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I'd like to give shout-outs to Marin in Akazukin Chacha and the mermaid in Pet Shop of Horrors as being memorable fish ladies, too.

Mike Toole wrote:

When glimpsed, these ningyo are more like western mermaids, with fishy tails but human torsos, but they have the traditional powers of the ningyo...

Like Kokon Chomonjū (a setsuwa book compiled by nobleman Tachibana no Narisue in the 13th century) says, '伊勢國別保といふ所へ、前刑部少輔忠盛朝臣下りたりけるに、浦人日ごとに網を引きけるに、或日大なる魚の、頭は人のやうにてありながら、齒はこまかにて魚にたがはず、口さし出でて猿に似たりけり、身はよのつねの魚にてありけるを…人魚といふなるは、これていのものなるにや,' certainly, ningyo were depicted as fish with the face of women in Japan in ancient times. But in the illustration for the ningyo entry in Wakan Sansaizue (an encyclopaedia compiled by doctor Terajima Ryōan. Completed in circa 1712), ningyo has the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. So at least in the Edo period, ningyo was regarded also as a creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish in Japan.

Just because I came across this today:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-11/mermaids-across-the-world-arnhem-land/9846210

Quote:

Japan has mermaids too! They call 'em ningyo, and they're often depicted as fish with the face of women. Sometimes seeing one is a bad omen; sometimes catching and eating one will curse you, or give you eternal life.

The most memorable mermaid story for me was this one shot manga... I had to look up the title just to make sure it wasn't a Rumiko Takahashi one, it's "School Mermaid" but I don't know that translates into Japanese, "ningyo no gakko"?... where the lead girl tricks her love rival and best friend into chasing a group of silent mergirls she found. The chase goes "wrong" and the girl ends up joining the mermaid "school" cursed to be one of them forever... and the manga ends with the lead girl's real goal, eating the new and easily catchable mermaid/former friend herself. For luck in love, I guess?

Everything else is just kind of cute, honestly... Even the stories that end in "turns to sea foam" tend to pass on betrayal and cannibalism.

Errinundra wrote:

The earliest anime I'm aware of where the protagonist is a mermaid is Mahou no Mako-chan from 1970. It was the third in Toei's long run of magical girl shows from the 60s and 70s, after Sally the Witch and Himmitsu no Akko-chan. It takes the Little Mermaid story and plants it squarely in a Japanese schoolyard. In this instance she doesn't actually know the identity of schoolboy she saved. It's most famous for introducing fanservice to the magical girl genre. There's a scene where she teases her sea-king father in lingerie and then undresses in front of him. TV tropes labels it as anime's lingerie scene trope codifier. There's also an episode on the devastation that chemical factories were inflicting on the sea, broadcast not long after the Japanese Government belatedly admitted the cause of the Minimata mercury poisoning disaster.

Mako-chan was a big trend setter. The first magical girl that was a teenager, the first to have a love interest, and a love story. Mako also paved the way for melodrama series like Candy Candy, for sure. Mako also tackled a lot of dark themes - suicide, domestic violence, and even racism. It's a good series, which sadly doesn't have a lot of exposure out here. Also, she's only a mermaid for the first episode. One of her sisters is featured in a later episode, where she captured by a young man obsessed with mermaids. Think of Eugene Levy's character in Splash, but more Yabuki Joe in appearance and personality.

The fan favorite episode of Cutie Honey, episode 12, deals with a mermaid with a sad backstory. The episode was even screened at the Toei Manga Matsuri a year before they released The Little Mermaid.

Also, Disney's Little Mermaid definitely took a lot from both Mako-chan and Marina. The color scenes for Mako and Akira (her love interest) certainly match Ariel and Eric. King Triton is depicted as cold and hateful towards humanity, much like Mako's father (in the original story he's pretty neutral). The most blatant rip off is the Prince having a kind, overweight maid that takes a liking to the Little Mermaid.

Animegomaniac wrote:

Quote:

Japan has mermaids too! They call 'em ningyo, and they're often depicted as fish with the face of women. Sometimes seeing one is a bad omen; sometimes catching and eating one will curse you, or give you eternal life.

The most memorable mermaid story for me was this one shot manga... I had to look up the title just to make sure it wasn't a Rumiko Takahashi one, it's "School Mermaid" but I don't know that translates into Japanese, "ningyo no gakko"?... where the lead girl tricks her love rival and best friend into chasing a group of silent mergirls she found. The chase goes "wrong" and the girl ends up joining the mermaid "school" cursed to be one of them forever... and the manga ends with the lead girl's real goal, eating the new and easily catchable mermaid/former friend herself. For luck in love, I guess?

Everything else is just kind of cute, honestly... Even the stories that end in "turns to sea foam" tend to pass on betrayal and cannibalism.

They weren’t love rivals though. They were just best friends who wanted different boys as boyfriends and only one of them knew what would happen if you pursued mermaids but didn’t eat their flesh by sunrise. According to the lore described in the manga, if you ate the flesh of the mermaid who’s first name shard the first letter of the name of the person you love, that person will automatically fall in love with you. If you can’t do this, you turn into a mermaid. That’s why the crazy girl was willing to throw her best friend to the fishes. She pretty much was willing to murder and cannabilze any mermaid (even her best friend) just to get a boyfriend.

It also offers some nice Fridge Horror cause there’s A LOT of mermaids. There’s a spin-off of the one shot that features multiple characters trying to do the same thing if you wanna check it out.

