Video Game / Wadanohara

"Please, always remain who you are.
Let nothing stain you, nothing take you away.
...That is all I ask of you."

Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea is a game created in RPG Maker 2000 by Deep-Sea Prisoner in late 2013. It follows the adventures of a young sea witch, named Wadanohara, who is narrating her story to you. While exploring islands with her three familiars, she encounters her ex-familiar, a shark boy named Samekichi, who tells her she should leave the sea forever. Things start to go downhill when war is declared on her ocean home by the Totsusa Kingdom, led by Princess Totsusa, for reasons unknown. It's up to Wadanohara to use her magic to keep the invaders out. But a mysterious traitor is among them — and the prime suspect is Samekichi.

An English-translated version can be downloaded from here.

The manga adaptation can be found here for the first part of the story, while the final arc is found here.

On February 1, 2020, the game got an Updated Re-release titled Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea -Reboot-. The re-release features extra content not found in the original and adjusts the gameplay.

Deep-Sea Prisoner's other games include The Gray Garden, released in late 2012, and Mogeko Castle, re-released in early 2014. There's also Ice Scream, a multimedia web series set in the same universe.

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Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea provides examples of:

• Absurdly High Level Cap: You can level to 50. Really, though, 30 is about all you need.
• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Princess Mikotsu's few lines are written in this manner — her sister suggests that she's almost entirely forgotten how to talk.
• Advancing Boss of Doom: The Totsusa bun soldiers who fill up your screen and chase you. If you pick the wrong route to go down, it's all over.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Or at least Wadanohara and Tatsumiya do. Some fans were especially surprised with the latter, considering the bad boy she is interested in. However, this is subverted in Wadanohara's case — Samekichi isn't actually a bad boy, he just let everyone think he was to protect Wadanohara from the harmful side effects of the memory curse. But Wadanohara kept choosing to believe that Samekichi wasn't a bad person, which indeed he wasn't. So in Wadanohara's case, she's attracted to Samekichi because she saw past his "bad boy" facade.
• All-Loving Hero: Wadanohara. She shows great love and affection for everybody around her. Heck, she can't even bring herself to treat someone poorly, much less actually dislike them.
• All There in the Manual: Once you beat the game, you get special access to a website filled with illustrations that show things that didn't make it or weren't mentioned in the game. Such things include drawings of what Wadanohara and her familiars would look like during the events of the best ending and a set of illustrations that show that Samekichi and Sal are actually twins who grew apart before ultimately becoming enemies.
• Ambiguous Gender: According to Word of God, Sheep and Tarako are this. Tarako's profile states that Tarako "identifies as Tarako."
• And I Must Scream: What was happening to Princess Mikotsu because of the spell cast by Wadanohara's father. According to the Princess, she was sealed away, couldn't move or see, and was constantly in pain.
• …And That Little Girl Was Me: An initially unnamed sea witch narrates the story of the game to the player, the tale of a witch named Wadanohara. Between her and the titular character, it's clear they're the same person, and she's actually telling her story. But her story doesn't end there. The end of her retelling ends up being the day she finally reunites with Samekichi.
• Attempted Rape: When Sal confronts Wadanohara in the cave, he tries to have his way with her. Thank goodness that Samekichi was there to save her.
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Of course, in this game, it's a shark in dolphin's clothing. Not only does seemingly harmless Sal turn out to be evil, he was also a shark who disguised himself to look like a dolphin to hide his identity.
• Arc Villain: Samekichi and Orca/Idate (briefly) are the antagonists of the first act. In the second act, Princess Tostasu and Artamos take center-stage. In the final act, Sal and Princess Mikotsu replace them.
• Battle Discretion Shot: Used once in the game: when Orca steps in to fight Old. Interestingly enough, it was only two minutes that were lost.
• Big Bad: Princess Totsusa is leading Totsusa Kingdom in a war against the Sea Kindgom to take the throne from Princess Uomi, as she tried long before. Except she's not the mastermind; Sal/Syake-san, the traitor, is the one who manipulated her into attacking as part of his plan to unseal his master. In the third act, Princess Mikotsu, Uomi's real sister and Sal's boss, takes this position upon becoming unsealed.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Totsusa Kingdom, having patched things up with Uomi earlier, come in to save some of the villagers surrounded by creatures of the Sea of Death.
