Pichi Pichi Pitch: Mermaid Melody

As Mermaid Melody was my very first anime, which I watched about eight years ago, I felt compelled to eventually read the manga. I was curious about the "original" story and wondered if it differed from the animated version. Here we are.

Where to start...

Story

This aspect really surprised me. Typically, when you've seen an anime and then explore its manga counterpart, you expect a more extensive storyline with additional content. However, in this case, the opposite is true. The anime, with its 50 episodes per season, is far more developed than this manga, which only has 35 chapters.

Personally, I felt that the first part of the manga series (the Gackto arc) was rushed compared to the anime. It seemed like many parts were missing, and the plot jumped around frequently. This could also be due to the confusing chapter listings on most manga reading sites, which led me to sometimes read the wrong follow-up chapters (please fix this; it was incredibly confusing).

The manga is noticeably more mature than the anime. When I started watching the anime at age 12, it felt childish and romantic, much like Winx Club, another show I watched back then. While the anime had catchy Japanese romantic moments, its popularity among children in Italy speaks volumes about its child-friendly nature.

In what ways is the manga more mature?

There's significantly more nudity depicted. For instance, in the anime, mermaids bathing never showed them turning back into humans after getting out. In the manga, the girls often dry off with towels, revealing human-like body parts, leading to several nude drawings (with covered areas, naturally). This certainly helped make the anime more child-appropriate by omitting such scenes.

Another indicator of the manga's older target audience was the dialogue. Some things get lost in translation, but the dialogue was occasionally long and tedious, especially during fight scenes. The Michel arc, in particular, was mentally taxing. I still find it confusing. Everything felt unclear, even though I'm not too young to understand complex stories. It felt like they tried to cram too much information into a few chapters. Since it's been a while since I watched the anime, I can't compare how well it explained things. Overall, this arc felt more developed than the Gackto one in the manga, but it was hard to follow.

One final complaint: the actual concept of Mermaid Melody. These mermaids save the day by singing their enemies into defeat. In the anime, catchy pop songs entertained viewers every episode, making them memorable. Portraying this concept visually in manga is challenging. But honestly, I sometimes forgot they sang to defeat their enemies. This concept was much better developed in the anime. In the manga, singing often felt like a last resort, shown briefly before the enemy's defeat. Only in bigger fights were lyrics depicted over a few panels. The Michel arc had 2-3 chapters without singing! Clearly, this concept worked better in the anime.

Art

The art is pleasant to look at, similar to the anime style but more detailed. It captures that early 00s anime aesthetic with oversized eyes. One drawback was the unrealistically tiny waists, making the girls resemble Barbie dolls. Thankfully, realistic body proportions have become more common recently.

Character

Being familiar with the anime, I knew the characters. The main character is your typical shoujo heroine, supported by her two best friends and other heroines who appear periodically. This mirrors the Sailor Moon concept. Mermaid Melody has been criticized for copying Sailor Moon, but isn't that typical for shoujo series? I hadn't seen Sailor Moon before Mermaid Melody, as it wasn't popular where I lived. So, I wasn't aware of the similarities. Anyone familiar with the magical girl genre would recognize the parallels.

To the point: the characters are fine. They're somewhat stereotypical, but I like them as they are. They could've been developed further, but they're acceptable nonetheless.

Enjoyment

I enjoyed the anime much more. I had to force myself to finish the manga, which is never a good sign. Many aspects of the story felt off, diminishing my enjoyment. It's extremely predictable, something I notice faster now than when I first watched the anime. Still, the anime's more developed story makes me prefer rewatching it over rereading the manga.

Overall

I was more disappointed than satisfied with the manga. Having loved the anime, I expected more. Predictability aside, the poor storytelling elaboration made it even more boring than anticipated. If anyone is interested in Mermaid Melody, I'd recommend just watching the anime and skipping the manga. It doesn't add anything to the story (it actually omits things) and isn't enjoyable to read. With the anime, you get a more developed story and catchy songs to sing along with, guaranteeing more fun.

