Hekikai no AiON
AiON

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To start off, this short manga surprised me. Reading the other reviews made me feel like I was going to get a boring, well-drawn manga based on romance with mermaids and magic thrown in. In short, this is not what I received from this manga nor do I think it will be what you receive.

As a short summary and review, the read was very enjoyable and the manga itself was really good. Some of the best things this manga brought forward were the characters and their interactions plus a few really big plot twists/reveals. Aside from that, the art for the manga was incredible and ... is one of the better ones I've seen. It also has its fair share of romance and fan service from the mermaid parts, but it also isn't over-bearing. In other words, while it is a mermaid manga, the appeal to mermaids is not what drives this manga. As for the romance, if you are into romance manga or anime, I highly encourage reading this. It gives a complete romance story, with its complications, without most of the cringe or typical comedy that comes with a typical romance anime/manga. All in all, it was a very good and enjoyable read that was very worth my time reading.

Now I will go a bit more in depth on each of the sections below: Story, Characters, Art, What I Enjoyed the Most.

Story 9/10:

The story starts off with a typical shounen school romance feel to it. Gently and slowly, it introduces the bigger story pertaining to Seine, the mermaids, and the later introduced characters. While it starts off slow and seems to go a bit too far in depth into the side characters and Tatsuya's immediate past, it ends up showing that all of that was to set the right atmosphere for the reader heading into the main part of the story. After volume 4 (chapter 16), things really start to pick up and get interesting. The story takes a break from focusing on the love triangle and romance, as well as the seemingly random comedic character interactions, and begins to take a more serious and dark tone to it. After revealing a lot of the mystery to the story, it comes to a meager temporary conclusion. While it gets slow and boring for a couple of chapters, it begins to pick up again with the reintroduction of the romance that drives the plot. Eventually, it intertwines the mystery and the romance together into one complete story and plotline that is super interesting and very well written. Everything stays consistent and all things pertaining to Seine and Tatsuya's story are answered and complete.

Characters 10/10:

Even if you end up not loving the story or disliking a certain character, all the main cast of characters are very well written and shown multiple sides of. After reading the first 3 volumes, you get a good sense of Tatsuya's friends and relatives. Going forward with the story, you see their personalities and nuances continue throughout and the author gave attention to small details for even these less important characters. For Shiela, Seine, and Tatsuya, their stories, past, and multiple-sided characters are described and depicted with great detail. Every little reveal makes them more interesting and can instantly get you to hate or love their character. For the rest of the mermaids and the witches, their stories and personalities are left in a shroud of mystery. This is likely because they're part of a bigger story outside of Seine and Tatsuya. Regardless, the few chapters we do see them depicted in detail, they remain consistent and are immediately shown to have quirks and attitudes that you will immediately hate or love. Overall, all the characters are created very well and the attention to detail from the author is impressive regarding the consistency and multiple-sidedness of the characters.

Art 8/10:

Each panel and page of the manga is drawn incredibly. The background, character designs, and depiction of motion or action is all done very very well. The little details on the important panels had me stopping and staring a couple times just because they were done so well. Aside from the general butter-up statements, I have to admit that one of the best things this manga did was the depiction of the sea and water. While it was no perfect masterpiece, the water and sea were drawn and shaded so well that you could instantly tell what was water and what wasn't. With two distinct settings, it was nice to be able to instantly tell where things were happening. Not to mention, the shading overall was done super well. It added to the emotion and feeling behind each panel and each interaction. Overall, this manga is very consistent with bringing great art with every panel, page, and chapter.

What I Enjoyed Most: Overall Rating 10/10

Three things really made me enjoy this manga the most. The first of those three was the small details with the characters and in the background that the author made sure to keep consistent and throw in. It was fun taking a moment to spot little things in the panels and pages as well as to notice the reference between the chapters to keep the consistency of the characters. The second was the overall mystery behind the bigger story. Even though this manga doesn't go into the detail behind the bigger overall story, it gives a few hints at it. If this had a bigger fanbase, there would likely be some interesting fan-stories or speculations behind what happened before or after this story took place regarding the witches and the mermaids. The last of those three was the bittersweet ending that this story brought. I personally did not expect a romance manga to bring such an unexpected quality ending to me. I won't go into detail, but it left me with a manga I will most likely forever keep among my favorites.

