So in short, My Bride Is A Mermaid is just how it sounds. A teenage boy named Nagasumi is at the beach with his family when he suddenly finds himself to far from the shore and starts to drown. Instead what ends up happening is Sun, a mermaid, saves his life. Now in the mermaid world if your seen by a human that human must die and or the mermaid. The only way for them both to live is if Nagasumi and Sun marry, and so they plan to (eventually). Of course, first comes the courting period.

I started off really enjoying this show. I’ve watched several anime shows that run off the exact same formula and almost all of them ended up becoming this fan service barrage of creature features, school boy fantasies, and not much else. It was refreshing to see this show start off much differently. Of course Sun comes from a Yakuza family and her Father is a vicious thug who wants Nagasumi dead so he sends his henchmen to watch over them as they go about the courting period. Hilarity ensues as Nagasumi finds himself in awkward and uncomfortable positions with Suns Father, his thugs, and even his own parents. Their getting to know one another story is cute and funny. Then one day the inevitable happens, Nagasumi and his family must return home and resume their normal lives. Here’s where the show lost me.

All of those things that I disliked about those other shows similar to this one just kind of unloaded on the show non-stop. Sun and Nagasumi eventually got pushed out of the picture and it became yet another show that introduced some new character every other episode and we’d have to go through their back story, why they had arrived, why they were inevitably staying. In-between there were a few funny moments like when Nagasumi discovered Sun’s Father’s fear of cats when he finds a stray kitten or when Sun and an old school rival hold a singing contest which turns the crowd of almost all boys into naked raving lunatics doing things so unspeakable it was blotted out. Unfortunately it’s not enough to save the show as it fell from its respectable pedestal of decent storytelling to just your everyday average anime the likes of Rosario + Vampire, Heaven’s Lost Property, or UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie. I was disappointed to say the least. There might be enough value for someone just looking for a few good laughs or monster battles but its promise of story simply ends up becoming a cop out making way for too much fan service. It’s like they just gave up. Sad.