Every now and then while watching NagiAsu, something in the show pops out to me as “hey, I think someone took this motif from The Little Mermaid.” It’s as if you boil down that fairy tale based on proto-tropes, or better put, plot ideas, and redeploy them differently. If you think of the stereotypical fairytale as the story of a mermaid who falls in love with a prince on land, and trades her voices to the witch in order to gain a chance to live on land and make him fall in love with her, lest melt into the sea as foam… I think NagiAsu is pretty much Onegai Little Mermaid in a fairly literal sense.
That being said, I’m really enjoying this series, and can’t wait for its finale in another 12 hours!
I’m just hoping the Okada-ness of all of this will not be overpowering. I’m ready to be surprised; it’s like after the nth plot twist of Samurai Flamenco, you kind of just give it up in a way that still makes you care, but you no longer try to head things off. Kind of like Dr. Strangelove and bombs. It’s quite the treat to have two shows like that in the same season.
April 3rd, 2014 at 1:02 pm
And then we have two Mari Okada shows next season at the same time. Looking forward to that.