ChaO, directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, is a world where humans and merpeople co-exist. Princess ChaO (Anna Yamada), a mermaid, marries a human, Stefan (Oji Suzuka).
Certainly an unusual premise, though quite normal for the Anime genre. But underneath that unusual premise, Aoki makes a film about the immigrant experience, specifically through Princess ChaO.
She is quite literally a fish out of water in her marriage, and Princess ChaO makes a lot of mistakes. But at no point does the film judge her for it; instead, it always understands that she is trying to fit into an environment that she doesn’t understand. Adding to the strange environment is Stefan, who stubbornly believes that Princess ChaO shouldn’t be here and that they shouldn’t mix.
The film is animated by Japanese Studio4°C, but it is set in Beijing. So even the creation of the film itself adds another meta-element to the immigration discussion by requiring the studio to animate a location they aren’t based in. The detail of Beijing is impressive, and you can see the animators worked as hard as Princess ChaO did to understand the new setting.
The animation itself is exaggerated and whimsical. Humans walk in the background with heads bigger than their bodies, which causes an interesting clash with the beautiful Princess ChaO—her lovely blue hair contrasting with both the foreground and the background.
Also ties into how weird this new environment is for Princess ChaO; she probably hasn’t seen a human before until now, so for her, it’s further adding to that sense of just being out of her element.
Eventually, Stefan begins to see the beauty of Princess ChaO. Given how stubborn he is, it is a very convenient plot shift. If filmmakers took out Stefan, actually focusing on Princess ChaO having to deal with being in a new home, then the story would be a lot stronger. I found the element of Princess ChaO trying to find her feet more interesting than wondering “will Stefan actually like her back?”
Yamada, as Princess ChaO, has a sense of sweetness; even when she makes mistakes, you always believe that they are in the best intentions. She showcases a sense of openness to this new world around her.
Opposite her, Suzuka as Stefan comes across as a person who is so unwilling to open himself up because it doesn’t fit his narrative; he plays that very well. Towards the end, when he finally sees Princess ChaO, you almost don’t buy into that change because of his strong, narrow view in the first half.
Once you get past the forced romance, ChaO is not really a love story; instead, an immigrant experience of trying to fit into somewhere new when you constantly feel like you are making mistakes, even though I am not an immigrant myself, I certainly know that feeling of not being able to put the right foot forward when all you want to do is give that good impression.
Review Courtesy of Matthew Allan
Feature Image Credit to Japan Nihon and Studio4°C via Toei Eiga Channel