After a lovely 24 episodes, it's time to bid The Aquatope on White Sand farewell. The finale was a mellow, quiet one, with amazing art to feast your eyes on one last time. Every character arc was wrapped up in slightly idealized but still believable ways. In true slice of life fashion, the anime left us feeling that they'll still live, breathe, and dream, long after the ending. Even though everything was pretty straightforward, the finale steal leaves us with a few questions. Let's try to break them down:
Aquatope on White Sand Ending Explained: A Return of Magic?
In the first half of Aquatope on White Sand, magical realist elements were a big part of the story. They were rarely discussed or acknowledged by the characters, of course, apart from that one time, when Kukuru tried to exploit what she perceived as Gama Gama's supernatural elements. That, of course, didn't end well.
Magic in the anime is as soft as it gets. It has no logic or predictable patterns. It can't be wielded. It's just there when the characters need it. None of them ever saw the cute little spirit that used to hang out in the shrine Kukuru and Fuuka visited. But it was the creators' way to tell us that the characters' offerings and goodwill weren't in vain.
In the second part of the anime, any supernatural elements disappeared for more mundane elements. Work-life pretty much swallowed Kukuru, making her quite irritable. It was easy to interpret this degradation of magical elements as symbolizing Kukuru's passage to adulthood. I can't say I liked that interpretation, but it was plausible.
Thankfully, the show proved this logical interpretation to be limited, if not outright mistaken. In the final two episodes, the magic returns. Fuuka and Kukuru have an almost supernatural experience by the shore, and then again, after Fuuka's return from Hawaii. The spirit also makes another appearance, being, in fact, the last image we're left with.
Fuuka and Kukuru have achieved significant character growth when they reunite after two years. Therefore, the earlier disappearance of the fantastic elements can't be attributed to adulthood. Not if magic returns when the characters are all grown. So, let's break things down a bit.
Early in episode 24, when Kukuru and Fuuka last visit the shrine, Kukuru acknowledges what they're doing for the first time by asking Fuuka if she thinks the "kijimuna" will enjoy the offering. Now, if you're familiar with Japanese folklore, you might have already recognized the little spirit as such.
These mythological creatures are particularly related to Okinawa, where the story unfolds. They're small wood spirits, leaving in trees. The kijimuna are playful tricksters, who will occasionally form friendships with humans, but these can turn sour.
The relationship between Kukuru, Fuuka, and this particular kijimuna isn't clear. All in all, they never interact, and the girls aren't aware of it even when it's really close. It's, therefore, safe to assume that it doesn't have a particularly strong influence on their lives one way or the other, though it does disappear while they're struggling with their mundane work life, suggesting they need to be in a specific frame of mind for it to appear.
Similarly, Kukuru only sees her dead family in the water while in Gama Gama, until the last 2 episodes. Then, the supernatural experiences return twice; when Kukuru agrees with Fuuka's decision to study in Hawaii, and when Fuuka returns and sees the new Tingaara space - the titular Aquatope on White Sand.
The magical realist elements of the anime are quite ambiguous and never fully explored. Therefore, there are surely many ways to interpret them, and none would be necessarily wrong. The way I see it, magic is there for the characters when they are in the correct mind space for it. While working in Gama Gama, Fuuka and Kukuru were childlike in their innocent hope of saving the old aquarium. They were seeing the world around them with youthful wonder, as they explored and had fun discovering themselves.
No episode is as dark as the two final ones of the first part, whereby Kukuru barricaded herself in Gama Gama only to lose it anyway. Following the transition to Tingaara, however, her life became a different kind of dark. She found her career less satisfying than she had hoped, and she was often asked to compromise her ideals. Similarly, Fuuka occasionally struggled with her place in the world following the loss of her idol career. This only stopped when she became certain about her new dream; to study and protect marine life.
When Fuuka breaks the news to Kukuru, just as Kukuru decides to do her best in marketing and help the animals this way, the girls are hopeful and full of dreams once more. They've understood that adulthood is not about appearances and that dreams don't stop after the age of eighteen. They have failed enough times to know that they can always get up and find new dreams and new beginnings.
The final scene seems to support this idea. Kukuru manages to see her parents and sister in the water after Fuuka's return. By then, Kukuru is doing well at marketing, balancing it with some attendant work, and she knows that her grandfather's words are true; she's the future of aquariums. Hers and Fuuka's dreams are only just beginning to unfold. Their supernatural experiences are a connection to the past, and what it took to get where they are, while simultaneously heralding new hope.
Does this interpretation sound naive? It might be, but I still consider it more fun than the acceptance that magic somehow stops when you hit adulthood.
Aquatope on White Sand Ending Explained: Where Are Our Characters Now?
The ending wrapped everything cleanly for all characters, while also leaving room for interpretation. All of them are still happily working for Tingaara, which is ever-growing. The assistant manager has mellowed significantly, promoting Kukuru from "Plankton" to "Nekton" - plankton that can swim. Udon-chan is now a chef in Tingaara, and everyone is in a good place professionally.
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Aquatope on White Sand Ending Explained: A Queer Reading?
Wrapping up, I'd like to stand on the motif of marriage - a constant in the finale - for one particular reason. When the show started airing, many viewers, myself included, had hoped the anime would dare depict a healthy queer relationship. While this didn't happen, Fuuka and Kukuru formed a wonderful friendship. But could the finale be hinting at more?
The episode starts with Kukuru dreaming of vowing to protect and love marine life "in sickness and in health." The phrasing clearly resembles marriage vows. This, of course, could be simply linked with the fact that she helped plan a wedding in Tingaara, and her stress about it. However, there are several queer elements throughout; Haebaru's remarks about the penguins possibly forming queer relationships, as well as the fact that Fuuka and Kukuru spent the last moments of the show in the dome where the wedding took place can be read as queer undertones.
While we have no confirmation of that, it's refreshing that none of the girls ended up with a male love interest. If you want that for her, you can definitely imagine her as having ended up with Kai. The anime left some loose ends between the two. But at the end of the day, this is the story of two girls, losing their dreams and finding new ones, mutable as the ocean.
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