Our Mermaids Are Different: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Blue Submarine No. 6]]'' has a genetically engineered, evidently entirely female, race of mermaids. Typically they pilot underwater lobster-ish mecha as the front line troops of the antagonist forces. While fitting the [[Cute Monster Girl]] trope in many ways, they are not your traditional style of mermaid, considering that they have a tendency to bite.

* Sophia and The Mermaid Tribe and The Merman Tribe in [[Doraemon]].

* Usamaru Furuya's ''[[Short Cuts (manga)|Short Cuts]]'' has a mock poll about mermaids, asking which would you prefer, regular (fish bottom) or reverse (fish top) mermaid. The final "moral" is that people liking regular mermaids is the reason the population is decreasing: Put up with your partner, [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|even if they have a fish face]].

* ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' involves mermaids who follow "The Splash Method"; though it also has elements of "The Little Mermaid" in there. If a mermaid tells a human her secret she'll turn into sea foam (supposedly; it's never tested, and the manga implies it might be a lie spread to keep up the [[Masquerade]]). Additionally, her human form is quite different looking from her mermaid form besides just the obvious lack of tail. The main character also sacrifices her voice - but ''just'' her singing voice (she can sing beautifully as a mermaid, [[Cute but Cacophonic|not so much as a human]]). On top of this, they are also [[Magical Girl]]s with [[Magic Music]].

* A one-shot manga tale by [[Rumiko Takahashi]] had a passionate romance between a human boy and a mermaid - which ended as soon as they kissed. (Mermaid breath tasted like rotten fish, and human breath tasted like rotting plants. Yuck both ways.)

** The mermaids from Takahashi's ''[[Mermaid Saga]]'' are vastly different than most, as they are monstrous, flesh-eating, and very hard to kill. Eating their flesh has a [[Million-to-One Chance]] (really) of granting immortality—and otherwise kills you.

* The much older ''[[Mahou no Mako-chan|Mahou no Mako Chan]]'' shares some similarities with ''Pichi Pichi Pitch'', as they are both based loosely on ''[[The Little Mermaid]]''. Mako-chan uses a magic pendant to transform and is more of a [[Cute Witch]].

* ''[[Seto no Hanayome]]'''s mermaids can assume human form, but revert to their fishy one if [[Water Induced Transformation|touched by water]]. Adults grow out of this, and it is possible for younger mermaids to resist the change with limited success if they are disciplined enough. Their songs can cause a variety of status effects. Otherwise nice people, aside from being [[Yakuza]]...

* ''[[Rave Master]]'' has Celia, a very beautiful mermaid who naturaly falls in love with Haru, much to Elie's displeasure. Her magic is strong but useless in the absence of water. She is the younger sister of the Queen of the mermaids, which of course makes her a mermaid princess.

* ''[[Rental Magica]]'' and ''[[Rosario + Vampire]]'' have both had the dangerous, flesh-eating kind of mermaid. Though ''Rosario'''s, true to its style, appeared as a [[Cute Monster Girl]] beforehand.

* Husky is a [[Bishounen]] Merman from the manga ''[[+Anima]]''. Like most +anima, he's the only one of his kind (the only one who is fish like, that is). His legs turn into a fish tail at will. If he is about to drown, he'll [[Emergency Transformation|change in order to be able to breathe]]: this is how he was forced to do it in the circus. It apparently takes him some effort to turn into his human form. He's also perfectly amphibious. And he's probably the prettiest mer-man around. When he's introduced, he's performing in a circus as the Mermaid ''Princess''.

* In the ''[[Slayers]]'' anime series, there's a mermaid that's a fish. Literally, just a fish... with tetrapod arms and legs. Not a reverse mermaid. A * whole fish* with legs, arms... oh, and lipstick. There are other merfolk seen in the earlier (1st and 3rd) series; turns out they ''all'' look like fish with arms and legs.

** Their most amusing (and oddly touching) appearance is in a ''[[Slayers]] Try'' episode: a young fishgirl and the shipwrecked sailor she saved are in love with each other, and use a spell that will allow a fishperson to be with a human [[The Power of Love|if they truly love one another]]. The spell actually works, and she changes into a beautiful human girl... {{spoiler|and he turns into a fishman!}}

* A similar type of [[Fish Person]] is found in ''[[Papuwa]],'' examplfied by Tanno, the cross-dressing fish identified as such by his lipstick and his feminine legs clad appropriately in [[Incredibly Lame Pun|fishnet stockings]].

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Mer-people come in two flavors: Merfolk and Fishmen. Fishmen are humanoid fish that are ten times stronger than humans on land and twenty times under water. Merfolks are the ''[[Little Mermaid]]'' type. At the age of 30, their tails '''split''' and may be used as legs. Even so, they are the fastest swimmers in the world. In both cases, the types of fish they're similar to, and thus their physical features, greatly vary. Merfolk and Fishmen can intermarry, but instead of being hybrids each child can be either a mermaid/man or a fish(wo)man.

* ''[[Moribito Guardian of the Spirit]]'' features the Water Folk, a mysterious, barely glimpsed race of [[Creature from the Black Lagoon]]-style [[Fish People|amphibious humanoids]].

* Mei Mah / Mei Mer of ''[[Ko Beast]]'' changes into a mermaid when wet or when something makes her cry. Her tears become pearls.

