is a ''shōjo'' manga and

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series created by

Michiko Yokote is a Japanese screenwriter. Screenwriting • Head writer/series composition denoted in bold Anime television series *'' Patlabor: The TV Series'' (1990) *'' Ranma ½'' (1990–1992) *''Rurouni Kenshin'' (1996) *'' Magical Project S '' (1996– ...

, with artwork by Pink Hanamori. The

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

was originally published in the monthly manga anthology ''

Nakayoshi is a monthly Shōjo manga, ''shōjo'' manga List of manga magazines, magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. First issued in December 1954, it is a long-running magazine with over 60 years of manga publication history. Notable titles serialized ...

''. Thirty-two chapters have been published (including two special stories) and are compiled into seven volumes by

Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

. A 91-episode anime series was produced by

TV Aichi Aichi Television Broadcasting Company, Ltd. (TVA; ), also referred to as , with the callsigns JOCI-DTV (channel 10) is a Japanese television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity ...

, divided into two seasons, aired in Japan from April 2003 to December 2004. The first season is composed of 52 episodes, while the second, entitled ''Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure'', lasted for 39.

Plot

Lucia Nanami, the

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are ...

princess of the

North Pacific Ocean North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' ...

, sets out on land to find the boy that she had saved from a

tsunami wave A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, la ...

seven years before the beginning of the story, with whom she fell in love and had entrusted her pink

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living Exoskeleton, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pear ...

. She eventually finds the boy, a teenage surfer named Kaito Dōmoto, but Kaito does not recognize Lucia in her human form. She cannot directly tell Kaito who she really is; otherwise, according to mermaid legend, she would turn into bubbles and disappear. Lucia tries to convince Kaito into figuring out who she really is (since the legend doesn't say anything about the other person discovering a mermaid's true identity by him or her self). At the same time, Lucia has been told that a group of water demons have invaded the sea world and she must gather six other Mermaid Princesses and their pearls to bring back the legendary goddess Aqua Regina to stop them. To fulfill this, she joins forces with Hanon and Rina, the Mermaid Princesses who came up to dry land, use their pearls, turn into singing

teen idol A teen idol is a celebrity with a large teenage fan base. Teen idols are generally young but are not necessarily teenagers themselves. An idol's popularity may be limited to teens, or may extend to all age groups. By region Asia Ea ...

s, and use their voices as an offensive power. After the water demons fail, the Black Beauty Sisters show up to steal the show. The Mermaid Princesses believe in themselves and believe they can defeat the Black Beauty Sisters, which they do.

Media

Manga

The original manga, created by Yokote with illustrations by Hanamori, began serializing in the September 2002 issue of ''Nakayoshi''. There are a total of 32 chapters, with final one published on the April 2005 issue of the said magazine (released in March 2005). There are a total of seven ''

tankōbon A is a standard publishing format for books in Japan, alongside other formats such as ''shinsho'' (17x11 cm paperback books) and ''bunkobon''. Used as a loanword in English, the term specifically refers to a printed collection of a manga that w ...

'' volumes by

, the first six containing five chapters each and final one having two. They were released between March 20, 2003 and April 30, 2005.

Del Rey Manga Del Rey Manga was the manga-publishing imprint (trade name), imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. History Del Rey Manga was formed as part of a cr ...

acquired the rights to publish the manga for the North American audience. It began releasing the manga in April 2006 under the title ''Pichi Pichi Pitch: Mermaid Melody''. The English translations of the seven volumes were released from April 25, 2006 to October 30, 2007. The seventh volume, aside from the final two chapters, also contains two preview chapters from other manga. A sequel manga written and illustrated by Hanamori, titled ''Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Aqua'', began serialization in the September issue of Kodansha's ''

'' magazine on August 3, 2021.

Anime

An anime adaptation produced by

, We've, and Tokyu Agency, animated by

Actas is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1998. It is currently a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Filmworks, which in turn is a subsidiary to Bandai Namco Holdings. History Actas was founded on July 6, 1998, by Hiroshi Katō and Jūtarō Ōba, who pr ...

and

Synergy Japan is a Japanese animation studio founded on September 24, 1998, as ''Synergy Japan'' which originally split off from Studio Junio (which itself was founded by Toei Animation staff). In 2005, the company became associated with Shogakukan-Shueisha ...

, and directed by Yoshitaka Fujimoto aired in Japan in two seasons. The first season, simply named ''Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch'' and covers manga chapters 1 to 20, aired between April 5, 2003 and March 27, 2004. They were compiled into 14 DVD volumes. The second season, ''Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure'', which adapts events from chapters 21 to 30, was aired between April 3 and December 25, 2004. Unlike the first season, ''Pure'' was compiled into two DVD box sets containing a total of 11 discs.