• Bittersweet Ending: There are quite a few endings, but none of them are 100% happy. Even the true ending, which is the best and canon ending, is bittersweet, after Sal has finally paid for what he's done and the war's come to an end, and the Sea of Death destroyed, Samekichi and Wadanohara are separated for a very long time, with Wadanohara not knowing whether he lived or died. Thankfully, they're eventually reunited.
• Blood Knight: Orca. It doesn't matter who the person is, how strong they look, or which side they are on, he will pick a fight with them just because he enjoys it. His profile enforces this even further by showing that both his hobby and the thing he loves most is violence.
• Bookends: The quote the game opens with is taken from the true ending.
• Break the Cutie: Poor Wadda.
• Butt-Monkey: Lobco gets pushed around and periodically hit by Chlomaki, and no one seems to acknowledge her presence when she first arrives home to the Sea Kingdom.
• Cat Girl/Cats Are Magic: If nothing else, Wadanohara's friend, Chlomaki, certainly resembles this trope. She appears to have a cat-like tail and her pointy hat has two large, triangular additions similar to cat ears on top of it. Also, she dislikes water. Her all-black attire does not help.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: Helica gets falling-over drunk from merely the smell of alcohol. It's even lampshaded by her name in the text-box, which becomes "Somehow Already Drunk Helica" at the start of the banquet (and later changes to "Tremendously Drunk Helica").
• Carnivore Confusion: All the animals in the game can talk, and people treat them like anyone else. (For instance, a lobster humanoid named Cherryblod is married to an actual lobster named Doloz and no one thinks this is odd.) Yet there is casual talk about eating other animals, and sometimes even other animal people.
  • Memoca, a seagull girl, is constantly horrified whenever Wadanohara's other two familiars bring up eating birds — including the friendly mail-seagull named Nekoyama.
  • Chlomaki talks about how her own familiar, a lobster, almost ended up being fried. She also teases Samekichi about shark soup, much to his horror.
  • Some of the Faceless Masses talk about eating fish dishes.
• Character Name and the Noun Phrase: Only in the translation, since Wadanohara's name literally means 'Great Blue Sea'.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Sacred Sword and the Pearl Ring.
• Crapsaccharine World: Downplayed; the Sea Kingdom is a genuinely nice place, but also happens to have an Eldritch Location sealed underneath.
• Criminal Doppelgänger: With the exception of color and dress, Samekichi and Sal look exactly alike, and there is no in-game explanation for why other than to mess with Wadanohara's head and to make Samekichi look like the enemy. Bonus material manages to avert this trope, though, by showing that Samekichi and Sal are actually identical twins and that information simply didn't make it into the final game.
• Daddy's Girl:
  • Princess Totsusa, leader of the invasion, cries to her daddy when beaten in battle.
  • Princess Mikotsu's bonus profile lists her only like as her father. It's implied that she's motivated more by jealousy and hurt feelings that the Sea God chose Uomi as his successor instead than just wanting to Take Over the World.
• Deep Sleep: Princess Uomi is in one of these (as well as her sister) at the beginning of the game. Her eyes are wide open, regardless of whether she is asleep or awake.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Princess Totsusa and Artamos, and Totsusa Kingdom in general, are revealed to have attacked because a traitor (Sal) framed Princess Uomi for an attack on their kingdom.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Early in the game, you encounter two birds who don't want to share fruit from a nearby tree with you. Your response? Your party KILLS them. They were sentient and could talk! After you defeat them, roast fowl is added to your inventory. No one in the game seems particularly upset by this development and it's never brought up again.
  • There's also Princess Mikotsu deciding to start a war and try to kill her own sister after she didn't get the throne, which she took as her father not really loving her. Also Sal, who torment Wadanohara for not giving in to his love.
