Mermaid Forest

-Details-
Title: Mermaid Forest
Genre: Horror/Drama
Company: TMS Entertainment
Format: 13 episodes + 2 OVA
Dates: 4 Oct 2003 – 20 Dec

-Visuals- 8.8/10
A classic example of the visuals fitting the mood. Honestly by simply looking at the anime you may not be impressed at all. However, by actually watching and being immersed in the story you will realize that the stark contrast of color and darkness, vibrancy and dullness and wonderful use of color make this a truly nice anime to watch. It certainly isn't the best looking I have ever seen but honestly it doesn't matter. Because it is a case of the whole being better than the parts, and the whole is a very nicely animated show.



-Sound- 8.2/10
Well acted, well versed, vocalized well. Adequate music. A case of nothing mind blowing while at the same time nothing horrific (pun intended, lol)

-Characters- 9.4/10
This show pretty much defines character development with one noticeable exception, and that is Mana. She simply doesn't develop as I would have imagined someone in these circumstances would have. And honestly that is the only weak point. Other than her pretty much every other person you meet is developed wonderfully and is unique and adds so much to the story. Over the course of the show you will meet many people who interact with Yuta and Mana and so many of them have such a wonderful story that to a certain extent they will become the leads in the story. And this is not a bad thing, as the stories are to a certain extent various vignettes which flesh out a larger overall tale. Someone looking for a linear story will be turned off by this somewhat disjointed approach to storytelling and if the story was told more poorly I would agree, but, the characters are so well fleshed out that they set the stage wonderfully and you will feel their pains and triumphs.

-Story- 9.2/10
I know this is to some extent a "slasher flic" type anime. However, I read a totally different story in watching this. I found it to be a seriously melancholy drama. The idea is that by eating mermaid flesh you can become immortal...assuming that is you are the kind of person who likes gambling with especially bad odds as pretty much only 1 in a million people who ingest the flesh will actually become immortal, most of the rest will simply die horribly while the remainder will become monsters. Worth it? That is the question. The story centers upon Yuta, a "young man" who ingested mermaid flesh 500 years ago and Mana, a "young girl" who was raised by mermaids to be food for them to insure their youth and immortality.\ and their quest to find others like them. What makes the story so good is the realization that with immortality comes a price...basically everyone you know and love dies, and you remain. My only issue with the story (actually stories, as they are really vignettes) is that the ones that are good are actually great and the ones that are OK are pretty much still OK if that makes any sense. It's a shame that all of the episodes could not have lived up to the standard of some of the episodes. Still, having said that I found the story to be simply fantastic.

-Overall- 9.0/10
I found this to be a bitter sweet experience. On the one hand it attempts to be a slasher flic and it succeeds to a certain extent thus admitted. However, I found the emotional aspect of never having friends and lovers stay with you to have a much stronger impact. So...if it's a straight horror show you're looking for you should like this but I'm not sure that any anime can be that horrific visually, so you may not love it...but it certainly can physiologically, and this show, for the most part does. And in that aspect you may certainly find yourself thinking very highly of this show indeed.