Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch - Television Tropes & Idioms

With a pichi pichi voice, live start!

Pichi Pichi Pitch combined two subcategories of Magical Girl — the Idol Singer (sans Glam Of Shazam for once in the genre) and the Magic Warrior— in a sugary show and maturing manga that took style and substance from the original The Little Mermaid story and plunked it into a magical world of princesses battling demons.

Nanami Lucia is the new girl in town, and with her foreign name, clumsy nature and odd talking penguin friend Hippo (more of a nagging guardian than anything), she's got enough problems. Of course, she's also the regent monarch of the North Pacific Ocean, with the title of Pink Pearl Princess — except she lost her pink pearl. And by "lost", she means "gave away", to save a drowning boy back when she was six. The boy turns out to be school idol and international competitive surfer Doumoto Kaito, and he's being targeted by the same league of sea demons that destroyed the kingdoms of the Atlantic princesses Hanon and Rina and kidnapped the Arctic and South Pacific princesses. Lucia (now with her pearl back), Hanon and Rina have to save those two, find the other two princesses that disappeared after the attacks, and navigate Lucia's love life, except, oh yeah, mermaid legend goes that confessing your identity to a human will turn you into seafoam.

Although the anime is sugary and child-friendly, and the manga was serialized in the cute Nakayoshi, the latter is a lot more dark and mature. Lucia and Kaito have a lot more subtext going on, embarrassing situations are more so (for example, in the manga, Lucia accidentally wins a beachside beauty contest when her bikini top comes undone, flashing the audience; in the anime, another girl wins and Lucia's much more modest suit is saved) and there's a bit of gore and more threatening villains.

Another thing that sets the Pichi Pichi mermaids apart from their contemporaries is the combination of the Magic Idol and Magic Warrior. Lucia and friends need their pearls to sing, and sing well; their singing voices can defeat the enemies, and upgrades come via new songs for their repertoires. Each girl, except for Noel and Coco, who spend most of their time in the background, also gets her own Image Song that can be used either in battle or in dramatic situations. In the second season and the second half of the first, some villains also get their own songs, and due to So Last Season, the old songs are only good for dramatic moments, making it even more like a musical.

Once licensed by ADV Films, only to be dropped a year later when they couldn't find a TV deal for the 52-episode first season. The manga is licensed and has been released in its entirety by Del Rey. (They do the good translations, so you have no reason not to pick it up.)

This series has a Character Sheet.

This program provides examples of:

