An eccentric caretaker vigilantly monitors and looks after oceanic depths, consistently attempting to facilitate harmony beneath the temperamental seas.
He's rather tightly attuned to rhythmic supernatural submersion, and even cares for aquatic wonders too young to freely roam.
But his most spirited daughter suddenly escapes one propitious morn, and eventually finds herself on land in the adoring company of a human.
The child is on his way to school when he accidentally cuts himself, his wound soon licked by the curious goldfish and instantly healed through nascent magic.
She's named "Ponyo" by little Sôsuke who becomes deeply enamoured with his friend, but her father remains distraught and soon reacquires her through immortal counsel.
We learn that he is collecting unique transformative elixirs, which he hopes to use to change the world one epoch transfigurative day.
But little Ponyo makes an escape during which she chaotically disrupts his plans.
The ocean erupting in imaginative fury.
Ponyo finding Sôsuke once more.
Imagine the ocean 10,000 years ago, abounding with the practically uninterrupted fecundity of thousands upon thousands of transformative millennia!
Whales everywhere to be seen coral reefs extending far past fathomable limits, manatees and dugongs flourishing unabashed, crab and lobster expertly radiating.
No wonder legendary tales consistently emerged with divine hyperbole, as a lack of knowledge inspired courageous deeds and habitual curiosity envisaged remonstration.
Ghibli suggests that even with our technology and the ways we've adapted to oceanic resilience, we've lost something by moving beyond legend into a much more practical repartee.
Too much of an emphasis on fact can tether daring adventurous spirits, to wayward predictable trajectories lacking variability and versatile imagination (we clearly still need to clean the oceans up).
Not that a practical focus isn't particularly requisite in traditional commerce.
It's just at times it doesn't make recreational sense.
And for thousands of years there was nothing to do.
*Figures not precise estimates.
**That's the first time I've ballparked civilization's history.
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