Pichi Pichi Pitch combined two subcategories of Magical Girl — the Magic Idol Singer (sans Older Alter Ego for once in the genre) and the Magical Girl 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 Singer and Magical Girl 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.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. Even Lucia's blonder in the anime; in the manga, her human form's hair looks more brown.
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, Licht and Michal?] and Kaito's family do it too.
Animorphism: Inversion with Kaito's minions, who were transformed from animals into humans.
Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Mermaids can't harm other mermaids with their songs. Note that Sara is not in violation of this rule: it is made pretty clear that only songs bestowed by the Goddess will not harm other mermaids. Return to the sea is a song born from Sara's hatred, NOT a gift from Aqua Regina. Therefore it would not bound by that rule.
Ascended Extra: Madame Taki and, to a lesser extent, the Black Beauty Sisters.
Bait-and-Switch Credits: Pure season's opening pairs up Lucia/Rihito, Michal/Kaito, Hanon/Nagisa and Rina/Masahiro. The first two aren't canon. In fact, the first is barely implied unrequited love from Rihito's side.
Boobs of Steel: In season 1, Sara is not only the most well-endowed mermaid, but is also the most powerful princess.
Lucia herself. Look how stacked she is, particularly in the manga. If that's not enough, after her life-saving upgrade at the end of the manga, it looks like she grew another cup!
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.
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.
Cut Song: From some of the dubs and the licensed games.
Darker and Edgier: The manga, at least compared to the anime. Part of this is because the manga was aimed at teenagers while the anime was aimed at younger audiences. One example is Maria trying to molest Kaito at one point of the manga (the scene was cut off from the anime).
Dramatic Wind: Used several times in the anime. ...even underwater.
Dreadful Musician: Mermaids without their pearls. Also, Luchia intended to sing to Kaito to show him that she was the mermaid, but she got too nervous and her singing resulted in this.
Drunk on Milk: Carbonated beverages get Mermaids drunk in the manga. This happens to Lucia while trying to take care of a sick Kaito. In the anime, it's replaced with a magic MacGuffin mood changer that goes haywire.
Five Races: Humans (Mundane), mermaids (Fairy), Ancients (High Men), Panthalassa and Suiyou (both High Men + Fairy).
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.
Four is Death: Four Dark Lovers and four Winged Ones.
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.
Inconsistent Dub: The Italian dub songs. For example, Lucia's japanese image song, Splash Dream, was not given an Italian counterpart. Therefore, when a scene would call for it, the Italian Lucia would sing either Torno all'Oceano (which is actually the italian counterpart of Hanon's song Ever Blue) or a random song from their established repertoire. Which, of course, caused confusion in certain episodes, such as the episode where, for whatever reason, Hanon ended up singing Stella Preziosa (Rina's song).
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.
Lucia thinks she should be happy for Kaito when she sees him with another woman on Christmas Eve. Turns out she's his aunt.
Suspiciously Similar Song: Some songs from the Italian version sound like their Japanese counterparts; also, and importantly, Michel and Michal's songs.
The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Lanhua creates a karaoke club and Lady Bat creates a divination tent. In the same piece of land, no less. But in different episodes.
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.
Meaningful Name: The title itself: "pichi pichi" is the sound of a fish's tail swishing and it's also the sound effect for someone who's especially excited and cute, like the heroines of the story.
Meganekko: Noel and Mimi both wear glasses they don't really need at certain points in the anime.
No Export for You: Averted: we've got the manga in North America, and other countries have it, the anime and sometimes the licensed games. The reason the English-speaking world hasn'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 Romantic Resolution: At the end, all the couples are set. There is one little problem though: Nagisa and Masahiro still don't know they're dating mermaids. Which means Hanon and Rina can't just come and go when duty calls and hope for a stable relationship. Lucia doesn't have this problem because Kaito knows.
Ordinary High School Student: As far as main characters go, only Nagisa, Masahiro and Kaito's buddies really count. And if you're reading the manga, exclude Masahiro.
Run the Gauntlet: One Pure episode had the Big Bad's minions do something like this, although the heroines went past 4 (of the 5) enemies without having to sing at them. The first was merely bypassed, the second was struck down by a bowling ball (how it got there is beyond me), the third was repelled by the fact he smelled of curry, and the fourth let them pass after being threatened to be beat up (He was about a third their height).
Spell My Name with an S: The early fansubs made a lot of spelling errors regarding the names, but some fans still like to say the wrong names and even start debates over it. The most popular ones are Lucia/Luchia/Ruchia, Rina/Lina, Gackto/Gakuto/Gaito (With the last one being anime Canon), Noel/Nuil/Noelle, Michel/Mikeru, Michal/Mikaru and Lanhua/Ranfa/Ran Fa/Lang Fa.
Let's not forget Yuuri and Hippo. Made even worse by the fact that Hippo was making a fuss over the mermaids falling in love with humans - and Yuuri is a sea witch!
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.
Translation Correction: In the manga, the Black Beauty sisters invocation is "It's a show time!". This is corrected in the anime and in all translations of the manga.
Umbrella Of Togetherness: In one episode, Kaito and Lucia were to share an umbrella, but Gaito (disguised as Kaito) almost kidnaps her. Kaito sees this and assumes she just went off with another guy, which sparks an argument between him and Lucia.
What Could Have Been: It was to be set in the pirate days, with Kaito as a pirate. The only heroic mermaids were Lucia (then named Lyre), Hanon and Rina. The villains were also merpeople and were only Izuuru, Gaito and Sara.
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.
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.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Played straight with mermaids; averted with humans. While mermaids' hair can be of any color in the spectrum, humans' hair in the series is always a normal shade of black, brown, or blonde. And when the mermaids change to human form, their hair becomes a normal human shade, or at least a much more muted version of its true color.
Nagisa and Masahiro (humans) also have blue and green hair, respectively, to match the mermaids they fall in love with.
You Have Failed Me: Sheshe and Mimi are consumed by Michel because of this.
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.
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