Adaptation Dye Job (Rina's hair colours are more muted in the anime, while Seira and good!Sara have orange hair all the time instead of changing to brown as humans)
A Day In The Limelight
Aerith And Bob (The national origins of the names are varied and don't match up with the national origins of the people who have them. Mermaids have it worst, but the Amagi family [uh, Rihito and Michal?] and Kaito's family do it too.)
All Just A Dream (the New Year's episode)
Androcles Lion (Momo-chan, animals in a few fillers)
Anime Theme Song
Animorphism (inversion)
Ape Shall Never Kill Ape
A Simple Plan (hello, filler)
Ascended Extra (Madame Taki and, to a lesser extent, the Black Beauty Sisters)
Bait And Switch Credits (Pure, with the couples)
Beach Episode (the setting helps)
Bedsheet Ghost
Better Than It Sounds
Big Bad
Bishonen (Several, most notably Kaito)
Bizarre Alien Biology (Mermaids get drunk off of cola in the manga.)
Boy Meets Ghoul (inverted, subverted and used straight)
Bratty Half Pint (Yuuri, the loli of the Dark Lovers, who is seen by the others as a pest; also, Seira begins as this before she gets the pieces of her heart back.)
Busmans Holiday (even in Antarctica)
By The Power Of Greyskull (anime only, see Invocation)
Calling Your Attacks (After a song ends, the mermaids shout "Love Shower Pitch!". In the manga [and the video games, if you get a perfect score], Love Shower Pitch is Lucia's personal attack, and the others each call out something different.)
Canon Immigrant (Kura-chan, a mascot from the anime, appeared briefly in the manga. The manga also likes to use the songs from the anime.)
Cant Catch Up (Caren, Noel and Coco, Anviliciously so in the anime)
Celebrity Is Overrated (the New Year's episode)
Censor Steam (Manga-only, though.)
Christmas Episode
Chromatic Arrangement (it follows this so well that Hanon appears to forget the word "aqua" in the manga when she and Lucia meet up with Rina)
City Of Adventure
Clap Your Hands If You Believe
Clark Kenting (aversion)
Clingy Jealous Girl (Michal)
Clothing Damage (Kaito. Frequently in the manga)
Colour Coded For Your Convenience
Continuity Cameo (Kura-chan)
Cool Big Sis (Nikora)
Creepy Cool Crosses (Crosses are the symbol of the Panthalassa people, and appear on their foreheads when they use their powers)
Cross Dressing Voices (Hippo, Michel, Nagisa and Lady Bat are all played by females in the original Japanese version)
Crowning Moment Of Awesome Anime (Coco's jailbreak and conversion of Sara without her pearl in the manga, and the Black Beauty Sisters' turning on Michel just before they die in the anime)
Crowning Music Of Awesome
Crucified Hero Shot (near the end of the manga)
Curtains Match The Window (every mermaid but Lucia)
Cut Himself Shaving
Cut Song (from some of the dubs and the licensed games)
Cute Shotaro Boy (the human version of Hippo)
Deadpan Snarker (Hippo; early on, Caren)
Deal With The Devil (The Great One's creation)
Demonic Invaders
Die For Our Ship (Michal)
Distinguishing Mark (it doesn't work so well for Tarou, but he gets it right later)
Dogged Nice Guy (Nagisa, although it finally pays off)
Dont Say Such Stupid Things
Doomed Hometown (not Lucia's, actually, but most characters')
Do They Know Its Christmas Time
Dramatic Wind
Dude Shes Like In A Coma (dude, he's, like, sick and half-asleep... and you're drunk)
Dude Wheres My Reward
Eleventh Hour Superpower (KODOU, Kibou no Kaneoto)
The End Of The World As We Know It
Engaging Chevrons (transformation sequences)
Everything Fades (the result of the anime making death scenes more child-friendly)
Everythings Better With Princesses (eight of them, plus two princes)
Evil Overlord
Evil Minions
Evil Redheads (four of them)
Extraordinarily Empowered Girl
Eyecatch (usually marked with whichever character is most important to the episode)
Eyes Of Gold (Coco, Sara; Seira's look more orange)
Fake Boss (Gackto, Michel and the Great One)
Fan Dumb (Oh, so much. The amount of fangirls who declare Lady Bat's maleness as Dis Continuity must be seen to be believed.)
Fanservice (mostly Kaito)
Festival Episode
Filler
Finger Suck Healing
First Kiss (for each of the main heroines)
Five Races
Flash Back (Think of one instance where said flashback doesn't either contain a song, the implications of an attack song, or background music of the character singing in the present. Yeah, I don't know either.)
Four Is Death (four Dark Lovers and four Winged Ones)
Friend Or Idol Decision (many, many times)
Frills Of Justice
Gender Blender Name (Nagisa, male, Makoto, male, and Noel, female)
