Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Sakura131
I always forget to not judge a book by its cover. I added this to my list thinking it would be a mere cute story of girls trying to save an aquarium.
Instead I experienced an anime that depicts themes of loss and grief. Some accept it, others blunt the pain by staying occupied, and a few build a memorial. It shows how some run away from their problems while others are determined to work through them. It shows what it means to follow through on a dream. It’s also a coming-of-age story where the main characters transition from teenagers into hard workers, discovering what they value in life. The main plot of the anime isn't saving an aquarium, it's the main character growing up.
A classic "leave the city for the countryside" anime, I found it heartwarming, cute, and yet sometimes sad. Ma…
Read at the sourceMUSAB-KH24
This anime is one of the few anime that made me realize the nature of friendship relationships between females far from dramatic exaggeration. It is credited with teaching me the meaning of working in an aquarium, and thanks to it my interest in marine life and my desire to continue it increased. What I liked most about this anime is the combination of human life and marine life. Between our future in which we seek to achieve our ambitions, and the future of marine creatures that must be preserved, I wanted for a moment to work in an aquarium to see these two futures with my own eyes. For a while, I haven't felt the desire to do anything or care about anything in particular, and now Shiroi Suna no Aquatope has brought that desire and interest back to me by sparking a love and interest in m…
Read at the sourcemushi_Jyou
Too beautiful for this plot.
Story
Subpar. Honestly, wasn't enjoyable. The beautiful background and scenes are wasted on this story. Story has 2 distinct parts. First half is on the Main Characters interactions revolving a small, closing down aquarium. All the main characters love this place, and tries to salvage it from its imminent demise. Hence the first half is about the main characters finding themselves and bonding over their efforts and intentions for this small aquarium. All intentions and wishes were very reasonable. But the actions are a little too weak. The story just goes on about how they wish to preserve the aquarium, but their actions are not exactly shown, except for a few. No team discussions, or seeking outside help, or taking more down to earth methods. There was no eff…
Read at the sourcetsujiri
Long version:
When I first saw the poster for this anime and MAL's low rating (at that time, around 6/10), I thought "probably another pretty anime without much depth." But I played the trailer anyway, and was pleasantly surprised.
Despite loving the trailer, the low rating still made me hesitant - how many other subpar animes have I watched thanks to MAL? I put it off month after month... and then last weekend, on my birthday. I decided to do something for myself instead of others (lol) and watch it.
I. was. in. awe.
Fuuka was extremely relatable for me. A young woman who moved alone to chase her career/passion/dreams of working in a glamorous but cutthroat industry... only to be denied a promotion after years of hard work. And that promotion to be given to someone young, inexperie…
Read at the sourceTheBlazingBlade
This is a peaceful slice-of-life type of anime. There is no massive story besides trying to save the aquarium, and each character has a side story. The story is straight forward and the characters have zero to little development. I liked the first 10 episodes, but I found Kukuru annoying. As the show progressed she stayed greedy, unyielding, childish, and pushed herself onto others. I understand these are high school characters. but the other 3 high schoolers acted more mature than her and were under similar stresses. Each time people create an excuse for her horrible behavior, everyone passes it off as "okay." There is tolerance to lack of character development and this anime pushes past that and keeps going.
Read at the sourceLhamatorrinco
Shiroi Suna no Aquatope is MID.
Where "M" stands for Mystic, which would be great for an anime that talks about the ocean and all the magic involved in the unknown depths... I say it WOULD be great, because the show forgets about the mystical side it has for half the episodes . Scenes involving mysticism only appear when it is convenient for the anime to be a tearjerker.
Where "I" stands for Informative, and that was, without a doubt, my favorite part of the show. All the technical conversations about fish and other sea creatures, as well as climate issues and species extinction, were very well presented in the anime. Too bad it's the smallest part.
And where "D" stands for Drama. And what a cheap drama... At first the story was interesting, but the drama became so poor and repetitive that…
Read at the sourceJonsitoa
Weakest PA works anime i ever watched, the background as always are great but the animation of the characters feel deformed, the openings and endngs are very beautiful, but the characters are bland and not interesting, only the legendary old man is unique, the two protagonists are not very particular fun to watch, the idol and the director of the aquarium are pretty, the friends or sode characters are forgettable. The first part of the show and second part feel different,i prefer the first part it was less boring and a little more interesting than second vour, im a big fan of PA works but shows like nagi no asukara or Shirobako are much better, this is a 6/@9 show for me guys.
