(Nitsuj): Hello, this is Nitsuj.
(Yin-Yang): And I’m Yin-Yang. Welcome to Project Nitsuj.
(Nitsuj): Guys, do you remember last year when we came together to celebrate Yin-Yang’s birthday and did a list naming the top 11 comedy animes?
(Yin-Yang): That, I do sir. It was a lot of fun.
(Nitsuj): Well apparently some of them brought to my attention that we left out a particular anime that a lot of people are still fond of to this day. An anime from the early 2000s that people still regard as one of the funniest animes out there. That anime being, My Bride is a Mermaid.
(Yin-Yang): Of course! I knew we were forgetting one anime.
(Nitsuj): Also known as Seto no Hanayome in Japan which roughly translates to The Inland Sea Bride, My Bride is a Mermaid was one of the funniest animes to come out in the early 2000s. The series was based off a manga written by Tahiko Kimura and lasted from 2002-2010 where it received mediocre success. The story revolves around a human boy who gets saved by a mermaid and through various circumstances becomes his bride to be. In 2007 the studios of Gonzo (Rosario + Vampire) and AIC (Persona 4 the Animation) came together to turn this series into an anime.
(Yin-Yang): Not knowing that they would go on to create one of the funniest animes in the history of anime. Let’s correct our mistake from last year and take a look at this comedic gold mine. This is, My Bride is a Mermaid.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Yin-Yang): The opening is “Romantic summer” by Sun & Lunar. A good rock opening that captures that summer feeling and romantic vibe when you go to a beach and see someone you like. It’s a song that makes you forget all about your worries and makes you want to kick back and enjoy yourself.
(Nitsuj): We got two endings for this anime. First up is “Ashita e no Hikari” by Asuka Hinoi. This is a pretty sober ending. Whenever I listen to it, I get flashbacks of Yakuza and wasting my time in a karaoke bar singing. This song sounds like a song one of the female NPCs would sing from the game.
The second ending is “Dan Dan Dan” by Sun & Lunar. This song is more upbeat than the first ending, but it’s still good in my opinion and surprisingly works as an ending. The song is cute and there are two versions of the song sung respectively by Sun and Lunar, so it’s hard to decide which one is better. Sun’s version or Lunar’s version.
Episodes 1-4
(Yin-Yang): The anime starts with our main character Nagasumi voiced by Takahiro Mizushima and Todd Haberkorn (Death the Kid from Soul Eater. Yeah, we might as well name the English voice cast as well. This is one of those animes that good in the sub and dub version) your typical teenage boy who’s not too smart, handsome, athletic, and really has no redeeming qualities whatsoever (Nitsuj: A tired cliché character in today’s world, but back then this was kind of fresh and enjoyable. Especially in these romcom animes). He’s traveling with his family to visit his grandma in the Seto Islands. While swimming out at sea his leg cramps and he begins to drown until he gets saved by what he believes to be a mermaid. He gets found by his dad who doesn’t believe his story, but later on at night the mermaid girl comes by to visit him. She introduces herself as Sun voiced by Haruko Momoi and Alexis Tipton (Kaguya from Kaguya-sama: Love is War) and says she’s come to be his bride for what happened earlier that day (Nitsuj: Hee-oh~ looks like Nagasumi caught himself a big winner). It soon gets revealed that Sun is the daughter of a yakuza boss and he along with his parents get taken away (scene here: https://youtu.be/w75o8_DK-7o). The family gets taken to the bottom of the sea where they meet Sun’s parents, Gozaburo and Ren (Nitsuj: Could have been worst. The father could have been Kiryu). Gozaburo explains that according to mermaid law, Sun must now kill herself for exposing her true form to a human. Of course, Gozaburo and the rest of his gang would much rather kill Nagasumi and his family to save Sun, but Ren says this can all be avoided if Nagasumi agrees to marry Sun (scene here: https://youtu.be/YvGTiVwHOTE). Gozaburo refuses to give his daughter away and this results in a funny sequence with Gozaburo and his men trying to kill Nagasumi and Sun helping him escape back to the surface where he decides to take responsibility and marry Sun much to the begrudging of Gozaburo.
