A Sinner of the Deep Sea Volume 3 Review

Jo is a mermaid who has been branded a sinner by her people; she risked her own life to help her friend Ryuu reunite with a human named Yuki, only for Jo to fall in love with Yuki too, and for all of them to be captured. Jo is in jail, whilst Yuki and Ryuu are being held by Lord Harujion who plans to use them to take back the seas and eventually, human civilisation. But with the help of Akira, a border guard who has doubts about Harujion, can they free their friends and stop his evil plans?

A Sinner of the Deep Sea, a unique retelling of The Little Mermaid tale, comes to its conclusion in this volume, and whilst I don’t think it ever reaches the same highs at the first volume, I also ended up enjoying it a bit more than Volume 2, despite these chapters suffering from some of the same issues. Maybe it’s because I’ve become used to the tonal and pacing change-up, but I also think that having Jo being more active in this book, rather than being constantly on the run and messing up in Volume 2 helps matters too.

Volume 3 picks up where the second left off, with Jo now jailed with Akira standing guard…until she decides to break Jo out. Akira’s change of heart across this series is well done. We see her very narrow-minded ways challenged across the books, and when she disagrees with Lord Harujion’s grand plan and chooses to side with Jo despite the risks results in a good arc for her. She’s also intelligent and has connections that Jo doesn’t have, like a sister who works directly in the palace, with Akira’s friends all being part of the sea guard and help turn the tide in the final chapter, so she bounces off the other established characters well.

The problem with the main conflict is that, like the previous volume, a lot of the stakes and the plot pieces that end up playing a part in the enemy’s downfall, are only introduced in THIS volume. Lord Harujion’s special plans for Yuki and Ryuu are sinister but also just come out of nowhere, and the big reveal of the previous ruler being held captive this whole time, and being a massive part of the mermaids’ history is also info-dumped in this book. It’s a shame as a lot of these plot elements could have been introduced in the first volume. I loved the atmospheric and slow pace of the first volume, but if the mangaka wasn’t going to be able to keep that up, I would rather have had trimmed that and had a chapter to introduce the politics and history of this mermaid world properly, so that when this big threat and reveal came up, it wasn’t so out of left-field (or water in this case).

As for our heroine, Jo’s temper and proactive nature also make her a fun protagonist in this volume, although her hot-headedness does get her in trouble more often than not. She’s also very brave and willing to help her friends to the depths of the sea, and it’s her compassion and courage that end up winning the day. She gets a few hair and costume changes in this book too, including where she needs to dress up as a guard to sneak into the palace, which is a nice change of pace. You can see why Ryuu (her best friend) loves and trusts her, and why the human Yuki fell for her, even though I’m still not sold on his and Jo’s romance as a whole.

The art continues to be stellar and even though we don’t get as many awe-inspiring images as in the previous volumes, the panels are still gorgeous. The more action-filled chapters in this book are well paced and telegraphed, and the full monstrous form of a certain character is very detailed too. I also like the cover; the first volume’s cover depicts very dark, deep waters: Volume 2 is lighter blue, showing shallower seas, and now all the characters are on land, welcoming the orange sun. It’s a nice way to ‘show don’t tell’ how the characters have grown across the series.

Caleb Cook is again responsible for the translation which is easy to read and there’s a small translation note at the end, which is appreciated. There are also notes on the named sea mammals across the book, which is also nice to have.

I can’t say that the series ever truly recovers from its quality dip in Volume 2, but I can say that Volume 3 is a satisfying read that concludes the story well enough and visually, it’s one of the best looking manga you could purchase from your bookshop right now. If you like mermaid tales, and don’t mind the choppy waters that the story can take you into, it’s worth at least one read through.

Our review copy was supplied by Yen Press.