Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night First Impressions

Synopsis

Shibuya is a city full of identity. It is here on Shibuya’s late night streets that illustrator Mahiru Kozuki, former idol Kano Yamanouchi, Vtuber Kiui Watase and composer Mei Kim Anouk Takanashi — four young women who are slightly outside the world — join together and form an anonymous artist group called JELEE. “I” also want to shine like someone else. If it’s not me but “we” then we might be able to shine.
Anilist

Staff

Storyboard

Takeshita Ryouhei

Episode Direction

Takeshita Ryouhei

Animation Direction

Taniguchi Junichirou, Nakajima Chiaki, Toyoda Akiko, Yamano Masaaki, Izawa Tamami

Notable Animator(s)

Sugita Shuu

Conversation Corner

This season might just be the season of the original anime. I went into Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night with the expectation that it would be good just based on the PVs, I didn’t really know a lot about the director behind it, so I didn’t quite expect it to be this good. I was expecting a much more drama filled series, a slower moving series. But I was completely wrong. I was surprised by the modern direction style that fully embodies this show. The quick, yet casual pacing, the voyeuristic camera shots. It all fits very well with the teenage cast we have, all of whom are trying to be influencers of some sorts, and it’s fast moving just like the actual industry. It never quite lingers at any certain moment.

BLUEDASH

Yeah, it’s certainly the kind of debut episode that you could pick apart for hours. The idea of duality with Mahiru and Kano, the memories of a past being overwritten with the experiences of the present, the character dynamics. It’s all almost impossibly good in the hands of Ryouhei and the rest of this team. If I was to pick somewhere to go first though, it would definitely be the dynamics of Mahiru and Kano here. Ryouhei really effectively conveys the development of their relationship and the “roles” that each have through impressively precise storyboards and narrative control.

Piro

You picked up on this much faster than I did, but the way he establishes their roles is so natural yet pretty in your head, and I love it. At the Costume store, the outfits of the demon and the angel already establish the characters’ roles for each other in less than 6 minutes. They’re foils for one another, but they’re not against each other. Both of the outfits are right next to each other, but they’re both smiling. They’re a contrast but they don’t go against one another.

BLUEDASH

The most fun part about those outfits is how Mahiru reached for the same one as Kano, but just couldn’t bring herself to do it. It’s a great segue for talking about the past and how Kano is a catalyst for those memories. When we find her in the store we get a flashback, and when Mahiru goes back to the mural we get yet another, and during the insert song we get even more. I’m mainly curious to find out if we’ll see Kano from this perspective or if it’s reserved for Mahiru, but I also really love how the flashbacks are integrated, and I just know that you’d love to talk about that.

Piro

I think it’s too early to tell how much focus they’ll place on each individual girl at this point. The episode was already quite packed, to the extent that they only had time to explore Mahiru. The integration of the flashbacks was great! While I’m not familiar with Ryouhei Takeshita’s style, the way this episode was put together suggests that he’s aiming to piece everything together in a very natural manner. There are no abrupt jump cuts to flashbacks, instead, her child self seamlessly enters the scene she is currently in. This creates a strong sense of continuity between past and present events and once again quickly establishes why Mahiru is the way she is.

BLUEDASH

Definitely, you could say that everything has its place in the present with Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night. It really is quite incredible how much they’ve effectively fit into a single episode. There’s so much that it makes you forget about all the “smaller” pieces like the great animation, incredible night-time scene compositions, and the wonderfully expressive character designs. I’m sure it was more than a bit tempting to leave Taniguchi’s designs in their best forms, but their willingness to cave to humor and simplicity really shows just how malleable and expressive the series aims to be. Though its roots may run deep, that doesn’t mean they’ll forgo the excited, bubbly, and silly nature that these characters can exude.

Piro

The lighting during the nighttime scenes is one of the greatest I’ve seen in an anime in a very long time. We’ve had animes like Call of the Night, which went for a brighter, unrealistic look through the eyes of a teen, or Insomniacs After School, which focused more on lighting hues but nothing too strongly. Jellyfish here takes a whole different approach. The lighting style is quite realistic to the actual nightlife, and it’s done so well. Unlike the other shows I’ve mentioned, the light sources feel like they actually matter a lot. When something is bright, it’s because there’s a literal physical light source there that the character can interact with (for example, it being too bright for Mahiru to see at one point). Everything integrates seamlessly, and you can truly sense the effort to make it all feel authentic, avoiding any sense of it being merely an effect or something that wouldn’t believably be there.

BLUEDASH

Yeah, it’s really incredible work owed to Ishiguro Kei, Kaneko Yuuji, and Kuwano Takafumi. I think the most interesting aspect of it is the fact that Ishiguro and Kuwano have had quite a lot of experience working with one another at Doga Kobo, but Kaneko is a wildcard. In a sense, it feels like Kaneko’s incredible environment art has provided the duo the key to unlocking their full potential- much in the same way that Ryouhei Takeshita’s original idea has brought out the best work we’ve seen from Doga Kobo period. Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night makes for fierce competition in the season against Train To The End of The World, but the fact remains that Doga Kobo and EMT Squared have now delivered some the best opening episodes of the season, which are poised to excite fans for what’s to come.

Piro

Animehouse