Season
overview:
The Mermaid Saga television series was developed in conjunction with Rumiko Takahashi Anthology with this series following it. In fact the full Japanese title of this series is Rumiko Takahashi Theater Mermaid Forest (高橋留美子劇場 人魚の森/Takahashi Rumiko Gekijo Ningyo no Mori).
The series director, Masaharu Okuwaki, had previously worked on series such as Lupin III Part 3, Galaxy Express 999, Cheeky Angel and MÄR. The overall series composition was handled by Junichi Miyashita, a writer who worked on Kamen Rider Black. Character designer Masaki Sato provided character designs for Slam Dunk, Kinnikuman II and INTERSTELLA 5555. Sueaki Harada, who handled the music for the series, has worked on Detective Conan. Art direction was handled by Junichi Azuma and Toshiyuki Tokuda and Mizuru Sugiura was the director of photography.
Episode 1: 人魚は笑わない
Ningyo wa warawanai (A Mermaid Never Smiles)
Yuta meets a group of elderly women who have captured a young girl he comes to know as Mana. Later that night, the old woman meets with the other women of their tribe and tells them that one must give her life. They choose a pretty young girl named Ayu, and say that she's lived the longest. As she enters a pool of water, the other women waste no time in harpooning her to death. Ayu was a mermaid and soon, Yuta arrives and is startled to find so many women living in such a deserted place. The women quickly kill Yuta, and throw his body into the pit with the remains of Ayu. Within a few hours, the tribe have decided to take Mana outside, when Yuta bursts into her room, carrying the carcass of a mermaid. The women try to attack him again, so Yuta wastes no time in taking Mana hostage. As they hide in another cave, the old woman decides to flood the area, and drive them out to the ocean where they can easily catch them and devour Mana. As they are pushed out to sea Yuta sees dozens of mermaids coming to attack. He manages to fend them off until morning, when the old woman says that now that they have become mermaids again they have no chance of regaining their human forms. She then tells them that she too is an immortal human and that she will stay with the mermaids until the end of time.
Episode 2: 闘魚の里（前編）
Togyo no sato (zenpen) (The Village of Fighting Fish (Part 1))
The Toba and Sakagami are two bitter rival clans who fight for control of the coastal waters around their islands. One day, Rin, the acting head of the Toba clan pulls a deceased man from the ocean and helps to bury him. Soon the body awakens and is revealed to be Yuta. He tells Rin he was hired by the Sakagami Clan to find the flesh of a mermaid, and then agrees to stay on with the Toba. Soon Isago, the Sakagami Headman's wife, stabs Rin's father and tells them they must find the flesh of a mermaid if he is to have any chance of survival.
Episode 3: 闘魚の里（後編）
Togyo no sato (kohen) (The Village of Fighting Fish (Part 2))
Rin and Yuta track down a mermaid but the Sakagami intervene and take the creature and murder Yuta. Rin is taken captive and meets up with Isago, who tells her that she needs the flesh of a mermaid to nourish her unborn child. The Sakagami headman eats the flesh of a mermaid but when Yuta arrives he begins to transform into a Lost Soul. Isago reveals that she is actually a mermaid who was exacting her revenge against the Sakagami leader for murdering her husband. She flees and jumps off a cliff into the sea where she transforms into a mermaid once again. Yuta decides to leave the village and resume his quest for finding a cure for his immortality.
Episode 4: 人魚の森（前編）
Ningyo no mori (zenpen) (Mermaid's Forest (Part 1))
As Yuta lies down to rest, Mana wanders off after a cat. She finds herself in the middle of a road and is hit by a semi-truck. Yuta wakes up and learns what has happened and that they took Mana's body to a doctor named Shiina. Later that night, Dr. Shiina takes Mana's body to a house in the forest and there he begins the process of removing Mana's arm. A girl with white hair named Towa says she needs a new arm, but her older sister Sawa is disgusted at the process. Yuta decides to investigate and meets Towa while breaking in. She tells him Mana is there, but her dog, a Lost Soul attacks and kills Yuta. Towa tells Mana that somewhere on the property a mermaid is buried and that Sawa knows where but refuses to tell her. Towa then tries to kill Mana again when it is revealed that her bad arm is actually that of a Lost Soul. Sawa helps free Yuta who has come back to life and tells him that Towa only looks young on the outside, but is aging on the inside. Sawa tells Yuta that when they were young Towa was very sick, and in order to save her life she let her drink the blood of a mermaid, but it caused her arm to deform and her hair to turn completely white.
