Note: I saw the first two episodes of Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night at Anime Boston 2024 in an advance screening held by HIDIVE, ahead of the show’s official premiere in April 6, 2024.
Studio Doga Kobo is perhaps best known for their shows from the past 15 years such as Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun and New Game! but the studio has actually been around for 50 years. To commemorate this anniversary, the studio is producing an original series titled Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night.
Jellyfish is a CGDCT anime, which is fitting as CGDCT is one of Doga Kobo’s go-to genres. The show revolves around four girls who will collectively form an online music persona named “Jelee”. Episode 1 introduces the first two members of the group – Mahiru Kozuki (Miku Ito), an artist under the pseudonym Yoru Mitsuki; and Kano Yamanouchi (Rie Takahashi), Jelee’s original creator and an aspiring singer who previously performed as an idol under the pseudonym Nonoka Tachibana before quitting after causing a huge scandal. As for the title of the show, the whole jellyfish theme comes from a jellyfish mural Yoru painted when she was little. Kano is a big fan of the mural, so much so that it inspires her to base her online persona around the creature and name it “Jelee” (and in true Engrish fashion, she screwed up the spelling). The jellyfish theme is also a metaphor for the friendship between the main girls. Much like how a jellyfish needs external factors to swim, the girls need each other in order to shine.
I kind of got A Place Further than the Universe (Yorimoi) vibes with this show. Like that masterpiece, this show has four girls, each with different backgrounds, meeting each other by chance and teaming up to achieve a seemingly unreachable goal for themselves. Yoru and Kano remind me a bit of Yorimoi‘s Mari and Shirase, what with Yoru feeling her adolescence is going to complete waste and Kano reigniting her spark by sharing her dream with her. Mind you, I have no idea if Yorimoi is actually an inspiration for Jellyfish. For all I know, this is all just a coincidence or I’m only thinking of Yorimoi because it’s the first and best show of the like that comes to mind. Still, I can’t help but make a connection between both show’s premieres.
To be frank, and this isn’t necessarily a deal breaker for some people, I think this show finds its stride more with the second episode. I find Episode 2 a lot funnier and it has the advantage of having a third main character in the mix. That said, this premiere leaves a decent enough impression. In particular, I like the budding friendship between Yoru and Kano. Yoru gave up drawing when her friends inadvertently make fun of her mural so it’s nice to see her meet someone who is a fan of her work. There’s some brief drama where Yoru refuses to provide art for Jelee and envies Kano’s ambition while Kano blurts out that Yoru is more “normal” than she imagined. But after Kano reflects on it and Yoru learns about Kano’s past, the two realize that they’re in the same boat. They’re both girls who really want to pursue their passion. There isn’t a moment between them this episode that made me laugh out loud but their friendship is charming and pretty compelling.
My one concern is perhaps the music. Maybe I’ll change my mind after a rewatch but I wasn’t too impressed with the insert song at the end of the episode. It’s not godawful but I’m not sure if it’s particularly memorable. That is kind of concerning as this song is part of a watershed moment in the plot, where Kano hijacks someone’s stream as payback for defiling the jellyfish mural with her advertisements and inspires Yoru to update her mural and reclaim as it her own. It’s a satisfying moment meant to showcase what these two could bring to the table as Jelee but it’s held back by the insert song. To be fair, Jelee hasn’t fully assembled so maybe the first real song comes later. I’m sure the show will focus on other aspects such as Yoru’s art but I do hope that the show will deliver some quality tunes as Jelee is clearly a virtual musician first and foremost.
Watch Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night on HIDIVE
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