The "horror" genre in anime has pretty much become a misnomer over the
years; rather than attempting to be scary in any way, shape, or form,
the animes almost always attempt to develop a slow, interesting and
gruesome story. When the genre works well, it fosters a kind of morbid
fascination in the viewer. Despite the fact that not a lot is happening
in these shows, what does happen can be very interesting indeed.
However, when the genre fails, the anime comes across as cheesy,
predictable, and boring. Every horror anime walks a very fine line
between being appealingly dark and appallingly absurd, and when an
anime crosses into the ridiculous, much of its charm is lost.
Following
this trend closely, Mermaid's Forest is both pretty good and pretty
bad. Almost all of the plot lines are thoroughly ridiculous and
logic-defying; never before in an anime have I seen a plot that
contradicts itself so much in so many ways, and some of the story
elements used are laughably cheesy (lost souls in particular come to
mind). Yet, at the same time the anime managed to consistently hold my
attention for the entire time through. The gruesome nature of the show
combined with some clever (though way too predictable) plot twists do a
pretty good job at making the storyline worthwhile.
Unfortunately,
the plot and characters really aren't quite good enough to carry the
anime by itself. Annoyingly, the anime is mainly episodic in plot.
Essentially, the anime has seven totally isolated stories that have
little to do with each other. The ending is too unsatisfying, the plot
is too fractured, and the dark mood is broken by absolute absurdity a
bit too often. As someone on animenfo has already said, most of the
characterization is devoted to the villains of each plot line. Almost
no time is spent characterizing the two protagonists, and as a result
they feel disappointingly flat and empty. Only the creatively thought
out villains manage to illicit feelings other than apathy. Of course,
if the technical aspects of the show were excellent, then the plot and
characters would be more than enough to make a good show.
Unfortunately...
Visually, the show is pretty mediocre. The
hero's character design is so generic that it looks like it's out of a
hentai show, and none of the other character designs are particularly
good either. Probably the worst are the lost soul designs, which are
some of the stupidest monsters that I've ever seen. The animation
itself tends to be pretty clunky and half-assed, and worst of all, when
violence happens in the show (and it happens often), there is literally
zero gore. When one considers that the anime is attempting to be dark
and gruesome, this exclusion of gore is absolutely baffling.
Fortunately,
the sound manages to be a little better. Voice acting is competently
done, and the music is unmemorable but decent. The two protagonists'
voices are pretty well done, and add a surprising amount of character
to the unimpressive character designs. As a whole the sound is still
nothing to really rave about, but there's nothing really bad about it
either.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed Mermaid's Forest a bit too much
to flat out condemn it. While Mermaid's Forest is riddled with various
weaknesses, the macabre style of the show ended up being too much to
resist for my misanthropic soul. If, like me, you enjoyed Vampire
Princess Miyu and Pet Shop of Horrors, you might want to check this one
out. This anime is very much in the same style, and Mermaid TV's
animation isn't quite as crappy as its predecessors'. However, if you
were bored by those animes' style, then you should probably skip this
one in favor of some of the flashier shows that have come out lately
(insert shameless plug for R.O.D TV here).
Screenshots
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