Review: The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is a bloody take on The Little Mermaid

I don't have a lot of history with The Witcher. Originally a series of short stories and novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, the franchise catapulted into new echelons of fame with the video game adaptations, and then a live-action Netflix series. I've played through the third game in the franchise, which is considered a generation-defining title, and which I enjoyed pretty well. I started watching the show on a plane once, but fell asleep before getting through the first episode (no fault of the show; I was just tired).

So I came into the new anime feature, Sirens of the Deep, with a little footing, but certainly not firm. That proved to be no problem, as this movie does a nice job at making itself accessible to newcomers (while presumably offering more for diehard fans). You quickly come to understand that Geralt, the eponymous Witcher, is a monster hunter for hire -- golden-eyed, stoic, very skilled at what he does, and guided by a moral code that prevents him from killing needlessly. He's accompanied by a bard, Jaskier, who I guess makes his living by singing songsI of Geralt's heroic achievements. They're an odd couple -- Geralt's supreme seriousness and Jaskier's frequent silliness don't at all match -- but they clearly care for each other, and work well together in their way. (Weird thing, though: why does Geralt ride a horse while Jaskier walks? That cannot be an efficient way to travel a massive fantasy world.)

Sirens of the Deep finds this pair coming to a seaside town where there are mounting tensions between the human population and the merfolk of the sea. Geralt is hired to hunt down a monster that is framed as a threat to the local oyster hunters, but he discovers that they just don't want the beast eating their quarry. So begins a tale that involves unraveling the various lies and political machinations of the sea and the land.

One of the core threads in this story is a tale as old as time: the human prince is in love with the mermaid princess. Across their scenes together, it's a bit unclear how much they're able to communicate. It seems like he can understand mer-speak, but I'm not sure if she understands English? At one point, another character helps translate. But ultimately, it seems like the physical connection might be at the forefront of the romance, and who can blame them? They're both very hot (for their species), and who doesn't love a forbidden love that transgresses society's expectations?

Their parents, obviously. The human king is particularly concerned with finding a suitable (read: human) princess for his son to marry. Meanwhile, his bastard son serves as his military advisor, and would presumably be more dutiful to heeding his father's wishes than his fish-fucking half-brother. But that isn't to be.

If this story sounds a bit familiar in some of its beats, well...I was a little taken aback by how much this mirrors The Little Mermaid, particularly when it comes to the mermaid princess's evil, magical aunt who sings a song while making her a potion that can turn her into a human. No, I'm not kidding. After so many moments and scenes felt like familiar echoes of the classic fairy tale, even more came. At some point, you just have to laugh. Classics are classics for a reason, so why not borrow from them?

And hey, the thing is, this movie does what it does very well. Sure, the sense of familiarity may drown some of the thrills that you might want from watching an anime fantasy adventure, but I was never bored, always entertained. And there are a few ways this story zigs when I thought it would zag that served to subvert expectations and enrich the themes of love, duty, and fate intersecting and complicating each other. If you're not going to be very original, at least make sure you're copying well.

At first, I was a bit underwhelmed by the film's animation. It isn't always as fluid as I would like, but after a bit, I started warming up to it. I really like the character designs, especially the denizens of the sea, which include the merfolk, fish warriors, and larger beasts. And the actions scenes are well-articulated and pretty exciting, especially when Geralt downs one of his potions that grants him extra strength/creepy black eyes.

I enjoyed hopping into this adventure of Geralt's enough that I think I'll check out the previous animated film, Nightmare of the Wolf (I'm wondering if some of the callbacks in this one to Geralt's romantic interest Yennefer were specifically pointing to that film). It's nice to be able to dip my toes in without the time commitment of reading a book, playing through a game (I put 60 hours into The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and only scratched the surface), or a season of TV. As long as they keep making these, I'll be happy to check them out.