Episode 5: 人魚の森（後編）
Ningyo no mori (kohen) (Mermaid's Forest (Part 2))
Towa says that she will remove Mana's head unless Sawa shows her where the mermaid is buried, and finally Sawa relents. Yuta manages to kill the dog and escape. He finds Sawa and Towa inside the cave where the mermaid is kept, but warns Towa of what might happen to her if she eats the mermaid's flesh. Towa throws Mana into the pit with the mermaid, where a Lost Soul is waiting. Yuta dives in to protect her and kills the Lost Soul, but the mermaid wakes up and rips Towa's other arm off before Towa decapitates it. She takes the flesh and tries to feed it to her sister. She tells everyone that Sawa wanted to test the effects of the mermaid's blood on her so that she could see if it was safe. She knew all along what might happen to her, but was only concerned with finding immortality. Sawa refuses to eat the flesh and dies of a heart attack in front of Towa. Towa says that it isn't fair that she did not have to suffer as she has her entire life and then she joins her sister in death. Dr. Shiina helps Yuta burn everything and then reveals that he was Towa's fiance.
Episode 6: 夢の終わり
Yume no owari (Dream's End)
Yuta and Mana are lying dead in forest. A bandaged Lost Soul stumbles upon them and finds Mana waking up. A man finds Yuta and tells him that Mana was most likely eaten by a monster named "Big Eyes." This monster took the old man's eye forty years ago. Meanwhile Big Eyes is taking care of Mana. He tells her that he ate the flesh of a rotted mermaid corpse many years ago, and he passed out. When he came to, his entire village had been murdered. Soon, Yuta and the old man arrive and begin their assault. Mana tries to protect Big Eyes but he quickly enters his raged state and begins lashing out at everyone. The old man finally is able to score a mortal wound against him and Big Eyes dies, calling Mana's name.
Episode 7: 舎利姫
Shari hime (The Ash Princess)
In the 17th century Yuta runs across a travelling show that is selling mermaid's flesh. A little girl demonstrates her immortality by cutting herself and showing everyone that her wound has healed, then her father reveals his very own mermaid. Natsume, the little girl, leaves after the show is over and tracks a dog to an empty field. She kills it and devours its liver in front of a monk. This monk begins attacking her and manages to cut off her arm before Yuta arrives and saves her. During the night, Natsume attempts to eat Yuta's liver. Her father asks Yuta to please leave. As he's leaving Yuta meets the monk from earlier. The monk explains that he met Natsume's father many years ago when he was grieving over the loss of his daughter. The monk was so heartbroken that he tried to use something called the "Hangon Technique" to bring Natsume back to life using her bones. He used a Mermaid's Liver in order to ensure the process worked, but instead it created an immortal with an appetite for livers. The monk regretted his actions even more when he learned that Natsume's father had been using a lesser version of the Hangon Technique in order to bring other people back to life for a fee. Yuta agrees to help the monk get rid of Natsume, but later decides that instead of killing her, he will take Natsume with him. When Natsume's father learns of this, he captures Yuta and attempts to remove his liver. At the same time, the monk finds Natsume and is sucessful in removing the Mermaid's Liver that has been keeping her alive all these years. Natsume gets away and finds her father about to kill Yuta. She stops him in time, but her father feels so betrayed that he takes her and jumps off a cliff, wanting nothing more than to die with her.
