Depending on who you ask, the 2019 anime film that deserved to be nominated for an Oscar was
Children of the Sea, not Makoto Shinkai's
Weathering With You. Thanks to GKids, you'll soon be able to determine who was more deserving as North American fans will soon receive their chance to watch
Children of the Sea in theaters.
The film is based on manga creator Daisuke Igarashi's 2005 seinen manga series of the same name. It was first screened in Japanese theaters back in June 2019. The film follows a young girl and her mysterious connection to two strange boys she meets at an aquarium just as the ocean's fish begin to disappear.
Ayumu Watanabe directs while anime legend Joe Hisashi provides the score and Kenichi Konishi handled character designs.
When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does. Ruka's dad and the other adults who work at the aquarium are only distantly aware of what the children are experiencing as they get caught up in the mystery of the worldwide disappearance of the oceans' fish.