One title down, a whole bunch to go…
#1
This is the dark side of Rumoko Takahashi. Just because she’s most well known for wacky, mostly-family-friendly rom-coms doesn’t mean she isn’t good at writing horror too. I highly recommend the Mermaid Saga manga to anyone with an interest in Rumiko Tahahashi’s works.
The Saga is told through a series of arcs and vignettes that follow protagonists Yuta and Mana as they travel Japan and inevitably end up involved in another series of events involving mermaids and the power of immortality that one has a (small) chance of gaining if they eat a mermaids flesh. Yuta and Mana are both immortals, two of the lucky (unlucky?) few that ate mermaid flesh and didn’t die on the spot or mutate into a hideous, cursed monster, which is what happens to most people that take the chance.
As for the OVA specifically, it’s okay. It’s not amazing, but it’s certainly not bad. The character designs of course have Takahashi’s appealing, trademark look. The animation is fairly good for such an old OVA, but nothing to really write home about. The music works quite well and does a fine job at evoking a specific mood for whatever may be happening in any given scene. There’s quite a bit of blood and gore here, as well as a bit of nudity, all casual and non-sexual though, aside from perhaps one very brief instance, which ends in one of the most satisfyingly loud slaps I think I’ve ever heard in an anime.
The presentation of certain information in the episode itself is where it’s small number of problems crop up. I didn’t realize this before I started watching, but this OVA is actually adapted from the 3rd story arc in Takahashi’s Mermaid Saga. This leaves a number of confusing details completely unexplained to those not already familiar with the manga, which makes it difficult to recommend to those that don’t have prior knowledge. The OVA started off with an anime-only prologue, of sorts, which itself is quite confusing, as it apparently takes place in 1936 as hinted by a newspaper article, with Yuta running from the police and ending up being chased by armed soldiers for seemingly no reason other than as an excuse to have him killed and show the viewer that he’s immortal. This is intermixed with another scene happening at the same time (which was a flashback in the manga) that sets up what’s going to happen in the present day. The jump to the present isn’t entirely clear, just a simply scene change, until a modern car shows up.
Still with me? After panning past the car, we’re shown Yuta and Mana resting under a tree by the road. And therein lies the biggest problem for new viewers with this adaptation of the 3rd arc. Who the heck is Mana? She’s just… there. There’s no explanation given and no recap on how Yuta rescued and befriended her in the first arc of the series. At this point, the uninitiated may not even realize a time-skip actually occurred if they’re not somewhat familiar with a certain event in Japanese history and took note of the signs in the prologue that hinted towards the date in which this event occurred. Otherwise, there really wasn’t anything that I noticed that shouted “1930’s Japan” in the prologue, which just makes Mana’s abrupt presence even more jarring if you hadn’t caught on to the time-skip. This is all cleared up within a few minutes as other characters from the prologue show up with grey hair and wrinkles, but that does little to make this any less confusing and more accessible to those who aren’t already familiar with the manga.
I will admit that I was mildly disappointed that this OVA was not, in fact, the first (and my favorite) arc. The title should have clued me in, as both arcs have different names, but the first three arcs are often lumped together and referred to colloquially as “Mermaid Forest”, which led to some confusion on my part. Despite this, as a reader of the manga I quite enjoyed it and was impressed at not only how well the the creepy and suspenseful, yet entertaining story made the transition to animation, but also the perfect pace at which they were able to streamline the entire arc into a 55 minute episode. I suppose the Forest arc isn’t particularly long, but still, not once did I feel like it was being rushed in any way, which is more than I can say for a lot of modern anime with which I’m familiar with the source material.
All in all, a fun watch and an entertaining look at the lesser-seen side of Takahashi’s catalog.
– As I mentioned in the review, this 3rd arc is really not a good starting point for newcomers. The manga is still the best way to start, or barring that, watching the first arc of the 2003 television adaptation, which covered all but the 6th arc ( which they skipped over for some reason), should be good enough before viewing this. Or just watch this arc in the 2003 series, but I hear it toned down some of the blood and and graphic violence, for better or worse, depending on your perspective. The OVA, like the manga, is dark and bloody (but certainly not tasteless), as it should be.
