Wonder who will be Haruna... And ngl I'm worried abut grandma.

It's hard not to read this as an allegory for Japanese depersonalization.

So many unanswered questions. Where are all the dudes? Are fish girls gay? If grandma has fish eyes, does that mean she’s lesbian too? How did mermaid-san get on top of the lockers? Did Ichika ever get her phone back? Is this whole thing a fever dream after mom ran and dumped?

The author is definitely depressed but that's not much of a stretch to deduce.

I am not sure which of the two H.P. Lovecraft would have found more horrifying.

He's a man that was horrified that he was part Welsh. And had an intense aversion to math. I'm pretty sure he found literally everything to be equally horrifying.

well if we want to get into Lovecraft’s phobias, in this chapter we already have math (linear functions) and 'Welsh people' (blonde schoolgirls who climb lockers and have a strange acquaintance with bogs)

this manga honestly has it all

really loving this manga. the first chapter was pitch-perfect as a oneshot, which can sometime mean trouble when expanding on it into a serialization since Ichika's character arc has more or less concluded. switching PoVs was a great move because it introduces us to a new character who's just at the beginning of her own arc, while also hammering home the tragedy of chapter 1. really curious to see where the manga goes from here.

and Chitose has potential to be a truly terrifying villain, if that is indeed the role she ends up playing.

Oh hell no. If she hurts the cat, fuck that mermaid.

Huh. I thought everyone in the town with those eyes must be under the mermaid's sway, but guess it's not that simple. Ichika must have willingly given herself over. I reread ch1 and belatedly noticed that Nina's eyes change too half-way. Pg22 they're still pure-black, then she talks about wanting to meet the mermaid, and by her next appearance on pg28, her eyes have changed.

It seems this will be significantly more metaphorical than literal.

Also the cat being blind, an eye-focused condition, probably says something too lol.

last edited at May 14, 2023 5:10PM

Oh hell no. If she hurts the cat, fuck that mermaid.

KLONK
(noise of kitty-hurting series being dropped)

The author is definitely depressed but that's not much of a stretch to deduce.

Really ? I always wonder how anyone can make assumptions about the author's life based on what they wrote. I know very happy and balanced people that write fucked up things and vice versa.

Oh this wasn't a one-shot? Niiiice

I wonder how or why the mother could leave. Is her purpose to send back children with fresh genes because outsiders haven't been arriving for a while?

The author is definitely depressed but that's not much of a stretch to deduce.

Really ? I always wonder how anyone can make assumptions about the author's life based on what they wrote. I know very happy and balanced people that write fucked up things and vice versa.

Simply because you can only write about what you know.

And it's impossible to know anything that you haven't experienced.

Authors who try to write about things they haven't personally experienced, there's a touch of inauthenticity about it. It's hard to escape autobiography.

You make a good point though.

The author is definitely depressed but that's not much of a stretch to deduce.

Really ? I always wonder how anyone can make assumptions about the author's life based on what they wrote. I know very happy and balanced people that write fucked up things and vice versa.

Simply because you can only write about what you know.

And it's impossible to know anything that you haven't experienced.

Authors who try to write about things they haven't personally experienced, there's a touch of inauthenticity about it. It's hard to escape autobiography.

Yes, impossible to know anything that one hasn't personally experienced, which is how it's impossible to write about anything outside the bounds of real life or to ever empathize with and reliably recreate experiences that are not one's own.

Come on, fiction is fiction. Sometimes creators can only draw from their own personal experiences, and much more frequently a story is born of pieces of personal inspiration that a reader might never have guessed at, material gathered from other people, general research/life knowledge, genre conventions, and straight up making things up.

Once, people kept asking this yuri artist if a particular series came from personal experience. She said no. And then she said "people ask if I made the story based on personal experience for every one of my [distinctly different] series. XD"

last edited at May 14, 2023 7:58PM

Betrayed by their mother for some dude who wanted alone time...just to start a new family!

