“We need another college named after a woman,” said one Archive of Our Own writer. “I need a yuri series next.”
Photo by Julia Wong
Touted by its marketing team as a passionate and inclusive addition to the “UC cinematic universe,” Course Reserves+ recently debuted Sea You in November, marking the unprecedented collaboration between Chancellor Pradeep Kumar Khosla and MAPPA Studio. This 24-episode historical romantic comedy anime series follows the tragic, long-forgotten founders of UC San Diego, whose names were recently discovered in a treasure room beneath Khosla’s third mansion.
Following the rise of UCSD in national rankings, Congress gave the UC system the greenlight for the series featuring “American sex symbols” Roger Revelle and John Muir to fundraise the construction of Ninth and Tenth colleges and boost the investment potential of an education at UCSD. “Complaints about the ‘lack of affordable housing,’ and ‘UC Socially Dead,’ and ‘outdated and discriminatory administrative practices’ on r/UCSD pushed me to funnel UCSD’s annual funding into this anime to improve student morale,” said Khosla.
Set in the fictional town of San Biego, the romcom features a current UCSD student as John Muir, Yuichi Nakamura as Roger Revelle, and Chris Pratt as Earl Warren and 12 additional supporting characters. When asked why he was chosen for this project, Chris Pratt said, “I’m Chris Pratt.”
The series tracks the creation and vast setting of the intellectual haven University of California, San Biego where, according to assistant director Asleep Alsohk, “academic integrity, racism, and quantum field theory establish the worldbuilding.”
“Muir and Revelle’s story took place in 1960, where they explored both the complexities of founding UCSD and finding each other,” said guest director Makoto Shinkai. “This twenty-first century vision of Roger x John, or ‘Rohn,’ is the beginning of the legacy of two extraordinary men who dared to lock lips. When battling the societal norms of America and disturbing personal conflicts, they risk dying in the self-consuming eros between the whitest of male scholars.”
The anime received substantial critical acclaim in preview screenings, with early reviews having an average word count of 9,000. “Roger,” said one Archive of Our Own writer, “with his fixation on the natural sciences, often found himself lost in John’s environmental prowess and stunningly sapphire eyes. One Freudian slip after another, this love story slyly parallels that of King Triton and Sun God.” A Ph. D. student from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography wrote in their dissertation, “Real-Time Control and Identification of the Sensual Oceanic Consciousness” (2025): “I cried over the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) episode where Revelle, while ‘down bad,’ defeated racism in America for Muir’s attention and blew up Thurgood Marshall’s manga collection […] The sexual tension between Warren and Muir completely undermines the Geneva Conventions.”
The efforts required to bring this image to life have included the creativity and funding of individuals across the campus. “According to the UCSD faculty handbook, I have the Mandate of Heaven and made it a legal obligation for everyone who has been, is currently, or will be a student here to dedicate their entire being to the project,” said Khosla. Under the guidance of HDH, employees partake in every single aspect of the production within a repurposed Tesla Gigafactory. “This occupation rejuvenates the ubiquitous resolve everyday,” said an English major. A MAPPA executive summarized the working conditions: “The class is equivalent to scoring a job right after graduation. These kids are compensated with pizza parties and experience in a crowded economy. Workers share a Home Depot box complex on Scholars Drive. Despite a few controversies, Khosla captaining a formidable ship means that this anime is working out to be the magnum opus of the decade. As such, we envision a bright future for UCSD.”
