Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

Ruby Gillman of Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is for the most part as typical an awkward teenager as can be, except she's also a kraken. Her mother, father and younger brother are all krakens, and they're pretending to be humans by living in plain sight in the community of Oceanside. Ruby has a group of best friends, but still faces issues about fitting in, which are not helped by her mother's ban of her ever going near the ocean, let alone entering it.

But go into the ocean, Ruby must. In a riff of on the Hans Christian Andersen story, Ruby jumps into the ocean for the first time to save her crush, Connor. This act transforms Ruby irrevocably, triggering physical changes she's unprepared for. To make things worse, a new student named Chelsea takes credit for Connor's rescue.

Ruby then learns the truth her mother kept from her, which is that there's more to being a kraken, and there's more to her specifically being a kraken, because Ruby is actually a princess with special powers, and the heiress of a long line of warrior women kraken in her family. Meanwhile, there's something fishy going on with Chelsea, who has an agenda of her own.

It's a coming-of-age story with fantasy elements, and has some great creature designs both on land and in the water for the world. We don't see as much of the kraken kingdom, but they use bioluminescence wonderfully to depict the undersea realm, and a kaiju-style battle in a teen/family comedy story is hey, fun! Besides the brief Hans Christian Andersen riff, Chelsea the mermaid is also a clear reference to Ariel, though in my opinion they could've taken it farther than they did.