Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau

In a world covered by an endless sea of sand, there sails an island known as the Mud Whale. In its interior lies an ancient town, where the majority of its inhabitants are said to be "Marked," a double-edged trait that grants them supernatural abilities at the cost of an untimely death. Chakuro is the village archivist; young and curious, he spends his time documenting the discovery of newfound islands. But each one is like the rest—abandoned save for the remnants of those who lived there long ago.

For the first time in six months, another island crosses the horizon, so Chakuro and his friends join the scouting group. During the expedition, they find vestiges of an archaic civilization. And inside one of its crumbling remains, Chakuro discovers a girl who will change his destiny and the world inside the Mud Whale as he knows it.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ouni Main

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

Chakuro Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Lykos Main

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Liontari Supporting

Yamashita, Daiki Japanese

Suou Supporting

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Shuan Supporting

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Ginshu Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Sami Supporting

Kanemoto, Hisako Japanese

Nibi Supporting

Tamaru, Atsushi Japanese

Oruka Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Matsukura, Yuuji Producer

Kakuya, Haruka Producer

Suzuki, Kaoru Producer

Nakayoshi, Haruhito Producer

Reviews

Aug 31, 2026

Jxbinha

Recommended

Children of the Whales was one of those anime where the concept immediately caught my attention. A world surrounded by an endless sea of sand, people living isolated on a moving island, and an entire society built around memories, loss, and powers that come with a price—it had something genuinely beautiful about it.
What stayed with me the most wasn't even necessarily the plot itself, but watching the characters change through everything they had to endure. Their growth isn't the happy, easy kind; it's painful, and you can feel how certain experiences permanently change who they are. I definitely cried a little.
I also really loved the ... melancholic atmosphere of the anime. There's something almost poetic about its world, even when things become cruel. It has flaws, and I understand why it might not work for everyone, but the combination of a beautiful concept, emotional moments, and characters forced to grow through suffering made it a memorable experience for me.
Score: 7/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 11, 2022

Inter_anime

Mixed Feelings

"Children of the Whales" or "Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau" is a precellular anime, it has an interesting premise, complex world-building, and decent animation, yet despite all that it constantly felt as if it was coming up short. Depending on what you like in a show, this anime might either be really enjoyable for you or not enjoyable at all.

One thing that is really appealing about Children of the Whales is its setting and world-building, it's hard to explain without giving too much away, but there's this whole complex story of this sea of sand with various islands called "whales" with the inhabitants ... on them being divided between those who have special power and those that don't. For each society there is a different drawback to having these powers called "thymia", for the protagonists it means that their lifespans our significantly shortened, for others it cost them their emotions. I'm not going to divulge what the cause of this is of course, but there were plenty of surprises, twists and turns that kept me hooked the whole time.

While the premise and background are the anime's biggest strength, the writing is its biggest weakness. Children of the Whale is surprisingly brutal at times, with a body count among its main cast rivaling many popular war anime, but it seems that the writers of the show were uncertain of how much they should showcase. A lot of the brutality and character deaths were muted and ruined by pointless melodrama, and it seemed as if the show kept trying to cover up how dark it actually was. Pacing was also an issue, some episodes felt overly rushed while others were far too slow. Also, the show relied way too much on exposition, especially in the early episodes.

Another aspect of the show negatively affected by the writing were the characters. For its runtime Children of the Whales has a surprisingly large caste, especially among our protagonist's society, but their development is haphazard at best. Chakuro is built up to be the main protagonist and Lykos is kind of the poster child of the show, but there were some episodes were neither of them were in it for more than a couple minuets. It is clear that the vigilante Ouni is the most dynamic and complex character in the show, and this is reflected by the fact that he is by far the most popular character, but his development too was uneven at best. Another issue was how unbelievably stupid a lot of the characters acted, aside from the aforementioned Ouni it rarely seemed as if any of the other characters had two brain cells to rub as they were constantly making boneheaded decisions to further the plot.

The art for the show was alright, I guess. The whole environment of these islands and people floating on a sea of sand was well conceived of and animated, and the main caste's character designs were surprisingly complex. The side character's designs though at times bordered on overly simplistic and it was hard to tell them apart, as well as sometimes the background art and the characters seemed to contrast too much, making it look like the characters had simply been pasted on.

The music also had its highs and lows, the op and ep didn't strike me as overly special at first but they both grew on me over time, to the point that I consider the former one of my top favorite openings now. On the flip side there is this tune one of the characters sings which is really annoying, and there were a few times the music did not gel well at all, there was this one moment that was supposed to be sentimental, but the directors chose to have this upbeat, almost goofy song playing which ruined the moment for me.

Children of the Whales touches on some important themes, such as the inevitability of mortality, how complicated morality can be, the fact in war the bad guys sometimes win, and the power of emotions. Yet despite that and its interesting premise, I personally never felt as if the anime ever fully delivered. In fact, there were a couple times, especially after the horrendous episode 10, that I wanted to drop this. Personally, for me it's the one anime I feel most conflicted about, and I feel that I like it more for the show it could have been rather than what actually came out. Perhaps it's because the anime is a Shoujo and not the Shonen, but I really didn't connect with how the themes and ideas were being expressed. Despite that and all the issues I have with Children of the Whales, it did get me interested in the manga, and I am hopefully looking forward if this anime (though unlikely) ever gets a sequel. I very tentatively recommend this if you appreciate intriguing fantasy anime and complex stories, but if you're offput by bad writing or missed opportunities then you probably will not enjoy it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 31, 2022

Allagowf

Not Recommended

Evil exists, this is a fact ...

Children of the Whales is simply a stupide tragedy with superficial characters, seeing their friends and family killed in front of them, and they simply keep calling for peace and they do their best to not revenge, I really hate when the creators try to show that humans should not treat violence with violence, these fake morals made me want to vomit.
Protecting your beloved once is something I will consider one of the Holy morals. Being weak and uncapable of protecting your family and being happy with it should not be promoted at all.

Of course, in our developed world ... there are police and army to protect and apply rules so they will judge evil, but in a savage world like the Children of the Whales, it's just showing how fake the writer is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 ) LukesYGO_WSonYT - Oct 28, 2017	80 replies	by paocmanteiga »» Nov 9, 2025 12:49 PM
	Poll: Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 23, 2017	99 replies	by odd-star »» Oct 31, 2025 6:29 PM
	Why Shoujo? GabrielNaice - Mar 30, 2025	14 replies	by Veronicz »» Apr 5, 2025 2:31 AM
	Poll: Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Nov 25, 2017	68 replies	by The_boysavior »» Mar 9, 2025 2:02 PM
	Poll: Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 2, 2017	65 replies	by Revvie-chan »» Feb 1, 2025 10:43 AM