Shiroi Suna no Aquatope

[Ryllharu]

This half of the series has really started to decline for me.

I'm not really sure what direction it is headed now, since they keep resolving a lot of conflicts. If it's just going to be low-stakes slice of life now, that's fine, but it won't be playing to the strength of interpersonal conflict and personal growth like the first half was.

[neflight86]

I can appreciate that. Without the looming climax of Gama Gama closing, and most of the characters no longer sabotaging or conflicting each other, all we are left with is people getting along and little tension. I expect they'll at least cook up some final obstacle to overcome that will put them (and obviously their bonds) to the test and make some friction, but I don't see there being another actual threat to the happiness of the characters going forward. Thinking about it in those terms, that is a letdown...

[Ryllharu]

I dropped this at the mid-point of episode 23.

If you're behind, don't waste your time.

This series is deadset on deflating its own tension as quickly as possible. Way too many aspects of the first cour never pay off and honestly shouldn't have been included in the first place.

This is P.A. Works at their most cowardly. Two separate concepts grafted together very badly, underutilized everything, and oh by the way, here's an immersion-breaking environmental lecture about the Pacific Garbage Patch that we'll use to put the actual female lead On a Bus because we don't know how else to resolve what we've set up for her in terms of character development with the "main" female lead. But look, we've perfectly animated all our favorite ocean animals!

[Buffalobiian]

I had relatively high hopes for this earlier. I stopped at around episode 8 when they were working on the Fish-themed shaved ice thing I think. The show was quite pretty and had a relaxing atmosphere, but that did little to keep me watching.

[neflight86]

I did finish it, and as feared we were served an extra large helping of nothingburger. A word of advice to PA Works; 'feel good' only works if you can first get me to feel anything at all. Just not enough conflict, drama, or even plain old tragedy to make the characters' struggle impactful. "Cowardly" is a good way to put it. I don't know who they were afraid they would scare off by being just a little ambitious, but they did a disservice to the audience at large by catering to them.