Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Tide-Line Blue – episode 1

July 21, 2005 on 11:17 pm | In Tide-Line Blue | Comments Off on Tide-Line Blue – episode 1

“Spirit”

In the future, the world will be flooded. In this flooded world will live a boy who dresses like something out of Gravitation, with a dark past, a carefree present, and a very rapidly darkening future destined to be interspersed with light comedy.

People say that Kamichu! is the “Ghibli-esque” of the season, but I see it’s Tide-Line Blue, not least because the character design is by Ghibli key animator Yamashita Akihiko. This is potentially a great adventure with an immersive world to play with … and I am, by default, a sucker for drowned worlds.

An accident has caused the world to flood, killing a grand total of six million people. If that’s the only loss we’re going to suffer when most of the planet is covered in water, I think we’re getting off easy. Anyway, Keel is the son of an influential fellow in the military, but he lives a peaceful existence on Yabitsu, an island topped by a grounded aircraft carrier.
In this carrier, an old woman known as Aoi tries to form a new United Nations, but two of the countries won’t be in it unless they have veto power. Then another power interrupts negotiations by firing missiles directly at the carrier. Keel must then figure out what to do with a pregnant woman on his hands and all sorts of hell being let loose!

The thing that got me, really, is the blue. The skies in this anime are incredible, reminding me of series and places that never even existed. In many ways I am stuck in the past, and this Tide-Line Blue helps me in that. It doesn’t stop at the blue, however: sunset is beautiful, and accompanied by danger that carries into the deepest night. I’m not sure if I can expect this all the way, because at some point it is going to turn into a submarine anime, but I’ll take it where I can find it.

The only thing I really don’t understand is why Isla, the aforementioned pregnant woman, has a pet ostrich. Oh well; live and learn.

I’m running out of time to watch things, and some of the stuff I’ve picked up simply isn’t going to progress beyond the first episode … but Tide-Line Blue looks like something of a winner.