Mahou no Mako-chan
Mahou no Mako-chan is an early Magical Girl Anime loosely based on The Little Mermaid, created by Toei Animation's planning team.
Mako is a young mermaid who one day rescues a handsome young man named Akira from drowning in a shipwreck and promptly falls in love with him. In order to be with her beloved, she convinces the Witch of the Sea to turn her into a human, becoming Ordinary High School Student Mako Urashima.
The rest of the series follows Mako in her new life on dry land as she makes friends, learns about the human world, and solves problems with the help of her magical pendant given to her by her Overprotective Dad, Ryuu-oh the King of the Sea.
Tropes used in Mahou no Mako-chan include:
- The Ace: Akira is this in the human world
- Almost Kiss
- Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Mako's magic pendant.
- Bittersweet Ending: Mako and Akira do end up together, but Mako gives up her pendent as well as her life as a mermaid forever.
- Body to Jewel: Mako's tear, which turns into a magical pearl.
- Coming of Age Story: For Mako, who not only has to search for her guy, but also has to adapt to human life.
- Composite Character: The Sea Witch herself is Mako's grandmother, as opposed to have them be separate characters, like in the original fairy tale.
- Dead Little Sister: The fisher man that adopts Mako lost his daughter many years ago, and lives with his young grandsons Tarou and Jirou.
- Deranged Animation: When Mako first turns into a human, the visuals turn all trippy and nightmarish.
- Everything's Better with Princesses: Mako is the daughter of the King of the Sea.
- Friend to All Living Things: Mako
- Godiva Hair: Unlike her Disney counterpart, Mako does not wear a seashell bra.
- Happily Adopted: Mako and her human foster family.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Mako-chan has the same voice actress as Jun the Swan, Heidi, and Jariten.
- Humanity Ensues
- Identical Stranger: We meet a girl who looks like a blonde Mako in episode 13. [dead link] She's murdered, though. In a subversion, this happened in a movie. The King was watching it and thought the actress was killed for real. Understandable, it looked like this was the first time he saw a movie.
- There's also Midori in episode 21.
- Lingerie Scene: A Trope Codifier in regards to anime.
- Love At First Sight
- Master of Illusion: Mako is a rare benign example.
- Mitsuko Horie: Sings the theme songs. She was only 13 at the time.
- Naked on Arrival: After getting transformed, Mako is found in the buff on the beach.
- Painful Transformation: Poor Mako!
- Parasol Parachute: One of Mako's rivals is a Creepy Child who uses his red parasol this way when he jumps off a building and escapes from her.
- Plucky Girl: Mako won't give up. Ever.
- Rescue Romance: Genderflipped, Mako is the one doing the rescue.
- Rich Bitch: Tomiko
- The Rival: Tomiko
- Romantic False Lead: Tomiko
- Shout-Out: Urashima is the name of the main character in a Japanese folk tale, who saves a turtle and gets to visit a kingdom underwater.
- Swiss Army Tears: Mako turned into a human by swallowing a pearl that formed from one of her tears.
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Mako
- Tall, Dark and Handsome: Akira
- Tentacle Rope
- Watching the Sunset