| Meroune's Mother | ||
|---|---|---|
| Gallery | Quotes | Relationship | ||
| ||
| Physical Appearance | ||
| Monster Species | Mermaid | |
| Gender |  Female
| |
| Height | 181 cm (5'11") | |
| Weight | State Secret | |
| B-W-H | B86(E)-W58-H94 | |
| Monster Profile | ||
| Occupation | *Queen of the Mermaid Kingdom | |
| Host | None | |
| Relatives | *Meroune Lorelei (daughter) *Unnamed Merman husband | |
| Media Debut | ||
| Manga | Chapter 35 | |
Meroune's Mother (メロウヌの母親, Merōnu no Hahaoya) is a Mermaid and the currently unnamed mother of Meroune Lorelei. She is also the current queen of the Mermaid Kingdom. She makes her debut in Volume 9, where she appears as a hidden main antagonist.
Appearance[]
As the current mermaid queen, Meroune's mother has an incredibly regal appearance, consisting of an elaborate headpiece and necklace, a frilly skirt and trail, and long hair styled in several thick, tightly wound curls. Despite being royalty, the outfit is very revealing, and shows off her cleavage and midriff as much as a bikini.
Personality[]
Of all the main characters' parents that have been encountered so far in the series, Meroune's Mother is by far the most twisted and morally reprehensible encountered in the story so far. At first glance, Queen Lorelei seems like a stern and reserved ruler who bases her decisions on what is best for the Mermaid Kingdom without letting her personal sentiments cloud her judgment.[1] She is later revealed to be a self-absorbed and dangerously immature tyrant who continually does things unbecoming a queen, such as prioritizing her own passions at the expense of her family and her people even if they might be killed from it.
As with many mermaids, she has a fascination with tales of "tragic romance" involving another species, especially The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. This proves to be dangerous given her political position, glaringly illustrated when she secretly engineers a diplomatic crisis with the human world to set the stage for the "perfect tragedy" and nearly murders Kimihito to punish her daughter for desiring eternal happiness with him.
After Mero nearly died saving Kimihito's life she abandoned most of her desires for tragedy, as almost losing her daughter showed her that tragedy was not all it is supposed to be, and publicly dispels rumors surrounding Octo and a human elopement problem.[2] However, she notably refrains from admitting her responsibility in engineering such rumors and ultimately evades punishment for her misdeeds.
Although Mero's Mother has had a better relationship with Mero since Volume 9, it's clear that she still makes decisions that she considers in "the best sense" of her daughter, without taking into account Mero's personal feelings in this regard. For example, in Chapter 43 she refuses Mero permission to take a normal job in Tokyo, simply because it is "not appropriate for a princess" and in Chapter 45 it is revealed that the Queen has created many underground rooms for Mero under the Kurusu house without Kimihito's consent or his knowledge, in order to give her daughter a comfortable life in the Kurusu house. According to Monster Musume: Monster Girls on the Job!, Mero is used to being overruled by her mother most of the time, forcing her to stand aside and watch the other household girls support Kimihito in a way she is unable to.
Skills and Traits[]
Personal Skills[]
- Diplomacy: As the ruling monarch of the mermaid species, Meroune's mother is presumably skilled in diplomacy. Her reign coincides with mermaids starting to take part in human society under the Cultural Exchange Between Species Bill, implying that she has some experience dealing with human governments.
- Manipulation: The mermaid queen is quite skilled at manipulating events so that they play out to her desires. The entire situation involving Octo, the mermaid elopement problem, and decline in human-mermaid relations were all the result of her machinations to create "the Ultimate Tragedy". Her abilities to manipulate events are not perfect as she was unable to stop things from spiralling out of control when her plans were uncovered, but she was still able to avoid any punishment by misdirecting and misinforming the entire Mermaid Kingdom.
- Unfamiliarity with new technology: As shown in Chapter 37, Meroune's mother is quite unfamiliar with new technology such as operating a tablet. This ultimately led to her losing the control of the situation because the individual symbols and their functions were too complicated for the queen.
- Filthy Rich: Mero's mom has been hinted to be extremely wealthy over and over again such as the time she paid for her daughter's living expenses in Kimihito's home, even for the best renovations of her daughter's room.
Physical Traits[]
- Mermaid Physiology:
- Amphibious: As a Mermaid, Meroune's mother possesses gills on the side of her torso, which allows her to breathe water. She also has a humanoid respiratory system that enables vocalisation and breathing through the mouth. However, if she breathes chlorinated water it can be dangerous for her health. As long as her gills remain moist (which is easy because of her slimy skin) she can breathe on land.
- Mermaid Breasts: Mermaids store fat to keep them warm in cold water and give them energy on long journeys. Due to the movement caused by swimming and the fact that most of the body is constantly in motion, this fat is stored in their breasts.
- Cold Resistance: Because Mermaids' natural homes at the bottom of the ocean are very cold, Meroune's mother is naturally resistant against cold water and air. However, the Mermaid queen is not totally immune to cold weather as temperatures below freezing will cause her discomfort.