• Disappeared Dad: Wadanohara's father. The spell he used to seal away Princess Mikotsu and the Dead Sea cost him his life and he disappeared shortly before Wadanohara was born.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Artamos is much more powerful than his daughter, and even holds the title of king — yet he is completely loyal to her. Sal is also this, in a manner akin to Ghirahim; he’s the one who actually drives the plot to free his master.
• Driven to Suicide: It's heavily implied in the second normal ending that Samekichi kills himself because he no longer sees a point in a world without Wadanohara.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: In the True End, Wadanohara gets these after Samekichi leaves to fight in the Sea of Death. The light comes back once she and Samekichi are reunited.
  • Also happens with Samekichi in the bonus comics after he is taken prisoner after the Sea of Death wins.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Orca and the penguin from a bonus video are actually characters from another one of Deep-Sea Prisoner's works: Ice Scream, which is a comic series featuring artic creatures that are all Little Bit Beastly: Shirogane the wolf, Rocma the polar bear (fittingly enough, Orca's rival/enemy), Yukisada the owl, Mafuyu the baby seal, and Peraco the penguin. Orca, under the name "Idate", is a reoccurring villain, and he's friends with the penguin, who is named Rock.
• Everyone Can See It: Samekichi and Wadanohara. Many of the characters discuss how cute and charming Samekichi's feelings for Wadanohara are, and how the two of them "get along so well." When Samekichi admits his feelings for Wadanohara to Nekoyama, Nekoyama tells him "Yes, it's quite apparent. A thousand fish in the sea would all say they know, I do believe!"...much to Samekichi's shock and embarrassment.
• Evil Twin: Sal is Samekichi's actual evil twin. Though Sal has white hair and a white tail whereas Samekichi is black, from a distance, they can be mistaken for each other. Plus Sal uses memory magic to make things hazy.
• Eye Scream: It's never shown what exactly happened, but when Wadanohara sees Samekichi after he was dragged away by Sal, he has a large cut over his right eye. The best ending then shows that it left a deep scar and his right eye is unusable.
• Faceless Masses: Most of the filler characters. You can tell when a character is important because they actually have a face.
• Failure Is the Only Option: When you first defeat the Final Boss, you are given a Last-Second Ending Choice to affect the ending. The only option that you got: Trust Sal. It goes as well as you expect.
  • Guide Dang It!: You need to continue after getting normal ending 1 to get the second option.
• Fake Memories: Sal, possibly with Psychic Powers, was able to curse Wadanohara's memories and make her forget the incident where he revealed his true self to her and then stole the sacred sword. She slowly regains her real memories over time, but since it's a curse, she experiences severe pains each time she does.
• Foreshadowing: The very beginning of the game has two snippets of dialogue that later turn out to be Meikai talking to Wadanohara and Wada, blaming herself for Samekichi's supposed death during the true ending.
  • A certain villain being a Yandere is foreshadowed by their overly sweet/Deredere behavior, such as giving Wadanohara a ring as a gift, of all things (likely to be dismissed by players as It May Help You on Your Quest), providing the player a warp point that conveniently skips past a long path, and generally showing concern for the protagonist's well-being. Other big hints are "I'd do anything for you!" and "Whoa, I like those clothes!".
• Golden Ending: The game has one of these.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Blue for good, red for evil.
• Gotta Catch Them All:
  • The moonstones on various islands.
  • Also, the seven shiny keys to unlock the chest containing the ultimate healing item. What is it, you ask? Well, it's Prosciutto.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Princess Mikotsu is this until the third act, where she escapes her imprisonment.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Fukami. Jealousy leads him to attempt to throw out Wadanohara's ocarina, which was given to her by Samekichi... twice. Thankfully, the second time, he realizes how much she needs it (it's her only memento from him) and arranges to have it returned to her. On top of that, his jealous feelings cause him to violently murder Wadanohara and the rest of the crew in the second bad ending.
  • Sal is also shown to be jealous of Samekichi, due to his warped feelings for Wadanohara.
  • On a non-romantic level, the princess from the legend attacked out of jealousy that her sister got the throne instead of her. And Mikotsu, the aforementioned princess, is still trying to claim it.