In my personal opinion, this is quite possibly the worst manga I have ever read. It wasn't downright awful, but it was challenging to finish because the plot kept circling back on itself, repeating the same concepts over and over again. As for the main couple, I wouldn't place any bets on their "love" since it felt too contrived to overcome reality. They were only around 12 or 14 years old, which seems much too young for anything serious.

One might even consider it a knock-off of Sailor Moon? The endings to the battles were identical, with just slightly different villains each time.

All in all, my take on the story left me feeling bored, dissatisfied, and somewhat tortured by having to endure it.

I read the manga and found it quite engaging, despite some differences from the anime.

The character designs are fantastic, and we get to see how everything concludes, unlike in the anime. The romance scenes were delightful, including the kisses, and the bonus chapters were intriguing as well.

However, there are some flaws. The manga felt rushed, and several characters weren't introduced adequately, particularly the villains from the second arc. It diverged significantly from the anime, even though the core concept remained the same. I wish the author had more time to flesh things out.

Overall, it was a good manga to read, and I finally discovered where Luchia and the others reside :)

WARNING: I DO NOT MEAN TO INSULT THE FANS THEMSELVES. *end capslock* This is wholly satirical, so go ahead. Read it. Maybe you'll agree or even laugh along at some of the points I make.

Have you ever received that one gift that you're utterly convinced you're going to love just because everyone else seems to have loved it? What about that one time where you receive the strangest thing possible and think that you're just going to abandon it after one day? Manga can be a lot like that; in a way, you're taking a lot of risks.

As much hate as I may get for this review, I will put my beliefs about this manga about as bluntly and humorously as I can: Pichi Pichi Pitch, to me, falls in the latter category. A lot of times, Internet fandoms have gotten me to try crazy, yet utterly fun things I never would've done before, like watch My Little Pony or participate in online roleplaying. When I first looked at the art and concept for this story, I bought all the volumes I could. I was pumped. As a genuine magical girl fan who loves these kinds of stories, I'm going to have to pull out the sort of argument that this fandom hates. Yep, I'm going to go so far as to call it a Sailor Moon ripoff—no, a ripoff of basically the entire genre. Saying such things about a manga like Tokyo Mew Mew, which actually made an attempt at world-building and lovable characters before Executive Meddling, is (for the most part) unwarranted.

This plays in a league of its own. Hint: it's certainly not the majors.

STORY (3): Now here's the interesting part: Pichi Pichi Pitch actually has a pretty interesting story. The saddest part of this whole thing is that it didn't have to be this way; it could very well have jumped from one of my least favorite manga to one of my absolute obsessions. The thing that doomed it was bad execution. Mermaids are a territory magical girl doesn't go into as much, so it had potential. Unfortunately, it chose to go with things that pandered more to the demographic, such as idol singers and cute surfers. Neither being a bad thing (coming from someone who has Utau Hoshina of Shugo Chara! on her favorites list), but not something to form an entire manga around. The singing concept was interesting, but not something that converted well to manga. I would've vastly preferred to see more magic, spells, even physical fighting. Also, while past magical girl works have managed to juggle action and romance, PPP fails to do so. It got to the point where they cut the second arc to two volumes. Let me say that again: a magical girl villain gets defeated in TWO VOLUMES. Yes, SM did a similar thing in some arcs, but at least it wasn't entirely due to wanting to expand romantic arcs.

ART (7): The art was rather beautiful and perhaps one of the real reasons I chose not to drop it (the other being the "it'll get better, it'll get better" mantra). But a few things began to aggravate me, one of them being Lucia's complete hair length, eye color and hair color change. These aren't uncommon in magical girl manga, but at least make the girl somewhat recognizable! *sigh* As much as I hate to pull out the ripoff argument, Lucia, your coincidentally blonde pigtails and blue eyes make it really hard. Your dress is really nice, though, so please transform using your far more original brunette bob and don't give Italian animators any more ideas about "mermaid hair changes colors underwater." Except, darn it, now it's too late and—oh, Hotaru's here too? I'm not even going to elaborate on that.

