It should come as no surprise, given I’ve put down my thoughts on selected Ghibli films that I’m something of a fan of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, particularly in its true and massive Manga form. So, when I see something like Kaina of the Great Snow Sea, where the apple hardly falls from the tree to say nothing of falling far, I typically come in with some mixed feelings. On the one side, there’s an impulse to see more versions and reflections of something great. If you like a work, it’s only natural to also like things that are similar to it. But if it’s a half-assed attempt that can’t really keep up and bring its own material to the table, well… it’s probably worse than being unrelated and of similar quality.
So, Kaina of the Great Snow Sea does distinct itself from its legendary predecessor in one small way. You have the obvious Nausicaa analog, Ririha. She is, say it with me, the princess of a small nation in this strange and perhaps wonderful hostile world, which is menaced by the threat of a powerful war-mongering nation set on bringing the hostilities to her people. However, she’s only one of our two main characters. The other is our male lead, the titular Kaina. To explain Kaina requires actually explaining his setting (surprisingly, more of a snow ocean than a toxic jungle), so let’s get to that.
The world of Kaina of the Great Snow Sea has its surface dominated by, what else, the Snow Sea. “Snow” here is clearly a case of giving something moderately fantastical a realistic name, as it seems to operate more like a strange heavy vapor that becomes frothy white spherical bubbles when exposed to the atmosphere. The land in this setting is made up of the bases of “Orbital Spire Trees”, gigantic tree-islands that, as the name suggests, seem to go all the way up. The Orbital Spire Trees provide substrate on which humans can build, and also fresh water… in dwindling amounts, which is the main cause of conflict on the surface. The trees are, of course, inhabited and maintained by giant insects because we haven’t seen that before.
At the top of the spire trees, the world is covered by a layer called the Canopy, consisting of a usually quite solid and sturdy transparent membrane between the intertwining branches. Holes can appear, though, at least until the bugs finish their maintenance. In the Canopy, there still exists a small village of a hand full of elders and one young man, Kaina. At the outset of the show, Ririha goes to the canopy by way of attaching a basket to a weird floaty thing, and is discovered beside one of the holes by Kaina. She wanted to go to the Canopy to find the Sage who supposedly lived there, a wise and powerful individual who would no doubt be able to solve the water crisis and brewing war.
Of course, there is no sage. The closest thing would be the Signkeeper, the only individual who preserves reading and writing, by way of a collection of old signs from what would seem to be old Earth. He’s taught Kaina how to read, sort of, but even that is mysticized knowledge.
While Ririha has much in the way of thanks for the hospitality of the canopy-dwellers, she really must be going home. Kaina, it is decided, will go with her, the elders seemingly accepting that their village is a dead end as it is, so he should have a future on the surface.
Thus, Kaina is given a lost technology tool called a Bark Cutter (a laser cutter, which he is warned to not use above the lowest setting lest it become unusable for a time), and with that to carve holdfasts in the surface of the Orbital Spire Tree and plenty of rope, the pair are able to make their way down.
When their descent reaches the Snow Sea, they find that they are awaited. This is both by forces from Ririha’s nation of Atland (who ride dolphin-like things called Snow Horses) and forces from the militaristic nation attacking her people, Valghia. Ultimately, the Valghia forces (led here by “I can’t believe it’s not Kushana” Amerote, and her Kurotowa-ish second) manage to secure Ririha, while Kaina is rescued to Atland.
There, he brings tidings of everything that’s happened, and the Valghians demand a parley for Ririha’s life. The king decides that rushing to save Ririha would be a fool’s errand, but Ririha’s little brother, Yaona, isn’t convinced, and he recruits Kaina to help with a rescue mission.
The air packs Kaina had from the Canopy enable the two of them to walk along the root system beneath the surface of the Great Snow Sea. This avoids enemy entanglement or the need to steal snow horses or boats, but isn’t the fastest method of transit, meaning that they arrive after the Atlandian negotiator sent to deliver the “we don’t surrender” message has already been murdered and Ririha put in a crow cage on one of the Valghian ships to freeze to death. This is all on order of the Admiral of Valghia, a creepy old guy with a raspy voice and absolute authority that even other Valghians seem to chafe under.