• Halfway Plot Switch: Happens twice, as the story is split up into three acts. In the first act, Wadanohara must repair the barrier surrounding the ocean kingdom by repairing the six stones. Then the barrier is destroyed anyway. The second act has Totsusa Kingdom directly invade, and Wada and her party must drive them off. Once that's over, the true villains reveal themselves, and it's up to the gang to stop them and Save the World.
• Happily Married: Cherryblod and Doloz are pretty much the happiest couple in the game.
• Hate Sink: Sal/Syake-san is the traitor to the Blue Sea Kindgom and the Dragon-in-Chief to Tostasu Kingdom. Feigning loyalty to Princess Uomi, the traitor secretly helps Princess Totsusa in her invasion by sabotaging the defenses of the Sea Kingdom. It is later revealed that he caused the war between the two kingdoms by sending an inflammatory letter framing Uomi for the massacre of several Tostasu soldiers which he himself perpetrated. He also frames his own twin brother, Samekichi, as being the traitor, and even sexually assaulted Wadanohara in the past. At the end of the second act, he smashes the seal and unleashes the Red Sea, freeing his true master Princess Mikotsu. When Wadanohara confronts him, he taunts her about it before corrupting her in the first ending, and stabbing her and fleeing with Mikotsu in the true ending to their own deaths. As bad as the traitor's Princess boss is, her evil is mainly offscreen, and Mikotsu doesn't have a hand in most of the game due to her imprisonment within the Red Sea, which had caused her to lose her sanity. The traitor serves as the target of hate instead, being wholly repugnant and narcissistic. but thankfully he was punished by Samekichi in a bonus scene.
• Height Angst: Wadanohara's height is commented on early on in the story; she's very insecure about it.
• Hell Is That Noise: Most Terrifying Sound: Wadanohara's scream when either she accidentally goes to a path filled with Totsusa soldiers or Sal catches up to her in a chase.
• Heroic BSoD: Wadanohara goes through some of these for a short time after her sealed-away memories start kicking in, but unlike most, she's capable of jumping back into reality. She goes through a much more serious BSOD in the best ending after Samekichi leaves to seal the Dead Sea gate. It's implied that she's been depressed for days and everyone around her has noticed how her usual happiness has just disappeared.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Quite a few of these, actually.
  • The original heroic sacrifice was the sorcerer, Wadanohara's father, who died and became a giant pearl to protect the ocean. His spell created a barrier that kept enemies out.
  • Depending on the ending, either Wadanohara or Samekichi make a heroic sacrifice. In the 2nd normal ending, Wadanohara ends up using a similar spell as her father's and meets the same fate. In the true ending, Samekichi goes off to seal the Sea of Death from the inside, which means almost certain death for him. He somehow manages to survive, though it apparently takes him a very long time to get out and return to Wadanohara.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: No matter how many people she assists, or how many of them say they believe in her, at times Wadanohara can't help but feel that she's unable to live up to her father's name. Her feelings only get worse in the Best Ending, since she believes that her weakness was what prevented her from stopping Samekichi's Heroic Sacrifice.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Samekichi and Fukami to Wadanohara. Samekichi is around 5ft 6in (170cm) and Fukami is 5ft 8in (177cm), and while that's not very tall by most standards, they still tower over Wadanohara, who is 4ft 2in (128-129cm.)
  • Inverted with Cherryblod and Doloz, where it's more Tiny Guy, Huge Lobster Wife.
• Implied Rape: It's heavily implied that Sal raped Wadanohara during the off-screen torture in the first ending.
• It Was a Gift: Wadanohara's ocarina was a gift from someone important to her.
• Interspecies Romance: While Samekichi is capable of taking on a more humanoid form, he's still a shark, and Wadanohara is a witch.
  • Cherryblod and Doloz. Kind of. They're both lobsters, it's just that Cherryblod is a lobster humanoid whereas Doloz is a full lobster. They have a daughter who is humanoid like her dad, but can shape shift into a full lobster form as seen early in the game.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The main reason why Samekichi was willing to separate himself from Wadanohara after what Sal did to her memories. He knew that if he messed up and triggered the curse, then Wadanohara's mind would break. Since the only thing he wants in life is for Wadanohara to continue being happy, he is more than willing to continue being ostracized from her and the rest of the sea to ensure that such a horrible thing would never happen to her.
