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Mermaid Media

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This index is for works that focus on merfolk, aquatic sirens and fish people. A work just having a mermaid does not qualify. The mermaid must be one of the main characters, the main threat, or otherwise central to the plot. Such works will invariably include one or more Mer Tropes, and there's a strong chance of at least some inspiration being taken from The Little Mermaid or one of its many adaptations.

Also see the related indexes Dragon Works, Elf Works, Fairy Fiction, Genie Works, Goblin Works, Leprechaun Fiction, and Unicorn Works.

Works:

    open/close all folders 

    Multimedia Franchises 

    Anime & Manga 

    Art 

    Comic Books 

    Comic Strips 
  • Safe Havens: Remora, one of the main characters, is a mermaid, though after an event at the end of the Mars trip storyline, she's permanently become half-octopus instead of half-fish, and can travel on land without taking human form. Her son is also a merman who can transform at will, and her husband, although human, can also take merman form.

    Eastern European Animation 

    Fairy Tales 

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • And Then I Turned Into a Mermaid A series of children's drama books focusing on Molly Seabrook a young girl who discovers she's half mermaid and has to navigate the difficulties of secrets, school, friendships, and a crazy family.
  • Aquamarine: Centers around a mermaid named Aquamarine who is stranded in a swimming pool after a storm.
  • Bad Mermaids
  • Chlorine
  • "Dagon": Centers on a Sea Monster and the Fish People who worship it.
  • The Deep (2019) is about a society of merfolk descended from pregnant women thrown off of slave ships.
  • Deep Trouble: Much of the plot revolves around the protagonists befriending a mermaid and trying to protect her from scientists who want exploit her.
  • Dream Girl: The main character is a mermaid named Aine, who seduces rapists and murderers by sneaking into their rooms at night and hypnotically singing to them. Then, she "accidentally" bumps into them on the street and causes them to fall in love with her and her "quirky" ways. Finally, she kills them and drinks their blood.
  • Emily Windsnap: This series of children's fantasy novels follows the adventures of thirteen-year-old Emily Windsnap after she discovers she is half-mermaid.
  • "The Figurehead": One of the two main characters is a mermaid who's the daughter of Davy Jones.
  • Fins: A young adult novel series about a teen girl named Lily Sanderson who discovers she's a half-mermaid princess.
    • Forgive My Fins: The first book, in which Lily first finds out she's both half-merfolk and royalty.
    • Fins Are Forever: The second book, in which Lily has to keep her human-hating cousin Dosinia (a new exile from the mer kingdom of Thalassinia) in line.
    • Just For Fins: The third and last book, in which Lily has to both help her childhood friend Tellin's kingdom against oceanic climate change and face an ancient mer law that could separate her from her new human boyfriend Quince.
  • Forbidden Sea: A girl, living on Windwaithe Island, tries to protect her sister from a mermaid that is living in the surrounding waters.
  • Fortune's Fool, the third book in the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, features a mermaid protagonist named Katya. She and her sisters are the daughters of the Sea King, but they have siren ancestry to give them legs instead of tails (which neatly averts the Mermaid Problem). Only Katya and her father are comfortable on land, however.
  • Fred The Mermaid by MaryJanice Davidson.
  • "Gills", a short story by David J. Schow, features Fish Person Manphibian.
  • The Innsmouth Legacy: Centers on the Deep Ones, a fishlike Human Subspecies.
  • Into the Drowning Deep: Mermaids are featured as a unique species of predatory amphibians with eel-like tails, bioluminescent hair, the ability to perfectly mimic any sound they hear, and sexual dimorphism similar to anglerfish.
  • Island of the Aunts: A family of merfolk are among the major characters.
  • The Juniper Sawfeather trilogy
  • The Last Mermaid by Brendan Connell
  • Lies Beneath, by Anne Greenwood Brown, centers around a merman named Calder White and the rest of his murderous, man-eating family.
    • Deep Betrayal: A sequel to the above that still revolves around Calder and his mermaid family.
  • Lilly and Fin: A Mermaid's Tale by Cornelia Funke.
  • Lost Voices by Sarah Porter: The main characters are basically humans turned into mermaids. They are given magical voices like the sirens, which they use to lure humans to their deaths. These mermaids/sirens are all formerly human girls who were abused or neglected, and they take vengeance on humanity for the mistreatment in their previous lives by sinking ships and drowning people.
