Story- If you are looking for something fun and lighthearted with the usual beautiful mermaids, this is NOT the anime to watch. The story is about the travels of Yuuta and Mana, who both attainted immortality by eating some mermaid sashimi (if you don’t know what sashimi is then you are missing out on life!). They are searching for mermaids to try to find a way to become normal humans again. Some of their travels tie into Yuuta’s past (Yuuta is 500 years old), and the episodes do a great job of combining past and present, somewhat similar to the “Highlander” series or movie if anyone is still familiar with that. During their travels, they come across other people who fell victim to or were affected by mermaid flesh. The story arcs are usually 2 episodes each—short enough to avoid filler material that longer anime falls victim to yet long enough to build an actual well-developed story without cliffhangers. The stories are tragic and very touching, and I really can’t understand why it’s rated as it is. It should be a 9 in my opinion.
Art- The art and animation is a bit dated but if you are familiar with Rumiko Takahashi, then you will feel at home. The animation itself doesn’t contain anything spectacular, but this anime is more story-driven and makes up for it that way.
Sound- The opening theme fits perfectly—mysterious, sad, the sound of a lonely journey and memories. The ending theme didn’t really catch my attention.
Characters- Yuuta makes me laugh because one minute he’s skillfully killing mermaids faster than Blade killing vampires and another he’s getting stabbed and killed by a lone lady with a knife. Sometimes I wonder where his 500 years of skills went. We also get to see what someone might feel after living for such a long time. As for Mana, she’s an enjoyable character because everything is new to her yet she’s always getting into trouble. She’s probably responsible for Yuuta getting hurt 99% of the time. As for the other characters, I thought they were pretty well developed for the amount of time given.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable anime for me and would be great for those who want to watch something with an older feel to it like the days of Akira or Gundam, or to the older crowd who wants to reminisce about how anime used to be.
