My Bride is a Mermaid: Season 1, Part 2

Animé and Toons
My Bride is a Mermaid: Season 1, Part 2
By Chris Zimmerman
September 29, 2010 - 09:11

$49.98 US
Starring: Todd Haberkorn, Juli Erickson, Christopher R. Sabat
Directed by: John Burgmeier
Produced by: Studio Gonzo
Running Time: 300 minutes
Release Date: September 07, 2010
Distributors: Funimation Entertainment
Genre: Anime

The first half of My Bride is a Mermaid had shown that it was capable of pulling out a few laughs after throwing everything including the kitchen sink at its audience in an attempt to make something stick, even at the expense of a coherent story. While mermaids and gangsters don’t exactly go hand in hand, the merging of the two proved to be surprisingly successful though not without its share of rough edges. Comedy aside, the bonding of the two protagonists while having to deal with the alien worlds colliding with one another.

My Bride is a Mermaid first began life as a manga, written and drawn by Tahiko Kimura. Serialized in 2002 in the pages of Monthly Gangan Wing, the series gained enough of a popularity to justify an anime as well as an Ova handled by Studio Gonzo.

The series kicks off with Sun and Nagasumi being administered the “Mermaid Exam” a special test designed to test the two’s love for each other, while still maintaining their secret. The exam does little to develop the plot and actually detracts from the series by impeding it from assailing the viewers with gags and parodies. This is merely a plot device to show the audience that the pair does in fact share feelings for one another.

Fortunately this doesn’t last long, allowing the series to regain its bearings by drowning audiences in a sea of slapstick and mind numbing harem clichés that permeated the first set. At this point, the show has fully embraced that it isn’t the next Tenchi, instead focusing on carving out its own identity. The series does a commendable job of maintaining the hilarity throughout, going to such as extremes that it’s impossible not to laugh if for no other reason than because everything is so over the top.

As the series nears its conclusion, it once again takes a nose dive by interjecting a serious bit of plot development that reduces Sun to a damsel in need of saving and breaking away from the comedic onslaught to build toward a fight scene that while good, doesn’t really serve a purpose in a series of this nature.

As previously stated, the production of the series is handled by Studio Gonzo and sadly falls below the standards of even its most recent works. The character designs are generic and there’s very little smoothness in their movements. Instead, Gonzo attempts to cover its short comings with a slew of super deformed characters and hectic edits that fit seamlessly with the tone of the series but do little to redeem the once great studio.

All in all, My Bride is a Mermaid carries its fair share of flaws. The show is by no means perfect and only amounts to average but if viewers are looking for something to lighten their mood, they could do worse. Fans of zany, nonsensical comedy or harem fantasy will most likely get more out of the series than the standard anime fan but then again, those are the people My Bride is a Mermaid strives to appeal to.

C+

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