  • Magic By The Lake by Edgar Eagar: The children go on an adventure with a mermaid who "sings down a ship." Martha chastises her for luring men to their deaths.
  • Mele The Mermaid by Justin Alexander Cecil.
  • The Mer: A young woman about to embark on her "perfect" post-college life faces an unexpected and fatal twist during a beach vacation. She is offered a choice between death as a human or immortality as one of the mysterious Mer. The Mer are a race of mermaid-like creatures that are all former humans. Choosing the name Val for herself, she soon finds herself embroiled in a mystery and a love-triangle.
  • Mermaid (2011) by Carolyn Turgeon.
  • The Mermaid
  • The Mermaid Chronicles
  • The Mermaid in the Millpond
  • Mermaid Moon
  • The Mermaid of Black Conch
  • The Mermaids (2001) trilogy.
  • The Mermaid's Daughter
  • The Mermaids Madness, the second novel in The Princess Series.
  • The Mermaid's Mirror by L.K. Madigan.
  • Mermaids of Eriana Kwai by Tiana Warner.
  • The Mermaid's Sister
  • Mermaid's Song by Alida Van Gores.
  • The Mermaid Summer by Mollie Hunter.
  • The Mermaid Variations by Rhys Hughes: A series of connected stories about the adventures of a mermaid in a wide variety of locations.
  • The Merman's Children by Poul Anderson.
  • The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre: Yves and Marie-Josèphe de la Croix are siblings and natural scientists who capture and bring a mermaid to the court of Louis XIV.
  • National Geographic on Assignment: Mermaids of the Old West
  • Not Quite a Mermaid
  • Oona
  • Our Bloody Pearl
  • Princesses on the Broken Sea, the eighth story in the Princesses of the Pizza Parlor series, features both Sally Slickskin (who has an octopoid lower body) and the Isurri shark-men.
  • The Real Mermaids series by Hélène Boudreau.
  • "Salt Wine," a short story written by Peter S. Beagle, is about a merman who rewards a sailor who rescued him by giving him the recipe for salt wine. It makes the sailor rich, but then it turns out a small number of those who drink it become transformed into mer-creatures themselves.
  • The Sea Fairies by L. Frank Baum: A novel about merfolk.
  • The Sea Lady: The titular sea lady is an evil mermaid trying to acclimate to human society.
  • The Search for Delicious by Natalie Zane Babbitt: A mermaid child named Ardis helps a boy save his kingdom.
  • The Secret of Moon Lake by Gloria Tesch (as "Sofia Nova").
  • "The Shadow Over Innsmouth": Centers on the Deep Ones, a species of Fish People, and their Half-Human Hybrid kin.
  • Siren Novels by Tricia Rayburn.
  • Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli: A siren falls in love with a shipwrecked sailor, but is unsure if he loves her or her magical singing.
  • Skin of the Sea
  • The Storm Swimmer has the sea people, a subspecies that diverged from humanity many thousands of years ago. Among other adaptations, they can hold their breaths for superhuman lengths of time, and their legs are shaped so that they can swim faster than humans but can't walk on land.
  • Strawberry Moon
  • Syren, the fifth book in the Septimus Heap series, has the eponymous syren described as a mermaid, and she uses her song for malicious purposes.
  • The Syrena Legacy
  • Tempest (2011)
  • The Thora series is about a ten-year-old half-mermaid girl.
  • To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christio: A loose adaptation of The Little Mermaid where the mermaid is a siren and the prince a siren hunter.
  • Underneath - A Merfolk Tale
  • Undertow Trilogy: Centers on a species of violent aquatic humanoids.
  • Undine: An 1811 German fairytale novella about a water spirit who marries a human knight in order to gain an immortal soul.
  • The Vazula Chronicles
  • Village of the Mermaids
  • Voyage of the Basset: Mermaids play a key role by using their hauntingly beautiful voices to get their pet sea serpent to save ships from crashing on rocks.
  • In The Water-Babies, abused and neglected children are transformed after death into tiny people who have both lungs and gills and can live in rivers or the ocean.
  • The Waterfire Saga: Revolves around six mermaids' quest to destroy Abbadon, the beast that sank Atlantis. Most of the heroines are from oceanic kingdoms, but a few are from inland rivers like the Amazon or the Mississippi.
  • Watersong: Lexi, Penn, and Thea, the three main villains, are mermaid-like sirens.
  • Wet Magic by E. Nesbit: Four children hear that a mermaid has been captured by a circus and rescue her. Their reward is to visit the hidden kingdom of the mermaids.
  • "When Water Sang Fire", one of the short stories from The Language of Thorns, is about a mermaid with magic singing powers who gets caught in the political games of the mermaids' royal family.

