Rumiko Takahashi is probably behind one of your anime or manga creations. The mind behind Lum, Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikkoku is one of the most prolific mangaka's ever. And this gorgeous and haunting horror story is one of her most under read and underrated works.

Mermaid Saga collectors edition, vol. 1 is a gorgeous collection of thw first few volumes of the series by Rumiko Takahashi. It includes beautiful color boards of original artwork. The story is a little gruesome, but highly enjoyable.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed reading the e-copy of this volume, I will definitely be going to purchase a physical copy. I'm very curious what this collectors edition looks like in person. I had already read the original release, and it's just as fantastic ~15 years later. The older art style is so nostalgic for me. It's definitely a classic at this point.

Eternal youth and longevity have been a very touchy subject since people started to die and decay. Well, some still continue the pursuit of immortality, and we can’t really blame them. Living forever sounds a bit too tempting if we’re to be honest. According to legends and tales, there are multiple ways to achieve this. Theoretically speaking, science may even achieve this at one point in time. Hopefully, humans still exist by then. Anyway, immortality has always been a common sight in fiction. More so, manga. But what if we’re to add mermaids into the mix? We end up with a dark fairy tale that’s not suitable for kids.

What would you do or what price would you pay to become immortal? That’s the question that Rumiko Takahashi’s most experimental and darkest manga sets out to examine and explore. In this manga, we follow a certain protagonist named Yuta after he ate the flesh of a Mermaid accidentally hundreds of years ago. A man completely out of time and all he can do is wandering Japan to find a Mermaid to change him back.

One thing, out of many, that Mermaid Saga is good at is establishing the rules of gaining immortality. For instance, there is a small chance of that happening. Most people who partake in mermaid flesh become monsters or you can kill an immortal by cutting their heads off. There are plenty of cases of where partial immorality happens by the partaker only gaining youth on the outside. All of which plays into the episodic adventure of this manga.


This manga volume is nine chapters long and each location at least takes up two chapters. So we get the adventure of Yuta going from place to place and the inherent greed of people around him. It’s a little jarring seeing similar things happen again and again in different villages and towns just to see the human greed again and again. Yuta shows up “dead”, gets captured or the immortal girl Yuta found Mana, gets captured. It is a little annoying seeing it happen again and again.

Still, it allows the story to be Rumiko Takahashi’s darkest yet, so I can see why the manga goes this route. So that gets a pass. When looking at humanity and the search for immortality, darkness is naturally attached to this sort of content. Dig deep it does. Some of her humor does make it through but it’s minimal at best. Everything about this manga is grounded and the only super natural thing are mermaids and mermaid flesh. Sounds minor, but as we’ve seen, it does so much. It’s crazy and pretty solid.


The second selling point on top of the exploration of humanity is Mermaid Saga’s art. It’s so good, holy crap. You can tell that this was one of Rumiko Takahashi’s passionate projects, because her drawings are incredible. Her character designs are her characters designs, but the background art. Man, if I could live off the mood and art from the towns she creates, I would. In fact, I would just want to live in them. It works with the grounded story Rumiko is telling too. Everything is put into creating this project.

I will say that this manga is a good read. It has some faults with repetition in terms of story, but it digs into human themes by examining greed and deceit underneath a microscope. I’m very curious to read Volume 2 when it appears. It’s just so beautiful in it’s own way.