Kaina and Yaona sneak onto the Valghian ship and get Ririha out of the cage, but they sacrifice their only means of escape from the boat, the landing craft, to create a diversion so they can hide in the hold. This brings them to the massive floating fortress of Valghia itself, where if you weren’t sure before it should be confirmed that whatever creative DNA in this didn’t come from Nausicaa mostly seems to be derived from Waterworld.
In any case, Valghia isn’t as intimidating as it looks, being made up mostly of destitute refugees from the other kingdoms the floating fortress has looted for their water reserves. Our trio fall in with some underclass street rat types, initially in a hostile manner as they steal some of the trio’s stuff. However, one stolen item manages to get a little girl of the bunch paraded towards her execution as Ririha, which the real Ririha stands up and reveals herself to prevent. This causes the other thieves to accept that she’s a good person and shelter her, even providing a raft to escape with. While engaged in this, the nice Valghians also tell a story of a giant Orbital Spire Tree, said to have as much water as anyone could want. They think it might be a fairy tale, but Kaina confirms that he’s been able to see a giant spire tree from up on the Canopy, and it was complete with life-signs to suggest it was still full of water. They also say that the Admiral controls a terrible monster, which is an obvious setup for this show’s God Warrior equivalent.
Ririha, Yaona, and Kaina take their raft back to Atland, arriving before the Valghian invasion force. Kaina is welcomed as a hero what with bringing back both royal children, and he and Ririha get a chance to bond as they search for the one thing they hope will stop the war: evidence of the Great Spire Tree that could provide for everyone. They find hope in the form of an ancient Atlandian tapestry that, with Kaina’s literacy, proves to be a world map (complete with the Great Tree marked). But, once again, the kids are a little late, and as they bring out the recovered tapestry with the city already under siege by the Valghian armada.
The battle with the Armada goes well for the defenders, at first, which causes the Admiral to bust out his “monster”, a half broken mecha called The Builder. As the Valghians continue to make little progress (briefly impeded by a mystical something or other Ririha and Kaina had seen before, but that amounts to seemingly nothing), he even goes a little mad with power and chucks one of the Valghian ships at the city as a projectile. This, naturally, horrifies many of the other Valghians, especially those watching from the Floating Fortress itself, which the knights of Atland are busy invading and trying to seize control of.
Amerote defends Valghia and has a battle of ethics with the Atland knight. Kaina, Yanoa, and Ririha all scramble to evacuate civilians and deliver the tapestry to the king, who is leading more or less from the front. The Admiral notices Ririha scurrying around the port, and sets his sights on her. Kaina, having been separated from her earlier, catches up and faces down the Builder by turning the bark cutter all the way to maximum, which proves to be a fairly effective hand-held laser cannon to utterly core the mech. The admiral is finished off as he emerges from the control rig on his ship. Amerote surrenders as the new leader of Valghia, and seems to agree to work with the people of Atland to prepare an expedition to the Great Orbital Spire Tree.
This, then, is where the show ends. The story continues in a sequel movie, but that’s beyond the scope of this review. How does it hold up?
First of all, for anyone who really cares, Kaina of the Great Snow Sea is a conspicuous CG anime. Is it bad CG? Not in my mind. There’s a lot of dead white, but that’s down to the theme. The things that are supposed to look visually wonderful are visually wonderful, and most of the characters move like they’re alive and emote like traditional characters. But you’re never going to forget this is CG, especially whenever snow bubbles are on screen, which is a lot. Other than that, I would say it looks alright, but the sheer volume of white can kind of get to you: the sea is white, the sky is gray, everyone from Atland wears white… it’s a lot.
The story is, aside from being a Nausicaa hack, really a basic adventure story. There’s not all that much to it, but it’s a simple and competent core. The characters aren’t much, but they also aren’t annoying for the most part, with Yaona being a little bit of a third wheel at worst. Of course, at best we have Ririha being a fun yet pale echo of truly great spunky and spirited leading ladies, while most everyone else is doing, strictly, the basics of what their character types need to do. It’s not great, but it’ll do.
I wish there was more I could say about this one, but it really is just that basic. It’s a fine story, but it’s not a really unique or special story. It doesn’t stand up to Nausicaa in the least, but I guess it does stand on its own well enough. I’ll rate Kaina of the Great Snow Sea as a C+, take it or leave it.