The esential story is 1. Legend says if you eat a mermaid's flesh, you will be immortal. 2. A long time ago, the main character unknowingly ate mermaid flesh and he cannot die. 3. The main character wants to find a mermaid to tell him how to reverse the effects so he can live like a normal person, grow old, and die.

In the first story, we learn that in order to keep themselves young, mermaids must eat a person who has become immortal by eating a mermaid's flesh. The catch is: mermaid flesh is poison to most people and turns them into monsters. The mermaids can't have their 'fountain of youth' off of the monsters.

Immortal Guy saves Immortal Girl from vicious mermaids. From there, the main character's quest keeps getting thwarted by all kinds of people who are also looking to become immortalized by mermaid flesh, or people who already are immortal from same. For a supposedly legendary occurance, I have to say-- there are tons of people who know all about it!

The battle scenes are all right and they get really bloody. I'm sure it's because the immortals just heal and get up off the ground again. Unfortunately, a lot of the characters look too much alike to me. The story is not anything 'new' or different. If Takahashi exhibits her tried-and-true formula in later volumes, you can expect a love triangle on the horizon. Although this series was written before Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha, I've read the latter two and this story just came off as incredibly stale. ( )