Ningyohime no Gomen ne Gohan

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Have you ever seen a manga with a really stupid premise and thought to yourself, "Wow this sounds stupid, imma read it ironically for the lolz." Then, 20 chapters later, you realize, "F***. I'm invested." That's exactly what it feels like reading this manga.

As the premise goes, one day, Princess Era of the mermaid kingdom, through some absurd circumstances, goes on land and gets her first taste of fish. What was initially horror soon melted into pure ecstasy as she discovers the wonders of Japanese seafood and the impeccable flavors of her sea friends. With each chapter we have no choice but to bewilderedly watch ... as Era tries out yet another seafood dish made from the corpses of her former friends. As such, Mermaid Princess is a simple episodic manga, each chapter covering a different type of sea creature and how it could be prepared in a delicious manner. This is really stupid, and it's what makes this manga work. There's just something absurd about watching a mermaid princess performing cannibalism (is it still cannibalism if the food wasn't prepared by Era herself?) that makes you want to keep on going to see what happens.

As we all know, episodic SOL is the supreme form of manga, as it's essentially a way for the author to see how much wacky shit they could get away with. And oh boy, this manga sure is that. Each chapter starts off by introducing our new Victim Of The Week, providing a bit of backstory to it. And the manga goes *hard* on it. Each fish has a super dramatic, at times super emotional, backstory to them, and most of all, the manga takes its marine biology very seriously. Salmon migration? The lobster-octopus-moray food web? Stuff like this are important factors to each fish's story, and often makes for very emotional reads.... before they get fished up and Era eats them. Yeah, it's stupid, but the whiplash is just really funny. In fact, most of the enjoyment of the manga comes from the author just using the setting of the story to create the most absurd humor possible. For example, the undisputed hottest lady in the mermaid kingdom is the queen, who is a Japanese mermaid (Look it up). Your enjoyment of this manga would probably stem from how much enjoyment you could get from surreal stuff not unlike things Asobi Asobase and Iruma-kun.

Besides the manga somehow being able to make you feel for each of the Victim Of The Weeks (Seriously, you know a manga is good when it gets you emotional over the backstory of a herring), it also has a cast of regular characters, like the mermaid Sango or the unlucky businessman Himada. Even as the manga primarily focuses on Era trying out a new fish, we get glimpses at these characters, and more importantly, their character development. We get to witness as they grow as people and move forward in their lives and obtain happiness. Yes, this happens as Era's own story grows darker as she is unable to stray away from her path of insatiable appetite for seafood. This stuff is mad genius.

Overall, this manga is honestly quite enjoyable. The premise is stupid, but the fact that it manages to take such a premise so seriously and tells it so well makes it so uniquely fun. The art is good, the story is stupid and charming, the characters are genuinely likeable. It might not be for everyone, but give it a chance. You would either come out of this craving for seafood, or gain the habit to cringe whenever you order seafood and realize that it could have once been a cute manga sea creature.

I really don't know how to explain this series. It is bizarre and has some surprisingly uncomfortable subject material, but treats it all lightly in a strange way.It is mostly a comedy series that starts off pretty episodic in nature but the story has a pretty solid through-line that it builds on every chapter keeping you hooked all the way through.

It gets better and worse every chapter but you can't look away. More people need to experience this. At the very least it is extremely entertaining and I can't recommend it enough.

It also has a ton of pop culture references if you enjoy that.

Have you guys ever wondered what your friends taste like?

...

Wait, just hear me out. Before you think I'm some kind of weirdo, I swear this is a good introduction...well, good enough. Anyhow, this is the story of the cannibal princess who enjoys eating her friends.

In the first chapter, we’re introduced to our main protagonist Era, the mermaid princess of the sea, who is friends with many of the fish around her and deeply revered within her community. She spends her days helping her citizens get through their insecurities and is resolved in her goal of making this idyllic kingdom an even happier ... place. Essentially, Era is the image of an ideal princess.

But, Era is hiding a secret from everyone. A secret that she can't afford to let slip. A ghastly habit that would condemn her to the lowest levels of fish hell if revealed. A yearning for something so frightful that it would send chills down the spine of any fish unfortunate enough to learn about her true nature. It all started when she made her first trip to the surface to pay respects to her friend…by ordering him at the restaurant that caught him!! Intending only to bear witness to what had come of her fishy friend before her own eyes in order to pay respects... she then proceeds to eat him after being tempted by a customer who claimed it would be the only way to send the fish to heaven! However, this would unfortunately set forth the utmost heinous of cravings, the craving to eat your own friends.

