PLOT: In a world where humans and merpeople exist, Princess Chao gets engaged to human engineer Stephan. What will become of their romance?
REVIEW: If you’re tired of Western rom-coms following the same tired formula, Yasuhiro Aoki’s ChaO is about to send shocks to your heart with an unconventional love story that combines fantasy with folklore for a fish-out-of-water story that’s both beautiful and strange. If you asked me to describe ChaO, it looks like someone’s sketchbook come to life. A million living, breathing ideas leaping off the page, synthesizing into a magical world where humans and mer-people coexist. The art is vibrant, exploding with color, aquatic in its movement, and busy in a way that keeps your eyes darting from one gorgeous scene to the next.
ChaO tells the story of Stephan (Ouji Suzuka), a ship-building engineer, who, after an altercation with the Merman ruler King Neptunus (Kenta Miyake), finds himself married to a Poisiden-like emperor’s daughter, Princess ChaO (Anna Yamada), who rescued Stephan from one of the sovereign’s tidal wave attacks. Their union quickly becomes a hot topic, as their marriage will supposedly welcome a new era of diplomatic relations between fish and humankind. However, one reporter, Juno (Shunsei Ota), will uncover the truth behind Stephan and ChaO’s fated union, which could change the way you think about interspecies relationships.
At its heart, ChaO is an amnesiac’s story about overcoming bias, celebrating someone’s faults as much as their victories, and never letting the color of someone’s skin (or, in this case, scales) get in the way of making a meaningful connection. Even before Stephan and ChaO tie the knot, Stephan is a mess. He’s erratic, judgmental, impatient, and confused as to why everything’s moving so fast. When he looks at ChaO, he mostly sees a giant fish. It’s only when ChaO interacts with water that we see her humanoid form, a stunning young woman with sharp teeth, globules of watery blue hair, a slender frame, gills on her neck, and an irridescent tail that tapers into fins where her legs would be. All we can do is trust ChaO, who says she loves Stephan, based on a promise he made but can’t remember making. Together, they’re going to make people believe in love between two different species while also working toward a way to change ocean travel.
What sort of changes, you ask? Propellors. Simply put, the screw-blade propellers used by humans are dangerous. Too many fish (and humans) have lost their lives to the suction of the rounded, spinning swords. Somebody must do something. Thankfully, Stephan and the company he works for are working diligently on a new project that will mitigate underwater accidents and make ocean travel safe for fish and humans alike. Now that you know what’s at stake, we can move on.
If you’re hoping for a “lazy river” anime that bobs along at a leisurely pace, grip the handles of your fluorescent inner tube and hold on. ChaO moves at a lightning-fast speed, with Stephan and ChaO’s heightened emotions adding an urgency to every scene and newlywed squabble. At the start of their marriage, Stephan struggles to connect with ChaO, viewing her efforts to adapt to his world as another embarrassment or mess he’s responsible for cleaning up. He doesn’t get it. He fails to see the lengths ChaO’s willing to go to make him happy. He can’t remember the promise he made, and why. Something has stolen his memories.
While it’s easy to get lost in most anime that moves at a breakneck pace, ChaO does an outstanding job of keeping things organized despite the visual and emotional chaos. Aoki lets audiences feel Stephan’s heightened emotional state through whip pans, rapid edits, and slow motion, culminating in freeze-frames that punctuate pratfalls and emotional damage. Aoki’s direction is as unique as the film itself, inviting you never to look away from a world that seamlessly blends busy city life with the majesty of an underwater kingdom.
My favorite thing about ChaO, aside from the film’s Tekkonkinkreet-esque art style and imaginative approach to interspecies relationships, is what it teaches audiences about love and patience. Relationships take time to develop, and the ups and downs are a roller coaster of emotion, with our hearts squeezing the lap restraint for dear life as we adjust to surprises and unexpected twists and turns. Stephan is a victim of trauma. His brain (and his heart) won’t let him remember much about the past. Why does ChaO, this mysterious mermaid princess, feel so foreign, yet so familiar? Don’t worry, the movie will tell you, and when the pieces start to fit, the revelation is satisfying and sweet.
I adore the progression of Stephan and ChaO’s relationship. According to lore, a fish only shows their true form to a human once they feel comfortable enough to do so. It takes ChaO a long time to remain in her humanoid form for Stephan, and for good reason. In my estimation, Stephan isn’t worthy of ChaO’s water nymph form. Not yet. He refuses to see the forest for the trees while allowing the past to dictate his future. Until he comes to grips with what came before, he’ll never live in the now. ChaO can show him a way forward. She’s trying. But Stephan is so self-absorbed and narrow-minded that he refuses to see the fairytale unfolding before his eyes. The couple’s evolution toward genuine love and affection is remarkable, even when it’s told through a manic presentation of sight and sound that goes off like fireworks.
ChaO moved me. As soon as the film was over, I raced to my bedroom where my wife was snuggled up with our cat, reading a book. I tackled her, told her I love her, and just stared into her shining blue eyes until she told me I was freaking her out a bit. ChaO is a reminder that true love often exists in the strangest corners of our lives, and judging a book by its cover could rob you of one of the greatest love stories you’ll ever be fortunate enough to experience. Don’t be afraid to go against the grain if your heart tells you you’re doing the right thing. Cast judgment aside. At the end of what is usually a difficult day, love will soothe you.