ADV Films A.D. Vision Holdings, Inc. (known simply as ADV and also referred to as ADV Films) was an American multimedia entertainment distributor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and founded in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and anime fans Matt Gr ...

acquired the license to the anime in June 2004 for its North American release, but was eventually dropped due to difficulty in finding backers and securing a TV airing deal. While the acquisition of the license and the production of the English anime predated that of the manga, it is unknown if a release will occur. As of 2009, the anime has been completely dubbed but is being held by Kodansha. In addition, some foreign dubs such as

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

dubbed versions were translated from the unreleased ADV Films' English-dubbed version as a reference when Elastic Rights acquired the licensing rights to ''Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch'' from Kodansha in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and

French-speaking French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. Likewise, there is an alternative English dub version which was made in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

by an unknown dubbing studio for Top-Insight International (which released the anime series in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

outside

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

on behalf of Kodansha). It aired on

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso * Canal 3 Niger, a commercial television channel in Niger * Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Can ...

Disney Channel (Spanish TV channel) Disney Channel was a Spanish terrestrial television channel owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company Iberia and is based on the original U.S. pay network of the same name. It was originally launched on 17 April 1998, as a pay television c ...

Clan (TV channel) Clan is a Spanish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Televisión Española (TVE), the television division of state-owned public broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It is the corporation's television channel for kid ...

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española (''Spanish Radio and Television'', RTVE), is the Spanish national public Broadcasting, television and radio broadcaster. It is a state-owned enterprise f ...

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

Telemundo Internacional Telemundo Internacional is a Latin American pay television television network, network owned by NBCUniversal. Telemundo Internacional carries a variety of programs, consisting mainly of select programs from the Telemundo national schedule. Histo ...

Telemundo Africa Telemundo Africa is an African cable television channel broadcast on 12 August 2013 by DStv in more than 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Owned by NBCUniversal International Networks, the channel programming is dedicated to the Spanish-languag ...

Telemundo Kids ''Telemundo Kids'' (borrowing its name from Telemundo's 1995– 1998 Saturday morning block ''Telemundo Infantil'') is a former American Children's television series, children's Block programming, programming block that debuted on October 6, 2001 ...

, in 2006 and later moved its sister channel TV9 in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

with or without Malay subtitles. The

Malaysian English Malaysian English (MyE), formally known as Malaysian Standard English (MySE) (similar and related to British English), is a form of English used and spoken in Malaysia. While Malaysian English can encompass a range of English spoken in Malaysi ...

dubbed version however became very hard to find than the ADV's dubbed version since it never officially released to

home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...

neither in Malaysia nor in English-speaking Asian territories. A total of six theme songs were composed for the anime. The first opening theme, by Miyuki Kanbe, and the first ending theme by Asumi Nakata, are used in the first 28 episodes. For 29th to the 52nd episodes, "Rainbow Notes♪" by Kanbe and by Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and

Mayumi Asano is a Japanese voice actress who is currently part of Office Osawa. Filmography Television Video games *'' Armored Core: Last Raven'' (2005) – Zinaida *''Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2'' (2017) – Baiken *''Samurai Shodown'' (2021) – Baiken *' ...

, are the second opening and ending themes respectively. For ''Pure'', the opening theme is "Before the Moment" by

Eri Kitamura is a Japanese voice actress and singer. She was previously affiliated with Early Wing, but is now a freelancer. She is known for voicing prominent roles in anime and games such as Sayaka Miki in '' Puella Magi Madoka Magica'', Saya Otonashi in ...

while by Nakata, Terakado, and Asano is the ending song.

Other music

There are also other pieces of music used in the anime, either as battle songs performed by the Mermaid Princesses or their enemies or as insert songs. All songs listed below are compiled in several character singles, soundtrack, and vocal albums (which also include the theme songs listed above): ;Mermaid songs: * "Legend of Mermaid" by Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano * by Asumi Nakata * "Ever Blue" by Hitomi Terakado * "Star Jewel" by Mayumi Asano * "Super Love Songs!" by Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano * "Splash Dream" by Asumi Nakata * by

Ema Kogure is a freelance Japanese voice actress previously affiliated with Mausu Promotion. She was born in Osaka Prefecture and raised in Adachi, Tokyo. Filmography Television animation ;2000s *Hand Maid May (Mika, Miyuki Zin, Woman) *Go! Go! Itsutsugo ...

