Drama and Shininess: This Boy Caught a Merman

Synopsis

Shima is a high school boy who just lost his beloved grandfather and was grieving by the sea when he accidentally drops his photo. When he tries to retrieve it he ends nearly drowning only to be save by… a merman? This is the tale of a lonely young man and his new life with a mysterious yet cheerful merman.

The Good

Like with Youbi Samamato’s other works, the art style and animation work is both eye catching and unique in many parts. The bright colors, and tones used for certain scenes really bring out the emotional sense of the characters and when it came to the ocean scenes, they looked like something meant for a painting. But like always, the way that they handle eye reflections and rough sketches for certain emotional scenes are always a memorable trait to these films.

With the characters, Shima by far had a rather well handled development in terms of acknowledging his emotions and reaching out to other people. The way that the story handled his backstory, not overplaying on his troubles and giving an actual valid reason to his internal struggles gave him an edge in comparison to the other main characters of Youbi’s films. Other than this, his witty dynamic with Isaki also brought a good bit of humor to the OVA.

On the note of their relationship, it is a rather sweet relationship with fun elements of comedy mixed in there as well. In comparison to many other shounen-ai works involving supernatural/fantasy creatures, this is a rather tame and heartwarming relationship that has the two acknowledging the other’s troubles and thankfully is mild with the whole misunderstanding drama.

The Bad

There are moments when the animation got awkward and scenes where the background text and art palette seemed just a bit too chaotic. If one were to nitpick, the shifting art style could have been executed better. Then there are also moments when the rendering on the merman’s tail could have been done better and the use of close-up shots been done differently. Basically put, there were quite a few moments when the art and animation turned out quite awkward and slightly clunky.

Then there is also the drama of the story, the way that the story portrayed the protagonist’s development from it. But during the beginning and middle half of the work, the drama seemed pretty overplayed and didn’t get execute properly. It had moments when you can’t help but cringe at the way the character is reacting and moments where it came off as rather cliche.

In terms of character, Isaki could have been developed better, emotionally he was done well, but otherwise, the viewer knows nothing of him other than he looked after Shima when he was young and that he was alone since he was born. Other than these two small facts there is virtually nothing known about him as a character.

Conclusion

The art and animation always leaves an interesting mark in terms of tones and emotional expression with the OVA but at times can come off as rather chaotic and makes certain awkward animation moments rather obvious. The character development was rather well done and had an interesting edge to it in terms of the protagonist emotional journey but didn’t give enough room for Isaki who had little established about him as a character. The main highlight of this OVA however is the relationship between the two and the rather soft development of it compared to many other shounen ai works involving supernatural/fantasy creatures.

Rating: 7/10