Mermaid Saga Collector's Edition Volume 1 by Rumiko Takahashi

5 stars

Before I even tell you what this book is about, I ordered my own copy and per-ordered volume 2. The second that bad boy comes I am rereading this national treasure that is being released in these stunning editions by VIZ because volume 1 was PERFECT. Literally, these storylines were perfect. These chapters were beautiful, heart-wrenching, filled with longing and disappointment. They evoked the essence of humanity while showing the horrors immortality and it was a journey of beauty that I want to revisit again. This edition follows nine chapters and some are connected while others are not of a man named Yuta who is 500-years-old and ate the flesh of a mermaid. Eating the flesh of a mermaid will keep you alive forever and he has been trying to change his fate, but is unsuccessful. He happens upon a girl named Mana who has to rescue from a village of old women who aren't keeping Mana around for anything other than something sinister. I did not realize that this was by the same woman who wrote Inuyasha until after I read the second chapter and this is apparently her foray into horror. Y'all, she does horror fantasy SO WELL. The last storyline in this collection- Mermaid's Promise- is the most beautiful story I've read in a manga ever. That story HIT. I will be crying about Nae forever because that story was filled with longing and despair and SO MUCH HURT. It was beautiful and so well done. This manga is a new favorite. I haven't fell in love with a manga series like this since I was obsessed with manga when I was twelve. This series is doing something to me. It is hitting me in all the right ways and just absolutely tearing me up. I finished this manga a sobbing mess and immediately ordered my own physical copy, WHICH IS BEAUTIFUL. I can't wait for volume 2 to get here because I am ready to binge read the series.


Whimscial Writing Scale: 5 (I'm deceased- this is storytelling)

Character Scale: 5

Villain Scale: 5 we love a rotating line up over centuries

Plotastic Scale: 5

Cover Thoughts: GORGEOUS. Wonderful and the reason I requested this book before I saw it was a horror manga. Not disappointed.

Thank you, Netgalley and Viz Media, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I remember reading the first English language release back in the late 1990s. I was a huge fan of Takahashi sensei's other titles, namely Ranma 1/2 but I wanted to try something that was a bit more serious. It was the Mermaid Saga which ultimately peaked my interest in Japanese myths and legends. So when I found out that Viz Media was releasing a collector's edition almost 25 years after I first read it, I was thrilled. I wasn't disappointed! The quality and thought that the publisher put into the edition is more than I could have hoped for. I really loved reliving the story of Yuta and Mana and their journey to reclaim their mortality. It was also interesting to go back as an adult and reread a title that haunted me (in a good way) as a teenager.

This was not quite what I was expecting, but that's okay- it was better. Japanese folklore about mermaids is different from what Disney tells us; Japanese mermaids are scary, they want to eat human flesh, and they have big jaws full of teeth to do just that. Some of them are like this, anyway- some look human. The legends vary from place to place, and the author mixes in all kinds of different stories here, making a delicious stew of folklore. One things stays the same in the legends- if a human eats mermaid flesh, they'll become immortal. Maybe. If they survive. Mermaid flesh is poisonous, you see, and can kill you, or turn you into a lost soul, a monstrous creature, similar to a demon. The story here is about Yuta, a man who inadvertently ate mermaid flesh, and now searches the world for a mermaid to help him change back to a normal human. In a remote island village rumored to have a mermaid, he rescues Mana, a young woman who has also eaten mermaid flesh, and together, they continue the search. The timeline goes back and forth between present day and episodes in the past, and we follow the couple's adventures as they search for answers. There's a lot of creepiness going on, horror-ish in a supernatural more than gory way, and we get a lot of different aspects of the mermaid legends explained- what happens if someone drinks mermaid blood, for instance, or uses for mermaid ashes. I'm normally not much into mermaid stories, but this was an intriguing twist on what I'm used to, darker and more bloody. I'll definitely be looking for volume 2 of this series!

#MermaidSagaCollectorsEditionVol1 #NetGalley

Dark, fantastical manga. It's a must read for fantasy lovers who want to dip into the manga genre.

This horrific collection will have you looking at mermaids a little differently. Our leads needs to hunt down a mermaid to become normal again, but it's not going to be easy. These immortals will go on a fantastic adventure to become mortal and normal again, but there's no way to confirm their success.

Three out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and VIZ for providing me a free copy of this manga in exchange of an honest review.