* "Kizuna" (lit. "Bonds") by Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano * by Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano * "Return to the Sea" by

Kana Ueda is a Japanese voice actress and singer. Biography Youth and training She is a graduate of Kobe College's department of General Culture. Career She is best known as the voices of Yumi Fukuzawa in ''Maria-sama ga Miteru'', Rin Tōsaka ...

* "Kodou ~Perfect Harmony~" (lit. "Heartbeat ~Perfect Harmony~") primarily by Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, Mayumi Asano, and Ema Kogure (second version includes

Satomi Arai is a Japanese voice actress. She married Yoshimitsu Shimoyama in 2008 and had a son in 2010. Her husband's identity was later disclosed in 2016. Filmography Anime series Original video animation Original net animation Anime films Tok ...

and Ryoko Nagata; third version also includes Kana Ueda) * "Mother Symphony" by Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano * by Hitomi Terakado * "Piece of Love" by Mayumi Asano * by Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano * "Beautiful Wish" by Eri Kitamura * primarily by Asumi Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano (second version also includes Ema Kogure, Satomi Arai and Ryoko Nagata; third version also includes Eri Kitamura) * "Birth of Love" by Eri Kitamura ;Other songs: * by Miki Tsuchiya and

Noriko Shitaya is a Japanese voice actress from Chiba Prefecture, Japan. She is known for her role as Sakura Matō in ''Fate/stay night'' series. Voice roles Anime television 2000 * '' Hamtaro'', Sumire-chan, Tsutomu-kun 2001 * '' Parappa the Rapper'' Ga ...

* by Miki Tsuchiya and Noriko Shitaya * by

Sanae Kobayashi is a Japanese voice actress formerly affiliated with Production Baobab, and now with Sigma Seven. She has voiced in a number of anime shows and films. Some of her major roles are Allen Walker in '' D.Gray-man'', Miyuki Tanokura in '' Kaze no ...

* by Megumi Kojima * by

Masayo Kurata is a Japanese voice actress. Some of her major roles are Koyomi from ''Girls Bravo'', Shinobu Maehara in '' Love Hina'', Tomoe Kashiwaba in ''Rozen Maiden'', Karinka from '' Steel Angel Kurumi'', and Subaru Mikage in ''Comic Party''. In vid ...

* "Oh Yeah! Alala" by Masayo Kurata * by

Junko Minagawa is a Japanese voice actress affiliated with Haikyo. Her best-known role is Ryoma Echizen, the title character in ''The Prince of Tennis'' anime series. She sang some of the show's theme songs, insert songs, and character singles, some of whic ...

* by Ryoko Shintani

Video games

Three video games (developed by

Konami Computer Entertainment Japan , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

) were released on

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

console during the original run of the anime. All the games featured multiplayer capabilities, but required each player to have his or her own copy of the game in order to play. * ''Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch'' (October 9, 2003): Inspired by ''

Dance Dance Revolution (''DDR'') is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, ''Dance Dance Revolution'' is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance ...

'', this included eight songs from the anime. * ''Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pichi Pichi Party'' (December 18, 2003): A "virtual board game" similar to the ''

Mario Party is a series of party video games created by Hudson Soft and owned by Nintendo. It features List of Mario franchise characters, characters from the Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise in which up to four local players or Artificial inte ...

'' series. * ''Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pichi Pichitto Live Start!'' (March 18, 2004): Similar to the first ''Mermaid Melody'' game, this included fourteen songs from the anime, as well as several mini-games. Although this game (along with the first one) is a

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

-developed

music video game A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a ...

, it is not considered part of the ''

Bemani , stylized as BEMANI, is Konami's music video game division. Originally named the Games & Music Division (G.M.D.), it changed its name in honor of its first and most successful game, ''Beatmania'', and expanded into other music-based games, m ...

'' series.

Reception

Reviews for the English manga have been generally unfavorable. Robert Harris of Mania.com has managed to score all of its volumes Cs and below, even going insofar as to rate its 7th and final volume an F−, making it the only manga series on site to receive such a score. Meanwhile, ''

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

''s Melissa Harper managed to only review the second volume of the manga and commented that while it has good visuals, its story is too childish in some of its elements.

References

External links

''Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch''
Official website of the anime at TV Tokyo * {{Authority control 2003 anime television series debuts 2003 manga 2004 anime television series debuts Television series set in the 2000s Actas ADV Films Bandai Namco franchises Del Rey Manga Fiction about merfolk Comics about mermaids Japanese children's animated comedy television series Japanese children's animated fantasy television series Japanese idols in anime and manga Kodansha manga Magical girl anime and manga Shōjo manga TVB Fiction about human–mermaid romance Japan-exclusive video games