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The "海獣の子供" (Children of the Sea) is a movie adaptation by STUDIO4℃* of the comic of the same name by mangaka 五十嵐大介 (Igarashi Daisuke), whose unique use of lines in his drawings have fascinated his readers. (*STUDIO4℃: the animation production company. Major works including "鉄コン筋クリート" [Tekkonkinkreet]) By means of overwhelming powers of illustration and mysterious story developments, the movie depicts the summer meeting of a fourteen-year-old girl and a pair of brothers raised by dugongs.
What catches your attention in this piece is the presentation of the world of the sea, which is full of a sense of the dynamism of life. Viewers don't understand so much as simply 'experience' a world that is so vast as to be irreducible to mere words, depicted via the movements and the swell of sounds of a tremendous number of living things. In particular, the story of the birth of life that developed in the second half is impossible to introduce to the words, and included a scene that made the writer cry!

Precisely because we are in a wordless world, it is the music that reverberates in our hearts. 久石譲 (Hisaishi Joe), maestro in the world of film scores, adds colour to the story. In the theme song that brings the piece to a close, "海の幽霊" (Umi-no-Yurei [lit.: Ghost in the Sea], the lyrics that artist 米津玄師 (Yonezu Kenshi) nestles in the world of the movie, gently envelopes the viewer. In any case, this world is too overwhelming to be reduced to mere words, so please go and experience it for yourself at the big screen! (Editorial Dept.: nika)