And for those who’ve never read the one shot, I may need to clarify that the mermaids in the manga aren’t your typical half-fish girls. They’re human girls in high school swimsuits that can move around land as if everything is water.

Animegomaniac wrote:

Quote:

Japan has mermaids too! They call 'em ningyo, and they're often depicted as fish with the face of women. Sometimes seeing one is a bad omen; sometimes catching and eating one will curse you, or give you eternal life.

The most memorable mermaid story for me was this one shot manga... I had to look up the title just to make sure it wasn't a Rumiko Takahashi one, it's "School Mermaid" but I don't know that translates into Japanese, "ningyo no gakko"?... where the lead girl tricks her love rival and best friend into chasing a group of silent mergirls she found. The chase goes "wrong" and the girl ends up joining the mermaid "school" cursed to be one of them forever... and the manga ends with the lead girl's real goal, eating the new and easily catchable mermaid/former friend herself. For luck in love, I guess?

Everything else is just kind of cute, honestly... Even the stories that end in "turns to sea foam" tend to pass on betrayal and cannibalism.

Probably you were talking about School Ningyo by Yoshitomi (Eat-Man) Akihito.
At first, the author's plan was that the length of School Ningyo would be one-volume tankōbon, but since the publishing company allowed the author to write and illustrate more chapters, the School Ningyo manga has 5 volumes. In 2017, Yoshitomi has said that possibly he will write a new chapter of School Ningyo.
The 'eating ningyo's flesh results in a supernatural thing' part is derived from Japan's Yaobikuni legend (A legend about a woman who ate ningyo's flesh and acquired perpetual youth and longevity. 'Yao' is '800 (years old)' and 'bikuni' is 'nun'. The woman became a nun).
As the final scene of Volume 5, too, suggests, School Ningyo has both the Japanese element and the Western element.

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she was wondering why parts of it reminded her so much of Ponyo

Looking at happily-psychotic expression of Lu's, she had to ASK why it reminded her of Ponyo?? Very Happy

CandisWhite wrote:

Zin5ki wrote:

Not that I wish to muddy the waters here, but can Song of the Sea compare to the beacon of subaquatic western animated films that is The Water Babies, last sighted in the murkier depths of 1978?

Ach, my long landed sea traveller, you done missed the 80's cable run on this side of the pond where it was known as Slip Slide Adventures ( probably to avoid a fight with Disney and its cartoon short) and the release done by MGM, under its proper British title, done in the 21st century. Not to mention a Blu-ray recently released on your own shores.

Although "The Water Babies" was already a well-known (over there) Victorian novel, and had local "classic" pedigree, even though over here it was known for being an afternoon HBO staple, along with other badly, badly-outsourced European animation from the late 70's.
(The live-action bits directed by Lionel Jeffries, accdg. to the credits, and the directorial style does rather suggest the work of Grandfather Potts--Oh, the posh, posh traveling life...)

Triltaison wrote:

I'd like to give shout-outs to Marin in Akazukin Chacha and the mermaid in Pet Shop of Horrors as being memorable fish ladies, too.

The PSoH mermaid was memorably "classic", while Marin was the standard scheming-jealous trope from comedies--

In Rumiko Takahashi comedies, there's also the time on Ranma 1/2 when the Principal offered to teach Akane how to swim by giving her, among other things, a mermaid costume tail...A motorized one, which promptly plowed her across the pool and into the wall.

I appreciate the shout out to Song of the Sea! I loved that movie as well as Tomm Moore's previous film The Secret of Kells, and I'm looking forward to his upcoming movie Wolfwalkers, too.

Ponyo is the only one of Miyazaki's films I haven't seen yet. It looks just as great as his other films from what clips I've seen of it, though.

Mosaic wrote:

Also, Disney's Little Mermaid definitely took a lot from both Mako-chan and Marina. The color scenes for Mako and Akira (her love interest) certainly match Ariel and Eric. King Triton is depicted as cold and hateful towards humanity, much like Mako's father (in the original story he's pretty neutral). The most blatant rip off is the Prince having a kind, overweight maid that takes a liking to the Little Mermaid.

Although thought animators said that Ariel's cherry-red hair was inspired by a Brothers Hildebrandt book of HC Andersen stories:
http://www.hildebrandt-art.com/art/greg/story/fairy/fft-5.jpg

While fans have suspected some shots were almost direct steals from the "Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theater" TV version, which aired a few years earlier--Prince Eric's uncanny resemblance to Treat Williams being the smoking gun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYDFWIKidXQ

Sometimes, the word "siren" is used in conjunction with "mermaid". I don't know of when that association started, but sirens were originally beautiful bird-ladies. Ugly bird-ladies were harpies.

Don't forget the child looking mermaid in Princess Resurrection. Although I don't think the anime ever actually shows her in Mermaid form, the manga later does show her in mermaid form.

The short series Merman In My Tub (Orenchi no Furo Jijo) is still available on Crunchy, I think, and there was also Soubi Yamamoto's This Boy Caught A Merman. Both of these are some of my favorite short series, and in my opinion, Yamamoto's is the best of her 'This Boy...' incarnations.

I love that both of the Merman characters in these two shows were also boys, and it was nice to see potential romance not evolving from a lovesick young girl, but people isolated and coming to accept cohabitation as a means of cathartic support.

LOL, yes the fish people were hilarious! Noonsa cracked me up! Well played!

And while I will never forget that, I will go with Muromi-san.

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