Generic Cuteness
Ghibli Hills (the river, the beach)
Girlish Pigtails (Pink Pearl Voice)
Gondor Calls For Aid
Good Witch Versus Bad Witch (there are bad mermaids and good Panthalassa, too)
Gotta Catch Them All (tweaked, as the "items" are actually, in part, the characters)
Grand Finale
Gratuitous English (Pinku paaru voisu!)
Gratutious German (Rihito's name is supposedly how Japanese pronounce "Licht", the German word for "light".)
Green Lantern Ring (While the main effect of the Mermaid Princess' songs is to make enemies cover their ears and run away, they also do things like make force fields, reverse mind control, restore memories, make people hallucinate, and light candles.)
Hair Colors (apparently an indicator of race in the mermaid world, except for pink mermaids, who can have any hair colour; this loophole was likely invented simply for the sake of making Lucia a blonde.)
Heart Symbol (at the end of songs)
Henshin Hero
Heroic Sacrifice
Hufflepuff House (mermaid civilians)
Humanity Ensues (Hippo)
Idol Singer (all of them, as well as Lucia's [anime only] idol Jennifer)
I Know You Are In There Somewhere Fight (Hanon and Sara, later Rihito and The Great One)
Ill Girl (Michal)
Image Song
Indirect Kiss
In The Name Of The Moon
Invisible To Normals (a perk of the girls' powers is that the crowds often seem to think that they're idol singers)
Invocation (the transformation phrases in the manga, if that's what they are and not their names. The anime turns them into necessary transformation phrases.)
Isnt It Sad (Coco, Noel and Caren. Definitely.)
I Want My Beloved To Be Happy (Tarou and Hanon both do this)
The Jimmy Hart Version (some songs from the Italian version sound like their Japanese counterparts; also, and importantly, Michel and Michal's songs)
Joshikousei
Jossed (The Great One is not Michal. Or Aqua Regina.)
Keet (Nagisa)
The Lancer (The lance gets tossed around to most of the team, all in the hopes of making Lucia less of a ditz.)
Leisure Suit Larry (Lucia seems to be the victim of many of these, especially in fillers and early on establishing her relationship with Kaito)
Lets Get Dangerous (Caren, Noel and Coco in the end of the manga. Hippo gets a few of these moments in both versions.)
Lighter And Softer (the anime)
Lonely Rich Kid (Both Kaito and Michal)
Lovely Angels (referenced in the climax of the manga, where Caren, Coco and Noel actually get to do something!)
Love Dodecahedron (More like a love chain: Nagisa-Hanon-Tarou-Sara-Gackto-Dark Lovers, and just to make things more complicated, Yuuri, one of the Dark Lovers, falls in love with Hippo.)
Love Makes You Evil
Love Redeems (with the same pairing as the Love Makes You Evil entry, too)
Love Triangle (Lucia-Kaito-Michal)
Magical Girl (multiple types, too)
Magic Music
Man Behind The Man
Market Based Title (the Italian version)
Masquerade
Meganekko (Noel and Mimi both wear glasses they don't really need at certain points in the anime.)
Merchandise Driven (why do you think the E-pitch looks like an E-kara?)
Mermaid Problem (never addressed, but a particular scene in the manga really makes you wonder)
Mid Season Upgrade
Mineral Mac Guffin (a pearl isn't a mineral, but it is generally considered a precious stone)
Misaimed Fandom
Mix And Match
Monster Of The Week (beginning of the second season)
Multinational Team
Musical Assassin
Nakama
No Export For You (Averted: we've got the manga, and other countries have it, the anime and sometimes the licensed games. The reason we haven't got the anime is because TV wouldn't take it, not because of lack of trying on either side of the anime industry.)
- Keep Circulating The Tapes (Except that most of the fansubbed episodes have the wrong names and make mistakes a kid could spot, and not even half the series is subbed yet. Keep Circulating the Raws. Or just read the manga.)
No Mr Bond I Expect You To Dine (Michel does this once, but it's Gackto who loves pulling these on his captives)
Non Human Sidekick (Hippo... That is, if he isn't in his human form.)
Not So Harmless (Fuku)
Odd Friendship (Caren and Noel)
Oddly Named Sequel ("Pure")
One Gender Race
Only Child Syndrome (either it's this or they're all sisters. Mermaid biology is weird.)
Only One Name (too prevalent to count)
Ordinary High School Student
Our Mermaids Are Different
Overtook The Manga (especially prevalent in the second season)
Peeka Boo
People Jars
Perky Female Minion (Yuuri, and Alala to a much lesser extent, despite being perkier)
Periphery Demographic (teenage girls, especially in the Western audience)