In episode 2 Nagasumi and Sun go to a bon festival for a date in the hopes of getting to know each other. Unfortunately, most of the stands there are run by Sun’s family and they’re trying to kill Nagasumi (scene here: https://youtu.be/R_QR_nuH2wI, and failing comedically). One attempt is made when a shark tries to kill him, but he suplexes the shark into a statue (Nitsuj: When one’s life is in danger their strength for survival goes unmatched). This results in Sun’s feet getting wet and she reverts back into her mermaid form. She’ll return to normal when her feet dry, so Nagasumi carries Sun to a secluded area to dry her off which gets seen by Gozaburo who misreads the situation and attacks. Thankfully, the dreamy Masa is there to save him and Gozaburo’s underhanded work gets discovered by Sun who orders him to apologize to Nagasumi (yeah, that’s not happening. Scene here: https://youtu.be/sj4bQXhlS5I). Gozaburo takes his leave and our two love fish (Nitsuj: Good change up there) continue their date where Nagasumi buys Sun a glass ring as a gift. While participating in a dance, Sun sees Nagasumi getting lessons from Masa and misreads the situation (I see the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree) and runs away with Nagasumi chasing after her. When he catches up to her, she discovers that she lost her ring and Nagasumi says not to worry about it which makes Sun upset. It’s here we see just how serious Sun is taking this while Nagasumi has been going about this half assed (Nitsuj: And you never half ass something. You either go full ass or no ass at all. (Yin-Yang): Is it wrong if I say I agree with him? I’m asking for a friend here. Scene here: https://youtu.be/wXgQCFd7U4o). Nagasumi realizes his mistake and begins to help her look for the ring where Sun says he can’t help as this goes against her family’s code. She lost the ring so it’s only right that she be the one to find it. The ring gets found by Gozaburo who tosses the ring which lands on the finger of Masa. Sun gets mad, hits Nagasumi with a sonic boom which almost kills him and the episode ends with him injured.
(Nitsuj): At the start of episode 3 Nagasumi finds out his dad has been called back to work meaning they’ll be leaving tomorrow (that’s Japanese business for you). Nagasumi tries to find the right moment to tell Sun about this, but it doesn’t come up as the two spend their last day together on a deserted island courtesy of Gozaburo (Yin-Yang: He’s warming up to him. *Nitsuj and Yin-Yang burst out laughing*). Joining them is Maki (she is annoying), a friend of Sun since childhood who despite her small stature is actually in assassin sent by Gozaburo to kill Nagasumi. Maki hides her assassin side from Sun and tries to kill Nagasumi only to fail and get discovered by Sun. At the end of their date Nagasumi tells Sun that he’s leaving for Saitama where she drops the bomb that she’s going with him. Maki of course not taking this lying down, sneaks into their luggage and is also going to Saitama with them to keep an eye on Sun (scene here: https://youtu.be/oAb-ZhIk0YE).
Episode 4 sees the group return to Saitama (named after the incredible bald hero who defeats monsters with one punch. (Yin-Yang): There, we made our One Punch Man joke. Let’s move on). Nagasumi gives his room to Sun and Maki and moves up into the attic. The next day, Nagasumi takes Sun to shop in the city with no Maki (thank you, a moment of peace). While shopping they come across some delinquents hitting on girls (well there’s a cliché that never dies). Before Sun can intervene, a girl named Mawari shows up to intervene. Mawari is Nagasumi’s classmate and childhood friend (Yin-Yang: Which means she has a crush on him? (Nitsuj): Oh yeah) as well as a member of the school’s disciplinary committee. She has a strong sense of justice seeing as how her dad is the superintendent of the police force and even has dreams of being a cop herself one day. However, her strong sense of justice often puts her in situations where she can’t win such as taking on two delinquents all by herself. Nagasumi is forced to fight them where he jumps into the river with them (eww, why is the river green?) and Mawari jumps in to help him despite not knowing how to swim (Yin-Yang: I have the feeling that’s going to be a running gag among the human characters). Nagasumi saves Mawari while Sun takes out the delinquents and swims to safety so Nagasumi can dry her off. Maki arrives (damn it, I was enjoying my peace) and tries to kill Nagasumi as Mawari checks on them and he plays off Maki as just some toy. At the end of the episode we see Mawari a little bit sad that Nagasumi is dating Sun but gets over it rather quick and decides to devote herself to her goals of reforming society.
Episodes 5-8
For episode 5, the end of summer has come and the school’s second semester has begun. We meet Nagasumi’s perverted friend (Yin-Yang: Who looks like a chimp) Hideoyoshi and see that Sun’s parents along with members of the Seto clan have become teachers and the nurse at the school to keep an eye on Sun. Despite school now being a death trap for him, Nagasumi tries to persevere and show Sun his macho side. That plan goes about as well as say Shizuku making dinner as in order to escape being eaten by Fujishiro, he runs into his classroom when the girls are changing and gets in trouble for it (scene here: https://youtu.be/bGwCgf1jCRs). Sun of course speaks for him and even convinces Mawari to join her side where he gets off with a warning and realizes that despite his hectic life, he’s happy.
