(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj.
(Yin-Yang): Where this week we’re resuming our review of My Bride is a Mermaid. You know, going back in a reviewing it, I forgot just how funny this truly was.
(Nitsuj): Yeah, I agree. Let’s see what other laughs they can get out of us.
Episodes 14-17
(Nitsuj): Episode 14 gives us a good laugh to start off the second half. After Nagasumi discovers that all merfolk are afraid of cats, he brings a kitten he found to school to mess with Gozaburo and it works (scene here: https://youtu.be/v2cvXtiZCGU). Gozaburo doesn’t take this lying down and calls in his 3 elite assassins to take care of the cat, but even they’re afraid of the puffball (Yin-Yang: Cowards) and this ultimately leads to Gozaburo pushing the fire alarm and causing a panic in the school (scene here: https://youtu.be/oBA2adHivy4). Gozaburo and his men decide to stop fooling around and just throw the cat into the river where it gets rescued by Maki who wanted to repay the cat for saving her during the fire incident. In the end, Nagasumi keeps the cat as a pet.
Episode 15 focuses on the class rep (do we ever hear her name? (Yin-Yang): To my recollection, no) who believes she may have a crush on Nagasumi. While going for a walk in the park, she runs into Nagasumi (on a triple date with the others) who accidently breaks her glasses. Feeling bad, Nagasumi accompanies her to the lens shop to get new ones where not only does he not recognize her, but without her glasses she doesn’t recognize him either. This results in her telling Nagasumi about her crush on him and he blindly encourages her to confess her feelings. When she finally gets new glasses and sees who’s been helping her all this time she freaks out and runs away with Nagasumi still not recognizing her (wow, her presence sucks). We also get this funny scene courtesy of Gozaburo (scene here: https://youtu.be/vU4X2tZPENA).
For episode 16 we get introduced to Akeno a transfer student who is actually a mermaid who is actually an examiner sent to observe the merfolk living amongst humans and making sure they’re keeping their secrets well-hidden or they’ll be sent back to the ocean. This causes Sun to panic, but after receiving a pep talk from Nagasumi and Akeno she begins to relax only to get water spilled on her and expose her tail (quick, use the song of sleep). Akeno knocks out everyone and when she’s about to land the hit of failure on Sun, Sun dodges her attack and defends herself from Akeno’s attack. Despite failing, Akeno allows Sun to stay as she was impressed with her skills. Here are the major laughs in the episode (scenes here: https://youtu.be/H3nFYkS86Eg and https://youtu.be/ObDfreqLTKQ).
Nothing much happens in episode 17. Akeno soon gains a reputation as the toughest girl in school and unwillingly becomes the leader of the school’s delinquents. This catches the attention of Mawari who declares war against Akeno and even gains the support of the girls who are jealous of Akeno’s sexy body (it’s not that sexy. I’m mean she’s fine but she’s not what I would consider sexy. If anything, I think Yin-Yang here has a way sexier body than her. (Yin-Yang): Don’t think flattering will work on me *her tail begins to wag uncontrollably). Sun points out that Mawari is making the same mistake she made with her and acting irrationally without proof or evidence that points to her being a delinquent. Mawari soon realizes this and tries to go and make things right, but it’s too late. The girls have confronted Akeno and are prepared to fight her (Yin-Yang: They don’t care if she’s the leader of the delinquents. It’s about jealousy. Akeno is making all the girls feel inferior and they don’t like it. That’s the only reason they need to fight her). Mawari tries to stop the fight with her army of cats, but that really doesn’t work (they’re cats. . .what did you expect? I’m surprised they ever showed up in the first place). Ren shows up and reprimands the girls for their behavior and they apologize for the way they treated Akeno.
Episodes 18-21
(Yin-Yang): In episode 18 the class abruptly goes to Kyoto (hey, I’m not complaining. Kyoto is awesome). While on the trip Nagasumi tries to befriend Akeno when he sees her alone and just when it seems like the two are close to becoming friends, Maki attacks Akeno (Nitsuj: She’s on the trip? Great, the trip is ruined). Maki tries to get Akeno wet, but Nagasumi shields her from the water. However, she still gets wet but doesn’t change into a mermaid (Nitsuj: If anything I think it just arouses her). Maki soon retreats and gets discovered by Sun who’s not happy about what she did and Akeno believes Nagasumi set her up. Later on, Sun clears up the misunderstanding with Akeno not fully trusting her and decides to test her determination in the baths later on. This leads to a funny moment where Nagasumi and Mawari hear the two and believe some yuri action is going (wouldn’t that be a shift in tone for the series). Nagasumi tries to stop Mawari from seeing them but ultimately fails. Thankfully, the two are still in human form and Nagasumi convinces Mawari not to investigate this any further which she agrees to do as a favor to him (Nitsuj: Because you love~ him. (Scene here: https://youtu.be/pVdYAUAlemY). Near the end of the episode Akeno tries to get Nagasumi to break up with Sun saying that relationships between merfolk and humans won’t work out, but he says no as he likes Sun and wants this to work out.
