Masking grief with a love of whales, cetologist Okijima Aiyai (Aya) struggles to support her family with dignity from a distance, in a quest that takes her around the Pacific and against the challenges of anti-Asian hate in the US.

SYNOPSIS:

The Afterlife of Whales is a twenty-one episode true to life anime series, blending cetacean science with a tear-jerking, character driven coming of age story.

Our hero, Aiyai (Aya) Okijima, masks mourning for father and best friend with a love of dolphins and whales. She works as an expert care-giver at an ‘eco-aquarium’ about fifty miles north of Taiji, ( Taiji is the site of The Cove documentary, a film widely criticized for its deeply racist portrayals of the Japanese). Aya’s main goal to earn enough money to support her remaining family with dignity. Aya’s main emotional challenge is to overcome mental isolation, represented on screen by the lingering imaginary ghost of her friend, Taichi.

At the beginning of the series, the introverted Aya lives in Ise with her strict older sister Miki, her younger and sensorially challenged siblings Shontaku and Eriko, and an alcoholic mother Tekka. Fastidious at work, her journey begins after she takes a chance and dives with dolphins after hours at night. Injured in a way that needs connection with others for healing, Aya unfortunately risks losing everything if she is found out and so stays quiet. Desperately needing the money and the emotional crutch that the aquarium provides, Aya finds herself pressured to taking whatever new post comes her way.

She gets an opportunity, but it is a complicated one. Aya's ambitious university professor Jorge Nakamura arranges a research job for her aboard the scientific whaling ship ‘Raicheru’, under the condition that she leave her family and join him going forward. He needs the marriage to advance his career, and to remain closeted to satisfy his Catholic family. Under duress, Aya agrees both to the post and an engagement of convenience, something her mother had done after losing Aya’s father.

After a brief stint on the ship, Aya presents her findings alone at an IWC (International Whaling Conference), shunned by all but the empathetic Tilly Lilly. Tilly and Aya gradually fall in love, but it is something that Aya can’t recognize despite her deep feelings. Ultimately, the pair join Nakamura in America to serve as indigenous community ambassadors for the ‘Not-So-Mystical’ Aquarium.

The final crisis of season one comes for Aya after she suffers a terrible hate crime in New York, leading to the bad marriage to Nakamura and forced return to Japan. [At the end of the season, a bull sperm whale kills Nakamura, leaving Aya and Tilly to lead a new Hokkaido aquarium in his wake, as new financial heads of the Okijima family.]

Every episode of The Afterlife of Whales features a particular species of whale or dolphin. These are conceived as anime stand alone insets, which can be compiled into an independent educational package. The characters serve as educational spokespersons for the brand in these. Other intentional devices include the repetition of earlier scenes on later episodes as the series progresses, to save production costs to be sure but also to use the multiple viewings to bond audiences.