Anime Hajime Review: Mermaid Forest

Series Synopsis

There’s a legend going around. Should a person eat the flesh of a mermaid, they will be granted immortality and eternal youth. Many have sought out these mythical creatures hoping to receive this gift. Unfortunately, few realize the great risk one must take upon consumption.

To the vast majority of people, mermaid flesh is exceedingly poisonous; with death being almost instantaneous. And if you’re lucky, that's the merciful fate you will get. Another equally possible and horrific side effect involves the person turning into a carnivorous monster with no ounce of humanity left. Only on the absolute rarest of occasions will someone survive and obtain immortality.

One such person is Yuta (voiced by Koichi Yamadera) who has now live for 500 years; alone. Over the centuries, Yuta has been on a journey to find another mermaid. He heard that a mermaid is the only thing that can give him what he desires most, a chance to grow old and die a natural death.

On his travels, Yuta saves a young girl named Mana (voiced Minami Takayama) from a pack of mermaids who wished to devour her in order to regain their youth. Like Yuta, Mana was also able to survive consuming mermaid flesh and has been given immortality. However, Mana has been kept isolated from the outside world, so she decides to join Yuta on his quest.

Along the way, the two drifters come across many people who have come into contact with mermaid flesh; each one suffering from it's horrific, unnatural effects. With their immortal bodies, Yuta and Mana are able to take any blow they may be hit with, but even that isn't always enough to save everyone from the horrors that they are to face.

Yuta

Series Positives

Mermaid Forest isn’t void of positive aspects; there’s a fair bit of things that the show does well. There’s a lot a bull s@#$, yes; too much of it in fact. I won't say I liked this one, but then again I won't say I hated it either.

Mana

Mermaid Forest tries to have a lot of different elements going on at the same. The problem is while there’s enough to stitch things together, the slightest breeze easily unravels everything. The good in this series is not enough to weather the storm, but it’s still there.

Yuta and Mana

I like these two; they’re the best things about this show.

Over the course of the series, it’s easy to see this pair as a team. There immortality gives them a strong connection and they can ensure that the other is never going to be alone. Considering how grim some characters' fates are, Yuta and Mana are able to rise above. One because they were not corrupted by the mermaid flesh and two, they are able to keep a hold of their humanity.

If there’s one thing Mermaid Forest illustrates perfectly is establishing that Yuta has indeed lived for 500 years. The weight and lessons of those long centuries have taken a toll on him and few things surprise him anymore.

Therefore he’s very aware. Yuta can piece together a situation relatively quickly, so we are spared a main character that is constantly clueless. This is great because there's no reason why he would be slow to act. Considering he knows and has had many first hand experiences concerning mermaid flesh, he should be able to recognize the telltale signs when someone has eaten the stuff. And should he come across a case he’s never seen before, he can adapt quite easily.

Mana is fantastic for pretty much the exact opposite reason. She just turned into an immortal, but she's been heavily sheltered her entire life. Her naivety and fresh eyes provide a much needed perspective in any given situation. So in essence she’s a wild card and unpredictable.

But what really gives her an edge, and I’m surprised that I’m praising this since it usually annoys me to all hell, is the fact that while she was closed off to the world, Mana always had people at her every beck and call. Thus turning her into a huge brat.

Nine times out of ten, I f@#$ing hate the bratty character. However, Mana makes it work because she's combative, she doesn’t let people push her around, and despite her inexperience will fight back with all she’s got which is a lot.

Yuta and Mana together are able to hold back a lot of the problems of this show. They make episodes a little bit more interesting and a little more meaningful. Too bad they can’t do it all.

Series Negatives

This show, more so in the beginning, but consistently throughout, is a bit on the boring side.

Everywhere I look, I've seen Mermaid Forest be described as a horror series; I even went ahead a listed it as one myself. The problem is the show completely missed the mark.

Mermaid Forest’s take on horror is dark lighting and intense faces. Forget tension building or atmosphere. Then again, this show and this story make it hard to feel any tension when it's two main characters cannot be killed. Who  cares if they get a little bit bloody, they’re going to be fine by the end.

The Action Scenes

They are dull, completely lifeless. Everything and everyone moves painfully slow, assuming they move at all. There’s a flashback episode (and I’m going to talk about these next) and in it there's a scene someone walks into a room brandishing a sword. Let me set the situation.

There's the sword person at the door, there’s a bedridden person on the ground, and Yuta is standing between them. There’s an argument, it gets heated, and the person with the sword ends up stabbing the person on the ground. It was a shoulder strike so it wasn’t meant to be fatal.

How? In case you’re not seeing what the problem is already, the person with the sword had to:

1. Step into the room.
2. Unsheathe the sword.
3. Walk over to the guy on the ground.
4. Get the sword in stabbing position.
5. Stab the guy in the shoulder. Mind you, not the shoulder next to the door, but the one facing the opposite direction.

And Yuta just stood there and watched all of it happen. Hey jackass, you can take a sword hit, everyone knows it; the f@#$ are you standing there for?

Flashback Episodes

There were three flashback episodes, two of them being part one and part two, and they were all stupid and a complete waste of time.

They served no function whatsoever. They were simply glimpses into Yuta’s past. The problem is the show never makes it clear why you should care. The Yuta of today and the Yuta 500 hundred years ago are literally the same person. There's no difference between past and present, so why are we watching this side story? They never come back into play in any episode. And since they're all in the past, Mana isn’t in any of them. So half of why this show is good is gone.

The one flashback story that I actually would have been interested in seeing would have been when Yuta was learning how to cope with his immortality. We get glimpses of this, but no it’s much more important we know about the time Yuta helped out an island pirate village.

The Properties of Mermaid Flesh

Oh don’t worry, you’ll know exactly what the risks are should you ever want to try mermaid flesh for yourself. The amount of times the characters painstakingly went into detail over what might happen will make you want to beat your brains out.

And yet, despite having the rundown of what might happen rammed down my throat, I’m still calling bull s@#$ because there are clearly some other things going on.

You either die, turn into a monster, or on the rare occasion get immortality. Except throughotu this show, more often than not there's going to be a combination of the last two. Many people do suffer from some form of deformity or scaring, but still possess eternal youth or rapid healing.

How is any of what I just said even possible when the show made it very clear that there isn’t any in-between? So what exactly is mermaid flesh? I honestly have no idea and I don’t think the series does either.

Final Thoughts

I like to think that Yuta spent the majority of his 500 years very rarely coming into contact with anything mermaid related. The suddenly, boom, everything is f@#$ing happening.

While its two main leads are decent enough characters, Mermaid Forest is easily skippable. There are too many inconsistencies, too much wasted time, and it gets quite boring on too many occasions.

I was hoping for a good horror series to come out of this, but it wasn’t meant to be I guess.

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