Living costs in Japan are one thing,but you left the babysitters in alone in the boondocks!

Well,time to see the scaly lass sit her fishy ass on her underwater throne as the real ruling force in that town.

Also :

"Ma'am,this is the fourth floor."

The girl on the right has a lot of fear in her eyes.

And now they're eyes of acceptance.

Albeit,there are cracks in the system that the mermaid clearly has to go around and plug herself,possibly with the power to detect an imminent crack.

Being blind probably alleviates that,but then you have the issues that come with it.

Makes me wonder if the world the mermaid has created will crumble down around her one day...

Yes, impossible to know anything that one hasn't personally experienced, which is how it's impossible to write about anything outside the bounds of real life or to ever empathize with and reliably recreate experiences that are not one's own.

Come on, fiction is fiction. Sometimes creators can only draw from their own personal experiences, and much more frequently a story is born of pieces of personal inspiration that a reader might never have guessed at, material gathered from other people, general research/life knowledge, genre conventions, and straight up making things up.

Once, people kept asking this yuri artist if a particular series came from personal experience. She said no. And then she said "people ask if I made the story based on personal experience for every one of my [distinctly different] series. XD"

well, yes and no. The slight distinction here is that I consider all of this

material gathered from other people, general research/life knowledge, genre conventions, and straight up making things up

as being included under 'personal experience'.

But that is a purely semantic difference.

Thank you for uploading this, by the way! Fantastic work.

And now they're eyes of acceptance.

Albeit,there are cracks in the system that the mermaid clearly has to go around and plug herself,possibly with the power to detect an imminent crack.

Being blind probably alleviates that,but then you have the issues that come with it.

Makes me wonder if the world the mermaid has created will crumble down around her one day...

Somehow I missed the parallel between the blind cat and how the villagers are "blind" to the mermaid. Great catch.

...Also It's worth remembering that Lovecraft did start to come around on the racism issue before he died

Ehhh, from my understanding he stopped believing in genetic racial superiority, but only because he started believing that his favorite European cultures were superior to the other, inferior cultures. He adopted a more modern type of racism, he didn't stop being racist.

last edited at May 15, 2023 12:54AM

RIP blind cat. :-(

RIP blind cat. :-(

In Soviet Russia (or this town), Fish eats cat!

Reading this second chapter, IDK if this is the intention, but just my interpretation at least, is it reads as a little bit like being in a cult, and the isolation and control tactics used to keep one in it. (Mainly based off that significant shot of the shrine during the talk with the parents in this chapter.) First chapter was an outsider being brought in, initially uncertain, but turned against the outside world; the second is someone of wavering faith trying to get out, only to be foiled in the end.

Or it might just be about how small towns kinda suck lol

last edited at May 16, 2023 8:15AM

Please don’t hurt the kitty. I just barely escaped from the clutches of “Cat blender” video and I don’t want another cat trauma ;-;

Eagerly awaiting the next chapter

Reading this second chapter, IDK if this is the intention, but just my interpretation at least, is it reads as a little bit like being in a cult, and the isolation and control tactics used to keep one in it. (Mainly based off that significant shot of the shrine during the talk with the parents in this chapter.) First chapter was an outsider being brought in, initially uncertain, but turned against the outside world; the second is someone of wavering faith trying to get out, only to be foiled in the end.

Or it might just be about how small towns kinda suck lol

Or it's about how small towns are like cults

Ig she just ate that cat huh…

Poor Haruna

So I’m, im guessing all the girls and people in the town are suicides. The first chapter seems to allude to that. The mermaid takes them in and they live in a bubble world. That’s why it’s a problem to leave and go else where as in chapter 2.

I noticed in chapter 3 after haruna’s transformation there are ruins. I’m wondering what that all means but I’m guessing some people in this bubble world can be further sway’d into becoming monsters. As for the lesbian context, hmmm I’m not really sure it’s there at all, maybe Haruna not being normal, still not seeing it.