OK, aside from a weakness for romantic comedies, I have another one for mermaids. This series is certainly going all out for it, as I cover both genres. Calloo Callay!

“Namiuchigiwa No Muromi-san” (Muromi-san on the Shore”) begins with our male hero, Takurō Mukōjima, who sits on a jetty all day and fishes. One day, he lands a ningyo (a Japanese mermaid, which helps, as they ARE in Japan), Muromi (to his immediate right) and has a chat with her and her strange friends. Now, this show also goes by the title “Muromi-San and the Legendary Beasts”, and Takuro (or Takkun, as Muromi calls him) gets an excellent chance to meet the lot of them. Whether he wanted to or not. Maybe you should find another place to fish.

The rest of the cast, this time going right to left, are:

Hii-chan – Very good with animals, especially dolphins (which ticks off the other mermaids). She is holding Houman-san, a caliber of cobra.
Sumida-san – She doesn’t choose partners wisely, gets hurt in love and drinks far too much.
Levia-san – She is the actual Leviathan of nature and legend, but mostly keeps it in check, as she can be very destructive.
Fuji-san – She can get to be a little snooty as she flaunts those mid-ocean mountains of hers.
Otohime – She USED to be a mermaid, but the palace where she worked at under the sea went bankrupt and she has to make money while being a human.
Harpy – Yes, the harpy of legend, but she comes off more as an elementary schooler.

Another one, who is missing is Yeti, who looks more like a lamb than Bigfoot (or Littlefoot, in this case). Not much bigger than Harpy, she is kind and cute, but has to keep Harpy from eating our mermaid quintet.

One gets the feeling that, emotionally, they are between 15 and 20, but, if you popped out a calendar, they are millions of years old. They were around when Pangaea existed, although you can’t really believe all that they have to say. Who will corroborate? Another mermaid?

This is a caliber of ‘nothing’ show, in that there is no real plot, but there are a lot of adventures, especially when they meet Kappa, who comes off as a major buff turtle. You would not want to try and duke it out with this guy, believe me.
The episodes themselves are brief, about 13 minutes long, although the OVA is a full episode. Oh, and let’s talk about the fan service. You are at the beach, you have mermaids, what do you expect? Especially with Fuji and the endless boob jokes, both being too large and being too small.

Now, it is not out-of-control fan service, but there certainly is a fair share of oral jokes, as they really like to have their bumpy cucumbers, and Fuji’s breasts seem to do whatever they want to do, bouncing and flopping about. So there is a great deal of teasing, but no full exposure, but it is out there for you to enjoy. The tales are sort of interconnected, with the core being how Muromi would like more of an emotional commitment from Takuro, but he isn’t giving it (and in that sense, it is closer aligned with “Haiyore! Nyaruko-san”), so we see all of Muromi’s failed attempts to get him to fall for her and all of his holding her at arm’s length. Or is it fin’s length?

This is a quirky little show, much like “Ninja Nonsense”, in that we are watching to see how things fall apart, and they always fall apart. For guardians of the earth, they either do not take their job seriously or are just plain bad at it, but they really are not interested in having to fight. We like hearing them unspool their stories about why the earth is in the shape and condition it is in. The OVA tells, perhaps, the best story of the lot, as we take nearly double the time to let us know what life on the Supercontinent was like (but you can never fully trust a mermaid, so who can really tell about the truth?).

After having sat through “Corpse Party”, this came as a welcome relief and the humor and cartoon violence were appreciated by me.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork 8 (It is a good-looking show, despite the huge eyes)
Plot 6 (Not really much of one)
Pacing 8 (Keeps it on an even keel)
Effectiveness 8 (Wonderful cause-and-effect)
Conclusion 7 (It ends, but it could go on)
Fan Service 5 (A similar show would “Maburaho”)

Overall 8 (I would have liked to see a bit more)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. You just can’t trust dolphins.