Have you ever seen a manga with a really stupid premise and thought to yourself, "Wow this sounds stupid, imma read it ironically for the lolz." Then, 20 chapters later, you realize, "F***. I'm invested." That's exactly what it feels like reading this manga. As the premise goes, one day, Princess Era of the mermaid kingdom, through some absurd circumstances, goes on land and gets her first taste of fish. What was initially horror soon melted into pure ecstasy as she discovers the wonders of Japanese seafood and the impeccable flavors of her sea friends. With each chapter we have no choice but to bewilderedly watchas Era tries out yet another seafood dish made from the corpses of her former friends. As such, Mermaid Princess is a simple episodic manga, each chapter covering a different type of sea creature and how it could be prepared in a delicious manner. This is really stupid, and it's what makes this manga work. There's just something absurd about watching a mermaid princess performing cannibalism (is it still cannibalism if the food wasn't prepared by Era herself?) that makes you want to keep on going to see what happens.

As we all know, episodic SOL is the supreme form of manga, as it's essentially a way for the author to see how much wacky shit they could get away with. And oh boy, this manga sure is that. Each chapter starts off by introducing our new Victim Of The Week, providing a bit of backstory to it. And the manga goes *hard* on it. Each fish has a super dramatic, at times super emotional, backstory to them, and most of all, the manga takes its marine biology very seriously. Salmon migration? The lobster-octopus-moray food web? Stuff like this are important factors to each fish's story, and often makes for very emotional reads.... before they get fished up and Era eats them. Yeah, it's stupid, but the whiplash is just really funny. In fact, most of the enjoyment of the manga comes from the author just using the setting of the story to create the most absurd humor possible. For example, the undisputed hottest lady in the mermaid kingdom is the queen, who is a Japanese mermaid (Look it up). Your enjoyment of this manga would probably stem from how much enjoyment you could get from surreal stuff not unlike things Asobi Asobase and Iruma-kun.

Besides the manga somehow being able to make you feel for each of the Victim Of The Weeks (Seriously, you know a manga is good when it gets you emotional over the backstory of a herring), it also has a cast of regular characters, like the mermaid Sango or the unlucky businessman Himada. Even as the manga primarily focuses on Era trying out a new fish, we get glimpses at these characters, and more importantly, their character development. We get to witness as they grow as people and move forward in their lives and obtain happiness. Yes, this happens as Era's own story grows darker as she is unable to stray away from her path of insatiable appetite for seafood. This stuff is mad genius.

Overall, this manga is honestly quite enjoyable. The premise is stupid, but the fact that it manages to take such a premise so seriously and tells it so well makes it so uniquely fun. The art is good, the story is stupid and charming, the characters are genuinely likeable. It might not be for everyone, but give it a chance. You would either come out of this craving for seafood, or gain the habit to cringe whenever you order seafood and realize that it could have once been a cute manga sea creature.