- Mangaka : Kitaya, Keke
- Publisher : Gessan
- Genre : Comedy, Fantasy, Romance, Shounen
- Published : March 2020 - Ongoing
Utakata no Minato (Minato of the Foam) Introduction (No Spoilers)
Born and raised in a port town, Minato Wadatsumi has an extreme phobia of fish. One day, as he is making his way to the school, he stumbles upon a fish and reluctantly puts it back to the sea. Upon waking, the boy finds himself 3000 meters under the sea! This is a story of a romantic comedy between a boy and mermaids.
Contains Spoilers
Discussion Time
Let’s see. We have cat-girls, dog-girls, fox-girls, lizard-girls, and succubus… sometimes mermaids. Oh, wait. This manga is about mermaids except for the fact that no one told us that they are deep-sea fishes…! Sure, sign us up and let’s get indulge ourselves in a romantic comedy of a Japanese manga style of Little Mermaid but more mermaid waifus. And no, we are not living in a pineapple under the sea, but rather a giant treasure chest! This is not a Japanese animated Spongebob series in the form of manga.
1.Story Development
Let’s start with Minato. He is somewhat normal in terms of seeing things rationally, even though a primo mermaid, basically a queen of mermaids, brings him to a deep-sea level with a bunch of fish waifus. With his phobia toward fish, his first goal is to get out of there, back to the surface and resume his normal life. But before that, he has to choose and kiss one mermaid who will crown them as the next queen of the mermaids.
Even though each mermaid wanted to be the next primo mermaid, they treated everyone with respect, although there are some pranks going on, they are still harmless nevertheless. The reason behind this is because of the concept of true love, where Minato has to kiss a mermaid who reciprocates his love toward them. So far, the manga hasn’t mentioned the consequences of what happens if Minato or the chosen mermaid didn’t comply with that condition, but that is the whole point of story development. So forget the consequences and let’s focus on the development between the characters, that’s where the romance bloom.
2.Aquarium
So you may be wondering “Oh, mermaids. We’re expecting half human and half fish.” Yes, you’re not wrong, but not what you have in mind. Pretty sure the first impressions to most of you readers are just how much time did the mangaka take to research deep-sea fishes and turn them into waifus? Props to Kitaya for their effort to make a large variety of characters and the underwater world for this manga.
Instead of mermaid tails, mermaids have parts of their deep-sea fish features will be part of their human forms, mostly around their heads, and makes every character design unique and exciting in a way we could appreciate the beauty of both arts and learn the bio of individual deep-sea fish.
The mangaka puts a lot of effort into the surroundings, and they are surreal, beautiful and immersive for the readers. Either you imagined yourself to be in an aquarium or swimming underwater and attending underwater school with mermaids. It looks like we’re going to attend school lower than 6-feet underground…
3.Romance Comedy
There are three potential ways we can think of based on where the manga is heading: either Minato chooses a mermaid and kiss her, develop a harem or just being alone by himself. Yes, to return the surface, he has to pick only one mermaid with pure love, and there are many possibilities in the world of manga.
It was interesting to implement a concept of phobia toward fish on Minato, which makes the situation challenging for him to see the mermaids eye to eye. He can at least strike a conversation with them, but not in their fish forms. That puts him on the edge of whether he is capable of falling in love with them even though he is already attracted to Akari Irie, an Atlantic Footballfish, who is assigned by the primo mermaid as his caretaker.
But that doesn’t mean Akari will be his lover. There are plenty of fish in the sea if you catch our drift. The personalities and traits of each mermaid are unique and make them likeable in their way, which creates different ways of helping Minato solving his issues and makes it difficult for Minato to choose a mermaid.
Final Thoughts
Utakata no Minato has an exciting concept to their story with a combination of knowledge of deep-sea fishes, romance, comedy and phobia to fish. The mermaids’ personalities are interesting, and the character development feels almost natural and wholesome of one would perceive toward their fear and live alongside them. The character designs and the background are cute and realistic.
Also, please don’t randomly fall in love with anyone just because of their looks. You have to consider their personalities; they are way more important than looks and treat others with respect and kindness. No one wins when it comes to pranks. If you want to learn more about fishes in the form of entertainment and manga, give this one a go. What is your favourite deep-sea fish? Please leave them in the comment below.
Author: Nobodies17