Living Within Incomprehensibility a Modern Folktale Children of the Sea is a story bursting at the seams with things it wishes to tell us and ideas it wants us to consider. Its unrelenting fascination with the mythologies and folktales of various cultures give it a raw passion with which it handles its own storygrasping on to the spiritual nature of these mythologies and cultures in many facets for its aesthetic and presentation of ideas. In some ways this leads it to fall into a certain level of romanticism in its approach. However in spite of this romanticism or perhaps instead because of it children of the sea is able to make a reserved and pointed observation on the things it explores. Namely the incomprehensibility of the universe and our very existence in relation to our understanding of ourselves and our identity. It approaches these issues by embracing their ambiguity and simply asking the audience to reflect on them for ourselves. Its a story in which ambiguity is core to what it wishes to portray. Any depiction of life or emotions or the world without a level of ambiguity to it is simply unrealistic. It is Children of the Seas execution on this ambiguityand the messages it relays so passionately through it that make it such an impactful story to me. https://www.looper.com//gallery/thefantasyanimeadventurethateveryoneswatchingonnetflix/childrenoftheseafocusesonaconnectionwithasupernaturaloceanmystery1621447714.jpg Much of Children of the Seas story is spent illustrating the interconnectivity of all life. Our dependence on every other form of life creates a connection between us and thus the earth functions together as a single living organism. Upon death an organisms cells become engrained with anotherswhether they decompose into soil or are actively consumed by another. The role we humans play in this planetwide flow of life is but one of many. As the oceans and its currents connect the land masses of our planet the Antarctic krill play a crucial role in limiting the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere without them life would be unsustainable. Every living being on the planet acts as its organs and together they perform the song of life. And its vital that this is expressed as a song in the form of the whale song throughout the series. As the series argues human language is incredibly limited. It creates boxes that we force our feelings and thoughts into distorting their image in the process of transferring them to other people. Every word we use is saddled with an individuals experiences that shape their own connotations of them and therefore change the impression received of any description of ones thoughts. Emotions much like the universe and the flow of life simply are. They are an ultimately incomprehensible phenomenon. Unlike language music simply exists as it is as wellan untethered expression of itself. The entire universe is singing in unison. Thus the whale song is used as a representation of this transcendental flow of all interconnected life And Ruka upon becoming aware of this flow is able to use the song as a catalyst for an intimate reflection on her own emotions and identity. Theres a universe inside us too. 600https://static3.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2019/11/ChildrenoftheSea.png Children of the Sea puts an immense value on lived experiences. From its inclusion of the mythological testimonies about happenings in the sea to its prevailing messages about finding your place in the world. These testimonies have a certain mystical aesthetic to them which mangaka Daisuke Igarashi seems to be fascinated by. So much so that he brings this aesthetic to his own story. The supernatural happenings within it are always carried out with a certain level of ambiguity and many obfuscating unexplainable details are included for the purpose of this mystification. While also plenty aware of scientific analysis and the implausibility of these stories in reality Igarashi argues that these folktales still have value. They often serve to teach people important lessons about the lives they will be living and the world around them within the context of their cultures and peoples. Children of the Sea wishes to itself be a kind of modern mythological folktale which is why it adopts this aesthetic. Because of this it isnt concerned with conventional narrative consistency or expressing its characters in clearcut necessarily efficient ways. It strives to craft a moment in time and illustrate its message. As is with many mythological tales it is steeped in allegory and impressionistic storytellingaiming to not explain its message to the viewer but to have it connect with them on a more fundamental level just as cultural folktales were used to internalize specific often simple messages into children instead of simply telling it to them to no effect. Within it all Children of the Sea is a measured examination of human limitations and our understanding of our own existence in the universea folktale with plenty to teach us. 290https://japanimediaex.com/productimages/uploadedimages/2019060412.04.28.png 290https://s15.post.cc/qwsk72c3f/seabody.jpg Your place in the world isnt something you realize or strive for it is something you simply experience. Ruka later describes her experience of the climactic scene at the end of the story in which she experiences the whale song and a connection with the universe as a promise that she made. A promise she made without words and a promise she has only a vague sensation of as her life goes on. This promise is an awareness of her place in the world. A living in the moment and a viewing of the world around her with accurate proportions. Language along with humanitys selfishness developed through our sentience have caused our view of the world and universe around us to be obstructed and inaccurately proportioned. We view ourselves as the center of it all or above the rest of the forms of life even if unintentionally and often lose sight of our minuscule roles as a part of an incomprehensibly bigger picture. Our capitalist organization of the division of labor separating us from a more experiential connection to our work has contributed to this alienation from the ecosystems of the world as well. Without this livingwithin experience of the world the incomprehensibilities of ourselves and the universe become increasingly difficult to come to terms with. When too concerned with finding answers to the impossible you forget to live and the sustained flow of life goes on without you. This is something weve understood since the moment we were born but often forget. Children of the Sea wants to remind us of it. The dialectic nature of life and existence is something Children of the Sea wants to remind us of as well. Beginning at the Big Bang creation begins from collision or interaction. From then star systems are constructed as a result of the collision of an infinite amount of meteors and planets as they expand endlessly. Life as we classify it is birthed from the immense coincidence that is planets being created with the exactly correct conditions to sustain water from these collisions. Everything from the process of reproduction to the social constructs of our societies seem to behave in a similar way. The interaction that is human communication may be limited and fleeting and therefore we need to explore other forms of expression as well but it is ultimately necessary to participate in the progression of our own lives. The climax of the story is also very much akin to this idea. It acts as one interconnected collision of all life in which the beautiful simplicity of it all is brought to the forefront. The very existence of life is a sublime coincidence and something to be treasured. The quiet moment of Rukas sister being born conveys this as well. This story wishes to put all of this into perspective for us which is necessary in order to be able to experience life simply as it iswhich then brings with it your place within it all. 600http://ckrisp.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/07/childrenofthesea2.jpg I believe summer vacation for Ruka is her experiencing this change in perspective. Beforehand she feels much distress at her inability to fully connect with others and her lack of place in the world and with the people around her. She is then exposed to an array of confusing and indecipherable occurrences throughout her journey with Umi and Sora. Seemingly indiscriminate patterns and connections between plot points crop up leaving anyone trying to understand them floundering. She is exposed to the transcendental flow of life operating at a greater scale than the limited human senses can normally comprehend. In this sense Ruka is used as an insert character. Her struggles while at times specific for the most part are quite vague. She experiences a general tension with the world and those around her. She doesnt feel as though she has a place in the worrying confusion that is the universe. As this is something that everyone deals with at times it allows the succeeding messages about how to find your place to resonate more directly for any given audience membersacrificing individual character depth for thematic execution. https://mediaassets.wired.it/photos/615f09f2fb4d50c13ae94959/master/w19202Cclimit/0cbf23b0db584fda9a16763db36d90e7.jpg A modern folktale expressing the ambiguous incomprehensible nature of existence and a critique of the ways in which humanity experiences the world today. A reminder for humanity on an individual scale on coming to terms with the mystery of life and finding your place in it and an appreciation of the coincidence that is existence in the first place. There is a beauty innate to life a beauty akin to a song. This song of interconnectivity is something one can only experience when living in the moment within the inevitable flow of the universe. Children of the Sea serves as itself an expression of this song allowing viewers to feel its sensation as they experience the story as well as a call for them to seize that sensation and find their place in their own lives from thereon out.