Mermaid Saga follows a young man named Yuta who eats mermaid flesh and becomes immortal. He’s now on a quest to find another mermaid to reverse the curse. All he wants is be a normal man again and live out his mortal life. He meets a girl named Mana who has also eaten the flesh of a mermaid and is also an immortal. They travel together trying to find a mermaid to turn them back to normal. There are many adventures along the way and many narrow escapes. Overall, this was a fantastic first volume and I cannot wait to read the next one!

This is a work catering to die-hard Rumiko Takahashi fans - a much more gritty installment as opposed to her usual slice-of-life, shounen titles (Urusei Yatsura, Inuyasha, Rin-Ne). There is a lot more action, blood, and drama to be had, yet do not expect the usual qualities that come with a typical Takahashi work – comedy, character development, hijinks, happy endings to name a few. These are not so much detractors as they are a new direction from an already prolific mangaka; that is, a dramatic – more often than not tragic - collection of stories centered on the mythos of mermaids; specifically the chance at eternal life after consumption of flesh and other magical properties.
My personal enjoyment of reading this leaned more towards the theme - how humankind can be so fragile and desperate for life and pleasure as to wager death and eternity with one bite. The story is what it is, a saga of Yuta’s journey for death and rest amidst a cast of characters who yearn for his miracle ability to live forever. “Mermaid Forest” is a great examination in narratives and viewpoints amongst Yuta, a doctor, an old woman, and a girl suffering from the effects of mermaid blood, asking who was truly the “villain?” The twist is engaging, yet what makes the story linger is a matter of who was justified in his or her actions? Yet even if the themes are substantial, the execution is standard. “The Village of the Fighting Fish” - where we see Yuta’s disappointment in living forever five hundred years ago – feels par-for-the-course in terms of storytelling with a definitive good guy and bad guy and a bit of romance. Even if the melancholic ending reinforces the theme, the overall narrative is nothing new nor refreshing. The same can be said of “Dream’s End” a simple, yet provocative mercy tale of a man turned garish monster after consuming mermaid flesh.
Mermaid Saga places priority on story at the expense of characters. Yuta is a confident, mature shounen protagonist and Mana is a reserved, tactful young girl, yet unlike many of Takahashi’s iconic characters such as Lum from Urusei Yatsura or Ranma from Ranma ½, these two are not unique nor recognizable – serving more as plot devices for the various stories in this saga. In addition, the duo’s goal is not so apparent, they seem to simply exist in their new reality as everlasting people in a temporal society. In other words, Yuta and Mana are involved, yet not engaging for the same reasons as the aforementioned characters. This I feel can be a feature not welcomed for those who love the dynamics of her previous work.
It is a refreshing bit of storytelling, yet can be a turn-off for those expecting an Inuyasha or a Ranma ½. This – and by extension general marketing – can be geared towards a seinen audience, those who want to dabble into the folkloric legends of mermaids and everlasting life to the follies of people’s own selfish, yet human desires.

I have to say, this was such a weird collection of stories. 😂 I was excited when I first came across this because 1) it’s by the creator of Inuyasha, and 2) the words “mermaid” and “horror” IMMEDIATELY made me think of Mira Grant’s Rolling in the Deep series (which, for the record, is some of the best horror world-building I’ve read).

We follow the travels of Yuta, a young man who’s been cursed—though some would argue blessed—with immortality and eternal youth because he ate the flesh of a mermaid five centuries earlier. All these years, he has been seeking another mermaid, as he believes finding the mermaid holds the key to him becoming an ordinary man again.

In the present day, he comes across Mana, a human girl who’s also consumed mermaid flesh. Together, the two immortals embark on adventures involving strange girls with deformed limbs, sentient “lost souls”—former humans who transformed into monsters after eating part of a mermaid—and the mystery of a woman from Yuta’s past. Together, Yuta and Mana reckon with the strange effects that mermaid blood and ashes, and the all-consuming desire for mermaid flesh, have on the people they encounter.