Episode 6 focuses on Mawari. After discovering that Nagasumi and Sun live together as well as the fact that Sun’s parents are teachers at the school (Yin-Yang: Geez, I wonder how they figured that out? They’re so subtle with their actions), Mawari begins to grow suspicious of Sun. This only gets worst when Sun gets wet and Mawari sees her tail. In order to confirm that Sun’s a fish, Mawari tries to get Sun wet again, but Nagasumi is there to protect her. Mawari decides to go to extreme lengths and has cats attack Sun to expose her (man those have got to be the most well-trained cats I’ve even seen). Nagasumi finally has enough and yells at Mawari because of her actions causing her to run away where just when she’s about to get hit by a car (before there was truck-kun, there was car-san), Sun uses her sonic voice to save Mawari and landing her in the hospital with a slight concussion. Mawari apologizes to Sun for her actions and when Sun accidently gets wet in the hospital, Mawari steps in to hide her mermaid form.
(Yin-Yang): In episode 7 we meet Lunar the popular idol that everyone loves and just so happens to be a mermaid. She’s voiced by Sakura Nogawa and Cherami Leigh (Makoto from Persona 5) Lunar considers herself Sun’s rival because Sun beat her in a number of singing contests when they were little. When Lunar finds out that Sun is in Saitama, she cancels all of her appointments and rushes to go see her where she runs into Nagasumi (of all people to run into it had to be him) and her mermaid form gets revealed. Just when Lunar is about to kill him for discovering her secret, Sun shows up to reveal that Nagasumi is her husband to be (https://youtu.be/0gpP4zieZ9g). Jealous of this, Lunar moves into Nagasumi’s home vowing to make him her manservant and Sun accepts the challenge (Nitsuj: The difference between these two is night and day. Scene here: https://youtu.be/00LZ8vS86i0). Lunar also transfers to Sun’s school and is in the same class as her where Lunar quickly becomes popular and this causes a divide between the male students. You see unbeknownst to Nagasumi, Sun has become the most popular girl in school and now that Lunar has entered the picture it’s awakened the favoritism of all the males (Nitsuj: You’ve awakened the bloody waifu wars) and started a war that has consumed the school and made it a battlefield.
The war of Sun and Lunar comes to an end in episode 8 (Nitsuj: Shortest waifu wars ever). After the whole school turns into something out of Mad Max (and the teachers doing nothing. (Nitsuj): Don’t get paid enough for this), Nagasumi gets captured by the girls who blame him for this war because of his indecisiveness. After getting some advice from Hideyoshi, Nagasumi rushes to find Sun only to discover that Maki was attacked by Lunar’s clan (Nitsuj: God bless them. I wished they finished the job) and the Seto clan gets ready to go to war over their fallen comrade. Nagasumi intervenes saying he wants to resolve this peacefully and sets up a singing contest between Sun and Lunar where the winner gets Nagasumi (can we ask for a better prize?). The next day they have the contest where both girls go all out where it seems like Sun is the better singer. Because of their voices everyone starts to go crazy (except for Nagasumi because he is most likely deaf from being hit with ultrasonic waves). Just before an all-out war can begin, Sun sings the Song of Heroes which transforms Nagasumi into a badass and stops everyone from fighting (scene here: https://youtu.be/rpneZqGmnr4). Sun gets declared the winner and it gets revealed that Maki was never attacked by Lunar, she accidently hurt herself and was too embarrassed to admit it (wow, fail). Lunar decides to still live in Nagasumi’s house as she hasn’t given up on making him her manservant.
Episodes 9-13
In episode 9 we meet a new character named Kai, heir to the Mikawa zaibatsu. He’s rich, handsome, and beats Nagasumi in almost every category. After crashing his submarine through the gym (goddamn I wish we were rich so we can do dumb shit like this) he tells everyone that he’s Sun’s real fiancé and has come to take her away from Nagasumi. This of course means he’s a merman, an orca to be precise (Nitsuj: It’s 2021, nobody uses that term anymore. Just call them killer whales) and offers Nagasumi money to hand Sun over. This angers Nagasumi and the two fight where their fight leads them outside in the open field and it gets revealed that Kai is agoraphobic (uh, Mira. (Mira): It’s the fear of bright and open spaces). Kai begins to panic and runs away only to come back the next day as an exchange student for the class. In the next half of the episode field day is around the corner and Kai challenges Nagasumi for Sun’s hand in marriage. Field day arrives where in order to cope with being outdoors, Kai wears a spacesuit which hurts him more than it helps him. Despite this setback, his team is still winning and the last event is that baton pass for the win. Nagasumi and Kai are the anchors for their team where it looks like Kai is going to win until it starts to rain and Kai turns into a killer whale. Kai’s submarine shows up and tries to kill Nagasumi, but Sun puts everyone to sleep ending the field day in a draw between Nagasumi and Kai (scene here: https://youtu.be/HIoWLpzQPcg).
