**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

Mermaid Prince by Kaori Ozaki is a manga collection of three short stories: a young girl's rocky coming-of-age story, a one-shot about a librarian's snowy day, and a pair of childhood friends' encounter with a mermaid myth. I was a little confused before I realized they were separate stories, but it was fine once I figured that out. I didn't care for the first story at all, but the next two were enjoyable, and the art was great. Most trigger warnings are only in the first story. Recommended if you're a fan of the mangaka, otherwise just read the last two stories.

Title: Mermaid Prince
Author: Kaori Ozaki
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Published: June 25, 2024
Age: 16+
Themes: sex, grief, loss, loneliness
Short stories: Mermaid Prince, Ametsukigahara, One Snowy Day

This manga collection features three emotional short stories by Kaori Ozaki, author of The Gods Lie and Our Summer Holiday, exploring themes like loneliness, growing apart, depression, but also the beauty of silence, kindness and friendship.

Ametsukigahara is a moving story about a girl named Akari Umino whose life changes as she drifts apart from her best friend. It is a sad, captivating and ruminant tale which addresses the troubles and emotional turbulence of growing up. This one actually touched me the most and I was impressed by how slow, thoughtful and quiet the story felt. The panels convey powerful emotions and I was captivated by the beauty and blissfulness of the landscapes.

One Snowy Day is a tale about a librarian who shows kindness to two strangers while others dismiss them. As a homeless father and his young child sit in the library for hours while a white out covers the city in snow, she doesn’t shoo them away and instead picks up a children’s book and reads it to the kid. The story is about empathy and silence and that practising both can enrich our lives and fill us with joy. I loved the setting (who would have thought!), the character art and the stunning backdrops of a snowfall at night.

In Mermaid Prince we follow Mugi, a young boy who has to adjust to the island life of Okinawa after moving there from Tokyo. Living with his older sister and her husband, who is an avid apnea diver, Mugi, who suffers from asthma and has fair skin, feels like the fifth wheel and wonders if there is room for him in a place like this. To Matori however, he is a prince and together they risk their lives in search of a legendary mermaid who grants a wish to those who are brave enough to defy death in order to seek her aid.

I was very touched and entranced by all of the three stories. The stunning artwork is mesmerising and I can recommend this collection to anyone who likes emotional tales with a touch of magic. The tales definitely left me pondering and are beautifully melancholic and profound, giving you food for thought. I give this collection five out of five stars and will definitely pick up more works from the author.

Rating
Overall rating: 5/5
Story: 5/5
Art: 5/5

*Beware that this manga deals with heavy themes like death, depression. Sexual encounters between the characters are depicted, but the portrayal is mild and not explicit or disturbing.

The Mermaid Prince is a quick nice read. However, I did not expect it to have more than one story in it,, this was not clear from the description. The stories also did not feel like they kind of had the same topic - it was unknown to me why these stories got chosen to be in a volume together.

As for the first story: I think it had so much more potential. I was liking the struggles the MC was going through at first, but then it suddenly ended in sex? Which added basically nothing to the story. After this the story suddenly ended. We missed the rest of her character development and boom suddenly she was grown up and happy(?) again.
This second story was quite a cute story - but again an abrupt ending. The story felt incomplete and I was not sure what the message/storyline was.

The last story I liked quite a lot. It was cute, a bit romancey and had some adventure in it. I thought the mermaid art to be really cool too. It felt a bit short, but I liked reading it and I liked the MCs.

I "dived" (pun intended) into this book not knowing it included more than one story and I was very surprised when it started with another work about a quirky girl and her highschool friends. That one story was kinda weird just like its main character. It felt realistic and yet quite random at times and the open ending was too abrupt. On another hand, the second unexpected story was fantastical and so beautiful, it had an unusual and melancholic feel to it.

And third but not last, the 3 chapter-story Mermaid Prince wasn't what I wanted, it was more like a magical realism work but it was a slice of the characters' life that I enjoyed. Overall, it's a good book to read if you want to relax. I think mystery is the thing that ties all the three works. My favorite was the second.

This is a collection of three beautifully drawn stories that are just really really good and full of feeling. I love the writing of the stories, but I especially love the little, quiet visual moments and scenery. All three of them are sort of dream-like, and I think about finding yourself and your place in the world.

Ametsukigahara is about a teenage girl navigating life and identity, struggling with questions such as what she wants to be, what to do when you grow apart from your friends, when you're not sure who you are at the core, and also when creeps on the train want to keep grabbing you.

One Snowy Day is about a librarian, as well as a father and a son who take refuge in the library on a snowy day. It is adorable and very heartfelt and also kind of sad. I would have loved for it to be longer.

And finally, Mermaid Prince is about a teenage boy looking for his place in the world after being moved away to an island, being bullied, and living with his only sister and his new brother-in-law. Does he still have a place in his sister's new family? And if not, then where does that leave him? There's also mermaids, but they're more of a background for the emotions and way-searching.

Erratic and disorganized. I couldn't understand what was happening and what the stories had to do with each other. DNF at 50%.

I received this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange of an honest review.

Gorgeous art, I really enjoyed that and the characters designs. But I hadn't expected this to be more than one story. I had expected the Mermaid Prince, and instead got two weird/disjointed short stories that I wasn't too happy to read (one barely left an impression as I, 3 days after reading, have to really try hard to remember it, and the other was about a library, two people who are homeless and then suddenly boars??). The Mermaid Prince, when it came around, well, I just couldn't enjoy it that much. Not to mention it felt very disjointed at times and I wished it just focussed on either the guy or the girl, not both of them. I did like the mermaid bits and parts and the wishes.

