Mermaid Forest - Quest for Death (Vol. 1)
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DVD details
Artist: Artist Not ProvidedDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Japanese (Original Language)
Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 75 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-07-05
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
DVD Reviews of Mermaid Forest - Quest for Death (Vol. 1)
DVD Review: Quest for the mermaids
Summary: 4 Stars
One of Rumiko Takahashi's most successful "side projects" is the Mermaid series, about a pair of immortals struggling to find a way to become mortal again. Don't expect the wacky action of "Ranma 1/2" or the mythic fantasy of "Inuyasha." Instead, this is a gritty, melancholy fantasy story.
It centers on mermaids, and what eating their flesh does to human beings. A tiny number become beautiful immortals who never age and can't die, unless their heads are cut off. But most people either cough up blood and die, or turn into bug-eyed purplish monsters.
In the first episode, Yuta has been wandering the earth for five hundred years, trying to find a mermaid so he can become a mortal again. One day he journeys to a tiny, secluded village, populated by eerie women who stab him to (temporary) death -- and are keeping a pampered teenage girl named Mana hostage. Yuta spirits the naive girl away, finds out that she's an immortal -- and learns the gruesome fate that the women have in store for her.
Later on, Yuta takes Mana on a cruise on the ocean, which brings back memories from a few centuries before. He was washed ashore on a small island, and soon fell in love with the chief's feisty daughter Rin. But a local pirate headman's wife, Isago, is after mermaid flesh, and is willing to kill to get it.
In the second part, Rin is captured by the pirates, and they now have a dead mermaid, which they think will give them immortality. But Isago has secrets of her own, and her own motives for wanting the mermaid's flesh. Now Yuta must save Rin from the pirates, who are turning into monsters -- even if he can't live happily ever after with her.
The first three episodes set up the series, which has Mana and Yuta wandering through modern-day Japan. But "Village of the Fighting Fish" also gives us an idea of how lonely Yuta was before he met Mana. It's a compellingly different look at mermaids and immortality, and Takahashi did it well.
Her series tend to be on the upbeat side, so the melancholy and darkness of the Mermaid Series is a major change. The old woman's lament about wandering forever shows why human beings shouldn't be immortal. But even this dark story is optimistic: Even if Mana and Yuta aren't cured of their immortality, they aren't alone any longer.
The animation is sharp and clear, and the voice acting is definitely well-done: Yuta sounds mature and tired, Isago sounds slimy and seductive, and both Mana and Rin sound a bit bratty but strong. And fans of Takahashi's original comics will be pleased to see that the stories very closely mirror the original writing.
"Mermaid Forest: Quest for Death" is the start of an all-too-short series. Beautifully animated, poignant and intelligent fantasy.
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