    Live-Action TV 

    Music 
  • Courtship of the Mermaid by Ninja Sex Party.
  • Madonna's music video Cherish features a trio of mermen leaping out of the waves as the singer frolics on the beach, as well as a young mer-child who becomes a human at the end of the song. The song is later used in her live performance of Blond Ambition Tour, where three of her backup dancers emerge from beneath the stage dressed as mermen.
  • "FT Nesli - Mermaid" (2008) by Turkish singer Neslihan Evruz from the album Mermaid.
  • Jarrod and the Mermaids, a recently-formed high school band from New Zealand.
  • "The Keeper of the Eddystone Light," a song by American folk music quartet The Weavers, is about the singer's father falling in love with, marrying, and having children with a mermaid. One of said kids is the singer himself.
  • sasakure.UK's "Little Cry of the Abyss''.
  • "Mermaid" (2011) by Japanese group Aldious. The PV had one of the girls of the band dress as a mermaid.
  • Mermaid (2001): An album released by Danish bubblegum singer Ni-Ni (a.k.a. Nynne Qvortup), which includes the song "A Mermaid's Tale."
  • "Mermaid" (2012) by American pop rock band Train from their album California 37.
  • The Regina Spektor song "Mermaid."
  • Shel Silverstein's Bawdy Song "The Mermaid."
  • "Mermaid" (2007) by the Japanese pop group SMAP.
  • "Mermaid Motel" (2010) by Lana Del Rey.
  • "Mermaid Sashimi" by Mexican singer Juan Son.
  • The music video for the 2018 song "Only You" by Cheat Codes ft. Little Mix features an LGBT narrative with a mermaid and a lonely girl.
  • "Turn Loose the Mermaids" (2011) by Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish from their album Imaginaerum.
  • Russian band Otava Yo's video for their song "What Songs" shows a young man who, while travelling by bus, frequently sees a girl whose beauty drives him mad with a need to get nearer to her. He is thwarted at every turn by people and things that block him, until at the end of the song he pursues her by night into a dark forest. Coming to a lake at the first light of day, he hears a splash and sees the floral garland she was wearing floating on the water. Then a hand rises out of the lake and pulls the garland underwater, and the realization sets in - she wasn't fully human, but a rusalka, a freshwater mermaid from Russian folklore.

    Myths and Religion 

    Pinball 
  • Barracora: The eponymous character is an alien mermaid with predatory fish coming out of her hair.
  • Fathom: The villains are deadly, evil mermaids.
  • Seawitch prominently features several mermaids watching the titular sea witches do battle.

