One day, a boy finds a fish in the ocean. He imagines the fish as a mermaid and dreams to have a good time swimming with her. After that, he takes her to his home. However he tries showing her to his parents, they only can see the fish.
In this world, free imagination is prohibited strictly by the government. He is imprisoned and tortured so that he would forget her. After going back his home, what he saw in the water tank was just the fish.
Giving up to see her again, he releases the fish to the ocean. At that moment, the mermaid appears. In the end, he becomes a mermaid and disappears in the ocean swimming with her.
The world in this story is exactly like what was in the WW, when it was made. I think the ending is a symbol of the ideal world which Osamu Tezuka desired. Through this story, I think that he protested against the government and tried reminding people of their rights to express freely.
I suppose that people who could not see the mermaid will keep on ignoring their wants. The boy will become like them, never to remember of her. Maybe, everything about this story is what happened in the real world in these days.
