Name(s): Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou Ningyo no Mori / Rumic Theater: Mermaid Forest / 高橋留美子劇場 人魚の森
Format: TV series (11 episodes)
Studio(s): TMS Entertainment

Review

Mermaid Forest is an adaptation of a series of short stories written by Rumiko Takahashi. A boy and girl gain eternal youth and near-immortality from eating mermaid flesh. Yuta has already lived for 500 years and wants to find a way to become normal again and die a natural death. Joining Yuta is Mana, a sheltered, naive girl. In this episodic series, the two come across others in their travels who’ve had their lives changed by mermaid flesh.

I originally checked this out because I wanted a horror anime, but it’s not one really—more of a bunch of dramatic tragedies. It’s dark, yeah, but not really unnerving or even attempting to be frightening. I initially didn’t care though, because the premise was good, and the first episode was strong.

Unfortunately, this series ended up being pretty unrewarding. The stories are typically two episodes in length, they and hit that double-edged problem of not being compelling enough or having good enough characters with the small running time. Yet, they somehow drag as well, precisely because it runs with an okayish idea for usually two whole episodes. The themes get repetitive fast, and the show doesn’t have any intricate commentary on human nature. It’s not a heavily philosophical show. It’s mainly plot-driven.

The main thing keeping me going was seeing the resolution of Yuta and Mana’s journey, but it’s not even addressed. The final episodes are still disconnected, and there’s not even so much as a hint to an ending. It’s incredibly unsatisfying, on top of a final story that was unsatisfying for its own reasons. It pissed me off, and it’s what determined my final score of 5/10.

Repetition and Character Failures

These stories become so predictable. Blah blah, bland characters want to live forever and do melodramatically bad things, blah blah, bland characters don’t want someone to die and end up hurting them by doing something stupid. A contrived problem is conveniently solved through happenstance. Yuta and Mana are conveniently rescued in the middle of any problem. No one learns anything, because everyone dies, and Yuta and Mana never develop as characters. Repeat.

Mana was especially disappointing, because I liked her mean, spoiled personality at the start, but she immediately becomes a normal, naive girl as soon as the episode is over and never changes again. Yuta doesn’t develop either, but he’s likable with his general competence.

Animation Quality

The animation quality is average. For early 2000s digital animation, it could’ve been way uglier, but there’s still fucked up character proportions and backgrounds, lacking in-betweens, and obnoxious cuts used to avoid depicting as much movement as possible. Despite the stories being naturally violent, they still try and censor it, which hurts their potential impact. There’s a stupid effect where every fresh blood splatter is glows bright red, making it look like electrified Kool-Aid instead of blood, but dried blood is still dark red.

Audio and Verdict

Music’s whatever. Episode previews have unique dialogue and are done in-character, but spoil every twist of the next episode, so they shouldn’t be watched. Actually, don’t watch Mermaid Forest, period. Another example of a good concept not equaling good execution.