- Swim Bladder: Located inside her chest is a sac of air that allows the Mermaid queen to control her buoyancy in water, allowing her to sink or rise. However, should she expell all the air in that bladder, she will sink fast underwater.
- Slimy Skin: Her body naturally secretes a slimy substance to keep her skin moist, which can cause wardrobe malfunctions. Because of this, the Mermaid queen has to wear special clothing that doesn't easily slide off. If not properly clothed in cold weather, the coating will cause her to freeze quite quickly.
- Swimming: Since she is part fish swimming is as natural as breathing for Mero's mother. In fact, since she has gills, swimming does indeed play a role in her natural breathing and not requiring to resurface at all.
Possessions[]
- Trident: When she's in her throne room, she holds a trident in a similar manner to a royal sceptre. As Mero's mother explains in dismay when she sees how Mero trying to free Kimihito from the rubble with the trident in Chapter 37, the trident has been passed down for generations in the Mermaid Kingdom, showing that it is an important symbol of the royal Mermaid family and presumably, any damage to it will be considered as a serious crime.
- Wheelchair: Like her daughter, she moves around on land in a wheelchair but unlike an ordinary one, it has special features like caterpillar tracks.
History[]
Way before the series started Meroune's mother was born into royalty and inherited the Mermaid Kingdom but it's unknown whether her daughter's last name belongs to her or her husband, the Mermaid king, who she was married to and sometime later, she gave birth to Meroune.
While the exact relationship of the Queen with the Mermaid King is not entirely clear, the Queen eventually developed a love affair with a human man and began to cheat on the King. Presumably because the Mermaid King finally found out about this relationship, he eloped with a human woman and left Meroune's mother, although the two are still officially married to each other, as revealed in Chapter 37. Meroune's mother didn't care that the king had run away, as she had dismissed the wedding with him as a "mistake" anyway, although the fact that Mero seems to have only good memories of her father shows, that he was generally a good husband and that it was rather the adultery of the queen that had made him leave.
Plot[]
Meroune's mother's first interaction with the members of the Kurusu House was when she had Sebasstian and Flounnder hire TALIO to accompany Mero back to the Mermaid Kingdom from her onsen trip with the rest of the girls and Kimihito. Upon talking to Mero she informed the young mermaid that she could not return to human society with her friends, as "human-mermaid relations were not well."[1]
When her daughter returned to her to clear Octo's name, the queen revealed that she was the one spreading the rumours about Octo. Her motiviations were that she wanted to ruin the relationship between humans and mermaids so that her human lover would have to leave and she would be unable to follow him because of her duties as queen, creating what she considered "The Ultimate Tragedy". Upon hearing this Mero was upset over both that her mother was cheating on her husband/Mero's father and referred to marrying her father as a "mistake" that her liasion was correcting, claiming it was not cheating. Her cheating is part of the reason the king eloped with a human himself, but had nothing to do with motivating the queen to start the rumors of elopement going out of control, as she had no real issue with him leaving.
Mero's mother then accuses Mero of not loving tragedy anymore and that she would make her remember it by causing Kimihito's death. The mermaid queen used a tablet device to start flooding the room they were in so that Kimihito would drown. Mero asked her mother to spare Kimihito's life as she wanted to have a "happily ever after story" with him. The queen agreed to save his life, but only if Mero would return home, to which Mero agreed even if it meant leaving Kimihito. However, when Mero's mother tried to drain the room she found the tablet device had been damaged, causing the ceiling to collapse, strong underwater currents, Fin Eater piranhas to appear, and for spikes to protrude from the bottom of the room.
Later after Mero nearly died saving Kimihito's life Mero's mother had a change of heart and decided to let Mero return to human society with her friends. She also broadcasted a message to the Mermaid Kingdom saying that there was no elopement problem and that human relations were fine, thus exonerating Octo of all crimes. She also introduced the kingdom to her human lover, but left out that all the rumors were her doing, as there would have been a revolt if anyone knew the truth.[2]
Zoological Classification[]
- Main article: Mermaid
The Mermaid (人魚族, Ningyo-zoku) is a humanoid liminal race with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a fish.
Living beneath the sea, mermaids are protected from the interference of the other land-based races and as such have been free to establish their own civilization beneath the oceans of the world.
Trivia[]
- She and Suu's mother are the only ones among Kimihito's homestay girls' mothers to appear and not end up in a sexually compromising position with Kimihito.
- She is also the first of the homestays mothers to appear in more than one chapter of the storyline.
- She's also so far, the only mother confirmed to be a royal.
- When above water she uses a special "royal wheelchair", which is self-propelled, using tracks rather than wheels (possibly all-terrain), and has a body built to resemble a throne.
- Although Mero's mother enjoys great respect among her people, Mero reveals in Chapter 35 that her Mermaid kingdom is just one small kingdom among many. This means that while Mero's mother has virtually unlimited power within her own kingdom, she is ultimately only one of many monarchs who rules the Merfolk together and there is no single ruler who can claim the right to rule over the entire Merfolk.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 35
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 37