Overall, this manga wasn’t very subtle, had a decent amount of info-dumping, featured somewhat erratic pacing, but was still pretty entertaining. I also think the illustration style worked better for me personally in Inuyasha than Mermaid Saga.

My biggest gripe is probably the extremely unflattering depiction of women throughout the series, as they’re either hags, monsters, or maidens in need of Yuta’s saving. Each story features at least one scene where Mana is naked (and I’m pretty sure she’s 15…???) and recurring themes revolved around the objectification, consumption, and possession of women—but this wasn’t really interrogated so much as simply depicted.

That being said, I LOVED the mermaid illustrations, especially when they’re portrayed as mythic creatures infused with a dash of horror. The redeeming story for me was the final one, “Mermaid’s Promise,” which carried a particularly elegiac tone; it was the perfect story to close off the volume.

➟ 2.5 stars rounded up.




Thank you NetGalley and VIZ Media for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The manga follows Yuta, who became immortal when he unwittingly ate mermaid flesh, and now he seeks a way to become human again. He longs to have a normal life once again where he can one day, die. The world keeps changing and everything and everyone he once knew is mostly gone. His will keeps him sane while he follows rumors and truth to achieving his goal. Hundreds of years later, he encounters a determined and quite volatile young lady named Mana. Her mysterious origins lead him deeper down a rabbit hole that the mermaid myth has roots in several places in Japan and he’s nowhere closer to saving his humanity.

Balancing the horror and romance genres nearly perfect with a supernatural flavor, Takahashi plays up the traditional mythical creatures of her homeland. With a narrative that covers generations, Yuta and Mana are characters thrown into this tale of tragedy and misfortune and the lives of both humans and those not touched by the curse of the existence of mermaids. With each chapter, they find new faces but also more breadcrumbs of where to go and new vessels filled with the horrible cocktail of emotions caused by being in the proximity of being near any parts of a mermaid of old.

There is a revolving door of minor characters; some lured in by the promise of immortality, others changed into monsters in human form by jealousy or hate, others bystanders with little to no agency to truly help those in need. The interaction of these characters not only flesh out the chapters but the overall story. No matter where our duo goes–there’s bound to be someone touched by the stories of the mermaids. Mixed in with all of this are the hi-jinks, the comedic bits (Mana and Yuta’s banter each chapter) that made me chuckle through reading. It is very much the Rumiko Takahashi formula of ‘giving you a bit of everything’ in yet another story that will captivate you and stay on the brain well after you finish reading.

For a manga from the 80’s, the book does seem to have aged well, thankfully. Newer manga fans might find her artwork a bit on the plain side but for folks like me who have a history with her work will probably feel right at home in familiar territory. Reading from page to page draws me back to that artwork that is so familiar–these black and white panels with that element of darkness deliciously flavoring this story. Mana, once confined to a secluded village and kept away from the outside world goes from barely being able to even walk to exploring Japan with Yuta, confronting wicked men, and even standing up to protect those whose lives have been wrecked by circumstances related to the elusive mermaids. It’s that old tied and true Rumic Theatre ‘plucky heroine ‘that I love in her work that I refuse to apologize for.

There are tales of young love never realized, sisterly obligation turned obsessive, and more than one plight of someone wishing to obtain in death what in life they desired most. In short, this series is a saga in itself and worth rereading. This newer Collector’s edition features a beautiful cover and –ten pages of fully colored illustrations that are almost too gorgeous to look at. A definite treat to enhance this new reprint of a loved classic from a master. Having longtime translator Rachel Thorn onboard for the English translation is only a plus in my book!

