My Bride is a Mermaid OVA

瀬戸の花嫁 OVA (Seto no Hanayome OVA)

7.8(29,431)

MAL Score

Ranked #1183

Popularity #3426

Comedy
Romance
Supernatural
Organized Crime
Parody
School

Episodes: 2
Duration: 29 min per ep
Aired: Nov 3, 2008 to Jan 5, 2009
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

*My Bride is a Mermaid OVA* presents a set of standalone short episodes featuring familiar faces from the main story, along with two newcomers. Now in their third year of school, San and Luna find their fathers’ overprotective streaks as strong as ever.

Meanwhile, Nagasumi stays busy trying to keep the chaos around him in check—often while rushing in to save damsels in distress—keeping the comedy, romance, and supernatural antics rolling.

Otaku Consensus

The OVA lands best as a distilled victory lap: Seiji Kishi’s comic timing and Makoto Uezu’s gag-first scripting preserve the TV series’ rapid parody rhythm, with the school/yakuza/mermaid collision working better as short-form escalation than as sustained plotting. Critics and fans consistently praise the chaotic humor, anime-archetype takedowns, and character voices, while the recurring criticism is that the franchise’s plotting and character depth thin out whenever the jokes stop firing.

Why You Should Watch

Choose this OVA if you want Seto no Hanayome’s loudest instincts without the commitment of another full season: rapid-fire parody, school absurdity, idol rivalry, supernatural rules treated like mob law, and romantic panic played at maximum volume. It is especially suited to viewers who like the gag density of Excel Saga or the high-strung school-comedy momentum of School Rumble, but want something more tightly tied to one returning cast. The two-episode format helps the material: weak long-form plotting was a common complaint about the TV series, but here the sketch-like structure turns that limitation into a feature. Watch it after the main series, not as an entry point, because most of the pleasure comes from seeing familiar personalities weaponized in compact comic scenarios.

Key Characters

L
Lunar Edomae(VA: Sakura Nogawa)
Lunar turns idol-showmanship and underworld pride into a rivalry machine, and Sakura Nogawa’s dual role as her voice actor and the OVA’s opening theme performer makes her presence feel especially central.
N
Nagasumi Michishio(VA: Daichuu Mizushima)
Nagasumi remains the franchise’s ideal panic reactor: a male lead whose appeal comes less from coolness than from surviving everyone else’s genre-breaking nonsense.
S
Sun Seto(VA: Haruko Momoi)
Sun is the emotional straight line inside the chaos, balancing earnest romance, school-comedy sincerity, and the franchise’s yakuza-mermaid code of honor.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
The OVA is only two episodes, released from November 3, 2008 to January 5, 2009, so it functions as a compact post-series comedy package rather than a new serialized arc.
2
AIC and Gonzo are both credited as studios, giving the OVA the same production identity associated with the TV anime’s divisive reputation: praised for manic comedy, criticized by some reviewers for not sustaining its premise over longer stretches.
3
Director Seiji Kishi and writer Makoto Uezu are the key creative pairing here, a fitting setup for material that depends on timing, punchline escalation, and parody rhythm more than plot mechanics.
4
The sound side is unusually well-defined in the credits: Satoki Iida serves as sound director, Yasuharu Takanashi handles music, and Sakura Nogawa performs the opening theme while also voicing Lunar Edomae.
5
AniList’s tag distribution captures the OVA’s exact flavor: Parody, School, Mermaid, Yakuza, Heterosexual, and Male Protagonist all sit at 79%, while Idol and Amnesia register as lower-frequency 20% elements rather than the main draw.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The OVA has a 7.8/10 MAL score from 29,418 votes, placing it at rank #1181 with popularity at #3421; AniList lists it at 75/100 with 54 favourites.
Fun fact 2: Tahiko Kimura is credited as the original creator, while Makoto Uezu is credited for both series composition and script, making the OVA especially writer-driven on paper.
Fun fact 3: Kazuaki Morita handled character design and Maho Takahashi served as art director, preserving the visual identity of the cast for a short-form release where recognizability matters immediately.
Fun fact 4: Yoshimichi Kameda appears in the credits for key animation, a notable name for animation-focused viewers scanning staff lists beyond the director and studio.
Fun fact 5: External reviews of the broader My Bride is a Mermaid anime repeatedly single out its parody of common anime archetypes and chaotic comedy, while the harshest criticism targets predictability and limited character growth in the later material.