The Merman Trapped in My Lake Volume 1 Review
The Noxirel family are known for one thing: eventually they all go insane. But the once-grand family has now just a few members, with the current heir, Servaine Noxirel, having grown up hearing stories of her great-aunt keeping a merman in a lake. Servaine doesn’t really believe the story, but she’s named after her great-aunt and is determined to win back the abandoned manor that once belonged to their family. But when she gets to the manor, only one strange man lives there, and he’s the very merman she thought didn’t exist! But is the merman, named Mel, out for revenge against the family who kept him prisoner? Or is he really taken with the woman who looks like his former captor?
This manhwa is an adaptation of a novel by Chi pa Rang, which hasn’t been translated into English. The Merman Trapped in My Lake manhwa is currently on hiatus, as of September 2025, with hopes to continue soon but this is the first official print and covers the first 13 chapters.
The manhwa opens a bit awkwardly in the same vein that new game/movie trailers are often edited to have a quick five-second mini-version before the main trailer. In the first chapter we’re introduced to the current heir, Servaine, and hastily go through her first trip to the mansion to meet Mel. However, it then suddenly rewinds and a large chunk of the book is taken up by the entire backstory of past Servaine, the great-aunt who trapped a merman, and the ordeal they went through before the family was left in ruins. Then the very last chapter is the first chapter told once again, but longer and in more detail. It threw me off a bit, I’m not going to lie, because I didn’t realise that the whole backstory of the first Servaine and her merman was going to be delivered in one block (normally these mysterious backstories are told in smaller chunks, as part of flashbacks, as a way to tease the reader as to what the ‘truth’ really is) but once I realised that we were in it for the long run, I settled into the series a bit more. And I think the way it’s told is to make the story easier to read.
The backstory unfolds over the first eleven chapters, so it takes it time to tell the whole tale, and see the build-up of the relationship between Great-Aunt Servaine and Mel, the merman. Even though the series is down as a ‘romance’ there’s not a lot of it in this backstory, but it’s intentional. Servaine is a sickly child, who is always trapped in her room. She is treated poorly by her father and he doesn’t let her leave her room or have her own autonomy. So when she’s gifted a merman inside a large tank that stays in her room, Mel becomes an outlet for Servaine’s loneliness and pain. Her mental state is sadly exacerbated by Mel himself, as the voice of the merfolk can enchant humans, which brings Servaine’s and her maid’s negative traits to the surface. It’s an interesting unravelling of toxic co-dependency, that evolves as the pair end up spending more and more time together, only to end in tragedy.
As a result, we don’t learn a lot about present-day Servaine from this volume; she seems capable and very keen to win the titles of her family back, but whether she’s just like her great-aunt, or something else entirely, we’ll have to see. The same goes for Mel; he doesn’t speak much in the backstory (for obvious reasons) and we don’t learn too much about the mythology of mermaids, so it’ll be interesting to discover in future volumes how much the events of the past have affected him and the full extent of his abilities too.
The volume is in full colour and is undoubtedly gorgeous. Art by R.PPOBI is full of life, shading and depth, from the stunning underwater details and shine for the main merman, to the madness behind the eyes of the people he enchants. There’s a lot of lovely detail and the manhwa is printed on good quality paper to showcase the art.
As the manhwa is on Webtoon, they are credited as the translator, and overall it’s an easy read. There are a few wonkily delivered lines, but most of the time, the story flows well. Volume 2 is due out from Ize Press in June.
The Merman Trapped in My Lake is an interesting romance that deals with toxic relationship dynamics, depression and other dark themes that I look forward to seeing unfold in future volumes. If you can get past the awkward first chapter and the weird pacing issues, this volume is a promising start to a new series.
Our review copy was supplied by Ize Press.