At the start of episode 19, Akeno is ordered by her superiors to break-up Nagasumi and Sun. She’s given a drink called the fish shot which will reveal the drinker’s strongest desires. When Nagasumi and his group are touring Kyoto they run into Lunar who’s shooting a movie and the group gets tight casts into starring in it at the request of Lunar’s dad (Nitsuj: And that’s a man you don’t live to say no to). Akeno gets the assistance of the Seto’s elite assassins and Kai to distribute the drinks, but Nagasumi learning his lesson from last time skips out on the drink while others gulp it down including Akeno. Because of this everybody acts on their inner most desires. Akeno wants a hug from a Nagasumi (that’s cute and wholesome), Lunar wants to do a love scene with him, Mawari wants to arrest him for playing with her emotions from last episode, the class rep wants everyone to say her name (Nitsuj: Which is?), the perverted chimp wants to grab Akeno’s breast, and Sun wants to protect Nagasumi from harm (okay, there is a lot of sexual tension that needs to be resolved here. (Nitsuj): Well that’s every high school reunion in a nutshell). Everyone gets knocked out in the end (scene here: https://youtu.be/3K2wLvSPIj8), and the episode ends with Sun and Nagasumi staring at the full moon together.
Episode 20 is downright crazy (and I love every minute of it). Lunar’s dad decides to take a vacation and visit her (Nitsuj: Sometimes you just need to get away from all that B-movie shit). Sadly, he discovers that he has no idea how to interact with her or understand her at all (Nitsuj: It’s almost like she’s a teenage girl. (Yin-Yang): I know right?). Not wanting to lose Lunar, he goes online and looks up gal games to better understand her and this results in one of the creepiest and funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life (scene here: https://youtu.be/zee1Py4EoUM). Oh but it doesn’t stop there. Gozaburo also afraid of losing his connection with Sun also plays the gal game and goes full moe on us as well embarrassing Sun and freaking out the whole school (scene here: https://youtu.be/LfLlm63pqEM). Thankfully, Ren comes in to talk some sense into these crazy men and everything wraps up nicely for the family (scene here: https://youtu.be/dMHpbVKRyjw).
Episode 21 is another funny episode (Nitsuj: It’s probably my favorite episode of the bunch). Nagasumi gets a love letter. He’s overjoyed by this but of course he plans to turn the girl down when they show up. Sun and the others lie in wait to see who sent the letter only to find out it was a trap sent by Sun and Lunar’s dads to show how unfaithful Nagasumi is. Ren punishes Gozaburo and Lunar punishes her dad for this childish prank (scene here: https://youtu.be/wr-W1mWaSlE). Nagasumi on the other hand feels down that his first love letter was sham, so Ren gives him a tonic that’ll make him popular with the girls. The tonic works as all the girls see Nagasumi as their dream guy (also, Mawari is a shotacon. It’s confirmed here). However, the tonic has a nasty side effect. While it makes Nagasumi irresistible to girls, it makes all the guys hate him (like, more than ever) and he soon becomes their target until he runs away (scene here: https://youtu.be/CP1Jj2ekEdI). The next day the tonic wears off and Nagasumi once again receives a love letter in his locker. At first he thinks this is another trick from Gozaburo, but no, this one is legit. It was sent by the class rep who has decided to confess her feelings to Nagasumi except she accidently confesses to Sun and gets turned down. Embarrassed by this mistake she runs away only to realize that they didn’t know it was her, so she returns to salvage this situation by pretending to be an Amazoness and this fools them all (scene here: https://youtu.be/krG785Co3Ng, what did I just watch?).
Episodes 22-26
We get a Lunar episode in 22. In the first half Lunar convinces Sun to act as her boyfriend for a soap opera she’s supposed to be in (Nitsuj: Why not Nagasumi? (Yin-Yang): Because she loves him and she’s tsundere about it. (Nitsuj): Good point). Sun gets into character by transforming herself into her ideal man (Nitsuj: Man, Nagasumi is as far away from her ideal man as you are from eating vegetables. (Yin-Yang): To hell with veganism) which scares everyone around her and nothing gets done (scene here: https://youtu.be/7vMuypUD418). In the second half of the episode, Lunar is set to appear on a talent show where she’ll be doing ventriloquism. Due to her schedule she didn’t have time to practice, so her plan now is to use Maki as her puppet. At the request of Sun, Maki agrees to do it (Nitsuj: If you’re going to be on screen could you at least not be annoying) but once news of this reaches Akeno she steps in forbidding Lunar and Maki to go on the show. Lunar refuses to give in, so she sneaks out of school early with Sun keeping Akeno distracted while Lunar escapes. Maki refusing to leave Sun in danger drags Lunar to the school roof by force and this results in Lunar getting injured and rushed to ICU forcing her to miss the show entirely.
