Lucia as a young mermaid saw a young boy on a ship, when the ship was hit with a tidal wave the boy was knocked into the ocean. Lucia saves the boy and entrust him with her pink pearl. Now years later Lucia must now go to the surface and find and retrieve her pearl. She never expected to fall in love with the boy she met years ago. However there is a legend that says if she confess to him and tells him she's really a mermaid, that she will be turned into bubbles! She must now struggle against a villain wanting to capture her and all seven mermaid princesses and her own heart, which is complicated by not knowing if Kaito loves her human form or her mermaid form.

Story & Characters

Mermaid Melody (Pichi Pichi Pitch, or Pure) is a typical anime snuggled into the vastly popular shoujo genre. It is not unlike Sailor Moon or Tokyo Mew Mew, where three to eight teenage girls save the world. However, Mermaid Melody is not only about three best friends who band together to save the world - in heels and short skirts of course - but is it semi-glorified with a twist from the mind of Hans Christian Anderson: Mermaids! Yes, those half fish, half lady beings. Pink Hanamori and her affiliates went beyond the middle school students and animal-induced teens, using the semi-fresh concept of mermaids. The common thread of magical-girl anime makes this particular anime slightly unconventional, but the series is still jam packed with plenty of girl-meets-boy goodness. Or, rather ... Luchia meets Kaito.

Once past the 'if mermaids fall in love and reveal themselves to humans they will turn into sea foam', one can expect to see no difference in plot between the likes of other supernatural butt-kicking anime. The story begins with bright-eyed, slighty dim-witted mermaid, Nanami Luchia. She is nothing more than a typical good-natured protagonist, but is still charming. The girl-meets-boy concept is the first cliche to be thrown into our faces off-the-bat. Set near a Japanese coast, Luchia strolls down the beach reminiscing. Upon dreaming of the boy she saved many years before, channeling an allusion to Anderson's The Little Mermaid, he appears right before her again - only, years older and much more handsome. After abruptly running from him, due to a crass remark he made, Luchia swears it is not him. But of course, the little boy she saved and surfing champ Kaito Domouto are one in the very same.

It just so happens that Luchia is the Pink Mermaid Princess, one of seven, and gave her pink pearl to save Kaito's life many years ago. Without their pearls, apparently, the mermaid princess (Luchia, Hanon, Lina, Coco, Caren, Noel, Sara, and later Seira) cannot sing without their pearls. Luchia is often reminded of this fact by makeshift guardian and older sister, Nikora. Living in Nikora's, who is a resident of Luchia's kingdom, bathouse are: Luchia, Taki (a fortune-teller), Hippo (a boy, penguin, sea-horse thing?), and later on, Hanon and Lina.

Next, Hanon and Lina are entered in. They are slightly more compelling than Luchia. Hanon, aquamarine pearl voice, is a cute, boy-loving girl who is very wary of Luchia's growing feelings for Kaito. She later disregards this caution upon meeting music teacher "Tarou-Chan". Lina is the more stoic of the three. Green pearl voice, Lina Touin has met tragedy in her past, losing her best friend Noel, indigo pearl voice, to evil front-man Gaito. Lina is very quick to catch on to Kaito's obvious physical similarity to Gaito, but discovers no connection between the two, and comes to terms with him.

Then there are the beauties, who often lack the beauty and charm they insist they possess. Yuri, Eriru, and others are among Gaito's cast of all-female lackies who are evolutionized fish. Each of them has a special power and often call on the help of evil marine beings. However, a mysterious woman shrouded by a veil is seemingly the only female Gaito actually pays any mind to. Gaito's current goal is the destruction of all seven kingdoms, many of which he has demolished, and the capture of all the mermaid princesses and their pearls.

Mermaid Melody is complete with pretty little transformations as well! Armed with microphones and their voices, reciting "Pichi Pichi Live Start" before their amazing song-attacks (Legend of Mermaid, most notably), the mermaids hold a performance to silence their enemies. Their decent voices blister the ears of the underwater villians! Although, I have to say the villians in Mermaid Melody are signifigantly different than I would expect of a typical anime; morover, they are not evil scientists, or dying out alien races. The villians are very creative and unique, trying to capture the mermaids for their handsome master Gaito, not because they have to. All they really want is Gaito's heart.

And then there is Kaito. Brash, sarcastic, charismatic Kaito. As Luchia still dreams of Kaito, he is off in his own world dreaming of the mermaid who saved him and has re-appeared again. And, of course, he has not made the connection between human Luchia and mermaid Luchia, while struggling with feelings for both.

Yes, even when sometimes things are a little - well, a lot - cliche, the story is rather cute and mildly interesting. The ultimate goal of the seven mermaids, from their own respective countries of the ocean, is to restore their demolished kingdoms and defeat Gaito, in hopes to bring peace to the kingdoms. The entire mermaid cast, with pearl color, include:

Nanami Luchia (Pink), Hoshou Hanon (Aquamarine), Touin Lina (Green), Caren (Purple) who is twin to Noel (Indigo), Coco (Yellow), and Sara (Orange).

And, like all good we're-gonna-save-the-world heroes, they strive for peace and good in the end.

Rating: 5

Art

The art or Mermaid Melody is maybe too cute. Maybe. The cuteness of the art is not terribly noticeable, unless you're paying all your attention to characters such as Hanon or Yuri. However, it is consistent enough to keep viewers content throughout the first and second seasons. Nothing about the animation draws very many complaints, but can sometimes be distracting.

The only thing I can make of the animation is that it is "absolutely cute" and fits well within it's genre and story.

Rating: 6

Sound

The audio of Mermaid Melody is key, considering it is the focal point above all else, by which our heroines save the day. Highly enjoyable, the sound, at least the Japanese and Italian audio (who knows about when it is dubbed into english), is above acceptable. Each seiyuu was on target in portraying his or her character, and I can draw no complaints ... except for the singing voice of Purple Pearl Voice, Caren. Dear Lord, Heaven Almighty, this seiyuu was not blessed with, in any way, shape, or form of a singing talent. Her speaking voice suits Caren well, but when she begins to sing - you just might want to hear it, or not, for yourself. You will begin to wonder: "Who killed the cat and stuck it up Caren's nose?" Furthermore, with Caren, the villians have every right to cringe.

However, other than Caren, the singing voices of the other six are a delight to listen to. While they are unlikely to put anyone in awe, one will feel all bubbly inside - possibly. The OST is also very enjoyable. The most noteable songs of Pitch and Pure are: Legend of Mermaid, KODOU, Splash Dream (Luchia image song), Daiji na Takarabako, Mother Symphony, Ever Blue (Hanon image song), Mizuiro no Senritsu ("), Koi Wa Nandarou, Star Jewel (Lina image song), and Piece of Love (").

Rating: 7

Presentation

As a whole, Mermaid Melody is nice. From the animation, to the somewhat cliche plot and characters, there are only a few holes that were left untouched. The series moved at a nice pace, neither rushing nor speeding the story along, even with two complete seasons.

One gets to view all the dreams of the characters be realized, and experience a bit of beautiful tragedy at the end. Pink Hanamori even leave room for a sequel season, titled: Mermaid Melody PURE. Still, I will not lie, if you are not somewhat into this genre, this series is not for you.

"How about an encore?"

Rating: 6

Final Verdict

5.83 (average)

Reviewed by xxKurumi, Jul 16, 2006

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