Also slight annoying factors: the fact that Coco's and Rina's outfits are essentially the same turtleneck dress with slightly different details, and that Caren's and Noel's dresses look like someone mistaking a long blouse for a dress and forgetting to wear leggings. The twin-similar-costuming idea was cute, but let's try to forget about those moments where weird celebrities made the same mistake.

CHARACTER (3): Ah, the magical girl ditz stereotype, how it has been played. Cardcaptor Sakura decided to go more in a "childish innocence/naivete" direction, which put an endearing twist on it; Shugo Chara! pretty much avoided it with a heroine that was a breath of fresh air. Someday, maybe the team strategist can be the main. Until then, characters like Lucia will still come off as shallow compared to the "lesser" members. Rina just tends to be another cool type with ties to traditional Japanese culture that seems a bit too much like Rei Hino. Hanon is one of the more original (using that term lightly) of the three, so I liked her a bit more. I really liked Caren, Noel, and Coco when they had scenes and wish they had more, Coco being the most developed. Mitsuki-sensei and Sara were actually rather good. Too bad that much strength couldn't have been used for the other characters, though.

ENJOYMENT (2): I tended to like the climatic scenes the most, but they faded away too quickly. The romantic scenes were nothing original, as much as I hate to say it. We barely even met some of the guys they end up with.

OVERALL (3): Basically put, this is the lowest you can get with magical girl manga. Winx Club, considered by some to be the worst, gets a lot of flack for not being Japanese and for pulling some of the same things that PPP did (especially with romances). However, it's an insult to say that it gets to PPP level. I'm not saying this for just Winx in general. I'm saying it for all magical girl manga.

A lot of people often claim they dislike this manga. However, for me, it's genuinely one of my favorites! Here's a condensed version of why:

STORY: The storyline is quite engaging. It follows a typical magical girl plot but feels like an enhanced version of The Little Mermaid with added romance.

ART: Both the manga and anime feature outstanding artwork. I'd give it a perfect 10 because it's so incredibly cute! There are no flaws in the character designs at all.

CHARACTERS: The characters are fantastic! The three main protagonists each have distinct personalities and personal challenges. The villains from the first part of the book are more entertaining than those in MMPPP Pure.

ENJOYMENT: I thoroughly enjoyed both the manga and the anime. The anime has many filler episodes and repetitive battles with the villains. The manga streamlines this into just 7 volumes, effectively telling the story. It also excels in comedy and romance. The transformations in the manga differ slightly but still showcase the transition from idol to human to mermaid.

OVERALL: In summary, I recommend both the manga and the anime. Ignore negative reviews unless you're not a fan of the Magical Girl or Romance genres. Any enthusiast of these genres would likely enjoy this series overall.

After watching the anime, I felt compelled to read the manga. I have a soft spot for cheesy stories featuring mermaids and similar themes. Consequently, I ended up enjoying the story in the manga just as much as the storyline in the anime. However, I found the anime superior, even with its numerous fillers; it was far more enjoyable.

The artwork was decent—not the best I've encountered, but definitely not the worst either. The character development, on the other hand, was lacking. In my opinion, the author failed to develop the characters adequately. To me, Luchia came across as a foolish girl who could only think about Kaito, showing no personality whatsoever. Hanon and Lina were slightly better developed, but their stories still felt quite superficial.

In my view, this manga is nothing more than mediocre. While I liked the concept of the story, it became somewhat annoying because the author seemed to skip certain parts, causing the characters to suddenly be in entirely different places doing completely different things. This was confusing at times.

Overall, this manga is mediocre with a low reread value. I wouldn't recommend it to others, but I also wouldn't discourage them from reading it. It's something you pick up when you have nothing better to do.

I watched the Mermaid Melody anime and I believe the manga is superior because it's more thoroughly explained, with fewer attacks and demons >o<. There's more romance between Kaito and Luchia, which is great!