tollie01

Right, it's confession time for me. If you have been reading my reviews than you may have noticed that I tend to rip the anime a new one. There is a reason for this though and it has to do with the fact that I can't turn my brain off when watching anime. I can't ignore the stupid shown in the anime and this is a problem as most anime are very stupid indeed.

In this case I'm not talking about a 90 pound girl catching a multi-ton cruise missile and throwing it back. Yes, it is stupid but it is a stupid that I'll allow. It's anime. Things like this are normal here and I'm pretty much fine with it. It annoys me to be sure but I will not rant about it.

So, having explained this lets rip into this anime shall we? Just a heads up: There will most probably be spoilers. The more I hate an anime the more spoilers there will be.

ART: If you had told me that this anime was produced in 2003 I would have laughed in your face. The animation simply breathes 80's and 90's nostalgia. Based on the art style and quality I would have placed it around late 80's but it is a 2003 anime. Considering the quality of the anime coming out at that time this series art can not compete. Now if you like the 'old' style animation then you may find it a plus, I didn't. Still, it does what it is supposed to do and that is bring the story and characters to life through visual media.

SOUND: I really don't remember much of it but I remember not disliking it so I guess it was better than average? Voice actors did a good job overall.

CHARACTERS: Main character is Yuta. He became immortal after eating the flesh of a mermaid and has lived for 500 years.

Mana is a 15 year old girl who was raised by mermaids so that they could feast on her flesh and become young again. Yuta saved her and she decides to follow him. As she has lived in isolation her entire life she has no idea how the world works.

STORY: Yuta is a fisherman who one day caught a mermaid. Legend says that eating her flesh can make you immortal. Although he is hesitant, others are not, and they eat the mermaid. Unfortunately they forgot to read the fine print as mermaid flesh is also a deadly poison. Most die, some get transformed into monsters and a very small group gain immortality. Yuta is the only one to become immortal while the rest dies and he quickly learns that living forever isn't all it's cracked up to be. He sets out to find other mermaid and see if he can become mortal again.

RANT: I think that the main problem with the anime the lack of a story is. Yuta just wanders around looking for mermaids, shit happens and he moves on. Shows like Kino's Journey and Mushi-shi have proven that a lack of story arc not a hinderence is for a good series but here it was.

The story based episodes are far to short to work out the characters and their back story so things tend to stay very generic. You know very quickly who the main players are and what the situation is and it gets just as quickly resolved. Usually in the death of the main players.

Yuta is there to take any damage to be dealt out. He's immortal so they can get away with some gore as he'll heal in minutes anyway. The episodes tend to blend into each other with only Yuta and Mana remaining a constant within them.

The main plus of the series is the mermaid lore. This differs wildly from our Western mermaids so it was an interesting view in that regard. The interaction between Yuta and Mana was also a plus. Yuta had been alone for 500 years before he ran into Mana. Anyone he met along the way he lost to time and old age bute Mana is immortal like him.

Fortunately they don't heap on the romance but you can see them get closer together. Mana can really try your patience though with the way she goes through life. She is very young, knows nothing of the world and doesn't know how to express her emotions very well. There is, however, a line between being naive and stupid. She tends to cross that line from time to time.

I guess this is more for story telling purposes though. Yuta is the hero who must save the damsel in distress and Mana fits the bill.

If you watch a few episodes online you'll quickly get the idea if this series is something that you'll want to have. Then again, if you've seen a few episodes then you've seen the entire series as there is not much to the epsiodes.