  • This trope is sadly twisted for tragic effect in one of the bonus comics, which shows that Samekichi will continue to always think this way, even when Wadanohara becomes the Red Witch in the first Normal End. As long as she's able to smile, even for the most vile reasons, Samekichi will never go against her because all he wants for her is happiness. Though it's safe to assume that his mind breaking after witnessing Wadanohara's change played a role in this mindset.
  • This also applies to Fukami, who also has strong feelings for Wadanohara and is extremely envious of how much attention she gives to Samekichi. His jealousy was so bad that he even attempted to throw away the ocarina Samekichi gave to her, twice. However, after Samekichi disappeared into the Dead Sea and Wadanohara was left heartbroken, Fukami finally lets his jealousy go and encourages Wadanohara to continue believing that Samekichi will return. Just like Samekichi, he wants Wadanohara to be happy even if it means she'll never return his feelings.
• I Will Wait for You: Wadanohara to Samekichi in the True End.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Samekichi. Though he's not being a jerk by choice, but because Sal used a memory wipe spell on Wadanohara and if she found out the truth about Samekichi, it would destroy her mind. Samekichi tried to push her away because he was worried about her.
• Killer Rabbit: The soldiers for the Totsusa Kingdom. Also, Totsusa herself and her dad are rabbit people and seem quite obsessed with slaughter.
• Knight of Cerebus: In order:
  • The first act has Orca/Idate, who brutally beats Samekichi and threatens to eat Wadanohara. The point where he appears is when the game starts to reveal its dark side.
  • The second act introduces the Big Bad, Princess Totsusa. She launches an invasion on the kingdom, and dead bodies of fish and bunnies can be seen lying everywhere. Tostasu herself is also frighteningly Ax-Crazy.
  • Finally, there’s Ambassador Sal, once their identity as the traitor is revealed in the third act, which is when the game plunged into outright horror. The traitor is noticeably more evil and hateable than the other villains, even the Big Bad.
• Little Bit Beastly: Pretty much everyone in the game, to varying degrees. Most characters have human features, with things like a fish tail or lobster antennae added.
• Love Confession: Samekichi to Wadanohara. He had it all planned out, he took her to a romantic location, and gave her a gift. Unfortunately it didn't go quite as planned...
  • Thankfully, in the best ending, Wadanohara gives one of her own to Samekichi, who, of course, reciprocates.
  • Sal gives a nonchalant one during Wadanohara's post-reveal flashback, and he tells her he meant it genuinely before the game's final choice.
• Magic Pants: Humanoid characters taking animal form lose their clothing when they transform. However, the same characters appear in their previous set of clothes when they change back into humanoid form.
• Magic Skirt: Some of the characters, such as Samekichi and Old, while in humanoid form, appear to have their tails going through their pants in such a way that leave the pants unable to stay up. A couple characters even appear to have belts going through their tails.
• Malicious Misnaming: A more toned down case since it's done out of affection, but Tarako is constantly getting Samekichi's name wrong, calling him things like Semekichi or Tunakichi instead. Tarako is clearly doing it on purpose, though, because he is capable of referring to Samekichi by his real name, but only when things are serious.
• Multiple Endings: There are five different endings for the game.
  • Bad Ending 1: Sea Monster: Wadanohara tries to flee the fight against Orca (losing all your health results in a normal game over). Orca proceeds to attack Wadanohara, who is crying for Samekichi to help her. Unfortunately, Samekichi has died from his injuries, something Orca smirks at before he proceeds to eat and kill Wadanohara.
