Mermaid Forest, Volume 1 (Viz Graphic Novel) [Paperback]

Rumiko Takahashi (Author, Illustrator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; 1 edition (November 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569310475
• ISBN-13: 978-1569310472
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #862,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Good, April 7, 2002

By 

"monkeys_and_anime" (Euclid, Oh United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mermaid Forest, Volume 1 (Viz Graphic Novel) (Paperback)

This is the first manga I ever read and it's still one of my favorites. People familiar with Takahashi's work will find her trademark humor and romance only not to the usual extremes. The story is a bit dark and very gory. It's like INU YASHA in the aspect there are bloody fights and cool demonic looking foes.

The story is about a legend that if you eat the flesh of a mermaid you gain long life and youth (assuming you're young when you eat it). The sad thing is that most people learn the hard way that not everyone who eats the flesh gets like this. Only one in a thousand people have bodies strong enough to take the effects of this poisonous flesh. Those that can't either die right away or become "lost souls", terrible fish like creatures that have lost their souls and wander the Earth forever, mindlessly killing and whatnot. And some people get in betweeners.

The beginning introduces one such guy that ate the flesh and did gain immortality. He meets a girl who has recently suffered the same fate and they journey together to see where their endless lives will take them. Oh and you'll never look at mermaids the same way after this book. I dont think they have ever been depicted as grotesquely as they are in this short but sweet series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rumiko Takahashi is amazing ^_^, January 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Mermaid Forest, Volume 1 (Viz Graphic Novel) (Paperback)

This story is wonderful. I first got hooked on the Mermaid series after renting the video The Mermaid's Scar. Then I bought this book and was delighted once again ^_^ Rumiko Takahashi is a story-telling genius and her artwork is efficient yet at the same time gorgeous, and easy to read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes any kind of horror stories, manga, or just comics in general (but don't buy it for your kids unless they're over about 12 because it's rather.. violent) This book is very very awesome ^_^

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Takahashi's "hobby", April 13, 2003

By 

Jeremy Bristol "baddmann_ktrj40" (Plattsmouth, NE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mermaid Forest, Volume 1 (Viz Graphic Novel) (Paperback)

The first three of the nine stories that has become known as Rumiko Takahashi's Mermaid Saga. Written over the course of about twelve years, while still working on her major series (Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, and Ranma 1/2), this is Rumiko at her darkest--only her short story, Laughing Target, is as intensely frightening. While some of the later stories (especially the very last two) were more about the surrounding characters and are more plotted, these first three are all about Yuta and Mana, even while other characters plot and scheme around them. Even though these are horror stories, in the more literary sense of the word, there is also a great amount of comedy. My favorite--the first, "A Mermaid Never Smiles"--is practically a Swift-esque satire on the strive for beauty at any cost, and it sort of disappointed me that these themes weren't hit on more throughout the series. The best parts of the series, the thing everybody has come to wait for, are the little sections at the end of each story, when Yuta and (usually) Mana leave for the next town and talk to each other. Sometimes they moralize, sometimes they talk about how they feel, but it's always poignant.