I love Takahashi's Mermaid Saga and the two OAVs, they have a certain sense of morality that reminds of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and other gothic works. What I don't understand, though is why the original storyline, "A Mermaid Never Smiles," was never animated. It not only introduces Mana's predicament, but also the entire concept of the Mermaids being truly monstrous in a classical sense, not just victims fighting back as in the Mermaid Forest OAV. Mana, for those who haven't read the stories, was kidnapped at birth by a band of earthbound mermaids to be slaughtered at the age of 15 to regenerate their youth. Losing that somehow takes the bite out of Yuta's rage against all things Mermaid.
Review of Rumik World: Mermaid Forest