  • Bad Ending 2: Betrayal: Choose to go after Samekichi, who has been dragged away by Sal. Wadanohara and her familiars chase after Samekichi only to find themselves in complete darkness. As Wadanohara calls for Samekichi, Fukami tells her to not worry before the screen flashes red. Memoca and Dolphi are brutally decapitated by Fukami before Wadanohara turns to face him. Taking advantage of her shock, Fukami proceeds to strangle Wadanohara as she begs him to tell her why. The last thing she sees is Sal right behind Fukami before Fukami viciously tears her apart. After murdering Wadanohara, Fukami reverts back to his normal self and is horrified by what he has done. Sal approaches him from the darkness, telling Fukami not to be ashamed of doing what he has always wanted, and then welcomes him to the Dead Sea. Fukami then proceeds to laugh maniacally. It is uncertain whether Fukami's actions were really of his own accord, or if he was controlled by Sal.
  • Normal End 1: The Red Witch: Choose to trust Sal. Wadanohara approaches Sal, believing that he will keep his promise and save Samekichi. Amused at her foolishness, Sal stabs Wadanohara with the sword and proceeds to torture her as a helpless Samekichi watches. The sight and his injuries prove too much for Samekichi and he is overcome by fatigue. When he is woken up by Sal, Samekichi sees that Wadanohara has become the Red Witch. Wadanohara then tells Samekichi not to worry, because Sal has taught her that the sea is now the way it should be and she is perfectly happy. She begins to laugh maniacally before the credits roll. The bonus comics reveal that Samekichi is kept alive as a prisoner through Wadanohara's request, while most if not all of the non-corrupted characters are dead.
  • Normal End 2: The Blue Witch: This ending is only available after playing through Normal End 1. Choose to not trust Sal. Wadanohara refuses Sal's offer and stays with Samekichi. Sal, who is not amused by Wadanohara's decision, then stabs Samekichi with the sword before he disappears into the Dead Sea's door, which is slowly leaking its madness into the ocean. Desperate to save everyone and everything that she loves, Wadanohara decides to use the very same spell her father used to seal away the Dead Sea and becomes the Blue Witch. Her desires are granted and the sea is saved from the now sealed Dead Sea, but just like her father, Wadanohara disappears after the spell has been used. Her disappearance leaves a great emotional toll on everyone who loved her, primarily Samekichi, who feels like the sea isn't worth living in if she's not by his side. The scene ends with Samekichi lamenting his feelings on a rock above the surface before the screen goes black and a loud sound is heard. When the screen fades back, Samekichi is no longer there. The scene changes to a view of the Cast Pearl above the palace, and the screen ambiguously flashes blue before the credits roll.
  • True Ending: The Sea Witch: This ending is only achievable after getting both Normal ends and choosing "...." Wadanohara refuses Sal's offer, but proceeds to question his actions in hopes to come to an understanding. Sal gives her a fairly vague answer before stabbing her and disappearing into the gate. Samekichi, desperate to save her and the sea she loves, makes the decision to chase after Sal and close the gate from the inside. As she begs him to not do it, Wadanohara regains all of her sealed away memories and realizes the strong feelings that she has for Samekichi. She then confesses to Samekichi that she loves him more than anybody, but that isn't enough to stop him from entering the gate. The sea has been saved, but Wadanohara is left heartbroken and guilty, believing that if she was a better witch that she could have stopped him. But after some encouraging words from Fukami and finding her lost ocarina, Wadanohara comes to a resolve and decides to become a strong witch for Samekichi and promises that she will always believe in him and his return. Years later, Wadanohara is now the Great Sea Witch and is reunited with Samekichi under the full moon.
• Mood Whiplash: For the majority of the game, it's fairly lighthearted and cute (with a small bit of drama), but suddenly becomes extremely dark when Sal reveals himself as the Ambassador of the Sea of Death.
• Narcissist: Sal and Mikotsu come across as this, since the conflict is driven by their respective temper tantrums when their “loved ones” don’t give them what they want (romantic reciprocation and the throne, respectively).
• Nightmare Face: Sal, once he drops his facade.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • If you get Wadanohara up to level 30, the game's relatively easy. Get her to the maximum level and you're basically kneeing everyone in the crotch.
