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Original Japanese title: Ningyo no Kizu
While traveling to another part of Japan to take up work, Yuta and Mana meet a boy, Masato, who is finally going to be reunited with his mother at the same town the two lovers are headed. But his mother is mentally unbalanced, obsessed with a scar on her body, and one night attacks Masato. While Mana takes the boy away to safety, Yuta confronts the mother and discovers a secret that makes him realize too late that it is actually he and Mana, and not Masato, whose lives are in danger.
Mermaid's Scar is by far the most poignant of the series, as the depth of the feelings that Yuta and Mana hold for each other comes fully into play, and even the normally stoic and harsh Mana cannot contain her feelings when she realizes Yuta has survived a brutal attack. (The cover of issue 4 is a beautiful testimony to this.) Their love is a bitter counterpoint to a heartless child who long ago lost his innocence and no longer allows himself to care for anything other than his own survival.
Domestic printings:
- Mermaid's Scar, issue #1 (published 1994 by Viz Select Comics, 28 pages)
- Mermaid's Scar, issue #2 (1994, 30 pages)
- Mermaid's Scar, issue #3 (1994, 26 pages)
- Mermaid's Scar, issue #4 (1994, 30 pages)
- Mermaid's Scar graphic novel, with four complete stories
- Published 1995 by Viz
- ISBN: 1-56931-083-1; 304 pages
- Contains "Dream's End," "Mermaid's Promise," "Mermaid's Scar," and "The Ash Princess"
- Mermaid Saga vol. 3 graphic novel
- Published October 2004 in the original right-to-left format by Viz
- ISBN: 1-59116-483-4; 170 pages
- Contains "Mermaid's Scar" and "The Ash Princess"
Japanese printings:
- Shounen Sunday
- Ningyo no Kizu wide version: Collection of four complete Mermaid saga stories in a special anthology.
- Published 1993 by Shogakukan. 310 pages.
- ISBN: 4-09-121855-5
- Contains "Yume no Owari," "Yakusoku no Ashita," "Ningyo no Kizu," and "Sharihime"
- Shonen Sunday Comics Special, "Ningyo no Kizu": Reprinted collection of three complete Mermaid saga stories.
- Published 12/15/03 by Shogakukan. 237 pages.
- ISBN:4-09-127742-X
- Contains "Yume no Owari," "Yakusoku no Ashita," and "Ningyo no Kizu"
Other printings:
- Mermaid Saga vol. 4 German edition
- Published 2002 by Egmont. about 172 pages.
- ISBN: 3-89885-326-8
- Contains "Mermaid's Scar" and "Prinzessin aus der Asche" (The Ash Princess)
- Ren Yu Zhi Shang (Mermaid's Scar) (Ren Yu Xi Lie vol. 2) graphic novel
- Published 10/1/2005. 240 pages.
- ISBN: 7-5371-0214-7
- Contains "Dream's End," "Mermaid's Promise," and "Mermaid's Scar"
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