Throughout the manga, she struggles with confronting her reprehensible longing to consumer her fellow brethren, her immense guilt overwhelming her at certain moments leading her to confine herself in her own bedroom. Yet, whenever this happens, the death of one of her friends inevitably prompts the inescapable urge to visit the surface to eat them. The other fish believe that her voyages are solely for the purpose of paying respect to the lost souls, but little do they know of the true horror that goes on behind their backs…

Of course, like any other self-respecting manga fan, I just had to see how the author would develop this story and what themes would be explored under the vehicle of such a unique premise. However, I unfortunately find this manga to be rather lackluster in those departments.

Upon my initial read, I felt profoundly disturbed by its concept. I mean, wow this really is just cannibalism portrayed in a comedic light. Era’s constant refrain of “I’m sorry _, but you taste so good!” is delivered comedically, yet she is depicted crying during every single instance. Clearly, she's facing an internal struggle and is in constant mourning over her uncompromising desire to commit sin. This all works together to set a tone of dark humor, yet I didn’t find this theme of the manga particularly all that funny. Sure, it was an engrossing concept for the first few chapters, but it quickly tires out. In fact, I'd say that I found Himada’s goofiness much more enjoyable than the whole "I'm sorry bro, but you taste so good" schtick. Maybe I’d be able to enjoy the comedy more if I didn’t binge every manga I read and instead opted to space it out. However, I believe that any manga that professes to be a comedy should be funny enough to binge regardless. Comedy series ought to be very careful when relying so much on one running gag like this manga does.

The author tries to include backstories for the fishes that get caught and attempts to use Era’s consumption of them to be some kind of pinnacle or conclusion to their story, as if they were really being sent to heaven by this dreadful act. These backstories serve to add a bit of unique flavor to each chapter and offset some of the staleness, but I don’t really know how to perceive this in juxtaposition to Era’s moral conflict from a plot perspective. Perhaps these moments of resolution in the fishes’ stories are merely elaborate illusions crafted by Era’s desperate mind to convince her that her actions are not entirely evil. I particularly enjoyed the scallop’s story, I felt that it was well-executed and honestly surprisingly thought-provoking in certain ways. Other stories were also a cut above the rest, such as the story of Bonito and Nakajima. However, many of these chapters still felt bland and and were hardly taking us anywhere. I get that this series is structured as more of a weekly ordeal but there were clear storylines that the author could have approached and dived deeper into that I feel were not given sufficient exploration. To mention a few things: I wanted to see more of Era’s character struggle and her helplessness in addressing it. I wanted to see more of Ryo’s past. I wanted to see more of Era’s history with Tuna. Finally, I wanted to see Sango’s development to be slightly slower-paced. She seems to turn into an entirely different character all too quickly after her first trip to the surface, but nevertheless I have to note that the fact that the whole side plot with Sango exists at all was a great decision by the author.

Up to this point, I thought the manga was quite a decent read in spite of its flaws. However, reading the final chapters left me with a bitter aftertaste. The two chapters preceding the finale make absolutely no sense to me. In these two chapters, Era develops in a way that is completely uncharacteristic of her and this was not done in a convincing way at all. The manga was clearly rushing to an ending, and I can only assume that this manga presents yet another case of the axe phenomenon. Even if the manga was being axed, I still feel like this definitely wasn’t the way to go. The author does make sure to hone in on the theme of friendship for the final chapters, a theme that was thoroughly explored in previous chapters and is perhaps the centripetal concept of the whole story, nevertheless it does so in such a hackneyed fashion.

The final chapter does end in quite a comedic way, which I’m quite glad to see. But somehow its plot feels even more contrived than the events preceding before it. It’s not like what happens in the end technically came out of nowhere, but the finale was not given enough space to breathe and just isn’t compelling whatsoever. Maybe in some alternate dimension it could've been written to make sense, but unfortunately that isn't the case. I honestly think the manga would’ve been better off if the final arc focused more on the series’ dark humor rather than trying to take itself seriously and delivering some kind of half-baked “meaningful” conclusion.

Overall, I enjoyed this manga for what it was. That said it’s definitely had its fair share of highs and lows. I would recommend it to fans of dark humor looking for a lighter read, though I’d advise you to not go in expecting brilliance.