Mermaid Saga Manga Collector’s Edition Volume One Advanced Review

Rumiko Takahashi is one of the most well-known and wealthiest manga artists in all of Japan. Her works are known far outside of Japan and translated into a bunch of other languages. She is probably the most well-known for her series Inuyasha or Urusei Yatsura. Both received high critical acclaim and had anime adaptations that became very popular for their time. Inuyasha even got a sequel manga and anime long after the series was finished. I believe it started airing this year. However, one of Takahashi’s other fairly popular series is Mermaid Saga. It was first published in Japan in 1988, and then was picked up for its English translation in 1992 by Viz Media. Now, 28 years later, Viz Media is releasing a two-volume collector’s edition, with the first volume coming out tomorrow, 11/17. I’ve been lucky enough to be given the chance to review this manga ahead of time and get the news out to you all. I actually have never read this manga before, or even seen the anime that was eventually adapted from it. But considering Takahashi’s history as a well-awarded and popular manga artist, I really wanted to see what this manga had to offer.

The story of Mermaid Saga is a collection of nine stories told throughout 16 chapters. The first collector’s edition compiles the first eight chapters. The premise follows the legend that if one eats the flesh of a mermaid, they will be granted eternal life and youth. However, there is also the real chance that it will turn you into a monster. Yuta unknowingly ate the flesh of a mermaid one day, and now walks through the forests, villages, and streets of Japan looking for a way to break what he sees as a curse. He thinks his only hope is finding another mermaid to see if they know a way to reverse the effects and let him age naturally to death. Over his travels, he meets many strange people and villages, eventually finding a companion in Mana, another person who ate the flesh of a mermaid and survived.

The original art style of Takashi remains preserved in this volume. It’s fairly easy to recognize if you’ve watched or read any of her other works. I feel like a lot of her main characters or younger characters will sometimes have similar faces or face styles. However, I don’t really have a problem with it, because I do actually like this style. It has a nice nostalgic feel to me, going back to the early days of anime and manga where the styles were just a little bit different than they are now. I can see the shadows of Inuyasha and Urusei Yatsura in the character’s face shapes and eyes. But Takahashi’s female characters still remain very elegant in their composition. I wound up really liking how Mana was drawn and some of the other characters he comes across. This doesn’t mean all of the other characters look the same. I think Takahashi does a great job when it comes to distinguishing between ages and drawing both very young and very old characters.

The one thing that confuses me about these stories is to what extent they take place in the modern world. In the first short story, we see him walking through a very modern looking beach scene, but then we transition to a very rural, older looking village. The same thing happens a couple times, and I’m wondering what time period some of these take place in considering the longevity of Yuta and Mana. It could be that it’s just after post-war Japan, and we’re seeing a difference between rural and urban Japan that, at times, can be very stikingingly different. But I still kind of wish that it was made more clear either through the background arre or just straight up telling us what year this takes place. However, I don’t think that really impacts the feel of the stories that Takahashi tells in these chapters.

Mermaid Saga is split into many different one-shots, each with a different “villain” and plot that the characters must confront and escape from. Each of these stories explore the different impacts of mermaids, the folklore surrounding eating their flesh, and how the quest for eternal life can corrupt. It’s an age-old tale, told in many different ways and cultures: the quest for the elixir of life. Many cultures have different lore surrounding what or who could grant you eternal life. Here, we see a legend surrounding the powerful nature of mermaids and their flesh. Yuta, someone who unknowingly ate the flesh of a mermaid, is cursed to wander forever. By the time this manga kicks off, he is about five centuries old. He’s seen his friends live and die and is searching for a way to grow old. In this way, I think Yuta acts as a great foil to those who are actively searching for mermaid flesh themselves in order to live forever.

Takahashi crafted her stories in more of a horror and action vein, with Yuta traveling Japan and coming upon those who lusted for or had mistakenly partaked of any part of a mermaid’s body. I really liked the first story that leads off the volume: “A Mermaid Never Smiles”. It has a lot of markers of a good horror story: misdirection, deceit, secrecy, weird shit going on. The premise centers on Yuta who, while searching for a mermaid, comes upon a strange village populated by only women and a young girl who has been trapped there her whole life. The mystery of the village is uncovered the more the villagers try to kill him and force him to leave. I loved the feeling that something was just off about the whole thing and seeing that unfold as more things come to light concerning their relationship to the mermaids of the area. In the end, this is where Yuta finds Mana, his immortal companion.