Episode 8: 最後の顔（前編）
Saigo no kao (zenpen) (The Last Face (Part 1))
One day a boy is riding in a car with a man. Suddenly the boy leaps out the window of the moving car and quickly runs away. Mana and Yuta find the boy taking some medicine that seems to heal his wounds instantly. They follow the boy home and meet his mother and grandmother. The grandmother tells them they should not have brought the boy home, and shows them a picture of Nanao (the boy) and his mother. Yuta notices that neither Nanao or the boy's mother look the same as the Nanao or mother he just met. That night Nanao's mother goes into the old storehouse and removes a skinned face. The skin is badly scarred across the eye. Nanao visits Yuta down at the docks the next day and they see the man who kidnapped him. Yuta follows the man and soon sees him get pushed off a cliff by a woman with scars across her eye. Yuta saves the man who explains that the woman is his mother, and that she had kidnapped his son and named him Nanao after her own son. The older Nanao explains that his parents divorced 25 years ago, but rather than lose custody of her child she tried to kill them both with poison. The poison was mermaid's flesh. Nanao's mother swallowed it and became very scarred across her eye, but became immortal. That night Mana and Little Nanao go into the storehouse and find the skin of his mother's face. Suddenly the scarred woman attacks.
Episode 9: 最後の顔（後編）
Saigo no kao (kohen) (The Last Face (Part 2))
The woman badly injures Mana, and Little Nanao rushes off to get his mother's "medicine" before Mana can explain that she will not need it. Back in the storehouse Nanao's mother cuts off her face and replaces it with the non-scarred one. She finds Little Nanao and tells him to take her to Mana so she can help her. Nanao, not realizing that the scarred woman and his own "mother" are the same person does so. When she finds Mana she attacks her, but Yuta arrives with Older Nanao just in time to save her. The woman explains that she found a corpse washed up on the beach and took its face to stop the pain the scar was causing her. She kidnapped her son's child and raised him as if he were her own. Nanao's grandmother manages to get the "medicine" away from Nanao and feeds it to a cat. The cat transforms into a lost soul, and Nanao realizes that that it is not medicine at all. His mother explains that she has been feeding him Mermaid's Ashes in hopes of building up his immunity to the flesh. She grabs her "son" and takes him into the storehouse where the flesh is. Mana makes it inside before the door is locked and keeps Nanao from eating it just in time. The mother is so saddened by her behavior that she leaves. Soon thereafter a report on the news says that the charred remains of a woman were found in a warehouse.
Episode 10: 約束の明日（前編）
Yakusoku no ashita (zenpen) (Tomorrow's Promise (Part 1))
Yuta returns to a city to visit the grave of a girl he used to know named Nae Kogure. While he's there Mana wanders off and sees a woman being attacked by dogs and men in suits. When she goes to help, the woman gets a rock and smashes one of the men in the head, killing him. Soon, the other men take her and Mana away. An old man tells the mystery woman, who he calls Nae, to please not leave him again, as Mana's dead body is being buried outside. While searching for Mana, Yuta meets Sokichi, a former servant to Nae. They remember how Yuta and Nae were in love, but had to hide it from her fiance Eijiro. They would hide in an area where flowers grew all year long, thanks to mermaid's ashes in the soil. This area was called Red Valley. Sokichi tells Yuta about Nae's death, but then tells him that Nae has come back to life and that she hasn't aged a day in sixty years. Mana wakes up and crawls out of the ground in front of the old man, Eijiro. He realizes that she must be an immortal, and orders his men to take off her head. Yuta and Sokichi attempt to break into Eijiro's house to rescue Nae and Mana, but fail and are captured. While they are being held captive, another of Eijiro's men tries to rape Mana before he kills her. Nae walks in and stabs the man to death, saving Mana. The two leave the mansion and go to Red Valley in hopes of finding Yuta.
