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The story
A thread on 5ch’s “Morning Coffee” board about the currently-running Chiikawa movie is picking up steam. According to posts, the film is the top earner of the year at the box office and ranks 12th all-time, with every theater selling out almost instantly on days when bonus merchandise is handed out. Meanwhile, the “bitter aftertaste” of the story itself has become the main topic, with commenters split over who the real “villain” is: the islander who killed a mermaid to save his lover, or the siren who indiscriminately devours the islanders. The discussion also branched out into opinions on the music and comparisons to the Greek myth of the Odyssey.
What people said
The voices felt a little off at first.
But the scene where Shima Jiro goes off had me cracking up.
Come on!
Chiikawa and friends team up with the culprit to drive Siren-chan off.
But Siren-chan figures out who the culprit is — and so does Chiikawa.
Chiikawa takes the secret to the grave.
The culprits leave the island and flee to a deserted island.
It ends with Siren-chan's crew already having found them out, closing in on the deserted island.
It's a gut-punch of a story — innocent islanders get devoured because of what the culprits did, and yet the culprits just try to save their own skins.
Nah, that's not the kind of bitter aftertaste I mean.
Spoiler warning, but
it's the final scene where the siren is still chasing them that leaves the bad taste.
lol that's a pretty shallow take
Why's that?
They get eaten, serves them right.
Managed to catch a screening on a day they were handing out a booklet instead of merch.
Watching it over and over at 2000 yen a pop just for the merch is straight-up insane.
The islanders' song has this mysterious, addictive melody.
The siren's singing voice is great too.
The campfire scene has such a vivid sense of presence.
The "Today We Say Goodbye" chorus (a well-known Japanese farewell song) feels like it washes your soul clean.
The siren's the bad one.
she still goes and eats islanders indiscriminately.
Spoiler warning, but
at first the siren is just playing around
and unknowingly sinks an islander's boat, nearly killing one half of a couple.
The islander kills a mermaid to get its flesh and save his lover's life.
So the siren was the one in the wrong first.
He was out fishing or whatever in the first place, that's on him.
Chiikawa-type creatures don't really have genders, so
I'm not sure "couple" is really the right way to put it.
It's to protect his lover,
so it can't be helped.
The real problem is he didn't finish off the siren when he had the chance.
It was great.
I watched the Odyssey, it was amazing.
Also lol, sirens show up in the Odyssey too.
I want that.
Clip it on your bag and you'd be the popular one.
Self-reply, self-reply.
It's the top box office earner this year.
Ranks 12th all-time too.
It's popular with the "Wolf" board aunties too.
That's there to make clear he killed the mermaid to save his lover's life, not to gain eternal life for himself, right?
Nah, you're the only one who needed that explanation.
You've got a real talent for psychopathy.
The siren's the psychopath here.
The islander's just desperately trying to protect his lover.
It does.
It's to save his lover's life.
If killing the siren gang responsible brings his lover back, he's got no choice but to do it.
the mermaid itself isn't immortal, huh.
Should've cut off a piece and fed it to her before finishing her off.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Chiikawa has always paired an adorably cute art style with brutal fates and senseless violence lurking underneath, and this movie’s story is an extension of that signature style. What split the thread was whether to call the siren “the villain” — since she sank the islander’s boat first, putting his lover’s life at risk — or the islander who retaliated by killing a mermaid. Both sides have some justification for their actions, which makes the question hard to settle definitively. It’s also worth noting that the claim the film ranks “12th all-time at the box office” comes from a poster within the thread and hasn’t been confirmed by any official tally. The constantly shifting sense of who’s really in the right is what’s driving the split in reactions.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “I went to see the Chiikawa movie but it left such a bad aftertaste.”
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