(Nitsuj): Episode 10 may just be the funniest episode so far in the series. It’s starts with a mysterious man who looks like the Terminator in Nagasumi’s room when he wakes up who wants to know his relationship with Lunar. Nagasumi tells the others about this, but nobody believes him (Yin-Yang: To be fair out of everything that’s happened this one does seem to be the most ridiculous). At the school the mysterious man appears and begins chasing after Nagasumi as well as Kai throughout the school. They try to fight but nothing seems to work on this guy because he truly is the Terminator (scenes here: https://youtu.be/2ex3m2jWRHY and https://youtu.be/FP-chjBOHgM). Kai gets taken out, Sun tries to help only to get stopped and Gozaburo finally comes onto the scene to fight against the Terminator. Their fight ends in a draw and it gets revealed that he’s Lunar dad. He was interested in seeing what kind of man Lunar was interested in (frankly, he’s not impressed). He takes his leave by ripping off the end of Terminator 2 (scene here: https://youtu.be/yayqzbgyKeE. (Yin-Yang): At least give them credit for going all the way with the parody).
Nothing really happens in episode 11 (Yin-Yang: But, it’s still a good laugh). After discovering that she’s gained weight, Lunar goes on a diet and forces Sun to go on one with her (misery loves company). The girls buy some supplements from the Seto home shopping channel, where Nagasumi drinks some mermaid mineral water which transforms him into a rampaging giant (Yin-Yang: Naked. (Nitsuj): Hey, I didn’t know the anime would predict Attack on Titans). Kai shows up and sends Nagasumi to the moon where it doesn’t seem like there’s a way to turn him back to normal. Luckily, Ren shows up with a deus ex machina, the Neptune Lance, a lance that has the power to fix physical flaws. Sun throws the lance at Nagasumi (that girl has an arm) which hits him and turns him back to normal. He returns to Earth (Yin-Yang: How? (Nitsuj): Because. (Yin-Yang): Because what? (Nitsuj): Because because. (Yin-Yang): Because because? (Nitsuj): Yes) where his dad punishes him for destroying the house.
(Yin-Yang): In episodes 12 and 13 we get the finale of the first part of the anime. We focus on Lunar who is failing all of her classes and in danger of repeating the same grade. Too embarrassed to ask Sun for help, Lunar instead gets Nagasumi to tutor her where we see she has feelings for Nagasumi (she’s just too tsundere to admit them). Nagasumi also seems to have feelings for Lunar, but seems to be staying true to Sun (Nitsuj: Does it have anything to do with the fact that you’re afraid of her dad?). When Lunar pins Nagasumi down and moves in for a kiss, the moment gets interrupted by Maki (scene here: https://youtu.be/NvGXgx6PEtk) who actually tries to get Lunar to go all in on Nagasumi but Lunar refuses to admit her feelings. When water gets spilled on Lunar, Nagasumi goes to wipe her off (at this point it might be a fetish for him. (Nitsuj): I wouldn’t be surprised) where Lunar’s dad walks in on them and he goes all Terminator on us misunderstanding the situation (scene here: https://youtu.be/bAelnLrZcNE). Lunar’s dad plans to drown Nagasumi but Lunar confesses that she’s in love with him, so Lunar’s dad has him take responsibility and marry Lunar or die by his hands. He takes Nagasumi away and locks him up in Lunar’s house with Sun sad over what happened and blaming herself for being a bad bride. Things move fast as the wedding ceremony gets underway with Lunar despite knowing that this is wrong continues to go along with the wedding in order to finally beat Sun. At the wedding, we see that yakuza factions from the east and west have come to bless this holy matrimony (Nitsuj: Or at least get some free food and sake) where Nagasumi can’t go through with the wedding and refuses to marry Lunar. Just then, Sun shows up to confess her love for Nagasumi (he doesn’t deserve you) and fights through the members of Lunar’s family (Nitsuj: Like literally. She showed up with a sword and everything. She truly is a yakuza’s daughter) to be next to him. Nagasumi chooses Sun and this reignites the war between the east and west factions. In order to avoid an all-out war, Sun and Lunar sing to calm everyone down. After 50 hours of singing and dancing, everyone collapses from exhaustion and the wedding between Nagasumi and Lunar is called off. However, Lunar hasn’t given up on Nagasumi and vows to make him hers in the end.
(Nitsuj): And that was the first half of My Bride is a Mermaid. Let’s take a break for now and review the second half later.
(Yin-Yang): I’m fine with that. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
*All videos, clips, and music are not owned by me and belong to their respective owners. All rights reserved*
Thanks for reading. As always feel free to leave a comment in the comment section or send your comments, feedback, or request to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com
And follow me on twitter for updates and other stuff: https://twitter.com/ProjectNitsuj