I think Takahashi is pretty good when it comes to writing twists into her stories. For one of the other stories, “Mermaid Forest”, we see another great chapter where not everything is as it seems and not all the character’s motives are as clear as we think they are. It was also a great story as it expanded on the lore surrounding mermaids and the uses of their bodies. In this one, the blood of the mermaid was used to try giving eternal life to a person, but it didn’t go as planned. The conflict Yuta walks into brings to life a decade’s long revenge plot between two sisters. In “Mermaid’s Promise”, we see another great expansion on the lore of mermaid flesh in the use of the ashes of a mermaid to bring someone back from the dead in the form of a soulless body. These two stories, I think, were my favorites in this volume.

Mermaid Saga was definitely a lot more action-packed than I thought, but I really enjoyed it. I kind of wish that there weren’t so many instances of Mana getting kidnapped or killed, but I think both Mana and Yuta are fairly strong characters in their perseverance and kindness to those they come across. In a way, this series reminds me a bit of re:Zero in that Yuta constantly gets killed and then comes back to life to continue his mission or save Mana. But overall, I think this series wound up being fairly different than what I thought, in a good way though. I really enjoy finding something I otherwise might not have read and discovering I actually enjoy it. This time, it’s a classic horror manga.

Mermaid Saga or Rumiko Takahashi fans, let me know what you thought in the comments below. What is your favorite story out of the bunch? Be sure to pick up this new collector’s edition in stores tomorrow, 11/17!

Mermaid Saga Collector’s Edition Volume One collects the first nine chapters of the series into one volume. It appears from this release that VIZ Media is breaking down the volumes the same way the second English releases did in 2004. In other words, this volume collects the first two volumes of the second English release.

Mermaid Saga Collector’s Edition Volume One
Written by: Rumiko Takahashi
Publisher: Shogakukan
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: November 17, 2020

The focus of the series is a man named Yuta, an immortal who has lived for 500 years after eating the flesh of a mermaid. He’s become tired of his immortality and is on a quest to find a mermaid. It’s said that a mermaid is able to help someone who has eaten the flesh of one to become a normal human being again.

In the first two chapters, Yuta comes across an isolated village surrounded by mountains. There, a young woman named Mana is being raised and protected by elderly women. But it turns out that Mana is being raised by a village of aging immortal women who made her eat mermaid flesh. Mana is intended to be a sacrifice so her flesh can be used to rejuvenate the older immortal women. Yuta saves her, and the two start out on a journey so Yuta can find the help he needs to become human again.

The third and fourth chapters appear to be set in a time before Yuta met Mana. This wasn’t entirely made clear in the chapters themselves, but since Mana isn’t in the story at all, I have to assume this was some backstory in order to develop Yuta a little more as a character, as well as to provide a little more context about Yuta’s quest to become human again. In these chapters, Yuta meets a young woman named Rin, who is leading a band of pirates after her father falls ill. Yuta was hired by another band of pirates to find a mermaid for them, but he hasn’t let on that he has already eaten mermaid flesh. Yuta falls in love with Rin, but after the adventures they have in these chapters, he decides he has to leave her behind and continue on his journey to become a normal human. A big part of the plot of these chapters has to do with a secret Yuta learns about the wife of the leader of the band of pirates that he’s working for.

The next two chapters return us to the present, where Yuta and Mana are on their journey. In this chapter, Mana decides to wonder off and ends up getting herself into some trouble. This appears to be a running theme in the remaining chapters of this volume: Mana wanders off and Yuta has to save her. In these chapters, Mana is hit by a car and taken in by a doctor (who thinks he’s taken in a corpse and is quite surprised when she revives). When Yuta finds where the doctor is to try to rescue her, he encounters a mysterious girl and a very grotesque dog. This story has several twists and turns to it, and the ending is a bit twisted, with the true villain not being able to exact the revenge that they had been planning.