Episode 11: 約束の明日（後編）
Yakusoku no ashita (kohen) (Tomorrow's Promise (Part 2))
One of Eijiro's men tries using a chainsaw on Yuta's neck, but thankfully Yuta escapes. He and Sokichi try to find Nae and Mana, and Sokichi asks why all those years ago, Yuta gave Nae the signal to meet him in Red Valley even though he had no intention of taking her with him. Yuta says he never did that, that someone else must have led Nae to believe he would be in Red Valley that day. Nae and Mana find Eijiro waiting for them in Red Valley and Nae wastes no time in attacking him. Shocked at her actions, Eijiro tells his men to kill Mana and Nae, but Yuta arrives in time to save them. Eijiro explains that it was he that signaled Nae to come to Red Valley because he thought she would never be loyal to Yuta over him. When she arrived, he was so disgusted that he killed her before he realized what he was doing. For years he searched for the mermaid's ashes to use on Nae, and finally he found them and brought her back to life. When Yuta and Nae finally embrace, she dies in his arms.
Episode 12: 人魚の傷（前編）
Ningyo no kizu (zenpen) (Mermaid's Scar (Part 1))
Mana and Yuta meet a little boy on a train. The boy tells them that he's finally getting to meet his mother again after not seeing her for awhile. Years pass, and one day Mana and Yuta see the boy again, looking much the same as he did when they first met. The boy's name is Masato, he and his nanny Yukie are visiting the construction site where Yuta and Mana are working. One of Mana's coworkers tells them of Masato's mother, and how she was supposedly killed in a horrible boating accident, but the next day she came back to life, and soon all her burns had gone away. Yuta and Mana decide to investigate. When they arrive at the house, they find the boy's mother, Misa attacking him with a pair of scissors. Once she's calmed down, Yuta tells her that he is an immortal and that she must be too. Misa begins worrying that her injuries aren't healing as fast as they used to. Yukie gets engaged and tells Misa that she won't be able to work for her much longer. Masato gets very upset at this, and asks her to try some meat he has. When she does, she becomes a Lost Soul. Yuta arrives in time to see Misa being attacked by the Lost Soul. Mana saves Masato and takes him to his "secret hideout". Yuta manages to kill the Lost Soul, but notices Yukie's ring on the floor. He demands an answer from Misa, who tells him that Masato is trying to find a replacement for her. He learns of Masato's immortality while Masato himself learns of Mana's immortal gift. Masato uses a stun gun on Mana and binds her with barbed wire while Yuta begins his search for her.
The Mermaid's Scar episodes were not aired as part of the original release of the series and were marketed as DVD-only releases. Some places list an airdate of May 19, 2004 but that is when the DVDs were released rather than when the episode aired on televison. The reason this episode was not aired was because it was deemed too intense for young viewers due to the violence depicted. When released on DVD this was rated as R15, a Japanese rating meaning that the material is not suitable for anyone younger than junior high school.
Episode 13: 人魚の傷（後編）
Ningyo no kizu (kouhen) (Mermaid's Scar (Part 2))
Masato tells Mana that she is his new replacement mother, but when Mana rejects him he decides to kill Yuta in order to force her to join him. He goes back into the house and begins setting up traps for Yuta. When Yuta arrives, Masato shoots him and then tries to take off his head with piano wire. Yuta finally has him pinned down, but lets his guard down for a second, and in that second Masato rams his fingers through Yuta's eye. Masato then reveals that he's been alive for 800 years. He shoots Yuta again and decides to cut off his head. Mana arrives in time to stop the final blow, but she sustains injuries of her own and passes out. When she wakes up she sees the entire house on fire with her and Yuta trapped inside. Yuta finally wakes up and they manage to escape. Masato steals Misa's car but while he's driving he is hit and apparently killed by a semi-truck.
The Mermaid's Scar episodes were not aired as part of the original release of the series and were marketed as DVD-only releases. Some places list an airdate of May 19, 2004 but that is when the DVDs were released rather than when the episode aired on televison. The reason this episode was not aired was because it was deemed too intense for young viewers due to the violence depicted. When released on DVD this was rated as R15, a Japanese rating meaning that the material is not suitable for anyone younger than junior high school.
After the conclusion of Mermaid Forest's TV adaptation the time slot was filled by Monkey Turn another Shonen Sunday manga that was being adapted for anime.
