mermaid

setting: far away from our country, in the 1960s

conflict: a boy vs. authoritarian society, censorship, majority of this society

climax: the boy escaped from the prison.

symbol: sea symbolizes life and the starting point to everything
              the beginning of this film is a scene of sea, that's also starting points
              mermaid symbolizes an imagination, and in this movie, it symbolizes the boy's thought
           
irony: where did the boy's parents go? were they captured too?

theme: "the dignity of life", and "the thought will not die"
            the boy was dead at the last scene, because mermaid was just an imagination, and the people looking at boy seemed rather sad than surprise. he wanna keep his thought(imagination) in his mind even if he died. maintaining his thought was his dignity, so he decided to go back to the sea. he was  really a minority of this society. even his thought was against the censorship.
"the dignity of life" is a Tezuka's unchanging theme through every his works. In the 1960's, there was a rapid economic growth. with that, many things were changed. this movie is about misgivings for the freedom or thought. this movie was probably the warning to the society.