Mermaid Music Video: Martha's Harbour (fanvid)

Little Mermaid fan-vid I found using one of my favourite songs "Martha's Harbour" sadly it's the Meav version and not the more haunting All About Eve original, still whenever I hear this song I do think about a lonely mermaid. I'd love to see a mermaid fan vid using the All About Eve version if anyone out there is skilled at these sorts of things.

Manga Review: Jyunketsu Ningyo

Manga Review: Jyunketsu Ningyo by Mikage Tsubaki

Merman Sango (uke) comes to the landworld to work in a company in order to make money to support his undersea family. He somehow gets promoted to junior secretary to the president Minami (seme). There’s an urgent package that needs delivery within 20 minutes, and there is no way humanly possible to get it there on time. The recipient is the father of Minami’s girlfriend and his engagement rides on it arriving on time. The secretaries are tearing out their hair. Sango finally pipes up that if Minami will trust him, he can get it there in time. The other secretaries scarper and Minami has no choice but to entrust the package to Sango.

Sango packs the item water tight and then swims the channel to the destination, getting it there safely. He returns and passes out at the president’s feet. He wakes naked, in the president’s bed. Minami asks him how he achieved the impossible. If a mer-person tells a lie they turn into bubbles and die. Sango has no choice but to reveal that he is a merman – and shows his fishtail. [We don’t see how he suddenly manifests his tail, but I’ll give this the benefit of the doubt and say he pours a glass of water by the bedside onto his legs]. Minami is both stunned and aroused, never having seen anything so beautiful.

 

He dries out and is hugely embarrassed to be completely naked... and human, before Minami! Minami wastes no time in seducing the super cute merman. Afterwards, his girlfriend turns up. Minami breaks up with her, but Sango knows that if Minami stays with him, he will never have a normal life and family. He lies and tells Minami he doesn't love him and then goes to the seashore to await the sunrise and his metamorphosis into bubbles. Minami finds him and says that he will never let him go. Sango remains as he is, true lover conquering all... and they live happily ever after.

The second story is a follow on, in which Sango wants to get Minami a present. He swims to the bottom of the ocean and finds a piece of broken glass. While he's gone Minami goes mad, thinking his lover has left him. When he returns, he's at first puzzled by the broken glass, but soon comes to treasure it more than anything because of the thought behind it.

There are several other (non merman) stories in the anthology, the best of which is "Hercules" which deals with a beetle who falls in love with his keeper and wishes to the beetle god to make him human - very similar to the Haru/clam story in "Selfish Mr. Mermaid" - There's another transformation one about an albino snake. "Found love with you" the last story is also really nice, about a boy who kisses his best friend and feels so guilty that he doesn't wait around to see if his feelings are reciprocated. Its only years later he finds out that his friend loves him back.  Worth checking out for yaoi fans but no mermaid content.

Back to our merman story...

The story is really sweet and the characters are great, particularly Sango the merman. Artwork's not bad either, the colour cover and frontispiece are gorgeous. Things move a tad too quickly, being a short and all - I would have liked more explanations - why doesn't Sango turn to bubbles? How does he get his tail in Minami's bed? Also I'd have liked more underwater tail scenes and just more... everything! 

Sex is all in human form and typical yaoi. There is a pretty hot sex scene at the end of the second story as Minami shows Sango just how much he loves him. Thumbs up, there, very nice.

I liked the idea that merpeople can't lie on pain of death, and thought that the broken glass present was such a lovely story idea. The BL version of the little mermaid, with a happy ending, Jyunketsu Ningyo is a worthy addition to the mer-slash genre and definitely one to track down.

Available to read online here

Verdict 7/10

Mermaid Music Video: Sade - No Ordinary Love

Music video - No Ordinary Love by Sade (1992) - Pop song inspired by The Little Mermaid. Beautiful video. This one always makes me sad.

Review: Maid for Him

Review: Maid for him... by Tori Carrington. Novella in Blazing Bedtime Stories, volume VI 

Mills & Boon 'Blaze' series (their sexier stories) is currently releasing a series of fairy-tale based anthologies called 'Blazing Bedtime Stories' - In volume VI of the US releases (the UK editions seem to be numbered a bit differently) we have 2 stories: Maid for Him... by Tori Carrington, a sexy reworking of The Little Mermaid and Off the Beaten Path by Kate Hoffmann which reworks Hansel and Gretel.

Since it is the mermaid connection I'm interested in, I'm going to ignore the other story, other than to say that for romance fans it's well worth checking out.

Maid For Him tells the story of Daphne Moore, a red-headed mermaid who is about to give up her land legs for good and dedicate herself to the service of the sea in a final ceremony, when she falls in love with human sail enthusiast Kieran Morrison. After saving him from a storm and indulging in one night of wild passion, Daphne begins to rethink her decision of giving up the human world completely. She goes to a sea-witch who tells her that if she can make Kieran marry her within 10 days then she can revoke her decision. There's one problem, Kieran has only just finalised a messy divorce and he has no interest in remarriage, no matter how tempting his mysterious siren may be.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one although it is sadly short so the emotional build-up of the romance is a bit lacking - you just have to take it on faith that our hero and heroine fall madly in love, pretty much on sight and are soul mates.

Big thumbs up from me on the mer content - I love the bit where Daphne falls asleep after saving Kieran and he wakes up on deck, draped with a fully tailed mermaid. I also enjoyed the scene where Kieran's parents arrive (he's not told them he's divorced) and his mother finds Daphne complete with tail in the bathtub. Reminded me a bit of the bathtub scene in 'Splash' but still really fun.    

The sex scenes are nothing extraordinary, but perfectly adequate, more romantic than erotic. The one really nice surprise was the full tail sex scene showing Kieran accepting Daphne for who she was. I also liked the rather sweet way that Kieran wanted to become a merman, rather than getting her to change, though of course, as she tells him, that's impossible since mermaids are born, not created.

The ending itself is a little too neat, but unlike the fairytale does have a happy ending for which I was very glad, since I did find myself caring for these characters.

Maid for Him then is a nice, sexy retelling of the little mermaid and didn't disappoint on that score - it did everything I wanted it to - a romance with a fishtailed mermaid. Hurrah. It is a little short and lacks the depth of a full length novel, but it's a fun whimsical read that should delight mermaid and romance enthusiasts.

6/10