The next story is resolved in one chapter. While Mana and Yuta are separated, it’s not due to Mana wandering off on her own. But while they are separated, Mana encounters a “lost soul” (someone who has eaten the flesh of a mermaid but ends up not staying human). However, unlike the other lost souls that have been encountered up to this point, he can still speak. But this lost soul seems to have fallen for Mana, but she’s not interested. She just wants to be reunited with Yuta. At the end of the chapter, Mana is able to do something important for this lost soul. I thought it was an interesting idea to have a story that explores the “lost souls.” While they had been seen previous to this point in the manga, they were all basically just grotesque and out of control beings. I appreciated how this story showed that there could be more dimensions to these “lost souls.”

The last two chapters see Yuta and Mana returning to a location Yuta had lived at 60 years earlier. These chapters allowed the reader to get a little more backstory for Yuta and the journey he has undertaken for the past 500 years. The characters from this town that appear in these chapters are important people from Yuta’s past. Yuta and Mana find themselves caught up in a bizarre story that involves these people from Yuta’s past. It must have been surreal for Yuta to come back 60 years later and see how much the people in this town had aged while he was gone.

After reading this volume, I thought this series had an interesting premise going for it, and it kind of made me think of the quest for the Shikon Jewel shards in Inuyasha. Also, the emphasis on the supernatural also made me think of Inuyasha. The main differences, here, though, are the fact that there’s no time travel involved and that the main character isn’t able to age. Also, there’s only two people on this journey, unlike the party that develops around Kagome and Inuyasha.

The one thing that kept bothering me, though, were the character designs for Yuta and Mana. Yuta’s face looked a lot like Ranma Saotome, and Mana’s face was reminiscent of Ukyo Kuonji from Ranma 1/2. I know that both of these series were created and drawn by the same person, an that Mermaid Saga came out before Ranma 1/2. But already having the familiarity with Ranma 1/2 did make reading this manga a little more challenging, because I had to keep reminding myself that these characters were not, in fact, either Ranma or Ukyo.

If you’re a fan of Rumiko Takahashi, especially of her Inuyasha series, then you will likely be able to appreciate Mermaid Saga.

Read more graphic novel reviews at www.graphiclibrary.org.

This edition collects volumes 1-2 of the original run of Mermaid Saga.

Mana is the hope of her village, which is entirely made of older ladies. One day, Yuta comes to the village and disrupts their entire way of life. Yuta is a centuries old young man who gained immortality by eating the flesh of a mermaid, and is now questing for a way to reverse his immortality. He uncovers the real reason the village is protecting Mana, and instead of letting them get away with their sinister plan, he breaks her out and steals her away from the older ladies. The rest of the volume is comprised of other adventures of Yuta and Mana as Yuta tries to find more mermaids who could potentially help him become mortal.

InuYasha is a staple in manga collections, and its popularity may inspire people to buy this story. Buyer beware - this is very different than most everything else that Takahashi has written. This story is very dark, and a lot more violent than her other stories. Your first indication is just how many times characters talk about eating the flesh of a mermaid. In this story, mermaids are not always the beautiful creatures that we often see if folktales. They can turn into ugly, bug-eyed monsters with sharp teeth and nasty claws. The individual stories presented are also a little separate from each other. Some may be a flashback to Yuta's past, then the next chapter, you're back with Yuta and Mana. This is more a collection of tales than a traditional manga where each chapter follows the last sequentially.

VIZ rates this as Teen plus for violence nudity. Mermaids don't wear shells in this rendition, and other ladies are shown from the waist up. There is also an attempted rape that happens off the page.

Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 11-12

This review was made possible with an advanced reader copy from the publisher through Edelweiss. This graphic novel will be on sale November 17, 2020.

