Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou: Ningyo no Mori
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Episodes (13)
- 1EP 1
Fifteen-year-old Mana escapes a village of mermaid women with immortal Yuta after learning her fate.
Oct 5, 2003In a Setouchi mountain village, fifteen-year-old Mana lives shackled in bed, cared for by Baba. The residents are identical old and young women who are mermaids in human form. Yuta, a five-hundred-year-old immortal human who gained his age by eating mermaid flesh, arrives seeking a mermaid. The village selects a woman to become a mermaid again through a sacrificial ocean ritual. Baba feeds this flesh to Mana to grant her immortality and rejuvenate the elders. Yuta discovers the plot and rescues Mana. During their escape, the pursuing women are flooded by sea water and revert to mermaids. Baba, an immortal human, remains with them. Yuta and Mana depart, with Yuta noting that immortality has merits despite his desire to become mortal.
- 2EP 2
Yuta recalls his past with Rin and the conflict involving Isago on Toba island.
Oct 12, 2003Yuta remembers meeting Rin, daughter of the Toba island pirate chief, after washing ashore following a storm. Rin had raided ships to secure medicine for her sick father, sparing crews. Yuta revealed he survived a mermaid hunting expedition for Isago, wife of the rival Sakagami Island chief. Isago, who hired Yuta, discovered Yuta was immortal and sought mermaid flesh to cure her husband. She traveled to Toba and stabbed Rin's father to force Yuta to reveal the secret. Enraged by this attack, Rin killed Isago in retaliation. This event marks a significant point in Yuta's history with the Toba islanders, where he had previously lived and worked among them before the violent confrontation triggered by Isago's desperation.
- 3EP 3
Yuta and Rin return to Sakagami to rescue Rin from the immortal Isago and the poisoned islanders.
Oct 19, 2003Yuta recalls capturing a mermaid with Rin to save her father, but Sakagami islanders killed them and took Rin. Rin discovers Isago is immortal and pregnant for three years, needing mermaid flesh to give birth. Yuta revives to rescue Rin while the chief and his men consume the flesh. Many islanders are poisoned and become Deformed Ones. Isago reveals she is a mermaid and leaps from a cliff, transforming and swimming away with two smaller forms. Yuta and Rin believe she acted in desperation. Meanwhile, Rin's father recovers in Toba without eating the flesh. In the present, Mana asks Yuta about the extent of the ocean.
- 4EP 4
Mana's death leads Yuta to uncover Doctor Shiina's dark secrets in Mermaid's Forest.
Oct 26, 2003After Mana is struck by a truck, Doctor Shiina claims she survived but secretly takes her body to Sawa’s home in Mermaid’s Forest. Shiina intends to transplant Mana’s arm onto Towa, who has a deformed limb, but Mana revives during the procedure. Yuta discovers the deception and follows Shiina to the house, where he is attacked by a Deformed dog and imprisoned in the basement. Towa plans to kill Mana to transplant her head onto the body. Sawa frees Yuta, revealing she and Towa are identical twins. Sawa gave Towa mermaid blood medicine to cure a terminal illness, which granted immortality but caused physical deformities. Their father concealed Towa’s condition by claiming she had died and keeping her locked away until his death.
- 5EP 5
Towa forces Sawa to consume mermaid flesh before her death and orders the tomb burned
Nov 2, 2003Sawa brings Towa to the mermaid’s tomb to save Mana, while Yuta warns that consuming mermaid flesh causes total transformation into a Deformed One. Towa insists immortality is preferable and attempts to force Sawa to eat the flesh, revealing that Sawa once desired immortality but feared the risk, instead experimenting on Towa. This resulted in Towa’s deformed hand and eternal youth, while Sawa lived a normal life with a family. Towa seeks revenge by forcing Sawa to become an immortal monster, but Sawa dies of a heart attack, thwarting her plans. Towa commands the group to burn the tomb, the house, and herself. Shiina later admits he once asked Towa to elope, but she refused to stay and seek vengeance against her sister. Finally, Mana promises Yuta she would eternally search for him if they were separated.
- 6EP 6
Yuta and Mana encounter a mysterious bandaged man after falling off a cliff.
Nov 9, 2003Yuta and Mana fall from a cliff while chasing a butterfly and both die. A heavily bandaged man, known as Big Eyes, carries Mana to his cave. An old hunter finds Yuta, who revives during burial rites. Big Eyes reveals that forty years ago, he ate mermaid flesh in a fishing village, blacked out, and woke to find everyone dead. He has lived alone in the mountains since. Yuta and the hunter locate Big Eyes, who flees with Mana into the cave. There, Mana discovers skeletons of villagers Big Eyes consumed. Big Eyes admits he still blacks out. The hunter shoots him, causing Big Eyes to go berserk and flee. Yuta catches and kills Big Eyes. Later, Mana reflects on the variety of Deformed Ones, mermaids, and Yutas.
- 7EP 7
Yuta recalls Natsume, an immortal girl resurrected with mermaid liver, who dies after the monk removes her organ.
Nov 16, 2003During a fishing trip with Mana, Yuta remembers the year 1600 when he was 120 years old. He recalls Natsume, an apparently 12-year-old immortal girl working with an old man named Pa who sells fake mermaid flesh. An itinerant monk attacks Natsume, severing her left arm, which Pa reattaches. The monk later reveals he resurrected Natsume using mermaid liver to serve Pa, but decides to end her life because she requires fresh liver to survive. Pa escapes with Natsume, and Yuta offers to take her in. However, the monk attacks Natsume and removes the mermaid liver. Upon seeing this, Pa picks her up and jumps off a cliff. Yuta finds Natsume alive at the bottom, but she dies in his arms and turns back into bones.
