In this film, one boy finds a fish in the ocean.
Later that fish becomes a mermaid, and they play in the ocean
for a while. The boy then tells the mermaid to come to his town.
The mermaid first shakes her head, but the boy says that he has a
tank for the mermaid to be in, and carries her to his house.
After putting the mermaid into a tank, he tries to show her to his parents. However, his parents were not able to see the mermaid.
The only thing they saw was the fish that the boy found in the ocean
at the beginning of the film. The country couldn't accept the boy's claim because they weren't able to see the mermaid. The boy was then brainwashed in many ways by the people in the country so that he won't be able to see the
mermaid anymore. Discouraged, the boy returns the fish into the
ocean. The boy was able to see the mermaid again, became a mermaid himself,
and swam away from the land with her.
The people in the country was looking into the ocean as they swam away.
Message:
I think Tezuka wanted to emphasize how in modern society, individual's creativity skills are limited because the government have most of the control over what we believe and do in the country. Because children's thoughts are being oppressed, many people are not able to be creative when they become adults and deny other people's feelings when they think that those people's opinion doesn't match with theirs.
Ending:
In the end, the boy becomes a mermaid himself. The people in the government were looking at the ocean, but they didn't seem to be surprised or anything, so I think they weren't able to see the boy as a mermaid. I think the boy kept on standing in the ocean in the eyes of the people watching him. He was able to become creative again after going into the sea in the end. If the film went on for another minute or so, I think the people in watching the boy will drag him out of the ocean again and repeat the same things that they did to brainwash him like they did in the middle of the film. I don't think this film has a happy ending because Tezuka made this film to address the danger of the government in modern society, that we need to change the government to keep being creative.
