The little boy who has a great imagination helps a fish. The fish became a mermaid, and they spent a nice time together. He took the mermaid home, and told his parents about her, but because the country he lived was a place where imagination is prohibited, no one believed him. He got arrested of having such a ridiculous imagination, and was punished until his image of a mermaid starts to fade away.
Evaluation
Through this short film, I think Tezuka Osamu wanted to tell us that imagination is the greatest ability for a human being. Through the experience of war, I think Tezuka Osamu was shocked of the controlled society where people don’t admit free imagination. I did some research about Tezuka Osamu, and found out that he had a similar experience as the little boy in the film when the war had started. Until the war, he drew many cartoons and had fun with his classmates. When the war started, he was hit by a teacher at his school for drawing such a thing. At first, I think he couldn’t understand why he had to be punished. After years of training and working for the country, he was dragged into an air raid, and barely escaped death. From this experience, he quitted working in the factory and started drawing cartoons at his house. I think this whole experience is related to the story “Mermaid”. In the controlled society, the little boy gets punished, but he never stopped dreaming about the mermaid. At the end of the film, he chose not to throw away his imagination and live with the mermaid, which was just like Tezuka Osamu who never stopped drawing cartoons in the time of war.
At first, I couldn’t catch the theme Tezuka Osamu wanted to tell us. Even now, I’m not sure I got the point right. I guess Tezuka Osamu wanted to warn us about the danger of losing individuality and live with great imagination by including his own experiences.
