If I had a nickel for every mermaid manga I read this year, I would have two nickels. That isn't a lot but it's more that I would have expected for a concept this niche.
A SINNER OF THE DEEP SEA (Abyss Azure no Zaizin), by Akihito Tomi. First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2024.
PLOT:
Deep in the ocean, there is an entire society of mermaids living their lives. That includes Jo, a rebellious young mermaid who is happy to tag along with her best friend Ryuu, a popular dancer. One day it is revealed that Ryuu committed the worst crime possible in their world: she revealed their existence to a human. Worse still, she's fallen in love with them and is willing to go on a heartsick hunger strike to prove it! Jo is determined to save her friend at any cost, even if means swallowing her pride and risking her own freedom to confront this man herself.
STORY:
It took me a while to figure out why Akihito Tomi's name seemed familiar to me. It turns out I talked about their last serialized work, Stravaganza, a few years ago. My feelings on that series were somewhat mixed, but A Sinner of the Deep Sea is a great demonstration of how much he's grown as a storyteller in the years since that story debuted.
This is a manga that operates very much on vibes. Like its predecessor, Tomi does not dive directly into the story but instead is content to follow Jo for a few chapters as she hangs out with other sea creatures and hangs out with Ryuu as the two con their way into a gourmet dinner. These chapters are here for more than just vibes, though. They are a splendid example of how manga can show versus outright telling the reader about it. Tomi incorporates a lot of fun little bits of worldbuilding into these montages, be it snapshots of everyday life in the mermaid village or details like mermaids having bioluminescent hair. It's also quite remarkable how much he builds up Jo as a character in these moments, a woman whose hard edges and cynical streak hides a sincere appreciation for the beauty of the undersea world around her and her deep and abiding loyalty to Ryuu. The latter was especially important to establish, because for the plot to work you have to believe that these two are close enough that someone like Jo would be willing to risk her reputation and her freedom for Ryuu's sake.
Once the plot gets going, it doesn't take long to recognize that Tomi is basically doing his own spin on The Little Mermaid with this series. In this case, it's Ryuu who's playing the title role as she's fallen for a marine biologist named Yuki. Based on the chapter we see from his perspective, he's eager to prove himself as a scientist by discovering a new species but is fearful of the water. It's a little difficult to guess why the glamorous and worldly Ryuu would be so smitten with him, but perhaps his brand of dorky earnestness was enough to touch her heart. Unlike the Marinas and Ariels of the past, though, this little mermaid has someone in her corner to fight for her. It's hard to say how precisely things will turn out, but Tomi's given me more than enough cause to believe it will be good.
ART:
Tomi's art style is still very much rooted in that Harta house style with those spade-shaped faces, but it too has been refined over the years. There is so much fluidity in the poses and paneling here, makes those largely wordless montages all the more beautiful. I love the way he imparts the contrast in Jo and Ryuu's personalities just through their design. Ryuu is all soft, feminine sweetness with her round eyes, cute little pout of a mouth, and voluptuous figure, while Jo's sharper eyes and stylized undercut hints at her sharper temper and rebellious tendencies. He hasn't completely given up on fanservice - hell, he uses the first chapter to look at Jo's cleavage from every angle possible. He's definitely more restrained about it in both frequency and intensity, so it's not jarring.
He also clearly put effort into imagining what a mermaid society would look like and how it would function, freely mixing fanciful elements with realistic deep sea creatures. There's clearly thought put into the little things, from fashion to architecture. Yet he clearly did his research on deep sea ocean life and tried to incorporate that as much as possible into the work even if it's mostly relegated to the (beautiful rendered) backgrounds.
RATING:
This manga is published by Yen Press. This series is complete in Japan with 3 volumes available. 2 volumes have been released and are currently in print.
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