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H₂O: Mermaid Adventures

H₂O: Mermaid Adventures is a French-produced animated television series, first released on Netflix on May 22, 2015, that reimagines the live-action series H₂O: Just Add Water as a cartoon for younger viewers. It follows three teenage girls, Emma, Cleo, and Rikki, who are transformed into mermaids and gain magical powers over water after a trip to Mako Island.1 • 2

Key factDetail
Format26 episodes; ZDF Studios lists 26×26', Mediatoon lists 26×24'3 • 2
ProductionLes Cartooneurs Associés and Fantasia Animation, France; production year 20142
Co-productionNetflix Original Series coproduced with ZDF, ZDF Enterprises, and France Télévisions3
Director and writersTian Xiao Zhang; writers Eric-Paul Marais, Delphine Dubos, and Franck Soullard2
PremiereNetflix, May 22, 2015; German TV premiere on KiKA August 28, 20151 • 4
BasisAdapted from H₂O: Just Add Water by Jonathan M. Shiff2
RunCanceled after two seasons of 13 episodes; final episode aired October 13, 20155

Spoilers

Premise and setting

While exploring the mysterious Island of Mako, three ordinary teenage girls fall under a spell: whenever water splashes any one of them, she is transformed into a mermaid.3 Each girl also gains a magical power, and the stories move between life on land in Dolphin City and a magical undersea world.2 • 3

A key difference from the live-action original is that the animated girls can speak with the ocean's inhabitants underwater, which opens the series to a community of sea-creature characters.6 Among their helpers are their friend Lewis and Bernie, a hermit crab.2 Common Sense Media's review notes additional new characters such as Zita the eel and Sue the manta ray, and describes the show's themes as friendship, self-confidence, and self-image.7

Episodes

Season 1 episodes include "The Secret of Mako Island," the premiere in which the girls are stranded on Mako Island and a pool of water transforms them into mermaids; "Caught in the Net," in which Emma enters a sand-castle competition and Cleo rescues an injured sea turtle; "The White Mermaid," in which the girls find an old mermaid statue tied to a sunken wreck; "A Stormy Party"; and "Mako Island Hotel," in which they try to halt construction of a luxury resort on the island.1 Later first-season episodes deal with discarded plastic bags harming sea turtles, an atmospheric disturbance that earns Dolphin City the name "the new Bermuda Triangle," and a shark with a toothache that threatens the city's tourism season.1

Production

The series was produced in France by Les Cartooneurs Associés and Fantasia Animation, with ZDF Enterprises among the production companies credited, and was directed by Tian Xiao Zhang.2 It is a Netflix Original coproduced with ZDF, ZDF Enterprises, and France Télévisions.3 German promotional material describes the visual approach as a combination of traditional 2D animation with a 3D underwater world.8

The English-language voice cast includes Sonja Ball as Cleo Sertori, Holly Gauthier-Frankel as Rikki Chadwick, Thor Bishopric and Daniel Brochu as Lewis, and Eleanor Noble as Emma Gilbert.9 The series carries a TV-Y7 rating in the United States, indicating content suitable for ages 7 and up.5

Broadcast and availability

All 13 episodes of season 1 were released on Netflix on May 22, 2015.1 In Germany, fernsehserien.de records a television premiere on KiKA on August 28, 2015, while a ZDF press release announced the series start on ZDF's children's programming for November 28, 2015; both dates appear in the sources.4 • 6 The ZDF Studios catalog lists the series as seen on ZDF/KiKA, France TV, Netflix, Amazon, Discovery Kids, Globosat, Telefonica, Rai, and SIC, with dubbed versions in 16 languages including German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Arabic, Korean, and Japanese.10

As of late September 2026, JustWatch reported the series streaming on Netflix, Netflix Kids, and Netflix Standard with Ads in the UK.11

Relation to the H₂O franchise and reception

The series is an animated spinoff of H₂O: Just Add Water, the Australian live-action series created by Jonathan M. Shiff that ran from 2006 to 2010.2 • 12 It parallels the original's setup, three friends transformed on a trip to a mysterious island, while retelling it for a younger audience.7 It sits alongside Mako: Island of Secrets (also known as Mako Mermaids) as a further extension of the franchise.13

The show was canceled after two seasons and 26 episodes, with the final episode airing on October 13, 2015.5 Aggregated ratings listed there include 5.3/10 on IMDb and 70% on The Movie Database.5

References

  1. H2O: Mermaid Adventures – Aired Order, TheTVDB.com
  2. H2O – Mermaid Adventures, Mediatoon Distribution
  3. H2O - Mermaid Adventures, ZDF Studios program catalog
  4. H2O – Abenteuer Meerjungfrau, fernsehserien.de
  5. Is 'H2O: Mermaid Adventures' on Netflix?, New On Netflix USA
  6. "H2O - Abenteuer Meerjungfrau" – Meerjungfrauen als neue Animationsserie zurück im ZDF, Presseportal/ZDF
  7. H2O: Mermaid Adventures – Parents' Guide & TV Review, Common Sense Media
  8. Panini schwimmt auf der Erfolgswelle mit „H2O – Abenteuer Meerjungfrau", Panini Newsroom
  9. H2O – Abenteuer Meerjungfrau Cast & Crew, fernsehserien.de
  10. ZDF Studios Selection Junior Spring/Summer 2022 (PDF)
  11. H2O: Mermaid Adventures – streaming online, JustWatch
  12. H2O: Just Add Water – Connections, IMDb
  13. H2O - Abenteuer Meerjungfrau, RTL+

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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