The Mermaid Saga is still as chilling to read now as it was 20 years ago when I first read it from it's original English release. It was the first time I ever saw mermaids depicted as anything other than beautiful serene creatures, and the concept of monstrosity lurking beneath struck me even as a young reader. It left a lasting impression and a love of the horror genre especially in graphic novel formats. The depictions of historical Japan were also a great compare and contrast opportunity for exposure at a young age before the anime/manga fad had really hit the US.
A perfect blend of suspense with the supernatural, the melancholy of the story makes it a beautiful read. The art and story is still the classic Rumiko Takashi work fans know and love. Comparing the art printing between my original '94 edition and this one, it's definitely a better quality and worth the upgrade.

This fall season is for mangaka Rumiko Takahashi, with an earlier collector’s edition release of Maison Ikkoku and the premiere of Yashahime. Now, VIZ Media is giving another long-out-of-print title from the Eisner Hall of Fame creator the collector’s edition treatment. Mermaid Saga is much darker fare than other titles like RIN-NE or Maison Ikkoku, but this horror manga was absolutely enchanting. The series is translated into English by Rachel Thorn and features touch-up art and lettering by Joanna Estep.

There are stories that say if you eat the flesh of a mermaid you will gain immortality. Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy, as Yuta knows. Yuta is over 500 years old, cursed with immortality after eating said flesh. He has wandered for years seeking out the elusive creatures in the hopes of turning himself back into a normal man. After encountering a young woman named Mana, he may not have to continue this journey alone.

Mermaid Saga is largely episodic. Most stories take place over the course of two chapters, following Yuta and Mana’s many encounters with humans and the mermaid lore of the story. There is one part that is a flashback to before Yuta met Mana, which was a tad confusing at first since it throws readers right into the thick of it, but it provided nice context for how alone Yuta has felt.

How we define loneliness is a theme throughout the manga. Mermaid Saga ultimately becomes an episodic journey about what it means to live, to die, and be a monster. Yuta knows how to die: he just has to have his head chopped off. Yuta wants to live and die a natural death. That is key and what makes his character so fascinating in regards to his relationship with immortality.

Takahashi leans into traditional mythology surrounding mermaids. It appears a lot of inspiration and references are specifically drawn from the legend of Yaobikuni. The mermaids are grotesque creatures. Gone are the singing beauties. This is not a love story between a human and a mermaid to be found. In fact, each story provides a varied interpretation of the mermaid lore that feels fresh. What happens if you consume just a mermaid’s blood instead of her flesh? What about her ashes? Every story unpacks a darker side of humanity and also a brief look at the ways myths change from their original meanings over the years to suit our own needs.

Takahashi’s art might be the best suited for a horror story such as this. It isn’t graphic on the scale of Tokyo Ghoul, but Yuta’s immortality is put to use. Characters are impaled with harpoons, cut with chainsaws, attacked by dogs, and have to claw their way out of graves. The creatures in this series are malformed. Takahashi draws bulging veins, engorged eyes, and mouths full of fangs that feel like a traditional horror story. This would be great for readers looking for something darker but who might not be able to handle the queasy body horror of Junji Ito’s artwork.

Mermaid Saga Collector’s Edition Volume 1 is hard to put down. Rumiko Takahashi’s artwork and storytelling excel in this horror-oriented manga that takes away romanticized mermaids and brings back their monstrous origins in folklore. Thank goodness VIZ has brought this series back into print. Read it.

This series is very different from Rumiko Takahashi's other successful manga that are more comedic, but my children and I were riveted to the story. While focusing on mythology and legends of mermaids (and immortality), the story jumps around in time following the main character. Takahashi's art feels more realistic, perhaps due to the dramatic and tragic stories. There is partial nudity and a great deal of violence, but I would be comfortable with middle grades reading it because it is not exploitive.

Longer review is forthcoming on review sites, but this was an excellent translation of a classic story.