Autumn 2018 First Impressions – Between the Sky and Sea

In the future in Onomichi, Hiroshima fish disappear from the sea around the world and only whales live in the ocean. The Ministry of Fishery decides to set up giant experimental Universe Fish Tanks in space. The Onomichi Universe Fishery Union is established and begins to train space fishermen. Female fishermen are in demand due to the strengthening of an equal employment law for men and women. Six new female space fishermen are selected, and the story centers on supporting their growth. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Mobile Game

Episode Summary: One day, all the fish in Earth’s vast oceans disappeared. Because human kind still had a taste for sushi, drastic measures were taken and special tanks were built in space to grow and harvest fish. Special space fishermen were needed to obtain the fish, and thus a new industry was born. Haru Soramachi dreams of becoming a space fisherman, if only so that her grandma can eat her favorite sushi again. She travels to the coast to join a space fishing program where she can eventually join the ranks of the high-flying astronautical fishermen.

Unfortunately Haru’s sense of direction is lacking and she winds up completely off course, stumbling into a heated argument between a couple of girls her age and some men who are already established fishermen. Makiko and Namino claim Haru for their team (her sweatsuit bears the insignia for the space fishing organization, so she must have some idea of what she’s doing), thus forming a proper group of three to fish in space. Haru unfortunately has no experience operating the fishing equipment and needs instruction from the ground up. When she’s told to choose a guardian deity to accompany her, she picks the one known to be most useless. It’s no surprise that the men claim victory over the three girls, and their unauthorized expedition ensures there’ll be hell to pay once they get back to solid ground.

Impressions: Some time ago I read an article about what would happen if all the oxygen molecules on Earth flashed out of existence for five seconds. Try counting out five seconds to yourself – it’s not that long. Even so, the consequences would be astronomical. Planes would start falling from the sky. Certain metals would instantly weld together. The planet’s atmosphere would start filtering into space. To sum it up – the impact would be catastrophic and may even be irreparable. But what would happen if instead of a molecular catastrophe, we simply lost an entire branch of Mother Nature’s ecosystem in the blink of an eye? Between the Sky and Sea suggests that, if Earth’s lakes, oceans, and fisheries were suddenly devoid of fish, we’d somehow have the time and the means to construct elaborate habitats outside of the planet’s protective atmosphere and send individuals into space on a regular basis to manage them. Never mind the fact that, in the meantime, all the other animals and plants that depend on various fish for survival would likely find themselves in a pretty dire situation.

One thing that appeals to me about anime is its power as a medium to tell creative stories outside the boundaries of normal logic. It’s possible to portray things in animation that would be difficult or near-impossible if restricted to live-action and practical effects. I normally wouldn’t criticize a series for making entirely unscientific claims, ignoring the long-term financial impacts of its plot points, or altering the laws of physics to show something really cool. But these deviations from reality ought to be in service of something. A good story or memorable characters are justification enough, but I question whether this anime has the potential to involve either.

Our point-of-view character, Haru, is a bit of a disaster. She’s the type who gets lost easily (to the tune of wandering miles off-course) and is easily tossed-about by the whims of others. Far from a typical dojikko, she’s someone making the choice to enter a field requiring specific expertise but goes in almost completely blind to the requirements of the field or basic knowledge related to it. This is one of my big pet peeves with some anime that sets itself within very specific, specialized fields – they choose to make the protagonist a complete newbie, when in reality someone with an interest in a certain job would likely have at least a basic understanding of the requirements and minimal grasp of the mechanics. I’ve heard that Japanese companies prefer to provide the bulk of the training to the people they hire in order to instill their specific office culture and values, which I get; it’s still not an excuse for someone to behave as if they were born yesterday.

The other characters aren’t much better. The men we meet are cartoonishly sexist, to the point of outright proclaiming that girls aren’t cut out to fish in space. The other girls single-mindedly put themselves in danger for no reason by literally grabbing Haru (a person they don’t know!) and dragging her into space to be the third person on their fishing team. The girls’ female supervisor is the type of faux-feminist that misogynists use as an example to argue against equal rights – easily-enraged, suspicious of every man’s stray glance or movement, and overly-emotional to the point of total collapse. No one is particularly sympathetic and in fact almost everyone seems like they’d be frustrating to have to deal with in person. This is not aided in any way by the decidedly lackluster voice acting, in which every character either feels forced or bored.

The surface-level women’s rights proclamations in this episode are honestly where I take the most issue. It’s one thing to say “women and men should have equal opportunities,” but in reality sexism is so much more nuanced and insidious than some amped-up buffoon telling a girl she can’t perform a job as well as he can. It’s subtle harassment, gate-keeping, and microaggressions, not “me man, you woman.” This show feels like it’s trying to gain points by tackling the “women in the workplace” subject, but it has only a 101-level understanding of what that actually entails. Perhaps the creators could have consulted some women and asked for their perspective on the matter.

That’s really the long and short of it. I can ignore the impossible, unscientific nature of the premise, the illogical nature of keeping and raising giant, rare fish in space, and even the backwards reasoning of why humanity would attempt space farming in the first place (it’s because people want to eat sushi, not because, you know, because the survival of the ecosystem is at stake). But what I can’t overlook is the fundamental mishandling of the types of negative experiences I and other women have to deal with on a regular basis, especially when I can identify no women on the primary production staff. It’s really the worst of two worlds – both a shill for a likely plot-less video game, and a self-congratulatory pat-on-the-back for some individuals who *totally aren’t sexist* because “girl power” or something (while wearing the goofiest boob-window outfit, of course). Yikes.

Pros: There’s a scene in the first episode that has a bunch of cats in it!

Cons: Tries to tackle sexism via straw-man arguments. The characters are infuriating.

Grade: D