    Tabletop Games 

    Theatre 

    Toys 

    Video Games 
  • Aquaria: The heroine is a combination of Apparently Human Merfolk and Fish People.
  • At Night in a Party: The Whisper of the Sea: The titular Whisper of the Sea came from a magical, redheaded mermaid named Rittie, as she was was trapped deep inside the shipwreck. If you take the time to pick her up, she triples Karin's Oxygen Meter and insures that the player receives the Golden Ending by preventing her from drowning when she successfully escapes the sunken ship.
  • Coral Island
  • Insaniquarium: A mermaid named Meryl appears as the hostess of the game. She also appears as a pet, and her ability is that she sings, which makes the guppies drop more money.
  • Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls: One of the members of the Sea Spiders pirate crew is a mermaid, and the Player Character is a part-mermaid Heinz Hybrid.
  • The Little Mermaid
    • Ariel The Little Mermaid
    • The Little Mermaid II: Pinball Frenzy
    • The Little Mermaid: Magic in Two Kingdoms
    • Disney's The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure
    • Ariel's Musical Surprise
    • The Little Mermaid: Undersea Treasures
  • Lone Siren: The titular siren of this free exploration game is actually a mermaid.
  • Mermaid Swamp: Heavily inspired by mermaids of Japanese folklore (ningyo); it takes place in a swamp believed to be cursed by a mermaid's ghost. It is revealed that the 'mermaid' wasn't a real mermaid, though mermaids still feature prominently in the game's story.
  • Ningyo no Rakuin (lit. Mark of the Mermaid) have the players exploring the mermaid myth in a mysterious island, only to find themselves knee-deep in Lovecraftian horror.
  • Perfect World: With the Rising Tide expansion introducing a playable race of Merfolk called the Tideborn.
  • Princess Peach: Showtime!: Mermaid Peach is one of the forms Peach can take, and she can command fish by singing.
  • Shinkai Densetsu Meremanoid: The player takes the role of a mermaid trying to find the secrets of her race.
  • The Sims
  • Splatoon: The Inklings and Octolings are anthropomorphic cephalopods who can switch between human and aquatic forms at will. Various other aquatic species are represented by NPCs, such as Spyke the sea urchin and Sheldon the horseshoe crab. Later entries introduces literal fish people (at least outside of the background in-universe bands) in the form of the Salmonids, aggressive mutant salmon who are the main antagonists of the "Salmon Run" mode.

    Visual Novels 

    Web Animation 
  • The Lovers (2023): A sapphic, romantic thriller between a human seafood chef and a mermaid.

    Webcomics 
  • Bailin and Li Yun is about a researcher and an Arctic mermaid who're trying to find their places in the world, with some Interspecies Romance splashed about.
  • Bubbly Parfait
  • Castle Swimmer: The main character was created to fulfill the prophecies of every mer kingdom in the sea by the enigmatic God of the Surface.
  • Kaiten Mutenmaru: One of the main characters in Season 2 is the princess of the mermaids.
  • The Little Trashmaid: The main character Tidy is a mermaid and it focuses on how she interacts with the widespread pollution of the ocean.
  • Pearls of Mer is about a mermaid who gains legs when on dry land.
  • Selkie: Title character Selkie is a Sarnothi, an amphibious, cold-blooded humanoid.
  • Siren's Lament: Main character Lyra is transformed into a mermaid by the kiss of a merman who saves her from drowning.
  • The Sweetness Of Salt: A sapphic love tale between a human witch and a mermaid.

    Web Original 
  • Looming Gaia: Alaine, one of the Freelance Good Guys, is a human who was turned into a mermaid. Other merfolk also appear, such as sirene and cecaelia.
  • Mermaid Miracles
  • Three Little Fish and a Bird: The "three little fish" in the title are a trio of merman brothers.
  • Xanadu (Storyverse): Several stories focus on a group of people turned into Mermaids (and the occasional Merman) as a result of the eponymous event. One POV character, a girl named Hannah, was turned into a Vulcan-Mermaid hybrid as a result of switching between costumes when the event occurred.

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 

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