In the Name of the Mermaid Princess started out as a simple manga about prejudice and discrimination but stands out with its lovely cast.
In a world with humans, fairies and half humans, Mio is the princess of a "human supremacist" kingdom. What the people can't know, however, is that Mio is half-mermaid so she is forced to stay in her room, while she's given drugs to suppress her mermaid form until she can finally marry a prince she's been writing letters to since forever. This and that happens and she ends up fleeing and going on a big adventure full of drama, action, friends and foes.
What starts out as a simple metaphor for racism, homophobia and more, quickly proves itself to be way more complicated than that and transforms into a story about traditions, past grudges and suffering. "In the name of the Mermaid princess" is not just about saying that humans and half-humans shouldn't hate each other, it bleeds way deeper by going into how that hate came about and how it stays alive. For 7 entertaining volumes, Mio meets all kinds of people and shares every emotion possible with them, learning to control her powers as a mermaid but also to learn about her responsibilities as a princess and her moral obligations as a living being. The most important part, however, comes towards the last volume because that is when Mio finally sees why humans fear the "others" and has to make difficult decisions that will have an effect on the entire world.
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