  • Orca does this twice, first to Samekichi and then to Old.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Even though Wadanohara's familiars are mostly human feature-wise, they're still not humans. Memoca is a seagull girl, Dolphi is a dolphin girl, Fukami is an octopus boy and Samekichi, her ex-familiar, is a shark boy.
  • Every witch and sorcerer has familiars. The familiars can transform into full animals, though we've only ever seen Lobco and Samekichi do so.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Samekichi; he was framed by his brother.
  • The Totsusa Kingdom, which was the main enemy for the first half of the game. Turns out it was just a big misunderstanding and they were being manipulated.
• Oblivious to Love: Wadanohara is blissfully unaware of the love several characters have for her. The most obvious being Samekichi, who outright told her he loved her. While she said she loved him back, he soon discovered she thought he meant he loved her as a friend and she was just returning the sentiment. Poor guy.
  • Thankfully, Wadanohara eventually realizes that she feels the same way for him. The sad part is that she realizes and confesses right when Samekichi decides to perform a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Fukami also harbors feelings for her, but they're much more hidden. Apparently he's very jealous of Samekichi. Wadanohara more than likely never found out about his feelings.
  • The last being Sal. Besides being a general all-around nasty guy, he fell in love with Wadanohara at some point and wanted to get Samekichi out of the way. He succeeded, for a while, at least. Of course, Wadanohara had no idea about all this.
• Official Couple: Samekichi and Wadanohara after Wadanohara regains all of her memories and realizes how she loves Samekichi more than anyone else and ultimately confesses to him right before he tries to seal off the Dead Sea.
• Only Sane Man: Wadanohara is the only one who believes that Samekichi isn't the traitor and that Totsusa Kingdom might have a good reason for attacking. She turns out to be correct about both, yet nobody believed her at first.
• Only Six Faces: Most humanoid characters have roughly the same face. The non-humanoids are more varied, however.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Lots of them, mostly as faceless NPCs.
• Parental Substitute: Tatsumiya for Wadanohara. She was her father's familiar and before he used the spell that made him disappear, he had Tatsumiya promise that she would teach Wadanohara magic and ensure that she would grow up to be a loved and loving young witch. Tatsumiya has kept her promise ever since, but is mildly overprotective of Wadanohara as a result.
• Poor Communication Kills: The whole story could have been avoided entirely if Samekichi and Totsusa Kingdom had just explained their reasons for opposing the protagonists. The former is justified in keeping his secret (telling the truth would activate a curse on Wadanohara), but Totsusa has no excuse. If she had just talked to Uomi, they could have discovered Sal's plot and had him apprehended. Memoca even calls her out on this.
• Pre Existing Encounters: With the exception of boss fights, all combat is technically optional. Enemy mobs must be interacted with to fight them.
• Protagonist Title: Wadanohara being the protagonist.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Princess Totsusa acts like a child when expressing how much she wants to slaughter Uomi. In addition, there's Sal; his text includes music notes indicating a jolly mood, even when he's crossing the Moral Event Horizon, he creepily giggles, and he has a disturbing crush on Wadanohara. Finally, there's Princess Mikotsu; the whole story is basically her throwing a massive temper tantrum because Uomi got the throne instead of her, and she, like a Spoiled Brat who didn't get the toy they wanted, whines that her daddy doesn't really love her.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Sal, the traitor.
  • Wadanohara, in Normal End 1.
  • Fukami, in Bad End 2.
  • Averted by Cherryblood, though it's implied he was a bit of a bad boy in his youth.
• Red Herring Twist: Has a combination of this and Tomato Surprise which lasts for half the game; the story establishes a kingdom under the sea complete with castle and princess, how there used to be a ruling king and a second princess, how the second princess was banished away, and then it seems that said princess and her followers are coming back for revenge. Except this was all set up by the (at the time) Big Bad; the invading princess is not the one who was banished, and she attacks for entirely different reasons (she fell for a forged letter, big time). The real second princess was banished to underwater hell and the Big Bad eventually brings her back, cosmic horrors and Mind Rape powers included.
• Red Shirt Army: Poor fish soldiers. They don't stand a chance against Totsusa soldiers or even Sea of Death creatures.
