“Merman in My Tub” Is a Charmingly Weird Comfort Watch

Asahi Production

You’d think that after a certain amount of time, one would become desensitized to the special brand of weirdness that only anime can provide. Yet it seems like every year, the creative folks in Japan always find new ways to make us go, “What the heck?” Then again, given how long the medium has been around, there has been plenty of time to get good at it.

Case in point: Merman in My Tub (Orenchi no Furo Jijō), Asahi Productions’ fantasy slice-of-life comedy based on the manga of the same name by Itokichi. I was very surprised to learn that this show was 10 years old, released in late 2014—the art style is so crisp and pretty that one might think that it had been made with modern animation techniques.

Our main man is Tatsumi, a working high school student who discovers what he at first believes is an injured blond man on the side of a river and rescues him, only to discover that his new guest is actually a merman named Wakasa. After Tatsumi allows him to take up residence in his bathtub, his life gets significantly wilder with the presence of not just the merman himself, but more and more of his aquatic friends who show up to join the party. As far as premises for modern fantasy shows go, surprisingly few feature merfolk or aquatic creatures in general, and Merman in My Tub stands out because of that. But that’s not the only thing it has going for it.

The biggest point of praise that I have is for Tatsumi himself. When it’s all too common for anime protagonists to be hotheaded, easily annoyed, or even physically violent, it’s incredibly refreshing to see a main character to be so calm and rational in the face of adversity. Even in the rare instances when the other characters are making his life more difficult, Tatsumi never raises his voice or says anything mean. Instead, he actively works with the mermen to figure out a rational solution to whatever dilemma they are facing that episode. It shows that he genuinely cares about Wakasa and his friends and wants to maintain their friendship for as long as possible.

Another thing I found nice about Merman in My Tub is that all 13 episodes are just little vignettes that don’t overstay their welcome. I was able to marathon the entire first season in a single day, but it did leave me wanting more. The original manga ran from 2011 to 2020, so there is no shortage of material that the animators could have tapped into to keep the series going, including more characters that should have been given time to shine.

For all of this praise I’m giving the show, there is one thing that keeps it from being perfect in my eyes: the inclusion of the problematic “overly attached little sister” trope. While Kasumi only appears in two episodes, the fact that she’s so hellbent on taking a bath with Tatsumi to the point that she considers Wakasa a rival for his attention is vomit-inducing to me. It added an unnecessarily uncomfortable aspect to an otherwise perfectly wholesome and fun show, and it made me grateful that Kasumi didn’t end up being a major player in the overall narrative.

If you can look past that, however, Merman in My Tub is a lighthearted brand of weird that is more than worthy of your time. I’ll think about coming back to it whenever I am in need of some visual comfort food.

Merman in My Tub is streaming on Crunchyroll.