Read at the sourceMaylHikari
Story 8/10
The story must be relate to some people, its not like slice of life that I ordinary watch (School Based Slice of Life) , the story is based on the world of work
Art 10/10
The art its just Amazing
Sound 8/10
Its Ordinary And No Problem , thats what its should be
Character 7/10 Even though the story focused in two character , i wish the can more develop story about the side character Karin And Kuuya for example, like how about their past school life
Enjoyment 7/10
Actually kinda boring , thats how slice of life ordinary like, but depend on your mood its good while u need relaxed show and dont want to think hard
Overall 8/10
Read at the sourceimData
Story: 8
Shiroi Suna no Aquatope is an anime about two girls looking for the true meaning of her life. One is an ex-idol, trying to run away from her failure, eventually ending up in Okinawa on a whim. The other one is desperately trying to save the aquarium run by her grandfather, where her deceased parents used to take her when she was a child.
The two girls will learn to let go of what they have lost to bounce back and move forward.
It's a wholesome realistic anime about learning to deal with the hardships in life.
Art: 9
Even though this anime is not the most demanding in animation, the art is pretty good. I could almost feel like I was in Okinawa.
Sound: 9
Same as the Art section, the Sound was good, especially the OSTs, which are one of the strong points of this anime.
Charact…
Read at the sourceSanaeK10
Aquatope is one of those pretty but boring shows that PA Works seems to enjoy putting out. Except this time with even less likable characters to string the whole thing along.
Aquatope has two distinct halves, one focused on Kukuru struggling in vain to save Gama Gama, her grandfather's aquarium, and a second half focused on her working at a large aquarium and acclimating to the conditions there. While not too dissimilar in tone and content, both halves still felt very different from each other but not in a good way. The second half especially has some pretty lousy workplace conditions, highlighted by a terrible manager and Kukuru herself being incredibly stubborn and immature. If anything, Kukuru being very unlikable is the biggest detriment to the whole show. I'm old now, and I used to b…
Read at the sourceIronaditya
PA Works does it again with another brilliant Original anime.
Shiroi Suna no Aquatope is a really great Slice of Life which doesn't leave you with a bucket of salt tear at the end of the show, which is what is now correlated with Slice of Life.
"The two girls met in the ruins of damaged dream" is the perfect tag line for the show, depicting the our two main leads.
The show is all about friendship and working hard for what you believe in, showing it not just with our main characters but side characters as well. We may not always achieve all that we want and life may turn onto a different path, but we have to turn it into a correct one.
Fuuka and Kukuru, two girls at different ends of spectrum, one who has left her dreams and the other fighting desperately to keep her dreams alive. But fa…
Read at the sourcePyraXadon
Oh boy. It’s another P.A. Works show set in a town that’s next to the ocean. Because NagiAsu, Kuromukuro, Irozuku, and Glasslip all turned out to be bangers. So I’m sure this one went off without a hitch whatsoever. For the record, yes, I have seen this pattern a lot.
Story:
Wavering in the prospects in her idol career, Fuuka Miyazawa runs away from home to the island of Okinawa as a way to get away from everything and just take a breather not knowing what else to do. Here, she wanders aimlessly to the point of even sleeping on the beach on her first night before encountering the small, run-down aquarium known as ‘Gama Gama Aquarium’. Here, she meets the feisty and hard-headed girl named Misakino Kukuru, who swears that she’ll save this family aquarium of hers that’s on the verge of bank…
Read at the sourcemythical_k
Spoiler Warning:
When it comes to bringing in nostalgia, this anime has done a perfect job of giving me that feeling. Shiroi Suna no Aquatope was a touching yet beautiful summer anime I've watched during that season. Not only did it bring back memories of watching "Nagi no Asukara," my first official anime, but it made me interested in aquariums more than ever. Combining the typical slice-of-life genre with a tidbit of the supernatural, the two works well together and it made me intrigued to watch more. With that, here is what this anime did right and what it missed during the twenty-four episodes.
