Mermaid Music Video: Music - Madonna (2000)

I caught this on VH1 over the weekend - Music by Madonna (2000) has a brief animated sequence where Madonna turns in to a mermaid and swims among purple fish that look like Ali G - The whole video references other Madonna videos - this bit probably a nod towards Cherish - the mermaid then pops up from a wine glass and morphs into Madonna in the American pie outfit.

Review: Mere Passion

Book Review: Mere Passion by Daisy Harris
(Ocean Shifters book 2)

Mermaid Princess Alara is furious that her father has accepted help from the dragon council until she sets eyes on handsome were-sea dragon General Kai Nasu. She seduces the straight-laced virginal general but promises herself that her heart will stay out of the equation: She is in charge of the Islands armed forces and no dragon, no matter how hot is going to challenge her for control. The pair must overcome both race prejudice and their own personal issues of dominance in order to track down the mad scientist who is kidnapping helpless mermaid children to experiment on. To add an extra spanner in the works, it looks increasingly likely that the dragon council is in on the plot and may be sanctioning the research....

Really liked the plot of this - I love the mermaid/dragon dynamic - The mere were once the slaves of the arrogant dragons, and while they are now independent, there is still resentment on both sides. I also like the evil scientist idea - the ship kidnapping paranormals for research.

Characters are so-so - I did like the hunky hero General Kai Nasu and could picture him looking like a proud African warrior. It was a tad unconvincing that he was a virgin, but he was certainly hot, noble and competent - you could easily see why Alara fell for him.

I wasn't as keen on Alara - There wasn't much particularly wrong with her, I just didn't find her that interesting. Still I liked the idea that she was captain of the guard, and stood up for herself.

More interesting was the subplot characters - Graicie the succubus with a conscience and vampire John Karon, Captain of the research ship - What's great about these characters is their flaws. Graicie has to leave John before he feels guilty enough to do the right thing.

There's plenty of mermaid content - our mere have seal like tails that manifest when they hit salt water - And dragons turn into full scale scaled beasts. Really like the image of the mermaid riding on the back of a sea dragon. Sex scenes are fairly hot, but sadly all in human form.

I really enjoyed Mere Passion - a strong story, and the world created here is original and draws in the reader. Decent enough characters, throw in some hot sex and a happily ever after. Everything you could want in an erotic mermaid novel, though not amazing.

verdict 7/10

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

Anime Episode Review: Rosario + Vampire 1.5

Anime Episode Review: Rosario + Vampire 1.5 "School Swimsuits + vampire"

This is the anime adaptation of the mermaid encounter found in test 3 of the manga.

It follows exactly the same plot - Tsukune wants to join the swim club and the president is an evil mermaid who wants him.

It's gorgeous to see this in colour - we get her green hair and orange tail which is a nice reversal of Ariel. And of course their personalities are polar opposite as well.

The anime also makes a little more of the other mermaid members of the team.

So our evil mermaid attacks Tsukune:

Moka dives in to rescue him and the girls fight. Moka turns into her super vamp alter-ego and trounces the mermaid in a mid air fight. Again, really loving the use of colour - the pool become red like blood.

Moka is victorious and we get this nice scene, not seen in the manga, of the defeated mermaid caught in a net. 

Short and sweet. Evil mermaid monster overcome, not much more to say really - except we never see her legs in the anime, she's always in the water.

verdict: 6/10

Manga Review: Rosario + Vampire Volume 1

Manga Review: Rosario + Vampire Volume 1

1st volume of this charming series, follows average student Tsukune who after failing his high school entrance exams for every school in the human world, accidentally gets sent to Yokai Acadamy - a high school for monsters, where he is the only human and must hide the fact. In this volume, Tsukune meets the love of his life, vampire Moka, and her love rival, buxom succubus Kurumu. He fights off a band of killer mermaids, a werewolf and joins the school newspaper club. Fun story, super cute art-work.

Test (chapter) 3: Going clubbing, deals with Tsukune and Moka deciding which extra-curricular school club they want to join. Tsukune wants to join the swim club. He’s ok at swimming and wants to show off to Moka – plus seeing her in a bikini wouldn’t hurt. There are two big problems. Firstly vampires react badly to water because of its purification properties – so Moka can’t even enter the pool. Secondly the club president, Tamao Ichinose is a mermaid who wants to eat him.

The story plays out like all the other encounters in the manga - Tamao attacks Tsukune in the pool.

Moka dives in to save save him, even though it may well be fatal. Tsukune manages to rip the cross from around Moka's neck - she becomes her super vampire alter ego and trounces the mermaid in a mid air fight. One battered evil mermaid gives up and everyone else lives happily to fight another monster.

Evil flesh eating mermaids are reasonably common in Japanese manga. They are women, often depicted with green hair, fluked ears and razor sharp teeth - Here our mermaid can also transform at will into a bikini clad hottie. 

As this is only a very short interlude in the saga, there isn't much mer action, though i do have to give a huge thumbs up for the mid air bitch fight which is really nicely done.

Verdict 5/10

Sanctuary - Season 4

Sanctuary Season 4  (2011)

Another fun season, although the first half does seem to be a bit of a reboot going back to the first season's episodic format. There are some excellent episodes, most notably the musical episode "Fuge" which is brilliant. Lots of Tesla episodes too (yay!). Sadly again, no mermaid content whatsoever, other than in the title sequence and a couple of mentions in dialogue.

Mermaid Sally gets a brief mention twice: once in episode 4.3, Will says why can't the government official come to do an audit of the sanctuary be satisfied with a simple photo with the mermaid. In episode 4.10 Biggie is brainwashed by the Crixorum, Magnus reveals that she is getting mermaid Sally to help repair the neurological damage. Episode 4.7 references back to episode 1.9 where we had the mermaid massacre caused by a microscopic parasite.

It looks like this is it for Sanctuary and it sadly won't be returning for a 5th season. The board is wide open for fan-fiction however :) 

Mermaid Music Video: Save dat mermaid by the Gothsicles

Mermaid Music Video: Save dat mermaid by the Gothsicles

For all you retro gamers out there.