Saved by a mermaid ...

Seto no Hanayome (瀬戸の花嫁) follows the misadventures of one Michishio Nagasumi, who, while on holiday with his parents at Seto Bay, is saved from drowning by a young mermaid, Seto San. However, according to mermaid law, either the mermaid who revealed her identity, or the person to whom her identity was revealed, needs to be executed. In an attempt to save the lives of both children, their parents agree to have the young couple become engaged. How fortunate that they happen to be the same age, ‘ey?

Thus Nagasumi gains himself a beautiful bride-to-be and San’s life is saved, although we need to make you aware of the fact that her father (being the typical doting dad), is less than happy about the method employed to save his daugher, and is very much in favour of seeing Nagasumi dead and his little girl back where she belongs.

Summer holidays do come to an end, however, and Nagasumi gets to head back home to normality – or so he believes. San, being his fiancé, decides to tag along, and as such, Nagasumi’s troubles are just beginning …

I’ll warn you now – in Seto no Hanayome you’re going to be introduced to a dad (or two) who really has trouble letting go. And maybe a wife who is actually the dominant partner in the marriage, despite the hubby’s position as head of a Yakuza clan.

Seto no Hanayome happens to be a classic case of the harem-genre as I pointed out in my post about the subject a while back, and as such, you’ll end up getting introduced to most of the stereotypes I highlighted in there – but it somehow manages to miss plunging headlong into the generic romantic-comedy trap that happens to so many series these days.

"I'll be back ..."

The show spends more time focusing on the comedy aspect of the various relationships than it spends bothering with the whole romance aspect – but the romance doesn’t get neglected entirely, so no worries there. The comedy tends range from moderately slapstick to completely silly, but never overdone, although in one or two cases I could criticize the show for running a particular joke into the ground. The show’s creators were also not afraid to pull a couple of spoofs into the mix, most notably taking aim at Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which included the iconic music and one particular epic fight between San’s father and Lunar’s (introduced later in the series) father – in a bathroom. If you’ve seen Terminator 2 you will know what I’m talking about.

I wasn’t overly fond of the style of character design employed – that being said, there is definitely nothing wrong with it – think of it as a personal opinion. The artists did tend to pop different drawing styles into the mix from time to time, mostly using it to define particularly comic moments. Background music was fairly nondescript and nothing really stands out in that department, although the opening theme had a certain level of catchiness to it.

Overall I found Seto no Hanayome to be a highly entertaining – and surprisingly funny series with a very light-hearted atmosphere and I’d definitely recommend it if you enjoyed shows like Karin, Ah! My Goddess and Fruits Basket.

Seto no Hanayome is based on the manga by the same name penned by Kimura Tahiko, which is currently still running strong at 14 volumes, and consists of 26 episodes produced jointly by Gonzo and AIC. The literal translation of the title is The Inland Sea Bride, but it was licensed and released in the West under the title My Bride is a Mermaid by FUNimation Entertainment.

A note on scores: I’m sure some of you have noticed that I’ve never bothered scoring anime (or manga) series in the past – for the past while using scores from other sites such as Anime News Network. I’m going to be stopping this as well; while scores on ANN might be more representative since they are an average calculated from a number of votes, the fact remains that any kind of scoring will remain highly subjective and is therefore likely to be skewed – to use an example – if 100 people watched a show, 80 really hated it because it’s a genre they wouldn’t normally watch the show would have a bad score because the remaining 20 votes simply aren’t enough to bring it back up. In the end the show loses viewers simply based on possible watchers being deterred by a low score.

In the end I believe human beings are simply incapable of being completely impartial and unbiased – as is the case with me, and I wholeheartedly admit it. KittiWithKatana (who wrote for me at one stage) would very likely disagree with my views on most of the dramas I review, simply because she prefers other genres. For instance – I hate Dragonball Z because I think it’s a horrible show – but thousands of people probably think it’s the best thing since sliced cheese. That’s simply how it is.

For the time being though, I’ll keep drawing parallels with other shows, which hopefully will help my readers make slightly more informed choices.

Now go watch this show, dammit!!! >:-)