A boy sat on the beach lonely met a mermaid. He took the mermaid to his house, then he showed it to his parent, but his parents couldn’t see what he wanted to show. The mermaid was his imagination. Imagination is prohibited in his country, so he was brought to the government's experimental facility and tortured not to think about imaginary things. One day, he ran away from the facility and went his home. He couldn't see the mermaid anymore. then he went to the beach where he met the mermaid first. When he released the fish, the mermaid showed up. He was glad to reunite.
I think Osamu Tezuka expressed the
importance of diversity in this animation. He wanted Japanese people to have
own strong personality. During the war, there are regulation on speech. People
are taught to have same idea to unite strongly. The legacy of war still existed
in 1964. He thought this situation was terrible, then he worried about future
of Japan and made this animation.
The boy became normal the
government think by being tortured and he couldn’t imagine the mermaid. It was
painful for him, but he could imagine it when he released the fish to the sea.
Finally, he dived into the sea with mermaid. I think he committed suicide.
Osamu Tezuka send a message to us. Don’t mind the differences with others.
Develop your personality. Don’t be general. These messages still have strong
impact on our society now.
