Yeah, agreed on all fronts. I was a little iffy on the CG at first, and it can be a little bit limited in terms of conveying minute movement and expressions especially, but overall it's not bad.
I agree with you that the farewell scene was a bit too quick, but I can tell they wanted to get it done before the end of episode 2.
It's been fun.Yeah I wonder if the farewell scene was supposed to be sad in a subtle sort of way and the animation just didn't quite manage to convey those emotions. Otherwise, I think the animation has been good.
I'm wondering if the entire season will be focused on Kaina and Ririha climbing down the tree. They'll at least spend the next episode on the descent; guess we'll get a better feel for the path the story is going to take after that. I'm hoping that Kaina and Ririha stumble into pockets of advanced technology on their way down, as per classic Tsutomu Nihei protocol.
Yup, a movie. We don't know if it's a recap of the TV series or if it's its own story.
Anyway, episode 3 has come out. Fellow acrophobics, prepare to get unsettled. Kaina and Ririha also get down to the Snow Sea faster than I expected. Heck Kaina even initially thought it would take 30 days, but somehow Ririha improves to the point that they could make it in three. Huh! Was thinking we would have a bit longer of an adventure, but I don't mind learning more about Atland and the war.
The story of the Sage definitely smells like a mythification of a terraforming/biosphere project. Maybe the mushroom-like light Kaina and Ririha see is some kind of AI assistant.
An entire orbital tree collapsing just like that makes me think that the ecological situation of this world is more dire than anyone thought. Ririha also has a USB necklace with the patented Toha Industries logo. That's bound to be important for finding a way to reverse the world's decline. Also have to revise my previous theory because the bugs are apparently the ones fixing the tree. So something must be screwing with the bugs and thus screwing with the trees' health.
Tsutomu Nihei sure likes his out of place rom com jokes. Well, mostly the one where Ririha does the usual accidental pervert payback where she could have pushed Kaina to his doom. The one where she gets flustered over using Kaina's name was cute. Guessing she was a bit shy because she didn't use honorifics or something.
Love how Kaina has no concept of human conflict, but at the same time he's not naive enough to attempt peace talks with an active shooter.
Edited by fillerdude on Jan 25th 2023 at 8:48:44 AM
Episode 4: We jump right back into the skirmish between Atland and Valghia. Ririha does end up getting taken away, but she puts up a hell of a fight. It’s nice how the Atland warriors use some sort of Chinese-based swordfighting style while the Valghian commander uses some form of European-style fencing. Cool way to further show the cultural differences between countries.
Which leads me to Valghia, which evidently has unearthed and successfully utilized more advanced tech than other countries. Valghia the country itself can apparently move around “without water”, Amelothee’s suit of armor looks suspiciously bionic, and her sword suspiciously looks and feels like a vibroblade.
Also kinda cool and surprising is that Kaina’s next stop is underwater! Or I guess more accurately under the Snow Sea, because that sure as hell isn’t water. You’ll see that the bubbles Kaina and Ririha blow out are even oddly shaped! Anyway, I’m giddy we get to trek another alien landscape. Using oxygen-tank-fruits to walk along the barnacle-covered roots of the orbital spire trees sounds AWESOME. Also have to wonder what those organisms swimming in there are.
Also neat that Kaina still displays a believable level of culture shock at seeing people kill each other. He’s weirded out by the concept but he still acknowledges that the danger is real and tries to come up with prwctical solutions. Same way how Kaina can’t quite understand why the king and queen are putting the country over their daughter, but instead of arguing the issue he decides to take things into his own hands. Which makes sense because he’s had to be self sufficient in the Canopy.
One minor thing: Kaina seems to have understood the words that were behind the king. That will definitely come up later. Maybe Atland is built on top of some gargantuan ecologic maintenance facility.
Wow I typed all that and didn’t even mention Ririha’s younger brother. Uhh I guess we’ll find out more about him in the next episode! Also his parents will be fuming.
