Anime: Tide-Line Blue

When I get hold of this title, my friend assured me that this is quite funny and a fine series to watch. However, this one is rather disappointing. I didn’t laugh at all (maybe a smile or 2 at the most)… (Caution, contain spoilers!)

Animation:

The animation level is pretty much today’s standard, so nothing special here. Most of the marine vehicle designs are fairly average 3D models with limited amount of textures or even shapes applied on them, so they look rather plain, and from time to time, under certain camera angle, look extremely bad. There is also a lack of contrast in this animation, even when the submarine passes through the wasteland; the colours are often too bright and vibrant, thus reduces the dramatisation effect. Moving to character design, well… again, nothing special here, they are all fairly standard, although the minimal style design does suit this animation perfectly.

Music:

Again, the OST music is pretty average here as well. None of the music seems to be remotely memorable. The rather serious opening theme song and graphics plus the sudden appearance of the thick eyebrow ostrich in there just cracked me up every time. I personally quite like the EP as it is slightly more cheerful and I quite like the tune and the singer’s voice. The voice over is average as well, I personally hate Keel’s voice, this is due to his character, and that voice over artist just performed too brilliantly that it reinforces Keel’s annoying image even more.

Story and characters:

I must say the story is rather simple, but they had executed it rather badly. In the end, I still have close to no idea exactly what had happened to earth that leads to the current environmental degradations, and many of the characters’ motives and personal histories are never fully told. Also, the ending is extremely poor, in the end, Ulysses wasn’t destroyed or surrender, Aoi’s plan was never completed to any recognisable degree, Keel and Tean’s final resolution and its effect on the rest of the population was never showed. However, I must give a bit of credit for naming the U.S. (in any form in the future) and China (portrayed as Nation of Gi) to be the most probable countries to divide the common good of humanity to be extremely realistic, and most likely a few nuclear attacks may really wake them up and solve the problem. So good job here.

I find that using a pregnant teenage girl as one of the main support character to be very interesting in this series. I believed this is a first (not too sure about would any Hentai series had used it though!). Her determination and her enthusiasm is probably the best part about this anime, but her motherly figure portrayal was nowhere near as good when compare to Shakti from Gundam V, this is probably due to shorter storyline though. Also, I find Keel’s character exceedingly annoying, his useless gambling attitude, together with his overly simplistic view on humanity and social economic issues, plus his badly expressed “reasons” had just made this main character too unlovable. Lastly, what is the point of that ostrich, the only real use I see is for comical relief, and it is not that funny either.

Value and enjoyment:

I didn’t enjoy this anime. The lack of character and story background, plus the inconclusive ending and an unlovable main character is just too much to bear. In the end, I can only give this a 4.

Having watched all of Tide-Line now, I can definitely say this anime did not deliver what it promised. While still mildly entertaining, it was overall a disappointment from what led off in the first couple episodes promising an involving conflict in both military and moral terms. From there the show seems to have washed up on the beach and lay there, flopping back and forth between high drama and nuclear brinksmanship.. to the slapstick gambling antics of Keel and stupid ostrich tricks.
As previously noted in other reviews there is basically no backstory for most characters beyond a few fleeting flashbacks, and no explanation of several seemingly major plot points - I say seemingly because they are cast out at the feet of the viewer and promptly discarded like yesterday's unsold catch.

Upon watching the first couple episodes, I thought this could be a grand sci-fi epic on the scale of The Secret of Blue Water (Nadia), but after 12 short episodes, the pool is being drained and everyone told to go home.

Tide-Line Blue had potential, but apparently poor direction and an abbreviated half-season run have squandered it.

Visuals:
This anime is quite a visual treat. The first two episodes especially blew me away with their extravagance. I'll start with the positives: the exquisite colours, lighting and artwork - all are exceptional and very vibrant. The design of the world and surrounding environments also contain lots of obvious care and thought, and have been expertly crafted. The 3D animation is excellent - silky smooth movement and good shaping. The negatives (in terms of visuals) come in form of: the 2D animation, which is erratic - sometimes wonderful, sometimes lacking, and never quite consistent; the detail on both the 2D and 3D stuff - there is a noticable lack of close-up details amongst the visuals which I deem worthy to mention; and lastly (the most minor flaw), the style of the visuals - there was never really a point where I felt comfortable with the visual style, as it never had any real consistency. The first two episodes especially seemed very different from the rest. Even though I've laid bare some faults with the visuals, I must stress that these are very, very minor compared to the strengths, but yet I feel are worth mentioning.

Sound:
The opening and closing themes are pretty decent - I would not consider them awesome, but definately nothing negative to be said about them. The voice acting is done really well, with decent voice actors being used. The effects are the main strengths of the sound - the foreground noises and background ambiance add really well to the overall feel of the anime, and enhance the atmosphere well. The musical score is where I have my main point of complaint - some of the main musical themes became really irritating (especially the dramatic piano melody) and I felt they didn't necessarily compliment the atmosphere of their respective scenes at times.

Story:
The story is essentially an adventure story, but a decidedly average one. I didn't particularly find it too contrived or anything, and the main premise of the story seemed to be interesting enough, but it flowed rather dully. More than a few times I found myself losing interest at the what was going on, and when I finally got excited at a particular possibility in the story, it didn't deliver too well. As far as I understand, the nature of war is pretty extravagant, but the series in my opinion didn't show this too well. After the 2nd episode, I was never on the edge of my seat when there was an "action" scene for the rest of the series. Finally, I felt there were a few plot holes surrounding some of the characters (see below). The story was executed adequately, but just not well.

Characters:
Overall the characters were ever-so-slightly below average in my personal opinion. There was a lack of explanation for a lot of the characters - particularly Gould and Aoi, whom I can't rationally explain the behaviour of. Whilst I readily accepted all of the characters as plot-advancers, I didn't necessarily like them. I found Tean to be contradictory - a hardened marine, who turns soft and pathetic a bit too easily. Isla, who had a HUGE lack of backstory, I actually liked as a character, along with the two Keels (even though the grown one is a very typical brash lead male character). In general however, I found it odd how the adults with good intentions end up being portrayed as "wrong" and that it's up to the kids with naive ideals to fix the mess and reign supreme. Oh and lastly, I hate the ridiculous ostrich.

Value:
I would be tempted to give this another watch-through, if only for the first two episodes (which are marvelous). However there are plenty of other anime out there with better replay value.

Enjoyment:
I feel this anime series is overall pretty average. It certainly has it's flaws but has enough strengths to give it some substance. I enjoyed it enough to see it all the way through, but at times felt as though I could be doing better things. Still, the first two episodes at least, were really, really good.

What is it with this anime? The story tone swings unevenly between out-of-control kiddie slapstick to quite adult themes. There's betrayal, revenge, greed, desperation and hope. It would be better if the makers stuck to one style.
The 2D animation also looks a little odd - obviously done on a computer and at times actually pixelated (in the file I saw) The character designs are very stylised compared to the backgrounds and machines. The 2D parts only JUST marry with the lush backgrounds - all the time you are aware that this is a composite image. An altogether odd design.
The 3D animation is good without being great; the designs actually look they were purchased from some US NAVY yard sale - that is, they look more realistic than fanciful.
The gadgets are interesting and the set piece action with the aircraft carrier in the first two episodes is just awesome, I liked it very much.
Only three episodes in and I know I'm going to watch this through to the end.