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Sep 16, 2024
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
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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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 21, 2023
(Edited to add my completed season thoughts at the end)
This season started with a good plot hook following on from Season 1's cliffhanger, but I feel that it's been struggling to keep up with the transition to focus on an overarching plot.
With the Season 2 format, I feel that episodes will often go by with little plot development. 7 episodes in, we've only had one time travel. It makes sense story-wise why they avoided it for so long, but it means leaving behind a lot of the appeal of Season 1, both thematically (exploring the implications of time travel) and in the variety of characters
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and storylines. That also leaves a lot of time per episode in Season 2 where the overarching story needs to pick up the slack. Season 1's episodic format allowed it to be concise and leave each mini-arc feeling independently meaningful while also hinting at an impact on the main characters' story. Season 2 did bring some likeable characters of its own, but the storytelling feels drawn out, and without the episodic format, there's been less balance between the dramatic and heartwarming moments.
To be clear, I don't think this is a case of "slow burn". I would love a gradual build of clues if the main characters were more active in discussing and pursuing them. However, the main characters have felt passive in discussing and acting on new information (or at least the pace of the story makes it feel as though they've done less), and there are not many clues for viewers to consider at this point. Lots of time has been wasted on recap exposition and some (fantastically choreographed and animated) fight scenes. These fight scenes, while great in isolation, contribute little to the plot. The major story beats in the fights could be accomplished in less than a quarter of the time.
Overall, more than halfway through the season, this has been dragging for me. I'm really intrigued to see where the plot goes, and they've been doing a good job of making me care about the characters, but things have been held back by poor pacing. Where it shines (moments of empathy, character interactions, suspense), it still shines as brightly as Season 1. However, so little has happened when we're already more than halfway through the season, and I feel that this sense of progression becomes increasingly important when the format is changed to focus on just the present events. I hope it gets better and will update my review, but I don't think the pacing issues so far can really be "fixed" in a way that will bring the quality of storytelling on par with my view of Season 1.
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Edit: Now having finished, I largely stand by my feelings from that midway point. The pace of the plot did pick up a bit, but I still felt the storytelling was hampered by unnecessary flashbacks/repeated scenes (rarely delivering new information and often diluting the emotional impact of key moments), awkward timing for cuts to explain previous scenes, and sequences (such as the fight scenes) that feel like they overstay their welcome. I was also disappointed to see a fistfight be such a centerpiece of the season's conclusion. It was again beautifully choreographed and animated, but since when has the theme or appeal of this series been about physical fighting?
The first season drew me in with the way it drew a tension between empathy and logic, and its focus on the characters and their choices. Here in the second season, the characters seem to have just been drawn along through the sequence of events, rarely allowed to make choices that engage with the dilemmas presented to the viewers.
Overall, it leaves me feeling disappointed. The direction they chose for this season diverges from the elements that made the series special (for me, at least), and it feels hampered even in its chosen direction due to some awkward pacing and editing.
I'll stand by a rating of 7/10.
Still, I'm invested in these characters and know that the team behind the series has the ability to create some incredible imagery and storytelling, so I'll look forward to season 3.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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