He trains, blocks out the world via his headphones and leaves his four teammates, their “supervisor” Shin ( Keith Silverstein) and the scientist that lives with them on this rusting out Japanese Coast Guard ship in the half-submerged city to their own devices. Makoto ( Erica Lindbeck) is studying “the anomaly” and the its impact on the “lost boys” (they’re orphans) who risk their necks leaping from building to rubble to bubble in the battlekour contests.
Hibiki doesn’t hear music through his Beats. He picks up something musically strange and ethereal emanating from the mostly-disintegrated Tokyo version of the Eiffel Tower. And one day, nosing around there, he falls into one of the “ant lion trap” vortexes that bedevil this Water World. That’s when the feral pixie he comes to call Uta ( Emi Lo) comes to his rescue. She doesn’t speak, doesn’t appear to have any origin story, and seems to possess magical powers. Hibiki mentors her to repay his debt to her. But it’s Matoko’s reading of “The Little Mermaid” to Uta that triggers her desire to speak, and her eagerness to state the obvious. Hibiki, my wide-anime-eyed lad, you’re the “prince” and I am the Little Mermaid!īecause those songs he’s was hearing from that tower? That was her singing. Boy band wannabes and pixies populate this universe, with rival parkour teams including the cyborgish “Undertakers.” The animation is closer to classic anime in its underanimated jerkiness, the Big Eyed characters and the post-apocalyptic punk milieu. This world will be turned upside down by Uta’s presence in it, and gravity’s increasing unreliability. This isn’t the least interesting story I’ve ever seen told in anime, but it’s right up there.