If you've heard of Rumiko Takahashi before and you're about to write Mermaid Forest off as yet another love story, you are making a mistake. Not only is this NOT a love story, it's not even bright and cheerful as her usual works are. Based on her Mermaid manga series, Mermaid Forest starts us off in the middle of the story's timeline but the anime itself alternates between the past and the present, so you don't feel confused.
This dark tale about human relationships and greed does not lack anything that can make your skin crawl. If you are a visual person, it has buckets of blood and mutated monsters galore. What we love about Mermaid Forest however is it shows you just enough to make you imagine what comes next. Just as Alfred Hitchcock can make us "see" Psycho Norman Bates bloodily slashing Janet Leigh in the shower with just her scream, his knife, and that music, Mermaid Forest makes us cringe with just a scalpel and a skinned human face.
Although Mermaid Forest tried to be faithful to the original artwork from the manga, it has been 10 years between the two and certain things needed to be updated: darker colors, more shadows, and more angles. All in all, this update accentuates and brings everything closer to the eeriness and disturbing feel of the story.
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