Toei animated film, THE LITTLE MERMAID (Anderusen dōwa ningyo hime). 1975.
Aaaaaaa I’ve never seen half of these production sketches before!! :O
This was the first version of the Little Mermaid I remember seeing as a little kid (tho technically I think I saw the Disney Little Mermaid in theaters before watching the Toei Little Mermaid on vhs, but it’s the memory of watching the Toei version first that sticks in my mind.) It’s still my favorite adaptation!
I saw this once on TV when I was very young (it may still have been the 1970s) and I mostly remember being very distressed that she turned to bubbles at the end. I have not seen again it in the intervening 40 years.
I was obsessed with this as a kid because it was one of the first things I’d seen made ‘for kids’ that was just deeply sad.
I bought it on DVD a few years ago and so now I can watch the Japanese release too. I still really love it.
