Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night (夜のクラゲは泳げない, Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai) is a 2024 original drama anime. The series is directed by Ryōhei Takeshita (Pokémon: Paldean Winds, Eromanga Sensei, New Game!), written by Yūki Yaku (author of Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki), and produced by Doga Kobo for the company's 50th anniversary.
The story follows a group of girls in Shibuya as they try to chase their dreams, banding together to form an artist group called "JELEE":
- Mahiru Kouzuki, aka "Yoru Umitsuki" (voiced by Miku Itō); a shy girl who left behind her love for art out of fear of being made fun of, but is inspired to become the group's illustrator.
- Kano Yamanouchi, aka "JELEE" and formerly "Nonoka Tachibana" (Rie Takahashi); a former idol who was kicked out of the industry after a scandal, seeking to get back into it on her own terms as JELEE's lyricist.
- Mei "Kim Anouk" Takanashi (Miyuri Shimabukuro); a loony fan of Kano in her Sunflower Dolls days, and a distinctively talented pianist who joins the team as a composer.
- Kiwi Watase, aka "Nox Ryugasaki" (Miyu Tomita); a shut-in VTuber and Mahiru's childhood friend who lends her talents as an editor and mixer.
The series premiered on Tokyo MX on April 7, 2024. A tie-in manga adaption of the same name began serialization on the same day. A light novel adaptation will be scheduled for on May 24, 2024.
Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Gay: Kano. Was her kissing Mahiru on the cheek genuinely just a spur of the moment decision or genuine romantic attraction towards her friend?
- And Then What?: Kano when it comes to working in JELEE. While her goal for the group is to reach 100k followers, she doesn't have a real clear goal what to do once she reach it. It doesn't help that the others actually have outlines of what they are going to do after high school.
- Animal Motif: The titular Jellyfish, used as a symbol for the collective.
- Central Theme: The power and mutability of self-identity. All of the characters struggle with past conceptions of themselves, but choose to take on new personas as a way to reinvigorate their lives. Even secondary characters like Baba and Ariel grow more confident by changing how they label themselves without worrying how others think of them.
- Color Motif: Baba's outfits and even the outfits she makes for her daughter are all orange.
- Cool Teacher: When the girls discuss career paths in episode 7, Kiui expresses a desire to become a middle school teacher. When Kano asks her why one night while they're at a motorcyclist camp, she explains that her becoming The Shut-In wasn't helped by her homeroom teacher chastising her for having what he saw as childish interests. So she wants to become a teacher who would instead encourage her students' quirks and unique interests instead of criticising and forcing them to abandon them.
- Fake Boobs: Koharu freely admits her breasts have implants in them. Not only that, she also had work done on her face.
- Fatal Flaw: Fear of how others perceive her for Mahiru. She is so scared of being considered cringy or of being made fun of that she is unwilling to stand out at all, and hide and lie her interests. She claims that she wants to someday learn what she wants to be or what her interests are, but the truth is that she is already aware of what she is interested in, but unwilling to follow her passion.
- Glamorous Single Mother: Even though Shizue is a 31 year old divocee raising a daughter while simultaneously trying to make it as a idol for 14 years, the two are shown to be very happy . While Shizue does take multiple part-time jobs to support the family in-between her idol work, it really isn't a major issue while raising Ariel.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Kiui, and to a lesser Kano, end up striking up a friendship with Koharu, an older woman they meet at a motorcycling camp, who's a Gamer Chick like Kiui and gives Kano some advise for her practical exams. After the three of them graduate, Kiui and Koharu exchange contact info and become gaming buddies.
- Ironic Echo: Mei uses the phrase "betrays my expectations" to two situations in her introductory episode: In the first one, she is disappointed to learn that the idol Nonoka will never come back; in the second, she is elated to have become friends with Kano and Mahiru, which is more she ever thought she could be with her idol.
- The Leader: Kano is officially recognized as JELEE's leader on episode 4. Played with in that while she is definitely the heart of the team, capable of motivating and driving her teammates, she is not good at planning for them; her plans are vague and her goals are unrealistic, leaving Mahiru and Kiwi to pick up the slack in that department.
- Mythical Motifs: Episode 3 has one for the Japanese myth about Amaterasu and the Cave, where Ame-no-Uzume lures Amaterasu out of hiding through dance. In this case, Mahiru plays the former role, and uses a dance presentation to encourage Kiwi, representing the latter, to reconnect with her and show support for the latter's emotional isolation.
- One-Steve Limit: Subverted. "JELEE" refers to the art collective the girls create, it is Kano's internet alias, and is also the name of the virtual character the collective has as a mascot. Kane even mentions offhand on episode 5 that this may get confusing when presenting herself on a livestream.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Enforced. Mahiru's fear of stands out has her constantly try to appear as ordinary as possible and call herself this trope repeatedly to ward off the assumption she is still interested in art.
- Phoneaholic Teenager: Kiwi's addiction to her phone and to a mobile game's microtransactions are shown to be a defense mechanism as she has gotten more and more isolated. When particularly mad, she will start spending more money in upgrades for her character, to the point the payment service temporarily blocks her from doing anymore.
- Romantic Ride Sharing: One interpretation of Kano declaring that the reason why she even wanted to get a bike license was to be able to ride one around with Mahiru on her back is that, considering the Ship Tease, she wanted to invoke this trope.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Kano turns down Mei's 100 thousand yens because Mei wants her to come back to being Nonoka and rejoin the Sunflower Dolls. She regrets soon after, realizing that 100 thousand was a lot of money, but she gets better.
- Ship Tease: At the end of episode 5, Kano impulsively kisses Mahiru on the cheek and seems to get shy about her actions.
- Shout-Out:
- Episode 3 opens with Kiwi playing an online game. The defeat animation, showing a character being torn apart by dinosaurs, is a perfect recreation of a lost match in Exoprimal. Kiui later reveals the game's name is just Exo, furthering the reference.
- Kiwi has a sticker resembling Captain America's shield on her laptop.
- The Shut-In: Kiwi, as it turns out, has become one after failing to connect with her peers in high school.
- Superhero: Nox Ryugasaki is a superhero themed VTuber.
- Two Aliases, One Character: When an idol, Kano went by the name of Nonoka Tachibana.
- Younger Than They Look: Shizue Baba is trying to make it as an underground idol for years. By the time the story started, she is already 31, but she somehow managed to pass as if she was in her early 20s at most.
