Director – Masaaki Yuasa, Screenplay – Reiko Yoshida & Masaaki Yuasa, Producers – Junnosuke Ito & Yuka Okayasu, Music – Takatsugu Muramatsu, Production Design – Hiroshi Ono. Production Company – Science Saru.
Kai Ashimoto is a lonely, withdrawn teenager living in the small seaside village of Hinashi Town. Kai is approached by fellow pupils Uho Ebina and Kunio, asking him to be in their band Seirens. They go to practice in secrecy on Okage Rock, which looms over the town and around which there exist legends of vicious mermaids. Kai drop his phone in the water but afterwards the mermaid Lu appears to Kai and returns the phone. Lu proves far from vicious and a friendship grows between the two of them. Kai introduces Lu to the other band members where she joins in with her mermaid song. They find that whenever music is playing it causes Lu to develop legs. The band is asked to play a concert on the beach and smuggle Lu to join them where her dance becomes a viral sensation. However, her discovery also brings out the prejudices and fears the locals have against the mermaids.
Director Masaaki Yuasa first made a splash in Anime with the weird Mindgame (2004), a film that gained much festival acclaim but never much clicked with me. Since then, Yuasa has gone on to make other films such as episodes of the anthology Genius Party (2007) and the full-length films The Night is Short, Walk on Girl (2017), Ride Your Wave (2019) and Inu-oh (2021), as well as anime tv mini-series such as Kaiba (2008), The Tatami Galaxy (2010), Devilman: Crybaby (2018), Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (2020) and Japan Sinks (2020).
There have been assorted films about mermaids from Miranda (1948) and Mr Peabody and the Mermaid (1948) through to Splash! (1984) and more horror oriented takes such as She Creature (2001). (See more detailed a listing under Merpeople). In its story of the relationship between a mermaid girl and a human boy, the one other film that Lu Over the Wall undeniably resembles is Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea (2008).
Lu Over the Wall certainly comes with the goofiest premise of any of these mermaid films – teens form a band where they are joined by a mermaid whose fins turn to legs whenever music is playing. During a live concert, her song causes people to uncontrollably dance on a beach. At the same time, her father rises from the ocean in search of her and takes over a class showing people how to freeze and package fish.
Despite its loopiness, Lu Over the Wall is a film of enormously endearing charms. The relationship between Kai and mermaid girl is delightful. Masaaki Yuasa evokes a genteel magic – of Lu reaching up to the lights of passing trains, creating blocks of water to carry people through the air, of she and Kai on a set of swings up above the town. The design of the town is beautifully laid out – it has the feel of a real place. One of the most scene-stealing aspects is a bunch of puppies that Lu frees from a pound and bites to turn them into mer-creatures, which the subtitles appealingly refer to as ‘woof-maids.’
It is all conducted with sweet and charming affectation and the undeniable oddball sense of humour that comes through in some anime. It eventually reaches the epic and transcendental apotheosis loved of anime with big scenes where the merpeople save the town from flooding, where long held prejudices are challenged and the girl and the boy sadly part ways.
Trailer here