• Sequel Hook: Sort of. In the bonus video "Squid Returns", Squid is saved by an emperor penguin after washing up on an Arctic shore. The video ends stating that it is a story for another time. Said "sequel" was eventually revealed to be Ice Scream.
• Ship Tease: While the most obvious Ship Tease is between Samekichi and Wadanohara, there is also a little bit between Tatsumiya and Orca when Orca steps in to help Tatsumiya in her fight against Old. A bonus video even shows Tatsumiya getting flustered as she stares at Orca from a distance during a stroll. Pulmo teases her for this, claiming she didn't expect her to be into the rough type.
• Skippable Boss: Subverted. During the boss battle with Orca, the "Escape" button is available, suggesting that the player could run away instead of fighting. Attempting to escape will lead to a bad end where he eats the protagonist.
• Stepford Smiler: Wadanohara is a Type A. Whenever something upsets her, she keeps it hidden by putting on a (usually unconvincing) happy face. Fukami calls her on this in the final ending before letting her cry over the apparent loss of Samekichi.
• Surprisingly Creepy Moment: The second half of the game. The first half is pretty much interacting with cute animal people and facing down your enemies. Then Totsusa Kingdom invade and people start dying, and Sal reveals himself as the one behind everything, though even then it's not so bad — but then you come across your familiars dying, covered in blood with missing eyes and limbs or cut in half. Of course, it's just an illusion, but the game gets worse from there on out.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: There's usually a nurse fish before boss fights. They restore all your HP and MP.
• That's No Moon: That's the Cast Pearl.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Princess Uomi's default expression. Her fish, Jiiya, has one too.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: The identity of the traitor. A sufficiently Genre Savvy player will likely guess that Samekichi cannot possibly be the traitor. So who is the traitor? Perhaps it's Orca/Idate, the sadistic bully? Maybe it's Tatsumiya, Wadanohara's mother figure? Or perhaps the Sea King, who Jiiya describes as cruel? Or even Princess Uomi herself? Nope, it's Sal, the cute, cheerful, quirky dolphin caretaker you probably didn't even think twice about. Not only that, he's Samekichi's brother and actually a salmon shark.
• The Dragon: Artamos to Princess Totsusa and, similarly, Sal to Princess Mikotsu.
• Threatening Shark: Samekichi threatens Wadanohara to leave the ocean forever and attacks when she doesn't listen.
  • Old, who looks like Samekichi (except... older) and much more scarred.
  • Later on in the game, Sal.
• Tomato Surprise: The knowledge of a second Princess and Kingdom that's sealed away is given to the player at the very beginning, and many players mistakenly believe that Princess Totsusa and the Totsusa Kingdom are what they're talking about right until it’s revealed that they’re NOT the same character, and Totsusa’s reasons for attacking are entirely different. All indications are that the characters knew this from the beginning and simply never bothered to mention it.
• Too Many Belts: Chlomaki's outfit.
• Truly Single Parent: Meikai to Wadanohara, who apparently hatched from an egg shortly after his Heroic Sacrifice. Some bonus material implies her mother was the moon, but the specifics are left unclear.
• Tsundere: Samekichi, oh so very much. He's rude, abrasive, and an accused traitor. He also loves Wadanohara dearly and everything he does is for her sake.
• Water Is Air: Every character in the game, even those who aren't ocean-oriented, can function normally underwater, and things that should not work underwater end up working anyway.
  • Certain characters being able to breathe underwater is quickly explained in game. Apparently surface dwellers can use a spell that allows them to function underwater for a certain amount of time. Still doesn't explain how some things can happen, though, like how one of the demons can still use fire magic in the ocean. Even Memoca lampshades this.
    • And Orca can smoke underwater. Though one bonus story has him talk with Seguro and mentioning he can't find cigs that work underwater, until Seguro directs him to the town shop.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Sal's humanoid form.
• Yandere: Sal for Wadanohara.
• Zerg Rush: The Totsusa soldiers are not particularly strong. The only reason they give you trouble is because you often fight 6-10 of them at once. If you find yourself being surrounded by them, RUN!!!

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