The Boy from the Sea

The Boy from the Sea (Japanese: 海から来た少年, Umi kara kita shōnen) is a 1979 Japanese children's book, written and illustrated by Ryotaro Sekizawa (of Quincy fame) and was published by Kodansha. It tells the story of an unnamed elderly couple who meet a mysterious young boy by the beach who can transform into a sea creature on a whim, from there they take him to various places like Festivals, Aquariums and other places before letting the boy go back to his sea creature parents and waving goodbye.

Sekizawa made the book after visiting his parent's house, there he found his old childhood drawings and decided to make a children's book with a similar style. prior to this, Sekizawa had written a comedy manga called Parody World in 1976 but this was Sekizawa's first work to become a bestseller and gave him enough clout to pursue more serious work like Quincy and True Machination.

The book would later be adapted into the 1985 American fantasy-comedy The Boy from the Blue. An English translation by Random House would be published that year to tie in with the film.