The piano inserts in this episode were marvelous, as well.
Minor nitpicks: the Valghian grunts are borderline comically villainous and terrible at their jobs, Kaina offering the bugs to the king seems out of place, and probably better replaced with trying to argue for Ririha’s rescue, and once again the CG, while overall still pretty good, feels like it’s trying to sell emotions that just aren’t apparent on the character’s faces.
Edited by fillerdude on Feb 1st 2023 at 10:02:03 AM
Episode 5: A stroll under the Snow Sea. Yaona reveals that there are entire cities submerged in there. Just how high is the sea level in this world? We’re also being teased with more of those kanji, but alas Kaina doesn’t have the time to sit down and decipher them.
Don’t think Kaina’s plan for getting to Ririha made much sense. Talking specifically about that part where he hooks one of those giant “fish”. He had no way of steering those things and frankly they only get where they need to be through sheer plot contrivance.
Episode 6: Valghians being comically evil. What's new.
Kaina and Yaona succeeded in the rescue! Well, they got her out of the cage, at least. Getting back to Atland is another thing entirely, especially now that they've ended up in Valghia itself! Excited to see more of this mobile fortress.
Ririha cutting off the boat was a smart idea too. Glad they're safe for now.
The bark knife really is a powerful tool. Still waiting for Kaina to use it as a laser gun.
Interestingly, in that flashback to another caged prisoner, said prisoner was the prince of another country, and had the same hair color as Amelothee. I would not be surprised if Amelothee herself was royalty, and could have been plotting to destroy Valghia from inside.
Episode 7: Escaped princess finds refuge with street urchins. Classic.
Valghia provides us a look at how bad the water shortage is. We even hear a mother beat her child for spilling water. And I was wondering about whether they got water from animals, and yes, they do, but it apparently tastes funky.
Love the bond between Kaina and Ririha. They understand each other so well. Kaina knew Ririha was gonna save that kid, and Ririha knew Kaina would come to her rescue. Ririha was even smiling on the way down. They're so cute.
We also get confirmation that Amelothee is indeed a captive from another kingdom.
Two new pertinent bits of information from this episode: one, that the Commandant has control of some sort of monster, which I presume is going to be a robot of some kind and 2) there's an orbital spire Yggdrasil that could hold the answers to most of their problems. There has to be a reason no one's gotten near that big tree yet. Guessing it has a Jormungandr guarding it, or maybe some sort of automated defense grid. And Ririha's USB necklace might be the literal key to unlocking the path to it.
I'm getting antsy since we have four episodes left and a lot of the juicy stuff might be relegated to the movie. Kaina and the rest better find an escape boat, and fast.
Edited by fillerdude on Feb 22nd 2023 at 9:27:46 AM
Episode 8: Our trio finds their way back to Atland. Thank you Skull Kids for lending your raft, I'm not quite sold on your bonds of friendship but eh, it's fine.
I'm at least glad that Chiru got to drink real water. Gotta find more water for Chiru. On that note, the characters Kaina has been seeing around Atland apparently spell out "giant" which could point to the giant tree. That's convenient haha. Guessing the last few episodes will be about searching for and finding the BIG tree, and the movie will have the war between Atland and Valghia?
The monster the Valgian commander has might be a giant mech that we get glimpses at this episode. Scary.
Also: I'll never understand Nihei works incorporating outdated ecchi shenanigans.
I think I also have to give a shout out to the soundtrack. The ephemeral piano is just so good.
Episode 9: The war begins.
So despite those paper documents we've seen before, current society in the Snow Sea does not have a writing system. Weird! Good thing Kaina is there to read for them. The dusty wall-rug turns out to be a map, which fortunately shows where the giant orbital spire tree is, and unfortunately shows there's a giant trench blocking the way.
Wonder if it was Ririha's idea to plant the idea of the giant orbital spire tree in the Valghian citizens. It's pretty smart.
