The Mud Whale a floating island that sails the sea of sand that covers the world is inhabited mainly by people known as the Marked. These people are granted magical abilities known as Thymia by the markings that cover their bodies but are also cursed with much shorter lifespans than their unmarked counterparts who run the island. Chakuro the young village archivist whose powers are much weaker than many of his companions joins the scouting group when they sail out to explore a new island and finds a young Marked girl within the crumbling remains. Their meeting changes his destiny and threatens his whole islands way of life. Warning: Review contains some mild plot spoilers for Children of the Whales. https://i.ur.com/7fsbSxK.jpg Children of the Whales is a visual delight. The soft yet varied colour palettes and fairy tale artwork does much to establish the beautiful mystical world that the characters inhabit and is fitting for the peaceful and childlike civilisation of the Mud Whale. The animation is fluid and few times the series does use 3DCGhttps://i.ur.com/4pAhq5c.jpg it is with specific intent to show the otherworldly abilities of the Nous that reside within each of its island ships. The unique visual style of Children of the Whales helps to make this series watchable despite its bland disappointingly executed premise. Soon after Chakuro brings Lykos the girl who he finds on the ruined island back to their village the Mud Whales peaceful existence is threatened by the Empires army. The majority of the series is based around fighting back against the evil empire and staying strong despite losing many of their treasured friends. Or at least it is until the last quarter of the series. From that point on the Mud Whales inhabitants are picking up the pieces except also theres internal strife and we still see the villainous Empire talking about how theyre going to go back and fight the Mud Whale again. Except they dont because there isnt enough time for them to actually do that before the series ends. A lot of this could have been fixed by moving some of the events around so that instead of what feels like the big ending climax happening in episode nine it actually happens at the end of the series. Instead of ending with a bang Children of the Whales ends with an unfocused whimper of read the manga if you want to know what happens next I guess. https://i.ur.com/hHaHroH.jpg The issues with the plot would be easier to forgive if it was backed up by strong characters. Unfortunately Children of the Whales falls flat in this department as well. Chakuro isnt especially interesting he is mainly around for most of the important events because the plot demands it due to his job as the village archivist because the story is vaguely framed as being told from his records. Ouni who is part of a gang of troublemakers on the island and considered one of its most powerful Thymia users also doesnt get much character development for the amount of screen time he gets. One of the worst offenders is Lykos the girl from the ruined island who is less of a character and more of a walking plot device who is there to get the story from point A to point B no matter how contradictory her actions may be. A lot of the problems with the plot could be fixed if she had any defining character traits so its a real disappointment that her character falls so flat. The most entertaining characters are mainly the villains especially Liontari who livens up any scene hes in with his over the top scenerychewing personality. He also comes the closest of any of the characters to having an interesting back story. For all of its faults I still cant completely disregard Chlidren of the Whales. If you go into it not expecting much except for a lot of pretty visuals and an enjoyable soundtrack the ending themehttps://youtu.be/30CSRr6wXA in particular is beautiful and its a shame Netflix kept trying to make me skip it then you may still find something to enjoy in this flawed yet unique series. Just dont expect an enthralling story that will stay with you long after watching.