* Hayame from ''[[Hell Teacher Nube]]'' has it easier than most. Aside from being a very likeable [[The Ditz|goof]] and a powerful ally, she can [[Good Thing You Can Heal|regenerate from anything]] (even being reduced to a dessicated corpse for centuries or cutting out her own liver,) her [[Magic Music|singing voice]] can compel anyone in earshot to act out the emotions in her songs, she can [[Voluntary Shapeshifter|change back and forth from mermaid to human at will]] (though [[Naked People Are Funny|her methods]] leave [[Innocent Fanservice Girl|something to be desired]],) and her flesh and blood can grant [[Immortality]]/[[Good Thing You Can Heal|hyper-accelerated healing]] to ''anyone'' who consumes them. In her natural form, she's a [[Cute Monster Girl]] with webbed hands, long and pointy fins instead of ears, highly-visible gills over her ribcage, and [[Godiva Hair]] to cover her bare [[Non-Mammal Mammaries]].

* In the short horror manga ''[[School Mermaid]],'' the mermaids actually look like schoolgirls in bathing suits, with an ever-present creepy smile on their face, the ability to swim through solid matter like it was water, and at top speed at that, only come out at night, and can only make screeching sounds. Oh, and {{spoiler|if a human girl who's hunting them is unable to kill and eat a mermaid by sunrise, they'll all rise up, drag her down into the floor, and turn her into a mermaid herself.}}

* In ''[[07-Ghost]]'' noel mermaids have furry rings around their neck and waist, and the ability to change the appearance of their face at will. They also can only express themselves in melody.

* The sea people from ''[[Umi Monogatari]]'' resemble humans exactly (not counting [[Pointy Ears]], which [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight|nobody seems to notice]]) except for the need to breathe underwater, though they also have magic rings that can solve that problem. They also tend toward skimpier clothing than most humans, something that is noticed when they go on land.

* In ''[[Ponyo]]'', the mermaid equivalents are magical goldfish-sized creatures with protohuman faces and powerful magic who can turn [[Humanity Ensues|shapeshift]] [[Blood Magic|if they taste human blood]]. Oh, and they appear to be the [[Half-Human Hybrid|result of breeding]] between [[A Wizard Did It|a no-longer-human wizard]] and [[Physical God|the goddess of the ocean]].

* ''[[Satou Kashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai]]'' lampshades this trope when Nagisa remarks on Umino's supposed transformation story: ''"That's the scenario from'' [[The Little Mermaid]], ''isn't it?''

* [[Token Mini-Moe|Bluebell]] from ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' has a box weapon which turns her into a [[wikipedia:Shonisaurus|shonisaurus]]/[[Half-Human Hybrid|human hybrid]] that resembles a mermaid. However she doesn't seem to have heard of [[Seashell Bra]]s, and is instead covered up by [[Godiva Hair|her hair]] ([[Pettanko|not that there is much to cover up]]).

* [[Digimon Frontier]]: One of the antagonists, [http://dma.wtw-x.net/dexrana.shtml Ranamon], is a human hybrid fairy digimon with control over water. Despite not having the typical mermaid traits (human upper body and fish tail), she definitely constitutes being a mermaid. She is a big fan among many digimon due to her attractive appearance, but this changes when she digivolves into her hideous, tentacled beast form, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-3oc1mNUnc Calmaramon]. Her benevolent mega form, Ancientmermaimon, is [http://dma.wtw-x.net/dexancientmermai.shtml more typical of a mermaid].

* [[Level E]] has mermaids with the rather unusual power to detect any attempt to lie to them... by their tongue involuntarily shooting out and stabbing the liar to death. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, it doesn't stop them from being sold into sex slavery and pretty much wiped out, because a loophole is found to evade the ability but the mermaids don't realize it.}}

* Isma from [[Berserk]] is introduced as a lonely [[Genki Girl|genki]] fisher girl whose lack of nudity taboos borders on [[Innocent Fanservice Girl]] category, unlike a typical Mermaid Isma appears unaware of the fact that she isn't human and claims that she isn't even sure that Mermaids exist, readers though get fairly quickly a ''subtle'' hint that suggest [http://manga.animea.net/berserk-chapter-312-page-21.html something else in an ominous style true to this series] {{spoiler|Later it turns out that she didn't lie about being unaware of what she is, what's more her cheerful and kind behaviour really is her true personality which is quite a surprise [[Dark Fantasy|considering]] [[It Got Worse|the]] [[Crapsack World|setting]].}}

* ''[[Hekikai no AiON]]'': The mermaids need to satisfast themself with psique, that is only obtainted by killing people with tsunamis or earthshakes. In-universe, they're responsables for the sinking of Atlantis, Mu and the destruction of Pompeii and they are the primal prey of the protagonist. Also, apparently, one of the mermaids can follow "the Splash Method" and can have legs at land and fish tail at water.

* The titular 'mermaids' of ''[[Kaizoku to Ningyou]]'', which are actually a race of demihumans whose hair appears white on land and only reverts to its true color when doused with seawater. They are extraordinarily rare [[In-Universe]] and are frequently targetted for human trafficking on the black market. However, aside from their hair, there is very little separating them from humanity. Not to mention, the only member of this rare subspecies we have met so far is ''male''.