Tide-Line Blue
As happens with frightening frequency in anime, the human race was very nearly wiped out 14 years ago by an event called “The Hammer of Eden” which caused the seas to rise dramatically and reduced the land mass of the planet to groups of small islands. One such island is Yabitsu, where a stateswoman named Aoi is desperately trying to use the catastrophe as an opportunity to bring the divided nations of the earth together into the New UN. But human nature has not changed and the talks are dissolving into pointless squabbling and political maneuvering; hopes for world peace seem to be fading quickly.
None of this seems very important to Keel, Aoi’s adopted son, who spends most of his time swindling sailors and generally getting into trouble. (He has a, eh, “gift” for rolling dice…) But Keel’s really got a heart of gold and has sworn to protect Isla, an innocent (if somewhat manipulative) girl of about his age who is pregnant by an unknown father. Despite Keel’s conflicts with Isla’s bizarre thick-eyebrowed ostrich(!) life is pretty good for him.
But nothing ever lasts, particularly not in anime. One sunny afternoon, seemingly out of the blue, Yabitsu is attacked by a nuclear submarine named the U.S.S. Ulysses, captained by a huge, scarred man named Gould. Gould’s assistant and adopted son, Tean, has a strange connection to both Aoi and Keel… and when, due to a very strange sequence of events, Tean delivers Isla’s baby and is captured by the UN for his trouble, Keel, Isla, and the new child are given shelter on the Ulysses itself.
It’s a battle for the fate of the planet with Aoi and the UN forces on one side, Gould and his renegade crew on the other, and Keel, Isla, and the baby caught in the middle—but things may be more complicated than they seem. Whose principles are the more ethical—Aoi’s or Gould’s? What is the source of the many suspicious connections between the main characters? And who is the mysterious, space-suited man orbiting the earth and observing the action?
Tide-Line Blue is 13 episodes and has everything you’ve come to expect from well-produced anime: great characters, dynamic action, a twisty, turny plot, and incredibly cool submarines (and even the odd ethical musing). It’s still unlicensed and hugely underappreciated; it’s time to bring this highly enjoyable series into its own!
[And of course, what more prestigious recommendation could an anime series get than a showing in the Bethel Anime Club?]