After I Transmigrated as a Mermaid, I Transmigrated Back Chapter Completed Discussion

After I Transmigrated as a Mermaid, I Transmigrated Back is a charming tale of a mermaid growing while living with humans in a world that's rapidly becoming more horrific and dangerous due to the mysterious mutations organisms have begun to undergo. It's one of the better shoujo-ai I've come across on NU (yuri is explicit while shoujo-ai is just romance between women), and the couple are adorable. The MC is especially cute when she realizes she's fallen in love. Unfortunately, the FL doesn't have much of a personality, leaving her vulnerable to the MC's whims and seeming to only make choices for plot development and the proof of how strong their love is.

Spoiler

Like in many Chinese romance series, s*x is so exhausting one character is unable to walk afterward, and she's incredibly sore down there. This is usually because aggressive s*x without enough lubricant results in microscopic tears in the... entrance used by a male lover. No toys are mentioned. Just what kind of lesbian s*x are they having??? Does the writer not understand female anatomy?

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The imagery in this series is present but is lacking. After you have a character's image in your mind for over fifty chapters, the author suddenly adds more to it. The FL's hair changes in description every time it's mentioned, even though the series roughly only takes place over a year. It starts out as short before becoming long. Is it growing extra-fast or what? The MC's hair looks like "seaweed" but doesn't specify whether that color is green, orange, red, or brown. I assumed it's green, which is how seaweed is most often represented, but it turns out to be brown. It's also a long time before we get her scale colors, which completely change the MC's color palette.

The MC is a deep sea mermaid who never goes to the deep sea. There are also many characteristics of mermaids that are unexplained or undeveloped. There aren't any weaknesses to go along with these OP traits. Why can a mermaid, who typically has a diet of only sea food, digest grains, which are difficult for humans and require a lot of tolerance? Why can they digest cow's milk when they normally don't ingest any milk at all in their lifetimes? She doesn't have any food intolerances at all. She doesn't have to return to the water frequently either, even though she's described as a "fish." Even lungfish create cocoons of mucous to keep them moist during the dry season before they return to water. If she were described as having a mammalian lower half, this would be more reasonable. Furthermore, as a deep sea creature, she'd have a physical reaction of looking more like a blobfish once pressure from the deep seas was lost. The author creates many settings but doesn't carry them through. It feels as though he or she just wrote the story free-form without worrying about inconsistencies or tying up loose ends.

Speaking of loose ends, there are many questions proposed but unanswered in this series, including the careers of her and her girlfriend, recovery from severe injuries, recovery from demonic god infestations, and so on. People hinted to be villains never return, and their plots remain incomplete. The setting follows a theme of order vs disorder like some dieties in DnD, but there's no explanation as to how or why they exist in this world. Even critical questions about the MC and her girlfriend remain unanswered. The ending feels rushed and uninspired.

Spoiler

Given the MC's mermaid charming abilities, I was looking forward to a beautiful proposal with the MC singing to her girlfriend from the sea side, but that never happened. No wedding or mention of raising children in the future either.

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There are a number of plot holes and gaps in logic as well. How can you diagnose someone with hypoglycemia without even doing a quick prick test? The symptoms of hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia can look very similar. Given the MC's state at the time, she would most likely have high blood sugar and high potassium levels at that moment. She would probably need a lot of fluids to prevent renal failure. Instead, she's immediately diagnosed by this quack of a doctor during a house call when she doesn't even have symptoms of hypoglycemia. This choice was made for plot reasons to keep the truth under cover, but this physician clearly needs to be fired.

Even though the narrator repeatedly explains how the MC isn't strong, there aren't any scenes where she loses fights or proves herself to be weaker than other characters. At most, the narrative says that she struggled to keep up when she first started training but doesn't show her struggles. Although she claims to not be OP, she's clearly OP from the start since the author doesn't present her with any challenges she can't face. The action scenes aren't great either and mostly exist to just show how cool the MC is.

The nationalism randomly appears in the second half and is kind of funny because of how sudden and forced it is. By the end of the series, Spoiler

Huaxia is the best nation in the world due to their policies, and everyone wants to immigrate there. They're also the most powerful and the best at everything, even though they're also one of the nations with the most evil god worshipers. They have the most resources, etc. The description of them at the end is so overdone, it feels sarcastic, and I wonder if the writer was forced to add nationalism to her series in order for it to have permission to be published since it features a same-s*x couple. Even if China becomes OP, there are many reasons why people wouldn't want to move there, including not knowing the language and people with powers being able to have more influence and be treated better in weaker countries. Not to mention, freedom of speech and other laws people may not be comfortable living with.

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I don't know what beef China has with Africa, but, as per usual Spoiler

Africa is horrible place filled with poor tribal people who don't have any technology worshiping evil gods in their ignorance. The MC is implied to enter Africa from the east coast somewhere, but it doesn't mention which countries she in. She happens to be in a fertile area, and that's about all that's revealed. She later travels to the center of Africa and eventually all over the continent. Did the author not know that Africa has modern cities or that some of its countries still have violent conflict and use modern weapons? This is just basic research, right?

It'd be great if the series focused on what she, as a mermaid, could do and dealt with some underwater city upheaval or something as the final plot instead. What's a mermaid doing in the middle of Africa, a relatively hot, dry, and massive continent? Taking a mermaid out of the sea just sounds like a bad battle strategy. The people with power solved many major problems before she showed up, and it makes sense that they can still do so now that she's there. What are the African people doing during all of this anyway? They had plenty of warning to prepare for everything and protect their lands.

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If you're from Africa, you may want to skip the second half. Actually, the writing quality goes downhill in the second half anyway, so you may just be happier stopping early.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this series and had fun with it, even though it has so many plot holes, inconsistencies, and disappointments. That said, it's a series you'll enjoy more if you don't think too hard about it. It's a lighthearted short read that leaves a lot of loose ends hanging.