About the Manga
The Mermaid Saga is an irregular series that Takahashi published every few years until the late 1990s. In a 2009 interview Takahashi stated that she does not consider the series completed and plans to revisit it at some point in the future.
| Irregular Publication in Shonen Sunday (少年サンデー) |
In 1984 while she was busy writing not only Urusei Yatsura each week and Maison Ikkoku bi-weekly, Rumiko Takahashi created an entirely different serial beginning in Shonen Sunday Zokan's (週刊少年サンデー 増刊) August 1984 issue. Takahashi's Mermaid Saga was not the first horror story she created, but it was her first horror serial. Takahashi published the series a storyline at a time, and fans would sometimes have to wait up to a year to see the next two week adventure of Yuta and Mana. Eventually the series moved from Shonen Sunday Zokan which had been renamed to Shonen Sunday Super (少年サンデー超/Shonen Sunday Cho) to Weekly Shonen Sunday proper, and from 1984 through 1994 Shonen Sunday published the subsequent chapters of Mermaid Saga.
Even though only a small amount of work has been produced, it has become a cult hit and one often cited as particularly popular among Takahashi fans that have discovered it. In 1989 Takahashi won the prestigious Seiun (Nebula) Award in Japan for "Mermaid's Forest", after winning two years prior for Urusei Yatsura. |
| Wideban (ワイド版) |
Unlike Takahashi's other works, Mermaid Saga was first collected into wideban format, skipping over the traditional, smaller tankobon format. The wideban format provides a larger page size, a superior print quality and the higher-stock of paper. Additionally the inclusion of the original color pages from Shonen Sunday is a big draw for fans of Takahashi's watercolor work. Because of the sporadic publication of the series, only two wideban were released (in April 1988 and December 1994).
Because Takahashi published one more set of stories in 1994 there was a challenge- not enough material was published to justify another wideban. Consequently the "Demon's Eye" (Mermaid's Gaze in the original Viz release) and "The Last Face" (Mermaid's Mask in the orginal Viz release) storylines remained uncollected until 2003 in Japan. Ironically because American imprint Viz published in a comic book format of two chapters each month, these chapters were available in English (and collected in the original English language graphic novels) almost as soon as they were printed in Japan. Consequently they were more easily obtainable in English than in Japanese between 1994 and 2003. |
| Shonen Sunday Comics Special |
In 2003, as Takahashi's popular series Ranma 1/2 was being reprinted for the first time, Mermaid Saga was as well. Mermaid Saga saw itself adapated for animation for the third time, this time as a weekly television series titled Mermaid Forest. To tie in to the TV series, Shogakukan rereleased the Mermaid Saga in this new format, entitled Shonen Sunday Comics Special. For the first time Japanese fans were able to have a collected version that included "Demon's Eye" and "The Last Face", two storylines that has not been available in Japan for over nine years.
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| Super Quest Bunko |
The Super Quest Bunko books are actually novelizations, known as "light novels" in Japan due to their short length and easy readibility. These two books are written by Tomoko Konparu who has novelized quite a few of Takahashi's works (Urusei Yatsura and Inuyasha). These two books cover the "Mermaid's Forest" and "Tomorrow's Promise/Mermaid's Promise" storylines and contain all new color and black and white artwork by Takahashi.
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| Art Books |
Mermaid Saga has never had an art book dedicated solely to it, however artwork from the series has appeared in two art books focusing on Takahashi's overall career.
A number of artbooks have also been released that feature all of Rumiko Takahashi's work and are not focused solely on one series. Of those: Rumiko Takahashi Exhibition - It's a Rumic World (高橋留美子展 It's a Rumic World/Takahashi Rumiko Ten It's a Rumic World) was published in 2007 and sold at the gallery exhibition of her work that ran in Japan from July 30th - August 11th of that year. It features color artwork from Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha, One-Pound Gospel, Mermaid Saga and a number of her short stories. One of the best overall overviews of Takahashi's career is Rumic World 35 which is a three volume boxset comprising All Star, Showtime and the collected children's manga MOON, The Great Pet King. The first two volumes mentioned contain character profiles, items, locations and color art for all of her series up to Kyokai no Rinne to celebrate 35th anniversary of her debut. |
| Foreign Editions |
Rumiko Takahashi's works are published in a variety of languages. The American distribution rights are handled by Viz Media, one of the leading manga translation companies which is owned by Shogakukan and Shueisha. In America two chapters were published each month and then later collected into a graphic novel, which usually contains the same material as a tankobon, but in a larger format. Eventually Viz gave up on the monthly comic book format, and instead began bringing out the series every few months in a format much more similar to the Japanese tankobon releases. Takahashi's works are wildly popular in Europe and Asia and have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Italian and French as well.
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