Bermuda Triangle: Colorful Pastrale (2019)
This is a new 12 episode anime following 5 teenage mermaids who live in a village in the middle of nowhere under the sea. A storm uncovers an abandoned movie theatre and they decide to renovate it.
When you get over the super cuteness.... and think about this, it is a totally bizarre plot for a mermaid story. There is no reason whatsoever for the girls to be mermaids - The whole thing could easily be set on land with regular teen girls. They spend their time eating cake at the local bakery, helping random locals, cooking, singing, making clothes and babysitting the little mermaids.
There are 4 mermaids Canon's age living in the village who are close friends:
Fina the homebody who excels at cooking, sewing and sorting out people's problems. She has a pet.... otter? called Poco who follows her everywhere.
Canon responds to Sonata's voice and breaks out of her sphere.
She becomes best friends with the 4 girls and joins in with enthusiasm to renovate the movie theatre. Things go swimmingly until her guardian sends a letter asking her if she wants to return to the city and audition again. She freaks out and she goes back into a crystal. Her friends sing together, shatter the sphere and they all go off to the city together to become a pop idol group.
The only 'mermaid' lore seems to be the turning into a crystal ball when upset. The rest of the 'mer' content is entirely visual - tails, underwater setting etc. What I particularly like is that it's set (all bar one episode) entirely under water with no mention of humans or the human world. In one episode they take a potion which turns their tails to legs and allows them to go to the surface - but it's to a tiny island inhabited by a single mermaid in human form who wanted to live on land. I loved that the potion reacts weirdly to certain mermaids - so while she does get legs, Serena manifests as a child whilst all the others are normal size.
The lack of humans is rather interesting as is the complete lack of men. There are no mermen - mermaids are referred to as 'shellsis' which suggested to me maybe they are born from shells like Venus.
A mermaid lesbian utopia? It's certainly one interpretation although since this is very child friendly it's implication at best: Ferma the cake shop owner and Ardi are nearly always together and could easily be a couple. Similarly you get close friendships between our main cast: Sonata/Canon, Fina/Serena. There's definitely fertile ground for fem-slash. The only male characters are Manta - a ray with a deep bass voice and the Seal postman. Oh and Poco I think, though he only squeaks.
Bermuda Triangle: Colorful Pastrale is a total guilty pleasure - the visuals and annoyingly catchy theme song are its main selling point.
Opening Theme
In a way this is almost a precursor to Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch - aimed at a slightly younger audience. I will say it's refreshing to have a mermaid story set entirely under water with no humans whatsoever and no romance plot. This one's all about friendship. It does not however have much plot or explore the notion of a mermaid in any great depth. Still if you want ultra cute, brightly coloured mermaid 'fluff' this is certainly the series for you.
4/10
