Umi No Misaki is seemingly a simple tale about a young man arriving in a mysterious island with strange but beautiful customs, and his interactions with the islanders and specifically the Cape Maidens of the local religion, once his role as that religion's central figure is revealed.


However, that's where simplicity ends. Without spoiling too much, I will say that the plot is contrived, the characters mostly one-dimensional or outright caricatures, with the sole exception of the MC, Nagi, who is alright but nothing to write home about.
The art is mediocre at best. There was no aspect of this story or its presentation that captivated me at any point, hence my overall rating.

Umi No Misaki is a series drowning in disturbing implications, hiding under a veneer of cheer and optimism.

Moving on to spoilers.

Umi No Misaki is a harem manga that takes things up a notch or several from the typical harem protagonist who simply has all the girls like him. In Umi No Misaki, the protagonist is actually romantically and sexually involved with three girls at the same time, all of which are aware and approving.

I have no issue with the harem aspect, itself. In fact, I'd say this is one of the very few cases where a harem is not an issue. In Umi No Misaki, the three cape maidens are part of a cult and have been forcibly removed from their families and brainwashed since birth for exactly these events, so the setup is enough to explain their acceptance of the situation.

The characters themselves are ... disappointing. None of the main girls display more than one facet at a time, and generally have a single personally trait before falling in love with the MC and a single trait after. As I mentioned, the MC is alright. He's a good guy, not a moron, believably insecure but not stupidly so. It's a person that most guys remember from when they were 16-17, themselves.
I'm not going to talk about the three girls separately because they are cardboard cutouts whose small differences have little to no actual effect in the end. They're just there.

The character cast could have perhaps been salvaged if Kisaragi-sensei didn't exist. Kisaragi-sensei is a plot device, appearing at specific points to advance the plot in the most egregious manner possible, imparting 'wisdom' in the most invasive, rude way possible and with everyone just going along with it because the plot needs them to.
The worst part is that all the stuff Kisaragi-sensei forces people to realize could have been explored better without her and made for some interesting introspection.
Ignoring all that though, it was just so unbearably unrealistic for a person to be this way and act that way and still be treated the way she was that any immersion (or, indeed, respect) I had in the manga vanished. I couldn't ignore her either, she was everywhere.

And if you try to consider her as a character, she gets even worse. As the only responsible adult not part of a cult, she stands back and lets a murder suicide proceed, knowing it was going to happen. Any credibility she had, any respect or responsibility as a person and an adult is instantly gone.
"Wait, what?"you might ask. "Murder suicide in a harem manga?"

You see, the cult raises the girls from early on believing that whoever the dragon god (our protagonist) chooses, will have to be drowned along with him in order to ... appease the sea? Maintain prosperity? Or something? It's never explained. However, towards the end of the manga we're shown that some part of the cult is based on reality, as some actual supernatural events appear to be happening, expanding the MC's perception. Of course, it could be him finally buying into the whole thing and convincing himself but for the sake of argument, I'll accept the concept of the dragon god as an actual thing. Even with this, it turns out that the dragon god doesn't actually want child sacrifices. If you're a cultist, please try to contain your gasps of surprise.

The girls are being taken away from their families and brainwashed into sexual activities, suicide and murder. The kindly old grandmother of one of three girls oversees the whole proceedings. The outsider Kisaragi-sensei makes sure that everything goes on its merry way towards the murder suicide.

In the end, of course, our protagonist manages to find a new path, barely saving himself and one of the girls and dictating that, guess what, child sacrifice is kinda not cool and is no longer to be followed.

The author also felt the need to include pedophilia when suddenly the 9y/o sister of one of the girls realizes that she's the reincarnation of one of the past shrine maidens who did end up being drowned. Some quite disturbing images are produced from that. It's not like it ended up having any plot relevance, either. Just sorta sick.

The manga ends about as generically as can be, with the MC continuing life on the island among his three (four, if you count the pre-pubescent girl) girlfriends as everyone lives happily ever after.

Thought specific moments were cute or nice, there is no escaping the dark and disturbing concepts of murderous cult activities, sexually exploited underage children and some pedophilia mixed in there just because.

And if ever there was a chance for me to take this seriously or appreciate its good moments, there is always Kisaragi-sensei to ruin those, too.

3/10 for not terrible art, a normal MC and some -few- enjoyable moments.