Well, I am a hopeless mermaid fanatic, but I knew that the world of “Mermaid Forest” I was getting myself into was not the realm of music and light and Ariel singing to me and combing her hair with a dinglehopper and wondering about legs. Sure, there’s lots of red to be seen, but it’s blood. This may be one of the bloodiest series I have seen in a while and I’m watching “Attack on Titan”.

Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. Yuta appears to be any other kind of wanderer in Japan (and let’s face it, Japan is loaded with them. I mean, Ash in ‘Pokemon’ is a 10-year old boy wandering all over hither and thither, so it’s not all that strange), except he has both a dark secret and a darker agenda. He is headed towards a remote village where he hears there are mermaids. The other islanders give it a hearty chuckle, ho ho ho. Why, they’ve been working these waters for years and heard the tales, but they gave it no heed. It’s just a rumor, like a balanced budget or an honest lawyer.

However, deep in the island IS a village, filled with old women and a rather striking beauty, Mana. Yuta stumbles upon them and is promptly speared, killed and buried. This is Japanese hospitality? Wait! We’re only seven minutes into the show and the purported hero is already dead? Ha! I laugh in your general direction, so Ha! again. It seems that Yuta has eaten mermaid flesh and is actually 500 years old. But he finds immortality and eternal youth rather boring, not to mention that trying to collect Social Security is a bigger pain than getting speared. What he wants to do is find a mermaid who can give him the answer as to how to reverse his situation, so he may grow old and pass away like a normal person.

Mana learns that she is to be some sacrifice for the old ladies, who are mermaids in human form and need this special food to be as they are. Well, Yuta puts an end to this party pretty quick and the two of them now wander the width and breadth of Japan to find their answers, encountering all kinds of folks who have answers and their own desires to pursue.

I had my infamous two problems with this show. The first is that it is brought to you by Rumiko Takahashi, so you spend a lot of time looking at the characters and going “Maison Ikkoku” or “Ranma ½” or “Inuyasha”. Not much is done to change the look (something you encounter with CLAMP shows), so it took me a few episodes to let that pass….almost. The second is that those two get lanced or knifed or axed or clawed or whatever in almost every episode, so there are floor-slopping amounts of blood. It also explains why they never wear the same outfit twice. Do you know how hard it is to get blood stains out of silk or cotton? Plus the gaping tears make it impractical to clean it, if I have to stitch it up, so, there goes another perfectly good set of clothes into the dumpster!

Still, the horror aspect is reigned in as we learn the truth about mermaids. Their flesh contains a poison and you are not guaranteed it will work as you wish. A select few become immortal. Some become immortal, but have a deformity, so you spend eternity with a hideous scar on your face or a monster-like arm. If you are lucky, you merely die. If you thought Japanese blowfish was dangerous (fugu, for those who wish to do an internet search for it), mermaid flesh is worse, one reason it’s off the menu. The worst is that you become a Deformed One, much like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, except with huge bulging eyes and slimy frog skin and rows of nasty sharp teeth and great strength and very bad breath. Try getting a date looking like that.

And this seems like a good point to discuss fan service, or lack thereof. With the exception of the last episode, it’s pretty reigned in. Even those the mermaids do not wear clamshells to cover what’s on top, their flowing hair covers those embarrassing problems. Besides, there is no real need for it; you’ll have to watch this show because you like it. You want boobies? Not here. (Psst! “High School DxD”, Second Season.)

Now, you are immortal, until you are killed (the Elf Syndrome), but you have to do more to them than merely stab or bludgeon or push off a nearby cliff. There is a preferred method, but you have to cut their head off. That’s not a great option in anyone’s book. Well, we can burn you, but I only assume that option works as well, as the body is destroyed beyond resurrection hopes. It’s just that we haven’t done a lot of studies on mermaid flesh, so we are fumbling about in the dark.

This actually was an 11-episode run, but they put together a two-part OVA, appended it to the show and we have our 13-show season. I was at mixed feelings for this. On the one hand, it is good that it went 13, in that if you went further, all you could do is have them run into people on their massive sojourn who either covet them for their immortality or need to bump them off and that would get tiresome after awhile. On the other hand, they left a massive ‘what if’ at the last episode, so you know it’s not over by a long shot. But since the show is 10 years old, you also know there is not going to be anything more.

I am not a big fan of horror, as I always feel is it merely an excuse to fling blood about like you got it on sale at the Dollar Store. And the people here are such poor aims. Well, I guess that the Axe Wielding Club at high school reached its quota of members, so I had to take Tank Training Class instead. Like either did me any good in the real world. And our heroes manage to wriggle free of their destruction despite some intense injuries.

Despite my seemingly snarky comments, I liked this show. I never felt like it was repeating itself needlessly and they did two-part segments to really tell a fuller story. We get a lot of Yuta’s massive history and the fact that this guy makes unintentional trouble wherever he goes, owing to his nature. If you would like your horror served up a bit better than you sometimes see, check out this series.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork 7 (It’s still Rumiko)
Plot 9 (A good plot)
Pacing 8 (Intentionally deliberate)
Effectiveness 8 (They aren’t getting their answer)
Conclusion 6 (A coupler point, but it’s not over)
Fan Service 3 (A similar show would be “Okamisan”)

Overall 8 (Despite the non-ending)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. You’ve eaten mermaid flesh?