Aquatope of White Sand Episode 1: Search for the Self in the Sea

The show yuri fans are salivating to watch while I chose to proceed with caution. One of the most important things I learned in life is to always keep your hype in check.

We joined one of our heroines at the start but spent most of the first half with the other one, Fuuka. She’s an aspiring top idol but wasn’t accepted to be part of the top unit. Her kouhai Ruka was chosen. Ruka felt awful but Fuuka encouraged her to keep giving it her all despite hurting inside. She called her mom to talk about it. She said that everyone at their neighborhood in Morioka set a welcome home party for her. However, when mom said everyone thought she made the right choice to quit early it hid Fuuka hard. Suddenly there was a change of plans, booking a flight to Okinawa instead.

At the Okinawa airport Fuuka caught the eye of a beautiful fortuneteller in a secluded corner. While it looked like she swindled her she ended up being lucky and gave her solid guidance. Fuuka even got to know her a little bit. Wonder if we’ll see her again? One last thing before moving on. She told Fuuka to head to “Sagittarius” for a life changing meeting with someone. Fuuka heard the waves of the sea so hence why her next destination was the beach. I

Fuuka took a bus and got off near the beach. Probably because she’s really tired slept there. Why were there so many shells around her when she woke up? We’ll get to that later.

We rejoined our first heroine, Kukuru on her way to school. She lived with her grandparents. Her mother either passed away or worked abroad. At school we met two of her classmates, Kai and Udon. We also saw she knew a lot about marine life. So much so she handed a detailed report on squids…to the math teacher. There’s a reason for her aqua lovin’.

Back to Fuuka. She’s exhausted from the heat. Something I’m sure many of us can relate this season. A woman who worked for the tourism association, Karin, drove by and helped her cool off. She showed some pamphlets of cool tourist spots. The one for Gama Gama Aquarium peaked her interest. Unlike the fortuneteller I’m sure we’ll see Karin again.

It was a wondrous place. The one fish that caught her eye was a particular little eel like creature. Its description of being “Not the most noticeable but the most hard working fish” hit her in the feels. She could relate to the fish. Fuuka too worked her butt off to become a top idol but failed in the end. Besides the people of Morioka saying she made the right choice to quit early she also overheard the producer/manager talking about her “not taking it seriously”. Fuuka could no longer contain her sadness.

While letting out her frustrations she somehow had a magical aquatic experience. Besides the little eel creature the other marine life form that caught her attention was a whale shark. No idea why but it was cool. As she looked at the big girl she warped back to the real world…

…where she was greeted by Kukuru. She had a pretty good idea about what Fuuka saw.

It was a kijimuna playing tricks on her. Throughout the episode we got to see the little spirit eating fish head offerings or decorate shells around a sleeping Fuuka. We didn’t see it do the latter but it’s highly likely the one who did it. I wonder if it’ll play a role similar to a certain loli astronaut, sans hooking up with an imouto?

We also learned Kukuru was the director of the Gama Gama Aquarium, or so she said. Her family probably owned the place. After the very nice OP or ED Kukuru gave Fuuka a tour of the aquarium. Suddenly, as if it was meant to be, Fuuka asked Kukuru to let her stay at the aquarium when she mentioned a job opening.

So far, so good. We got 23 more episodes to go so let’s hope for the best.