Mermaid trilogy: Because life is short, we want to live more wonderfully.

"Do you know the mermaid this creature? It is said that it looks like a fairy, sings like a lark, eats its meat and can live forever. "

This is Rumiko Takahashi's description and setting of the mermaid in the Mermaid series, which explores the complexity and darkness of human nature with the theme of eternal life.

It's hard to imagine that this is a work painted by Rumiko Takahashi in his twenties, especially Lucky Boy, which is light and humorous. Mermaid series is like the other extreme, because its cruelty and reality, as well as the depth to be expressed, make people feel inexpressibly gloomy and sad.

Therefore, this is a story that looks like "seeking longevity" but actually "seeking death". People who eat fish and people, in the long river of time, only the body is eternal, but the soul is exhausted.

Mermaid series began in September with the supplement number "Mermaid Stop Laughing" of Weekly Youth Sunday. 1984. Because it is serialized irregularly, the time line is relatively long, and it is not counted until the last side of Weekly Youth Sunday, No.49, 1994.

In ten years, Rumiko Takahashi has delivered nine wonderful and meaningful novels, namely, The Mermaid Stop Laughing, In the Fighting Fish, The Mermaid's Forest, The End of Dreams, The Agreed Tomorrow, The Mermaid's Wound, Sariki, The Witch's Eyes and The Last Face. Although each chapter is independent, because of the relationship between the male master and the mermaid legend, they are all linked together.

So before I talk about this work, I want to briefly talk about the origin of this series of tragedies: The Mermaid.

There are all kinds of mysterious and beautiful legends about mermaids all over the world, but the mermaids in the east and the west are not the same. The earliest legend of mermaid in the world is recorded in China's Classic of Mountains and Seas, which reads: "When I am away from my ear, I leave it hanging as an ornament, that is, I am in Zhu Yahai; Engraving, revealing his face, painting the body is a scale, that is, Jiao Ren also. " Although the shape is different from that of the present mermaid, it has opened the prelude to the mysterious legend, especially in the Tang and Song Dynasties, the image of mermaid has been consistent with the present world.

It was from this period that Japan was deeply influenced by China culture, so their mermaid legends also inherited some characteristics of China legends: for example, if you eat mermaid, you can live forever, which may be one of the reasons why the Japanese still like to go fishing and eat dolphins and other marine mammals.

Based on this legendary background, Rumiko Takahashi began to create this work. With "immortality" and "death" as the keynote of the story, she began a journey to explore what life is.

The story begins with Yongtai eating mermaid fish and gaining eternal life. He lived alone in this world for 500 years in order to find a way to become an ordinary person. He dare not stay in one place for too long, nor dare he approach anyone. He is afraid that moving the true feelings will bring more pain and disaster to the other party. It was not until he met a real fish, ate human fish and lived forever that he found that his black and white life was finally as colorful as a rainbow.

And what about real fish? She is a human who was kidnapped and raised by a mermaid. Humans covet the longevity of mermaids, so are mermaids? Although they have eternal life, their faces will age. Therefore, in order to stay young forever, they must eat people who have eaten mermaids within a certain period of time, so that their faces will become eaten human beings.

It's like a cycle, the two kill each other, but each takes what he needs.

Fortunately, the real fish met Yongtai and escaped the fate of being raised and slaughtered. Then two lonely and immortal people helped each other into this eternal torrent of time.

This is why at the end of the mermaid forest, this conversation between two people will be particularly warm and moving in this cruel world:

"What if I disappear?"

"I will come to you."

"What if you still can't find it?"

"Keep looking. I will keep looking for you! Keep looking! Keep looking! Find a lifetime! "

"I know, I know, thank you!"

But in addition to "mermaid fish" can make people live forever, Gao Qiao has brought other functions of mermaid to the extreme in other chapters:

For example, the "mermaid blood" in "Mermaid Forest" is much weaker than mermaid fish. Although people's appearance can be kept unchanged, the internal organs of the body will gradually age until they die completely. What is even more frightening is that mermaid blood will change some organs of the body and become like monsters.

Then there is the "mermaid ashes" in The Agreed Tomorrow, which has the ability to bring people back to life (but only a living body), but sadly, after resurrection, it just becomes a walking corpse without soul, and once it loses its efficacy, it will become a corpse;

Finally, there is the "human fish gall" in Sariki, which is much more effective than the above two, because it can cooperate with the resurrection to completely resurrect the bones that have been dead for a long time into real people, but the memory of past lives has disappeared, and at the same time, it is necessary to rely on eating gall to maintain the operation of life, otherwise it will become a pile of bones.

But even so, human beings are eager to find mermaids and live forever, because desire has been human nature since ancient times.

They are obsessed with it, fall for it, willingly, and have no regrets.

But can eternal life really make people feel happy?

When a person has infinite life, he has lost the right to love and be loved. Because he broke away from the time limit of ordinary people, death became out of reach, so he couldn't be with the person he loved, and he could only watch him (her) grow old until he died. But that sincere feeling is forever engraved in his mind, and then it stings his heart that may have been paralyzed in countless lonely nights like a needle tip.

One year, ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years. ...

The taste of despair is not so much happiness as torture.

Just like the real person said: if a fairy like us casually moves his true feelings towards others, how can we bear this kind of pain in the future?

So I think eternal life is not necessarily a kind of happiness, but an endless curse, which makes people bear the shackles of time and suffer from loneliness!

Because only after experiencing the shortness of life, do we want to live a more exciting life; Only when you know that life will come to an end will you know how to cherish the people and things around you.

This is also my biggest feeling after watching the mermaid series recently.

I won't introduce the story here. After all, it's a short story. Talking too much will lose the fun of reading, so let's talk about this set of physical books reprinted by 18.

The names of the three entity books are all selected from the names of three short stories: Mermaid's Forest, Mermaid's Wound and Hag's Eyes.

The shell of "Mermaid Series" is made of woven paper, which is a special decorative paper. Because of the uneven surface, it feels very special and comfortable, just like touching linen. This is a small surprise for this set of books.

In printing, there is always a vague feeling that Rumiko Takahashi's cartoons have turned black, as if they were distorted. It is not clear whether it is the source of the picture or the printing problem. Because there is no Japanese version, it is impossible to compare. The specific problems are shown in the following figure:

The actual effect is not too obvious, and friends who have this set of books may understand what I mean.

Everything else is ok, and there is nothing worth saying. Let's put some price difference charts:

Finally, let me nag, the busy work has finally passed, and I can happily buy it at buy buy.

The end.