Humans are Pets, and One is Rescued by a Fish Man
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Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series Sea Melt Lover. While the manga may vary slightly from all other forms of media, it may have similar story elements and could be considered spoilers.
Content Warning: There may be references to enslavement, drugs, drug use, drug addiction, human trafficking (including children), power imbalance, racism (depicted in the form of interspecies hate), prejudice, violence, noncon, blood, body commentary, pedophilia (not between the main couple) child abuse (including sexual, not between the main couple), child labor, PTSD, theft, drowning, somnophilia, mentions of pregnancy (not between the main couple), death, kidnapping, torture, and mentions of religion, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
Elnetis takes part in the upper echelon of Lutas society. Lutas are the result of a sudden evolution in humanity. Children were suddenly born with animal characteristics, ranging from fur to scales, and over time, the original human population dwindled until it was fully subjugated and enslaved by the Lutas. Elnetis, a merperson Lutas, may be one of them, but he has an open distaste for the enslavement of the human population. Yet, the only way he can help is by immersing himself among those who do partake.
While attending one such event, a tiger Lutas arrives with a chained-up human man. The man, named Jin, despite living his whole life enslaved, openly appears defiant. And when his master attempts to show him off to Elnetis, Jin fights back and runs off. As chaos takes over the party, Elnetis follows Jin and helps him escape. Jin is wary and tries to fight, but Elnetis quickly knocks him out and then whisks him away.
When Jin wakes up, Elnetis has brought him to an island where humans and Lutas live in harmony. This is a dream come true, but Jin perceives it as just another ruse to use and abuse him. But as he lives with Elnetis, his walls slowly come down. Maybe this is his chance to finally lead a life free of fear and abuse. Yet, what Elnetis and Jin get up to every night, which Jin isn’t even aware of, could threaten all the trust Jin has built up.
Review:
I usually like to start with commentary on the artwork, but there is something much more pressing that I feel is worth talking about first. I read a ton of BL manga, and most of them are pretty well translated at this point, especially those from Seven Seas. But this one is rough. It gives off vibes of being machine-translated and then just poorly edited afterward. I can’t say whether it was or not, and the volume credits people for both, so I hesitate to claim it was machine-translated or put through AI in any capacity, but either way, this is a tough one to read. Articles are dropped constantly, the dialogue is often awkward and stilted, and some lines are just nonsense. This is one of the lowest quality translations I’ve seen in a manga in a while, and it is unfortunate coming from Seven Seas.
Unfortunately, because of the translation, if the story were decent, it would be hard to tell. Though if I had to guess, even if this had been given the time and attention it deserved when being translated and edited, the pacing would still be weird. There is a very big tonal shift from the beginning to the core of the story. It starts off in what looks like a grand ballroom, and Elnetis is giving off the vibe of a noble or royal of some sort, so I was fully anticipating this to be a noble romance of some kind, but as soon as Elnetis saves Jin, the story is transplanted to a little village. It still has that historical feel to it, but it definitely doesn’t have the intensity and grandeur that noble romances typically have. It switches into a much more domestic, slow countryside narrative, though without the slow pacing usually needed; we will get more into that in a moment.
My main issue narratively is that Elnetis’s role in society and in the village is very unclear. I know the purpose of the story is very much based on Jin, Jin learning to live as a free man, and how Jin and Elnetis are having sex at night because Jin’s body is still working through all of the drugs he had been forced to take, but with stories like this with some higher fantasy concepts, I always feel like we never get enough. I love a fantasy story, and there are plenty of smutty BL fantasy stories that don’t go any further than the smut and a few basic fantasy elements like magic or animal characteristics, and are still satisfying. Where this one falters is that, for one, there isn’t a ton of smut, despite what the premise is. That puts a lot more pressure on the narrative, and with this being a higher-fantasy title, there is an expectation of more background and worldbuilding, which this just doesn’t provide. Elnetis, in particular, is a complete mystery, and I desperately wanted more information about the aquatic Lutas, since they seem to have a completely different culture from that of the land-based Lutas. But with this being a single volume, trying to balance worldbuilding, smut, and a revenge plot leaves no time for anything other than whiplash-inducing jumps from scene to scene.
As I’ve already mentioned, there is very little in the way of smut in this title (to the point that I wouldn’t call this smut at all), but it is worth noting that what smut there is is all dubious or nonconsenting. I am a huge fan of noncon myself, so this wasn’t a problem for me, but for those of you out there who have to have 100% consent in your BL to enjoy it, stay far, far away from this one. But even those who enjoy dubcon/noncon will probably be disappointed, as there is very little of it throughout the volume.
Results:
Ultimately, if you want a good, in-depth fantasy narrative, you will be disappointed. And, if you want a smutfest, noncon or otherwise, you will also be disappointed. But more disappointing than anything is the quality of the translation here. Even if either of these elements were well done, the narrative or the smut, much of the enjoyment would be lost simply because this was not translated or edited well. It is disappointing on all fronts, and I would not recommend it.
Have you read Sea Melt Lover? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