- 8EP 8
Yuta and Mana encounter a boy named Nanao who reveals a dark family secret involving his mother.
Nov 30, 2003Yuta and Mana meet Nanao, a 10-year-old boy with a cinerary box who escaped a kidnapping arranged by his grandmother. After healing his wounds, they take him home, where a photograph reveals his mother is not the woman he calls Mother. Nanao's mother opens the box to find the skin of a scarred woman's face. The next day, Mana and Nanao see his mother enter a cellar, but a bandaged woman from the photo emerges. Mana finds surgical tools and the mother's skin inside. Yuta follows the kidnapper, who meets the bandaged woman; she pushes him off a cliff after he overhears them call each other Nanao and Mother. Nanao explains that 25 years ago, his mother ate mermaid flesh, stopping her aging. Eight years ago, she kidnapped his son, also named Nanao.
- 9EP 9
Mana escapes a scarred woman who replaces her face with Nanao's mother's visage after consuming mermaid flesh.
Dec 7, 2003Mana finds Nanao's mother's face in a basement cinerary box and is attacked by a scarred woman, escaping with an axe wound. The attacker removes her own face, attaches the one from the box, and appears as Nanao's mother. Yuta deduces she consumed mermaid flesh, noting the scarred face remains inside the box. The woman reveals that twenty-five years ago, she attempted to feed mermaid flesh to her son Nanao to halt his aging after he left for his father's care. When his grandmother intervened, she abducted Nanao's son and raised him as her own, using a dead woman's face to conceal her own scarred appearance caused by the flesh's poison. She attempts to force Nanao to eat the flesh, but Yuta intervenes. Defeated, she departs, and a woman's body is later discovered in a burned storehouse.
- 10EP 10
Yuta and Mana investigate the Kogure family grave and encounter Nae's tragic past.
Dec 14, 2003Yuta brings Mana to the Kogure family grave, where he recalls Nae from 60 years prior. Mana saves a girl chased by a man with dogs, but she kills the man, leading to her death at the hands of Mana's associates. Yuta searches for Mana and meets Sokichi, who reveals Nae was believed to have abandoned her fiancé Eijiro. Mana revives and finds Nae confined by Eijiro, who keeps her eternally young but ignorant of her past. Yuta is captured by Eijiro’s men and learns Nae used mermaid ashes from a travelling nun to create the Red Valley. After waking, Yuta shares an alternative legend about the nun’s vengeance. Nae escapes with Mana, prompting Eijiro to order their recapture and Yuta’s execution.
- 11EP 11
Sokichi and Yuta flee to Red Valley where Nae dies after revealing Eijiro's past murder and revival plot.
Dec 21, 2003Sokichi assists Yuta in escaping to the Red Valley, where Yuta recalls a stone signal arranged with Nae for their departure day. Yuta denies creating the signal, suspecting another party. Eijiro and his subordinates intercept the girls, stabbing Nae with a cane sword. Eijiro confesses to setting the signal to test Nae's loyalty, then killing her in a jealous rage when she attempted to leave with Yuta. He explains that after decades of searching, he finally located mermaid ashes to revive Nae's pristine corpse in the Red Valley. Mortally wounded, Nae staggers into the valley, remembering her death there. Yuta and Sokichi evade Eijiro's men, and Yuta embraces Nae as she recalls the past and dies. As they depart, Yuta questions Mana about jealousy, prompting a cheeky response regarding dessert.
- 12EP 12
Yuta and Mana encounter Masato, whose mother returns from death after a boat accident.
May 19, 2004Yuta and Mana meet Masato, who travels from Tokyo to live with his mother. Two years later, Masato stabs her, but she revives the next morning. Yuta learns of a mysterious body and Masato’s mother’s return from a boat accident. The mother demands mermaid flesh, prompting Yuta to save Masato. Masato gives flesh to housekeeper Yukie, turning her into a Deformed that attacks them. Yuta kills the monster, realizing it is Yukie. Mana escapes with Masato to his hideout. Masato’s mother reveals she received mermaid flesh from an immortal Masato after a Pacific War bombing raid, making her his captive. She fled but was found after the boat accident news, then dies from Deformed wounds. In the hideout, Masato tases Mana and prepares to kill Yuta.
- 13EP 13
Masato's Ancient Past and the Aftermath of the House Fire
May 19, 2004Masato informs Mana he intends to kill Yuta, then traps Yuta with piano wire. He reveals his 800-year age, explaining he used mermaid flesh to create long-lived mothers who eventually died. Mana frees herself to save Yuta, but Masato shoots her while attempting to behead Yuta. Mana warns Masato she will kill him if he shoots Yuta, but collapses. Masato burns the house, yet Mana awakens to drag Yuta’s body from the flames. Masato crashes his mother’s car, resolving to find a new companion after reviving. Yuta later revives and finds Mana crying, who claims she wept out of happiness.
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Frequently asked questions
- How many episodes does Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou: Ningyo no Mori have?
- Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou: Ningyo no Mori has 13 episodes.
- When did Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou: Ningyo no Mori come out?
- Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou: Ningyo no Mori came out in 2003.
- Which studio made Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou: Ningyo no Mori?
- Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou: Ningyo no Mori was produced by TMS Entertainment.
- Who directed Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou: Ningyo no Mori?
- Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou: Ningyo no Mori was directed by Masaharu Okuwaki.
- Is Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou: Ningyo no Mori finished?
- Current status of Takahashi Rumiko Gekijou: Ningyo no Mori: Finished.