Ruka was mesmerised by the sight of a sparkling giant whale that sung a song before it disappeared before her while she was young in a local aquarium. One summer when she was bullied and feeling down, she goes to the aquarium and meets a boy who she called, "Umi-kun (Little Sea)". He and his brother Sora (Sky) were raised by dugongs and for some reason, both of them had to stay moisturised to stay on land. As Ruka's father and team investigate why this was, Ruka and Umi become close. Later strange phenomena start to happen as the whales change the very song she and the brothers had once heard.

It's a very familiar summer, high school students off on a magical adventure kind of setting in Anime. I think the mystery element gets dragged out too much. It keeps hinting something big "festival" is about to happen but it never does and just keeps teasing you with strange new events. Even when it finally does it felt a bit like the last two episodes of the Evangelion TV series.

A different movie once said the oceans are the final frontier as it's as unexplored as space is and I think that's part of the theme here other than the usual you're not alone message.

The art is rough but gives it this folklore vibe to it with a few surreal moments. It does a wonderful job of animating sea life as I watched which could be compared to those nature shows where they show large shaols of fish swimming. Even though the 3D stands out a bit too much the sea life animation makes up for it. Music's great too and happens to be composed by Joe Hisaishi better known for his work with Ghibli such as Kiki's Delivery Service and Totoro.

A bit of an odd movie this one.