I apologize in advance for not making a good review. I'm not sure if I'm a good reviewer, but enjoy just making reviews.

First of all, the story is about the main girl, Miyazaki (or Seine) trying to avenge his guardian from mermaids, which isn't the mermaids we usually imagine. But she also has a job of taking out "mushi"(Bugs that take over someone's thoughts by the mermaids desires), but in order to do so, she must die at least once, meaning she's immortal. But meeting a guy name Tsugawa makes it difficult for her to do her job, because he doesn't ... want her to die.

The story so far is great. The development of the story is going in a good pace that everyone can catch on.

The art will remind you of Karin (I think they're the same artists), which is pretty good in my opinion.

The characters make the story better. Seine reminds me of Yuki Nagato for some reason, but that's not the point. The development of the characters are going in good pace. Especially after they are taken over. They show they're true selves afterwards.

It's easy to enjoy the series because of its random comedies but also has serious action and some drama.

Overall, I enjoy the series so far. I hope you find this review at least okay.

A creator can come up with an interesting premise, and unique characters, but it all comes down to how does one execute them, and this series comes off a bit like a sophomore production than an actual full on executed story.

STORY: Hekikai no Aion is the latest series from Yuna Kagesaki, the creator of Chibi Vampire (Karin), which has a very interesting premise: where sea creatures like mermaids and mind controlling parasites duke it out against a strange and seemingly immortal young girl.

But the story is about a high school boy named Tatsuya Tsugawa, who had lost both of his parents in a car accident ... and now has other family members taking care of him, though he is quite rich and is well off financially due to an inheritance, he is still in a mourning phase and clings to his fathers dying wish for him to become an upstanding man.
But hey, he's not all depressed and acting all emotional, thanks to him clinging to his fathers wish, he comes off as Mr nice guy, and meets the strange main female lead, Seine Miyazaki, who curiously gets unmercifully bullied quite often with Tatsuya trying to rush in at times to help, but Seine treats it as him getting in her way.
As little did he know that the bullying Seine puts up with is intentional and eventually his meddling gets him involved in a war Between Seine and creatures of the sea.

Like I mentioned earlier, the premise is intriguing and is quite commendable for the creator to come up with yet another interesting series (As you know or not know, her first series was about a reverse vampire).
But the initial reaction quickly wears off as the plot setups, character development and interaction end up predictable, typical, and lacking in some aspects.
Tatsuya is a likable male lead, and Seine is unique, but where does their relationship end up? The romantic comedy route, just like the creators last series.
The series take on mini arc story progress with Seine having to fight mind controlled humans usually people who are related to Tatsuya in some way (Families, friends, etc) and uses a snake like creature to devour the person infected with the parasite whole (Don't worry, the creature quickly spits out the victim after it removes the parasite), and these arcs are the meat of the story, but in between are the slice of not-ordinary-life-anymore moments introducing other characters like Tatsuya's friends and the strange twins that are related to Seine in some way.
Tatsuya's friends are nothing special and not worth talking about.
And the absurdly quirky twins would of become interesting if not that they remained in irritating vagueness.

Some are going to feel a bit drowned in typical cliches, but overall, the manga still manage to keep some unique elements interesting, but the progress is disappointing compared to the premise.

ART: Arguably, the creator displays better artwork than what was contained in her previous series and has gotten better at in a stylistic point of view, but at the same, seemed to have gotten sloppy with the anatomy of the characters and the hair styles are all over the place, but the color art looks great.
The character designs more or less range from good to bland, but a little more at the later.

OVERALL:
The Good:
+ Unique premise.
+ Interesting characters.
+ Decent art.

The Bad:
- Story telling doesn't live up to it's unique premise.
- Too much unnecessary attention to the support cast.
- Too vague on some aspects and characters.
- Comes off typical, not different from anything you've seen.

Who knows? Maybe the story becomes better, and maybe this series becomes a hidden treasure later on, but for the moment, it doesn't seem to have what it takes.