I loved this book, especially the first part, which shows the characters' interactions with each other and how things change over the years.The characters are intense and have strong personalities, but this makes them strange and intriguing. I really loved the first chapters!!
The second story has a more linear narrative and is also intense in its way, dealing with two main characters about whom we discover things as the pages go by. But both are resilient and determined, which keeps the reader glued to the page.
The drawings are beautiful, perfectly fitting the story that mixes reality with a bit of magic.
I read the book in one sitting, and I'm ready to read it again. It really was a wonderful book. I loved it.

So this manga is technically split into two stories. The first one is a vague collection of semi-connected short stories with no concrete plot line called "Ametsukigahara". I was very baffled by chapters 1 and 2 of that short story. It's very vague and weirdly sexual. Sorry, but I really don't like to read about high schoolers having [a spice scene]. Chapter 3 was technically connected to the first two, but it did not feel like it. The third chapter was honestly really cute and has the potential to be expanded into something bigger. It had some hints of "Ôkami kodomo no Ame to Yuki" energy. The second half of the manga, which is "Mermaid Prince", was a short but sweet short story. This is another one that very easily could have been expanded on and made into something more. But it works as a short story and honestly is a great completed circle of a story. However, the way this manga is set up is baffling. Why is it marketed as if there's only the Mermaid Prince story when it's actually two different stories in one manga? Going into this manga and only expecting to be reading Mermaid Prince and then getting whammied by Ametsukigahara is very disconcerting as the two stories have very different tones. Maybe, switch it so Ametsukigahara is after Mermaid Prince. But yeah, this is marketed and formatted very strangely. If there had been a third short story, and this was marketed as an anthology, I think it would have flowed better.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

My gratitude to ever-generous Kodansha Comics for providing me copy in exchange for an honest review.

I fell in love with this entertaining compilation of short stories! Started off a little aggressive with a feisty character trying to find the meaning of her life, to a sprinkle of fantasy with a librarian who encountered a boar-turned-human father and child seeking shelter from the blizzard (lol, I was wanting a little more interaction with the father and the librarian l. I love that dynamics! It’s definitely giving Wolf Children parents—and we all know we needed a little more domesticity with that tragic love story as well!), ending the note with a cute friendship story albeit unrequited or so so. It’s perfect! But I need more.

*Mermaid Prince* by Kaori Ozaki is a beautifully illustrated manga that offers a mix of fantasy, friendship, and emotional depth. The main story follows Mugi, a boy struggling to find his place in Okinawa, as he explores local legends with his friend Matori. The narrative touches on themes of loneliness and belonging, though at times it feels rushed and lacks deeper development. The two additional short stories, “Ametsukigahara” and “One Snowy Day,” offer poignant moments but don't fully connect with the main tale. While the artwork is stunning and the themes are touching, the stories feel somewhat incomplete.

Absolutely stunning art. Five stars for that alone. But unfortunately, the story didn't have much of a connection or emotional impact for me. It also felt a bit confusing with the random couple short stories at the beginning that had nothing to do with the main story.

This a hard one to review. The artwork was stunning and Kaori Ozaki is without doubt a talent, however I had a hard time getting into a flow and found the stories to be a little incohesive. I was intrigued for sure but wasn't moved as much as I hoped to be. Still a solid work for manga fans.

Beautiful artwork! I wasn't expecting this to be a collection of short stories. It wasn't as supernatural as I had hoped, but I wasn't disappointed at least!

Okay...this was definitely a weird one. This manga volume features a couple of short stories before you get to the "Mermaid Prince" portion. I don't think any of the stories mesh well with each other. The "Mermaid Prince" story was okay. I was most impressed by the art.

NetGalley thank you for this arc!

So I like a lot of reviewers made the mistake of not realising the first two short stories were not linked to the titular story. I only realised a few pages into the second story, I thought at first it was a time skip of the character from the previous story now working as a librarian. They were all kind of sad “slice of life” stories, the final story didn’t have enough mermaids for my liking (which was honestly the reason I picked up this book in the first place.) All three stories cover hard topics of abandonment, jealousy,loss, grief, endangerment, sa, suicidal ideations. The art style is very beautiful however, I think the first story was probably the hardest read because of the age of the character and the sexual connotations and what I read as on page assault. I really liked the depiction of the mermaid and wish she wasn’t such a fleeting part of the story, but I understand the reason behind it and the ending was bittersweet.
#ad I received this manga as an arc but the opinions are my own.

Before I give my review on this book, I would like to said thank you Netgalley for allow me to read this cute comic/manga book. It was a short about 233 pages and I like it. The end of the story makes me want to know what happens to Matori's mom.

My rate is 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Mermaid Prince is a collection of shorter works by Kaori Ozaki and actually I really liked all of them. I think from the rounder art style someone goes in expecting just whatever slice of life teenage love stories but they're much more serious and at times darker than one would expect judging an art style on its face alone, and I really appreciated that. There's a lot to think about when it comes to each story -- how people grow when they need to split from their friends at a necessary time in their teenage development, how the changing of a family situation means the changing of a self too...

Thank you to Kodansha and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for review!

This book was somewhat confusing and I’m having a hard time putting my finger on what exactly made it that way. There were two stories – supposedly they were linked – but really, were they?
The art style was REALLY good though!

Two tales, neither I expected.

First one about a girl who's life through school changes when her best friend starts dating. She feels jaded, and wronged, and is sexually assaulted (maybe twice?) and learns who she is and what she's capable of. Not sure if this is the author's story herself, as it feels very autobiography. But overall a solid tale.

The second is about a boy who hates where he lives and that his sister is dating a guy he likes but also hates. And when the guy goes missing he goes in search of a mermaid to rescue him. Sounds weird? It is, but somehow touching.

Overall around a 3.5 but I'll bump it to a 4 for the art alone.