Even though I’ve never read or watched this series before, Mermaid Saga Collector’s Edition Volume 1 was strangely nostalgic. Why? Because it’s written and drawn by Rumiko Takahashi, the woman who created Inuyasha and many other iconic series. Anything related to Inuyasha is sentimental to me since it was the first Japanese series I watched that was meant for older audiences and wasn’t heavily Americanized. In other words, it’s what really got me into anime as a teenager and… the rest is history.
Right away, you can tell that Mermaid Saga was created by the same person as Inuyasha, Ranma ½, and so on. Takahashi’s signature art style and fantasy elements are instantly recognizable. I’ll stop talking about Inuyasha soon I promise – I have just one last comparison. Despite being older than Inuyasha and her other manga, Mermaid Saga feels cleaner. In terms of the plot, it’s more compact and focused than Takahashi’s other work. In Mermaid Saga, the story follows Yuta, a man who became immortal by eating mermaid flesh. He has lived for hundreds of years and still looks like a young man. No matter what happens to his body – whether he is crushed, stabbed, drowned – he cannot die and will always come back to life.
That is, unless his head gets cut off.
It may sound amazing, but the truth is, Yuta doesn’t like being immortal. He wants to become human again, so he can grow old and die normally like everyone else. To find answers, he travels around Japan looking for mermaids. Through his search, he ends up rescuing a girl named Mana who is also immortal from eating mermaid flesh. They become companions, searching for a “cure” together. Along the way, the audience learns more about Yuta’s past: how he ate the mermaid’s flesh, the adventures he’s experienced, and his failed attempts at becoming human.
Yuta’s and Mana’s current travels are told in segments. Instead of a linear path, the audience sees little snippets of the events and hardships the characters encounter. This format moves the story along and helps it avoid unnecessary bulk, which is a problem in some of Takahashi’s other series. She did fall into some of her usual habits, though. Takahashi has a tendency to make fantastical situations (with monsters, magic, etc.) that involve complicated ideas or concepts. However, she focuses more on fast-paced action scenes than much-needed explanations. A crazy event will get only one or two lines of explanation, leaving the reader confused. I had to reread some parts to make sure I fully understood what had happened.
That being said, even if the story needs some work, I’m always amazed by Takahashi’s imagination. Many of her ideas are based on Japanese folklore, yet she manages to add her own spin and make things very interesting. When consuming her work, I repeatedly think to myself, “How does she come up with this stuff?!” I specifically thought this during the last arc of this volume, which involved mermaid ashes and the living dead.
Speaking of which, I love how Takahashi creates eerie scenarios that aren’t overly creepy. They won’t keep you up at night, but you’ll be left with this unsettling feeling that gets under your skin. Mermaid Saga is filled with these moments. They really make you think about the frailty of human life. Yuta dies and get resurrected several times over the course of the first volume; if he hadn’t eaten the mermaid flesh, his human body would not have been able to withstand the trauma. It makes you question the nature of life and death.
Yet, Yuta wishes he wasn’t immortal. The manga demonstrates how eternal life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and that it has disadvantages if you look past the obvious advantages. It reminds me of a lyric from a My Chemical Romance song: “How wrong we were to think that immortality meant never dying.” Yuta might be physically “alive” but he isn’t actually enjoying his life, not anymore.
Overall, I really enjoyed this first volume of the Mermaid Saga Collector’s Edition. As a long-time Rumiko Takahashi fan, it was nice to read one of her lesser-known series. Both her strengths and weaknesses as a writer appeared in this volume; however, it’s a very solid manga so far, and I’d love to read more. Its fantasy, monsters, folklore, melancholic immortal travelers, and thought-provoking themes make Mermaid Saga worth checking out, whether or not you like Takahashi’s other work. Inuyasha devotees like me, though, will definitely enjoy experiencing some of the similar elements between the two series. Sorry, I lied when I said I wouldn’t mention Inuyasha again!