Nothing much happens in episode 23. We just learn Masa is actually Akeno’s older brother who went missing years ago. While in a drunken state, Gozaburo punched Masa which gave him amnesia. Feeling bad about this and taking responsibility (as well as being afraid of getting punished for his actions) Gozaburo took Masa into the family where he’s been watching over him in the hopes that he’ll get his memories back. Masa manages to get his memories back and decides to keep things as they are for everyone’s sake.
(Nitsuj): In episode 24 we get a Kai episode. Nagasumi, Mawari, Sun, and Hideyoshi see Kai come out of the dermatologist and asks him what’s wrong. Kai plays it off saying he has a cold when in truth he has butt acne (Yin-Yang: Gross) and is embarrassed to talk about it. Hideyoshi overhears the doctors at the clinic talk about Kai and thinks that Kai may be dying from a disease. Hideyoshi tells the others about this and they all pitch in to give him the best time of his life. The story soon spreads around the city and Kai finally gets treated the way he’s always wanted to be treated. Even when he finds out he’s supposedly dying the idiot starts to believe the lie as well. Not wanting to leave this world with any regrets he calls out Nagasumi for a one on one battle (where I have to admit for the first time in this anime Nagasumi actually looks cool. (Yin-Yang): Stranger things have happened). Nagasumi and Kai fight each other where Nagasumi wins and we get this silly farewell of Kai (scene here: https://youtu.be/pSHJxlJC9zQ) where everyone finds out that he’s alright the next day and not really dying.
The finale of the anime begins in episode 25. Nagasumi and Sun get into a fight which puts their relationship in danger (geez, one fight? That just shows how fragile their relationship was). The two don’t talk to each other and this leads to Sun and her family receiving an invitation to a garden party being hosted by a merfolk aristocrat named Yoshiuo Minamoto who has been pulling the strings of Akeno to break up Sun and Nagasumi because he wants Sun all for himself. Sun goes to the party with her family without even telling Nagasumi about it and this causes him to reflect on how big of an idiot he was (Yin-Yang: Lesson one when in a relationship. The man should always apologize. (Nitsuj): Even if it’s not your fault. (Yin-Yang): It’s always your fault). Once Sun and her family meet Yoshiuo he knocks them out and locks them up except for Sun who’s in a comatose state. Lunar and Kai find out about the party and decide to go and rescue Sun with Nagasumi going as well after Mawari gives him a pep talk.
In the final episode all war breaks loose as Nagasumi and the others crash into Yoshiuo’s palace to save Sun. At first Akeno was siding with Yoshiuo because of her job, but switches sides because she couldn’t bring herself to side with those who are doing wrong. The Seto clan gets out of their prison cells to fight and keep Yoshiuo’s private guards busy while Nagasumi goes to face Yoshiuo himself. Nagasumi’s voice manages to reach Sun and wake her back up just in time to see him get shot (yeah, he dead). Actually, Nagasumi caught the bullet with his teeth and goes all badass on us as he beats the crap out of Yoshiuo (Yin-Yang: I have never been more attracted to him than I am now) to reveal his true form, an ugly catfish (Yin-Yang: Eww. Not even I would eat that). With the evil that is Yoshiuo vanquished, Nagasumi and Sun make up and Nagasumi confesses his feelings to her and asks her to marry him which she says yes. We end the anime with Nagasumi and everyone returning, Nagasumi showing a more manly persona and Sun wearing the ring Nagasumi gave her on their first date as a wedding ring (scene here: https://youtu.be/pe-ernS45nU).
Final Thoughts
(Yin-Yang): Okay, we’ll make this quick. My Bride is a Mermaid is incredibly funny. Each episode will in one way or another get a good laugh out of you from the facial expressions, episode scenarios, and over the top situations that this anime presents. The comedic speed of this anime is great as there are funny moments stacked on top of each other throughout the series and all of them are great.
(Nitsuj): The only real major downside with this anime is that it doesn’t do a good job with the character development. We don’t get too many Nagasumi and Sun moments despite the fact that they’re supposed to be a couple. I really wanted to see their relationship grow throughout the anime, so I was disappointed there. It really just makes the fight near the end seem like it came out of nowhere. On the plus side however, they didn’t fall into any harem clichés and Maki wasn’t used as much as I originally thought she was when I first watched the anime so that’s a positive in my book.
(Yin-Yang): The animation and music by today’s standards are nothing special and even back then they weren’t really all that special either. The over the top expressions are funny and when the anime does decide to go over the top is when the animation shines as you can tell the animators were having a lot of fun. Between the dub and sub I say go with the sub.
(Nitsuj): I was personally a fan of the dub. I think they had funnier lines and deliveries. In the end, both versions are good, so you won’t go wrong with which ever version you decide to watch.
Final Score
(Nitsuj): My final score for My Bride is a Mermaid is a 6/10.
(Yin-Yang): I’m also giving it a 6/10. Big on the laughs, but not big on story and character development.
(Nitsuj): Still, it is one of the funniest animes out there, so if you’re looking for a good laugh check this anime out.
(Yin-Yang): I still stand by the list we made last year, but this would have been a good runner-up.
(Nitsuj): Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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