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(4.17/5)Mildly entertaining
Very cool art and of course the deep sea theme, educational. Each chapter is a deep sea creature and the workers describe their features.
The plot is very subdued but basically the cleaner loves and knows the deep sea and is slowly trying to move up the ladder.
Nice slice of life with an interesting setting
Set in an aquarium located in the deep-sea, this manga follows the daily life of Kotaro who works there as a cleaner and sees him grow through his interactions with the people and sea creatures he meets there. I really enjoyed this manga, I found the artstyle beautiful, I think it has a really nice atmosphere, and the hints at some light mystery about a certain plot point really drew me in.
This manga didn't feel that difficult grammar wise, aside from the occasional aquarium and marine life related descriptions and vocabulary which can be a little more difficult. Also the lack of furigana and occasional long strings of katakana felt like good practice but do up the difficulty a bit.
Fun manga for learning about sea life
I enjoyed the educational aspect from this series. Each chapter is dedicated to a certain marine animal, and throughout the chapter you learn a few facts about it, and then at the end of the chapter there’s a short description about the animal, usually expanding on the information mentioned in the chapter. E.g. Venus Flower Basket is カイロウドウケツ. The カイロウ is 偕老 “growing old together” and ドウケツ is 洞穴 “being buried in the same grave” so 偕老同穴 basically symbolizes a happy marriage. The Venus Flower Basket got this name because shrimp couples sometimes crawl into them while young and then grow too big to escape, so they spend the rest of their lives together in the Basket. When the shrimp procreate, their offspring are small enough to leave the Basket, but the original pair will be stuck together forever. For this reason, Venus Flower Baskets are a symbol of love in some Asian cultures, and are given as wedding gifts. Even though I love reading and learning about stuff like this, the mc is too boring for me to continue. His only character trait is “I like fish :D”