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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

August 5, 2009 by Katherine Dacey

Children of the Sea, Vol. 1

cots1The ocean occupies a special place in the artistic imagination, inspiring a mixture of awe, terror, and fascination. Watson and the Shark, for example, depicts the ocean as the mouth of Hell, a dark void filled with demons and tormented souls, while The Birth of Venus offers a more benign vision of the ocean as a life-giving force. In Children of the Sea, Daisuke Igarashi imagines the ocean as a giant portal between the terrestrial world and deep space, as is suggested by a refrain that echoes throughout volume one:

From the star.
From the stars.
The sea is the mother.
The people are the breasts
Heaven is the playground
.

How, exactly, sea and sky are connected is the central mystery of Children of the Sea. The story begins in the present day, as a woman promises to tell her son “about a giant shark that lives deep beneath the waves,” “the ghosts that cross the sea,” and “the path that connects the sea to space.” We then jump back to a defining moment in Ruka’s childhood when, on a visit to the local aquarium, she saw a fish disappear in a bright flash of light – what she describes as “a ghost in the water.” Ruka doesn’t think much of the incident until she meets Umi and Sora, two humans whose bodies are better adapted to life in the ocean than on land. Under the watchful eye of her father and his assistant Jim, the boys live at the aquarium, venturing out into daylight only to visit the hospital and swim in the open ocean. Eager to know more about Umi and Sora, Ruka sets out to sea with them, where she watches the boys swim with a second “ghost in the water”: a luminescent whale shark that leaves a starry wake in its trail.

As Ruka struggles to understand Umi and Sora’s connection to the shark, she begins to realize that a profound change is taking place at sea. Thousands of common fish are disappearing from aquariums around the world; rarely seen deep-water species are washing ashore on Japanese beaches; and dugongs are visiting waters normally too cold for such tropical creatures. What these events mean is not yet clear, though they all seem like manifestations of the same phenomenon.

ruka1

Daisuke Igarashi is a masterful storyteller, liberally mixing genres – the coming-of-age story, the scientific mystery – to create a unique drama that’s eerie and compelling. As fanciful as the story’s details may be, Children of the Sea maintains a firm grip on reality, thanks to its memorable, true-to-life characters. Ruka, in particular, is a fine creation, a strong, independent girl who reacts with her fists instead of her mouth, has trouble making friends, and burns with curiosity about the things she’s seen. Umi and Sora, too, both have distinctive personalities; whatever their role in the story’s eventual denouement, neither are portrayed as innocents or naifs but as smart, worldly, and sometimes prickly individuals who are in a desperate race against time.

Igarashi’s expert storytelling is beautifully complemented by his artwork. He favors a naturalistic style, rendering every element of the layout in his own hand rather than relying on tracings or prefabricated backgrounds. As a result, his pages are visually complex but thoroughly organic; every element of the design feels essential to establishing the story’s location in space and time. His characters are realistic, though their proportions are slightly awkward. Their large heads and big hands make them seem otherworldly and fragile, especially when contrasted with the large, powerful animals they encounter at sea.

If you’re not yet sold on Children of the Sea, I strongly encourage you to visit Viz’s IKKI website, where all eight chapters of volume one are available for free online browsing. Be warned, however, that this poetic, graceful, and thought-provoking story may cast a spell on you, too, making you reflect on the truth of Jacques Cousteau’s comment that “The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.”

Review copy provided by VIZ Media, LLC.

CHILDREN OF THE SEA, VOL. 1 • BY DAISUKE IGARASHI • VIZ • 320 pp. • RATING: OLDER TEEN (16+)

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Filed Under: Manga Critic Tagged With: Seinen, SigIKKI, VIZ

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Melinda Beasi says

    August 5, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    Kate, this is a truly beautiful review. I stand in awe.

  2. David Welsh says

    August 5, 2009 at 6:44 pm

    I just hope everyone forgets it by the time I post mine. Seriously, really lovely critique, Kate.

  3. Katherine Dacey says

    August 6, 2009 at 12:00 pm

    Thanks — the praise means a lot coming from two of my favorite reviewers!

  4. John says

    August 6, 2009 at 6:01 pm

    I really like your blog and i respect your work. I’ll be a frequent visitor.

Trackbacks

  1. IKKI talk, paper upgrade, more from Benjamin « MangaBlog says:
    August 6, 2009 at 5:39 am

    […] Kate Dacey shows the rest of us how it’s done with her exquisite review of vol. 1 of Children of the Sea at The Manga Critic. Carlo Santos takes you through the good, the bad, and the mediocre in his […]

  2. Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » Aug. 6, 2009: Killing interest says:
    August 6, 2009 at 9:42 am

    […] [Review] Children of the Sea Vol. 1 Link: Katherine Dacey […]

  3. Rough seas, dead trees « Precocious Curmudgeon says:
    August 10, 2009 at 1:35 pm

    […] with tattoos — that’s what’s great about them. Now, I will freely admit, when I saw Kate Dacey’s beautiful review of Daisuke Igarashi’s Children of the Sea, I almost switched topics for this week’s Flipped, […]

  4. The Manga Critic » Blog Archive » Liveblogging the SIGIKKI Site, Part I says:
    August 19, 2009 at 1:39 am

    […] Below are my thoughts on four of the nine series: Afterschool Charisma, Bokurano: Ours, Dorohedero, and House of Five Leaves. I’ll tackle I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow, Kingyo Used Books, Saturn Apartments, and Tokyo Flow Chart in a separate post. For my thoughts on Daisuke Igarashi’s Children of the Sea, which is also being serialized on the SIGIKKI site, click here. […]

  5. The Manga Critic » Blog Archive » Sunday Morning Links, 12/13/09 says:
    December 13, 2009 at 8:28 am

    […] make the leap from screen to print, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed — along with Children of the Sea and I Am a Turtle, it’s one of the main reasons I’m bullish about VIZ’s new […]

  6. The Manga Critic » Blog Archive » The Best Manga of 2009 says:
    December 17, 2009 at 4:18 pm

    […] in its wake or the image of a young boy hitching a ride on a humpback whale. Eerie and poetic. (Click here for my review of volume […]

  7. 5 Female Voices in Manga Criticism | Manga Bookshelf says:
    January 13, 2010 at 3:37 pm

    […] some of the most gorgeous prose I’ve seen in any kind of manga criticism. Her review of Children of the Sea, for instance, is one I still think about whenever I see that manga mentioned. Not only that, she […]

  8. Meta: Comics criticism and a confession « MangaBlog says:
    January 16, 2010 at 8:30 am

    […] 20th Century Boys (Sleep Is For the Weak) Bad Jew on Oishinbo (Sleep Is For the Weak) Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Children of the Sea (The Manga Critic) David Welsh on recent works by Jiro Taniguchi Kate Dacey on vols. 1-3 of Dororo […]

  9. The Manga Critic » Blog Archive » Short Takes: Children of the Sea, Raiders, and Twin Spica says:
    July 13, 2010 at 4:40 pm

    […] I said about volume one: “Daisuke Igarashi is a masterful storyteller, liberally mixing genres – the coming-of-age […]

  10. Viz Adds New Series To iPad, iPhone App » MTV Geek says:
    June 16, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    […] Viz has some sample chapters up for free at the SigIkki website, and Kate Dacey has an in-depth review of volume 1 at The Manga […]

  11. Manga Bookshelf | Saturday Spotlight: Stormy Sea says:
    August 27, 2011 at 6:35 pm

    […] but my favorite discussion of the series’ first volume came from our own Kate Dacey, whose review is consistently the first thing to spring to my mind whenever I think of this […]



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