Umisho

Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho is a manga series written and illustrated by Mitsuru Hattori, which has been serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine from issue 33 of 2005 to issue 21-22 of 2008. It has been adapted into an anime TV series, directed by Koichiro Sotome and written by Mamiko Ikeda, which premiered in Japan on numerous television stations from July 2007, and a video game.

PLOT:
Within the Kanagawa prefecture lies the seaside city of Umineko. There, Okiura Kaname, 2nd year high school student, attends Umineko Shogyo High School, or Umisho for short. He is also the manager of the Umisho’s swim team though he himself doesn’t know how to swim. In fact, he is afraid of the water stemming from an incident which occurred some years ago. While he was at the beach, he had nearly drowned when a ‘mermaid’ pulled him under the water. He joined the school’s swimming club in order to learn how to swim, but the club is filled with weirdos, who don’t teach him swimming.

One day, a floating house arrives at the shores of Umisho bearing two persons. One of these is a cheerful, sunny, happy-go-lucky girl named Ninagawa Amuro, a transfer student to Umisho, and the other is her father. Her incredible swimming speed makes her an instant hit with the swimming club, but Okiura is surprised, as she reminds him of the mermaid he saw only once in his early childhood. After her floating house is destroyed during a storm she moves to Kaname’s house.

The fictional island, where the series is set, is modeled on the real island of Enoshima in Fujisawa, Kanagawa.

Umisho: Kaname Okimura, a student of Umineko Shougyou High School, abreviated as “Umisho”, joins the swimming club so he can learn to swim, but the club is full of bizarre people. Then, an extremely happy girl named Amuro Ninagawa, joins the club. Her extreme velocity under water and her very strange style (with the habit of swimming naked) surprises all the members of the club, specially Okimura, because she reminds him of a mermaid he saw when he was young and that left him traumatized.