The monster that the Valghian Commandant has been keeping is revealed to be a Builder! Builders previously featured in Nihei's previous work BLAME where they were responsible for the constant expansion of the City megastructure. Unfortunately here it's being used as a giant wrecking ball kaiju. Hmm, I think it's time for Kaina to dial his laser bark knife settings way up.
So putting it all together: there's a massive trench blocking the way to the giant orbital spire tree, and you need a massive ship to cross it. Valghia possesses both a massive ship and a Builder. Kaina, Ririha and Yaona have the map and the giant floating stick. Think it's somewhat obvious where things are going.
Episode 20: Kinda felt like it was dragging things out.
We spent too long gawking at the god of the snow sea. The rain seems to have messed up the Builder's OS somehow, but it seems like we'll need to wait for next episode before that really kicks in. At least they didn't completely deus ex machina the fight against the Builder, I guess. Apart from that, the god managed to get water from somewhere in the Snow Sea. Whether it converted the liquid in the Snow Sea, or if the water is found in abyssal depths, remains to be explored.
I was wrong about the bark knife it seems. Even on the highest setting, it doesn't quite turn into a laser gun.
Meanwhile the Valghian commandant continues being the weakest part of the anime by modeling his entire personality around being an asshole. Did you really have to throw your own ship?
I also keep thinking that Ririha kind of has her priorities skewed? They're in active combat, showing and discussing the map can come later.
Edited by fillerdude on Mar 15th 2023 at 7:30:23 AM
Episode 11: Ririha, you could have used your coat to put the embers out instead of the flag. That said, panic does tend to cloud your judgement.
I've theorized since the beginning that the bark knife would become a laser gun, and boy, was that an understatement. Turns out that knife was a full-on Gravitational Beam Emitter. Holy shit! Good riddance to the Valghian Commandant, he was the worst part of the anime by a country mile.
I guess we now know what the movie is gonna be about. It'll be Kaina, Ririha, Yaona and a few other folks sailing to the giant orbital spire tree. I figure the mysterious glowing thing will be more relevant there.
EDIT: Oh and Kaina and Ririha managed to float back up to the Canopy! That was great. The wonders of societal cooperation.
Edited by fillerdude on Mar 22nd 2023 at 11:11:59 AM
The movie Star Sage has come out and answers a lot of questions about the setting. Kaina's world is some planet undergoing a terraforming project. The Canopy was made by the ancient people in order to protect the world from cosmic radiation during the process, with the giant insects maintaining the Canopy. The Snow Sea was basically caused by a bug in the terraforming program that prevented its automatic shutdown (I guess what the "snow" is actually made of isn't that important). The glowing spirit is indeed an AI overseer. All in all, glad to have all those world details cleared up.
The plot of the movie itself? It's a wash. Byozan was another villain that didn't need to be so comically evil. Would have been more interesting if he simply had conflicting ideals, which they could have probably built up if they had more time than a movie provides. Also kinda sucks that the epilogue was so short. Wanted to see more of the post Snow Sea world, and while we see Kaina and Ririha get hitched, we were deprived of the same for Orinoga and Amelothee. Their awkward flirting must have gone somewhere!

Atop the branches of a colossal tree that breaches the skies lies a translucent film, forming a land among the clouds called the Canopy. Here lives a young lad named Kaina, along with a few elderly folk, and they eke out a living, believing themselves the last of the human race.
Around the roots of this tree is a massive ocean perpetually covered in snow, where a war between two kingdoms is taking place. Ririha, the princess of Altland, seeks to fly to the Canopy and find the Sage, the person that holds the answer to their troubles.
Thus begins Kaina of the Great Snow Sea.
—————
The worldbuilding thus far has provided lots to chew on from the first two episode, and I figured we might as well have a place to bounce our thoughts around.
Regarding episode 2 in particular:
Edited by fillerdude on Jan 18th 2023 at 11:05:15 AM