Oddly romantic gift, or hilarious April Fool’s Day prank? You decide.

Japanese stationery company Mammaru has created a rather unique type of stationery. The paper itself dissolves quite cleanly in water, but the printed text remains, as if completely unaffected by the liquid. The effect is mesmerizing, ethereal, and perhaps even a little symbolic; the paper may be destroyed, but the words remain permanent.

The document used as an example to show how the stationery works is something you’d definitely not want to get destroyed (well, hopefully you don’t): a marriage certificate.

▼ It starts off looking completely normal, right? Fancy paper, binding words, a nice frame…

▼ But then, oh no! A bowl of water!

▼ As you can see, the dissolved paper clouds up the water, but the printed text remains intact – not even smudging.

▼ When you mix up the water, though, the words separate and drift apart. Now it’s a puzzle!

Mammaru has even uploaded a video so that you can see the effect in action.

The stationery isn’t available on Mammaru’s web shop yet, but they do take requests. If you visit their homepage linked in their Twitter profile, you can send a message their way!

The idea for the stationery actually came about when creators Mammaru and Twitter user @sasuga3 were brainstorming ideas for a same-sex couple. One could imagine that tears dissolved things away. However, with this special stationery, the creators hoped that the couple could live together without tears. There’s an ‘aww’ moment for you.

Of course, then the important questions arise: Will it survive a flood? Will I be able to use this in a court of law? We’re going to guess the answer to both is no. But, you can still use it as a romantic (and perhaps a little threatening) message to your partner: a marriage certificate may be just a piece of paper, but it’s the words on it that bind you together.

Source: Togech
Images: Twitter/@manmaru_t