©Courtesy of Toei
Princess Chao is not exactly the “Little Mermaid,” at least not the one you might recognize. For one thing, she usually presents herself to the outside world as a giant fish. That is just how merpeople look when they are out of the water—unless they feel sufficiently safe to reveal their true forms to the humans in their company. Princess Chao and Stephan, her reluctant human suitor, have not reached that stage yet. That makes their very-public cross-species courtship decidedly complicated in Yasuhiro Aoki’s anime feature, ChaO, produced by animation house Studio 4ºC, which screened as the opening night selection of this year’s Japan Cuts.
When the film opens, humanity and the merpeople live side-by-side, in harmony. Supposedly, Stephan played an instrumental role bringing the two species together, but the details remain murky. Hoping to score a career-saving interview, a young journalist who just got scooped stows-away aboard the cargo shipped crewed by the reclusive sailor. Much to his own surprise, Stephan opens-up to the struggling reporter, possibly because he sees echoes of his younger self, in his naïve interlocutor.
As his flashback commences, it quite surprises and even baffles Stephan when Princess Chao takes such an ardent interest in him. Yet, she clearly believes they not only knew each other already, but had made pledges of undying love. It confuses the lad, but also offers an opportunity, because his boss, President Sea, the shipbuilding tycoon, desperately needs to reach an understanding with King Neptunus of the merpeople.
At the time, tensions ran high between Neptunus and Pres. Sea, because the latter still constructs vessels with dangerous propeller blades that the mer-king threatens to destroy. Stephan believes his new jet-propulsion engines will be safer for marine life, but the production costs will be higher. Yet, Pres. Sea might accept the greater expense, if Stephan secures stable long-term relations with Neptunus’s merpeople. Of course, the office drone should place little faith in his boss’s promises. Sea unambiguously personifies corporate corruption, so locating his headquarters in a futuristic Shanghai, makes perfect sense (given the Chinese mega-city’s already drastic wealth disparity).
That means Stephan needs to turn on his charm (such as it is) with Chao and deliver a working prototype. Awkwardly, he struggles with romance under the best of circumstances. Yet, Stephan slowly starts to appreciate (and periodically glimpse) her inner beauty, despite all the pressure exerted by the media and Pres. Sea.
©Courtesy of Toei
ChaO presents a radically different conception of mermaids from either version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Yet, fans of both films should still be charmed by Aoki’s anime, which takes obvious inspiration from the same Hans Christian Andersen fable. ChaO has a much more modern sensibility, periodically delivery surprisingly sly and outlandish visual gags from out of left-field. Aoki even pays tribute to anime’s mecha tradition in one energetically chaotic sequence. Yet, the film never strays too far from its central romance.
Indeed, Aoki shows an incredible aptitude for balancing heartfelt sentiment with outrageous mayhem. While ChaO represents Aoki’s feature directorial debut, his credits include many key animator roles on prominent films and franchises, including Evangelion and the recent, under-appreciated The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, so he has paid his dues and collaborated on many successful projects that fans know and love.
Perhaps most importantly, Aoki maintains a consistently high level of fun. Despite the occasionally heavy-handed environmental message, ChaO delivers a steady stream of inventive gags and wild visuals, wrapped up in an eccentric mermaid-human rom-com. Composer Takatsugu Muramatsu penned a spritely upbeat score, while J-Pop star Koda Kumi recorded the relentlessly peppy theme song. When the film shifts gears to jerk a few tears, it does so in ways that are appealingly romantic and cathartic.
Arguably, it is the kind of anime feature that reminds longtime patrons why they embraced the medium. Enormously sweet and satisfying, ChaO will charm fans of anime and mermaids alike when it eventually releases in theaters, from the discerning GKIDS, following its sold-out screening to launch this year’s Japan Cuts.
©Courtesy of Toei
Grade: A-
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Here’s the trailer of the film.