Welcome everyone, to another episode of Kaina and the Great Snow Sea! This week we finally reach civilization, as Kaina escapes the Valghians and gets pulled deeper and deeper into this conflict. What happens to Ririha? Who is the hot knight lady? Read on, and find out!
Starting off, I want to praise Kaina’s production. By and large it’s still the same flawed CGI work its always been. But this week I saw some actual… ambition, from Polygon Picture. The swordfight between Orinoga and Amelothee, the leaders of their respective expeditions, had a lot of cool shots. Some jank ones to, sure. The snow moved like blobs. And the ambitious ones were still rough around the edges. But stuff like the tracking camera and closeup swordplay lent their fight an energy that has otherwise been absent from Kaina. And then of course stuff like the backgrounds, such as the undersea roots or Atland at night, continue to be beautiful. Its like Kaina is slowly ramping itself up as it gets more and more used to its models and world, like this CGI approach and reuse is only making production easier as it goes.
Getting into the episode proper, much to my surprise Ririha was actually captured. I wasn’t expecting Kaina and Ririha to get split up this quickly. And in a lot of ways, it concerns me. I really don’t want Kaina to become this traditional “Save the princess, foretold hero” kind of narrative. I’d much rather Ririha and Kaina travel together, giving us more of those cute moments such as floating in the Snow Sea. Hopefully this is just a means of pushing the plot forward and getting Kaina in and out of Atland as quickly as possible. I’d love for her to get rescued asap and then spend the rest of the show adventuring together on the run or something. Even going back to Atland wouldn’t be bad, so long as they did so together.
Speaking of the capital, I was pleasantly surprised by it. Not only was it smaller than I expected, actually more of a single town fit snuggly into the roots of a tree, but it had a distinct identity all it’s own. The ponds of collected water which the entire town is built around. Stairs that go directly into the sea, showing us just how high it has risen vs where it once was. We also got to meet Ririha’s parents! And once again, I was pleasantly surprised by their reactions. They clearly doubt Kaina is from the Canopy, and the father’s choice of prioritizing the country over his daughter is, while cold, the kind of decision a King should make. He has a responsibility to these people. I’m glad he isn’t throwing it all away on some hairbrained suicide mission, instead prompting our hairbrained protagonist to set out himself.
And what a journey Kaina has before him. I mentioned it a little before, but I’m really impressed with Kaina’s world building. Not only the visual representation of it with the roots spreading out deep below the Snow Sea, but how Kaina’s equipment and culture from the Canopy becomes useful far below it. It only furthers his separation from the people of the Snow Sea, as he shows his ability to live outside of their community. The idea of him walking along these undersea roots, a road no one has probably ever traveled before, is just metal as fuck. And I imagine it could open up a whole new world/method of war for these people if he was able to create more of these air packs. Hopefully this sort of thing keeps happening, because I’m falling more and more in love with this world.
In the same vein, we also got hints of how important Kaina can become. During his meeting with the King of Atland, there appeared to be some kind of writing on the wall of their war room. Some kind of prophecy, or message for future generations? Whatever the case, it seemed to me like Kaina could… read it. Which makes sense considering the old sign master from his Canopy Tree. But it makes me wonder how much more writing/information there might be spread around the Snow Sea. Is reading it something only passed down amongst the Canopy Trees? Does that make Kaina the only one who can read it? Is he… going to become this legendary Sage, not by virtue of being the chosen one but just by being from another culture with a different knowledge base? If so, I can see that being really cool.
Finally I just need to talk about Amelothee, the hot badass knight lady. For a first impression, I quite liked her. She hasn’t said much yet, but between her armor, the mechanical arm and strict adherence to honor, I think she will make a compelling villain and even possible future comrade. What intrigues me most though is definitely her arm. Is it fully mechanical? Or is it just the armor laid over top? How do they have the technology for that, but not to consistently be able to turn snow into water? Where exactly is all of this technology coming from in the first place? Suffice to say, Kaina continues to intrigue me, and I can’t wait to start getting answers to some of these.
All in all, I quite liked this episode of Kaina and the Great Snow Sea. Every week it manages to improve upon itself in some small way. Maybe it spends the week developing the characters and their relationship. Maybe it tries something a bit more ambitious with its action. It might even do something daring with its narrative soon if my hopes pan out. Considering I went into the show expecting it to be nothing more then shovelware, most anything Kaina does at this point is going to be a win for me. How about you? Is Kaina surprising you as well, or did you always know it was going to be the dark horse of the season?
P.S. I forgot to mention it, but none of that is to say Kaina is perfect. There were a number of things I remembered while going through for screencaps, such as the sudden jump cut after the OP to them being on the boat and Ririha playing unconscious to the jello-like snow globs. Kaina is still a deeply flawed show, visually at least. But it’s managed to win me over despite that.
