Without having to give up her voice to a sea witch, the titular mermaid princess in the Japanese animated dramedy “ ChaO ” gets the husband of her dreams. Still, their seemingly fated bond doesn’t immediately manifest as an idealized romance. Instead, it starts out mimicking an outdated arranged marriage to secure prosperous relationships between humans and merpeople, then develops into a tale of coexistence and life-career balance. While hardly original in concept — Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo” or Masaaki Yuasa’s “Lu Over the Wall” and “Ride Your Wave” come to mind — Yasuhiro Aoki ’s debut feature sets itself apart by way of its singularly stylized, lively visual panache.

Not set in Japan, but in the Chinese city of Shanghai, the story of this union across kingdoms is framed via an inter

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