted to them once every sixty years. In exchange for such care, the mer-people bless the village with warm weather and safety all ...

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Apr 2, 2017

choji666

Recommended

I Must start by saying I enjoyed this story but I feel as if it lacks a certain effect its like other one and done manga's once its done its just done I feel as if the story had a predictable ending I like the story a lot not many bad things I could say I didn't feel like I'm did to much all they stuck to a core and from beginning to end kept the reader engaged with well designed art work and a equally appealing story I would love to read a story similar to this again this actually surprised me seeing ...

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Aug 22, 2024

Chiaki_Shura

Recommended

Master Kon is best known for his work in animation, and now I can say that I’m glad I’ve delved into his manga production, because I’ve found a beautiful work that, in contrast to the often dark tones of the aforementioned author, explores the relationship between humans and nature, playing with mystery but never truly becoming dark.

The story, set in the coastal village of Tsunate, tells of the contrast between old and new, where the beautiful natural world is on the verge of being forcefully disrupted by the need to keep up with the world, which involves modernizing the village through the typical intervention of ... an external company offering to invest in new city infrastructure, whether for entertainment and tourism or for things like healthcare.
The contrast is first narrated through the family of the protagonist, Yosuke, who have managed the town’s Shinto shrine for generations. The shrine safeguards the egg of the umibito, creatures that are essentially mermaids, which, according to local legend, have ensured the town's prosperity through the sea's resources in exchange for Yosuke’s family’s promise to protect their eggs: a single egg that would hatch after 60 years, after which another egg would be entrusted to the firstborn of the next generation.
Within the family, you can sense the conflict between the old and the new as Yosuke's father seems increasingly detached from family traditions in pursuit of progress, while the grandfather is predictably still tied to traditions. And then there’s the protagonist, who is somewhere in the middle: he takes care of the umibito egg but also wants to move to the city to attend university.
This same contrast is also evident in the protagonist’s childhood friend, who spent so much time in the city, detached from Tsunate, that she now feels nostalgic for it.

I also found it wonderful how the work uses Shinto philosophy (a theme seen in many works but still worthy of attention) to show the relationship between humans and nature, where the umibito are always depicted as mysterious beings, yes, but never as truly hostile creatures that punish when the pact is broken. At most, what happens, I personally interpret as a warning. And in general, this relationship is something healthy, where nature and humans coexist and help each other.

It’s also interesting to see how such traditions, these fascinating esoteric elements, can sometimes be “devalued” (depending on the situation and point of view) by the same progress that turns these elements into tourist attractions, or sometimes they become something to be directly appropriated for economic purposes.

In its final message, the work does not reject progress, but rather condemns the excess that leads to the destruction of natural heritage, advocating for the classic middle way that allows for peaceful coexistence. This is, in part, what Japan is today, and Kon has depicted it in a fascinating way.

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Sep 16, 2024

ttaka

Mixed Feelings

I found Tropic of the Sea to be a beautifully-drawn but tame and not particularly original experience.

Story

"Run of the mill" would be the first phrase that comes to mind for me. While the setting seems well-realized, the plot is a standard call-out of greedy land development that many of us have likely seen in children's or young adult media, and not handled with nearly as much nuance as something like Princess Mononoke.
While the town of Ade feels like a well-realized setting, I came away feeling like it was just a different flavor of something like Hoot.
That's not inherently a bad thing, but there's nothing about ... the story that will leave me thinking or impact my feelings about preservation vs development. I could guess where the plot was going at the beginning and by the end, I was right.

Characters

While the characters presented felt realistic and had the potential for depth, their development was never really explored.

The protagonist, Yosuke, is set up as an indecisive teenager placed in the crossfire between tradition and progress. It's an interesting conflict, and we can see him struggle with wanting to decide his own position, but his mind is ultimately made up by something that happens *to* him to resolve the conflict in this particular situation, rather than newfound conviction coming from internal growth.

The antagonist, Mr. Ozaki, is serviceable in his role but has little depth. He's a literal puppy-kicking land developer of the sort that most of us have likely seen in children's movies. While parts of the story hint at a more nuanced conflict where progress and change might not be all bad, that idea can't really factor in to the plot when one side is headed by such a one-dimensional character.

The other characters, while believable and likeable, are generally static. I feel that there was opportunity to explore some of them further, but it seems that was ultimately not the aim of the story, which is fine.

Art
My highest praise for this manga is for the beautifully detailed artwork.
Characters look realistic while still being expressive and distinct. Every panel has a background that makes the town feel like a living place, and water, in its various states throughout the story, always looks stunning.

A small critique is that panels sometimes seem to cut between different scenes without establishing a change of setting or an action that happened in between. For example, in one panel the antagonist is holding an important item and in the next the protagonist is. I did a double take and then figured "I guess they handed it over between panels." These kinds of cuts were never so distracting that I lost track of the story or couldn't figure out what happened by pausing a moment, but there were enough instances that I noticed and found them to interrupt the flow of the story.

Overall, it was a quick and fun read. Nothing bothered me about it, the pacing was good, and I loved the detailed art, but I doubt anything about this manga will leave a lasting impact.

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