The plot had a different feel when it came to the events throughout the episodes, and not because it's an anime about aquariums. The central theme that is common during the first half is dream…
Read at the sourceSpirit_Chaser
The penguins are more entertaining than the cast. In the first cour, there is lots of mystery with the Gama Gama Aquarium though it never gets properly explained. It gives people visions based on their own personal issues. This leads to the mystery of Kukuru's lost twin sister among other nice reveals. This became the most interesting part of the series for many viewers. Sadly, they completely abandoned this for a long while, but kept shoving it in your face with the openings and endings as the viewers wonder, why? For a slow paced series, they sure inexcusably failed to properly develop characters who had potential to be much better. Every filler like episode was a waste of time that could have helped with this. Still, this is a series that can make you feel happy with all the irrelevance…
Read at the sourceGween_Gween
A sudden weight on our shoulders comes when taking a decision about our future, the myths of following a straight path to success and happiness infect our decision-making by following a unique dream. The disruption of that dream by an external force is something that is bound to happen to most of us who decided to take a path, breaking the comfort zone of following an established and known path and leaving us in a multidirectional crossroad, obnubilating our sense of future. The Aquatope on White Sand tries to untie this assimilated conflict through the usage of a mysterious yet recognizable common place, the marine world. By using a set of parallels coming from the experiences that the animal world can grant to us, while also applying a deeply human form of relationships and communication…
Read at the sourceZeroMajor12
The Aquatope on White Sand was something I looked up to because I thought a show created by P.A Works could spark back the love for emotional moments that this studio managed to do back in its golden days. But sadly, I didn't feel that way with this one. This show has disappointed me in ways because I know it could have been so much more if it didn't focus on the newer characters.
Story: 4/10
Not going to lie, I was interested to see what the show has to offer during its first half, a high school student coincidentally meets a failed idol on a crisis at an old and rusty aquarium. The problem is the synopsis you have read has already ended in the first half. This 2nd half felt horribly stretched out once it all ended. From once was an emotional tale of two girls breaking apart from the cha…
Read at the sourceNecrotoxic01
“I don’t agree with writing reviews before the season/series is over because that review would only cover the first few episodes, and these may not be an accurate representation of the rest of the season/series.”
I remember writing these exact words for my Sing "Yesterday" for Me review, and these two sentences were all I could think about when watching the second half of Shiroi Suna no Aquatope or The Aquatope on White Sand. While the story and characters in the first half were good, all be it a bit forgettable, the story and the characters in the second half cycled between boring, frustrating, and confusing. The animation was good, but the music was utterly forgettable. I was so frustrated and bored when watching the second half of this show that it took a tremendous amount of effort to…
Read at the sourceKingShulox
The sea has always delivered us many beautiful stories, so when I discovered another water-related anime was in production, I couldn´t resist. Another original anime, hopping into the trend of gorgeously animated series with great story that studios have been lately try to make up with huge results. And let me tell you giving this one a try was, in two words, worth it.
Shiroi Suna no Aquatope is a great series that tells the story of Kukuru, the main character and a character I personally like a lot, who is trying to save her family´s aquarium from shutting down and be demolished. In the way she meets Fuuka, another great girl who is escaping fame and trying to leave peacefully for a while. Fuuka starts working at the aquarium as a trial, and as they meet many new and local people and unv…
Read at the sourceStark700
They're back again. After taking a half year break, Shiroi Suna no Aquatope (aka The Aquatope on White Sand) aired as one of the key projects celebrating PA Works' rich body of accomplishments. Or can it be called that? After all, P.A. Works can be a hit or miss sometimes based on their track record. But one thing is for sure, P.A. Works is no stranger in the anime industry. They've produced memorable adaptations and original works all the way back in 2008. Founded since 2000, you can bet that the studio brings their wealth of experience again to Shiroi Suna no Aquatope.
Let me preface and say that if you're a familiar fan of P.A. Works, then you can easily tell the show dives into a slice of life story with coming of age themes. There's a bucket list to check off and of course, cute girl…
Read at the sourceKANLen09
"What do you want to be when you grow up? What is your dream that helps you propel forward to initiate that push-to-shove action?" These 2 questions always comes up when I watch Shiroi Suna no Aquatope, yet another 2-cour long show that's pretty much the standard when it comes to P.A. Works shows, brought to you by the same team that produced Fall 2018's Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara (a.k.a IroDuku). And as much as I like IroDuku to a certain degree of it being the same P.A. Works visual masterpiece works that have been consistent for years now, the story and plot feels kinda whack and shallow somewhat that's heavily masked by the visual presentation. That...unfortunately carries over to Aquatope, and that I feel that the in-house director Toshiya Shinohara and his team clearly saw what wor…
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