Perpetual Molt (used as a plot device)
Personality Powers
Petting Zoo People (two anglerfish, one bat and one butterfly)
Pillar Of Light
Pimped Out Dress (their idol singer costumes)
Portmanteau Series Nickname
Post Episode Trailer
The Power Of Friendship
The Power Of Love
The Power Of Rock
Power Trio
Pretty In Mink (one of their costume sets)
Previously On
Prime Directive (no confessing to humans)
Prophetic Names
Puberty Superpower
Quirky Household
Quirky Miniboss Squad
Raised By Wolves
Rapunzel Hair (all mermaids out of civilian form)
Real Time
Rebellious Princess
Redemption Equals Death
Rescue Romance
Rhythm Game (two of the licensed GBA games)
Royals Who Actually Do Something
Satellite Character
Say My Name
School Play (The Little Mermaid, at that.)
Sealed Evil In A Can
Sealed Good In A Can
Seashell Bra (colour-coded, too!)
Secret Identity
Shirtless Scene (frequently happens to Kaito in the manga)
Shoujo
Shrines And Temples
Sibling Yin Yang (both sets of twins)
Sixth Ranger (five of them, actually, not counting Kaito)
So Last Season
Spell My Name With An S (this editor once considered roping enough people into a LiveJournal RP to have a full cast, just so the usernames could all match: "notnamedluchia", "notnamedkaitou", "notnamedlina"... I found at least one option for almost everyone.)
Spirit Advisor
Starcrossed Lovers (the mythical mermaid, who, apparently, eventually said Screw Destiny to the Prime Directive and went off with the human anyway; also, Sara and Tarou, who weren't quite so lucky)
Steven Ulysses Perhero
Stock Footage (songs)
Suspiciously Apropos Music
The Sweat Drop
Talent Show Version
Tall Dark And Bishoujo (Caren, arguably Rina and the rest of the secondary trio)
Team Spirit
Theme Naming
Theme Tune Cameo
Theme Twin Naming (Gackto says his true name is Gakuto, with some of the same kanji from Kaito's name, when he reveals that they are twins. Even with the name Gackto, he matches Kaito, as they're both named after popular singers. In the anime, this was just changed to having Gackto's name be Gaito all along, getting rid of the Hollywood Spelling issue as well as downplaying his status as a Lawyer Friendly Cameo of Gackt.)
There Is Another (the Amagi family is half Panthalassa)
They Fight Crime
This And That (Hanon and Kaito both use the euphemism, to a very flustered Lucia)
Throwaway Country
Title Confusion
Title Montage (last episode)
To Become Human
Together Umbrella
Tomboy And Girly Girl (Rina and Hanon)
Transformation Sequence
Transformation Trinket (pearl shells)
Translation Correction
Trippy Finale Syndrome
Trope Overdosed (but if you've gotten this far, you already know that)
Villain Override
Villain Song
Water Is Air
Weasel Mascot
West Coast Team
What Could Have Been
What Do You Mean Its For Kids (The more suggestive and bloody manga is rated "13+" in North America, where the Animation Age Ghetto compels manga publishers to put ratings on their books, yet it was originally published in Nakayoshi, a magazine for little girls.)
- What Do You Mean Its Not For Kids (This same manga has gotten flak from reviewers in the Anglosphere for its innuendo and violence — not because the series itself is for kids, which it is, but because no one over the age of ten would read a magical girl story. The fanbase would like to have a word with you. In fact, the fanbases of Magical Girl series for adults, like Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, would also like to have a word with you.)
What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic (the religious imagery in Lucia's and Michel's names, as well as the cross of the Panthalassa)
What Kind Of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway (Averted; the "lame" power is shared by most of the protagonists, and those with the "cool" power rarely ever actually get to fight.)
White Gloves
White Haired Pretty Boy (Gackto and Michel)
Winged Humanoid (Michel and his followers)
Word Salad Title ("Mermaid Melody" is obvious, "Pichi Pichi" is the onomatopoeia for a fish splashing and also describes Lucia's happy personality, "Pitch" is another musical reference)
Worthy Opponent
You Are Worth Hell (Sara and Gackto in the end of the first arc.)
You Cant Fight Fate
You Gotta Have Blue Hair
You Have Failed Me
You Know The One (In order to make this seem less awkward, "that person" was changed in the English manga to "the Great One". This is especially convenient, because it's referring to a man, and both Jossed theories put female characters in the position.)
Yuppie Couple (the schoolgirls are always the same)