Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch

Lucia Nanami, the mermaid princess of the North Pacific Ocean, learns that Gackto and his sea demons have invaded the sea world. To stop them, she must locate the six other mermaid princesses and use their pearls to summon the goddess Aqua Regina. Lucia also travels to the human world to retrieve her pearl from Kaito Dōmoto, which she had used to save him from drowning seven years ago. Kaito and Lucia remain in love with each other, but Kaito does not recognize Lucia in her human form, and she cannot directly reveal her true identity to him or else she would turn into bubbles. Lucia teams up with fellow mermaid princesses Hanon and Rina, transforming with their pearls into idol singers to defeat the sea demons with their singing voices. After multiple encounters with the sea demons, Gackto kidnaps Kaito and reveals that they are twin brothers and descendants of the Panthalassa clan. Lucia and the other mermaid princesses storm his castle to free Kaito and the captured mermaid princesses, to which Kaito realizes Lucia's true identity. Meanwhile, Lucia and her friends learn that Sara, the final mermaid princess, had planned for the oceans' destruction out of anger for feeling abandoned by Taro Mitsuki, their music teacher. The mermaid princesses help Sara reconcile with her feelings and summon Aqua Regina to seal Gackto in the depths of the ocean. However, Sara, realizing Gackto's feelings for her, stays with him. After returning to the human world, Michel, a fake angel created by the higher angels, steals Kaito's memories as energy for his body. Kaito's growing relationship with Michal Amagi creates tension between Lucia and himself, as Lucia tries to have Kaito remember her. At the same time, Sara notifies Lucia that a new mermaid princess, Seira, will be born and replace her. Instead, Seira's heart is stolen by Michel, preventing her birth. Soon, Kaito regains his memories and rejects Michal's romantic advances, but Michel takes advantage of Michal's loneliness and convinces her to give him her body. Fully empowered, Michel begins enacting revenge against humans, who he blames for the destruction of Earth. Seira, having felt his emotions from him taking her heart, helps him reconcile with his loneliness of being a fake angel. In his weakened state, Seira is then born, and with Aqua Regina summoned, the mermaid princesses defeat him. Michal is reborn as a baby, while the mermaid princesses move on with their lives. In a concluding side story, Lucia reawakens as the next Aqua Regina. ==Production==

Concept and creation Nakayoshi's editorial department had approached Hanamori about serializing a manga that would market Takara's karaoke toy to young girls. Hanamori was supervised by a team of three editors (consisting of Kawamoto, Ōzawa, and Zushi) as it would be her first serialized manga. Together, they felt that a magical girl or transforming heroine would be best for the concept. As she enjoyed the songs from the anime and felt that the lyrics were "great", she asked for permission to include some of the lyrics in the manga, such as "Yume no Sono Saki e", "Beautiful Wish", "Tsubasa o Daite", Characters and setting Hanamori felt that she was unable to write characters that did not share anything in common with her, so she based the characters Lucia, Hanon, and Rina partly on her own personality. Lucia's name was provided by Yokote, while Rina's name was provided by Kawamoto. For other characters, Hanamori used her friends as models or gave them personality traits that she felt her friends would like. Hippo was modeled after her chief editor. Hanamori created Kaito and decided on his first name, while Yokote chose his family name. Hanamori found it difficult to portray Kaito's feelings in a way that would make him seem "cool" and not as predictable. She sought advice from the chief editor on how to depict romance. For the other love interests, one of her editors came up with Taro, while Nagisa and Masahiro were based on advice from her other editors. For the villains, Hanamori created the Dark Lovers because she wanted to introduce a gothic lolita character, which would become the basis for Yuri. She made Yuri into a love interest for Hippo after her chief editor, the basis for Hippo, wanted a bittersweet love story. For the other three Dark Lovers, they distinguishable by certain traits, such as sexiness for Maria, comic relief for Eriru, and a standard villain design for Izuru. Izuru's name was based on one of Hanamori's editors, while Eriru is based on Hanamori's older sister, who she describes as a person "whose mood changes drastically." For the Black Beauty Sisters, Hanamori wanted to express the "darkness" of anglerfish and the jaggedness of fangs from deep sea fish in a "cool" way. Michal, who appears in the second story arc, was modeled after the human girl who saves the prince in The Little Mermaid and was given frail and delicate personality traits to present her as a foil to Lucia. ==Media==

Manga Pichi Pichi Pitch was serialized in the monthly manga magazine Nakayoshi from the September 2002 issue released in August 2002, Translated by William Flanagan, The editorial department had suggested for Hanamori to create the sequel based on public interest stemming from an unofficial Pichi Pichi Pitch fan event that she and the anime voice cast organized in 2019. To promote the release of the first volume of Aqua, the original Pichi Pichi Pitch manga was reprinted into editions in 2022. On March 31, 2026, Kodansha USA announced that they would be publishing Aqua digitally in English. Tankōbon edition Shinsōban edition Pichi Pichi Pitch: Aqua Anime In 2003, an anime adaptation titled Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch was produced by TV Aichi, We've, and Tokyu Agency. The series was animated by Actas and Synergy Japan. The anime adaptation stars the voices of Asumi Nakada (credited as Asumi Nakata) as Lucia, as Hanon, and Mayumi Asano as Rina. and "Rainbow Notes" for episodes 29–52. The ending theme songs are by Asumi Nakata for episodes 1–28 and by Nakata, Hitomi Terakado, and Mayumi Asano for episodes 29–52. and the ending theme song is by Nakata, Terakado, and Asano. In June 2004, ADV Films acquired the license to the anime for an English-language release in North America. Despite that all episodes and songs have been dubbed, ADV Films later announced in June 2005 that they had dropped the license due to being unable to secure a television broadcasting deal, which was necessary for it to be "financially viable" as Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch was considered a "big franchise." The networks had declined to offer a television broadcasting deal due to being unable to determine an appropriate market demographic for the show. Another English-language dub of both seasons was produced by for Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries. Merchandise To coincide with the anime adaptation, Takara produced toys based on the characters and magical items seen in the show. Takara also produced two special versions of their E-Kara karaoke toy featuring the characters' microphones, known as the E-Pitch. Asumi Nakata, who voiced Lucia in the anime, starred in the toy and E-Pitch commercials. Video games Between 2003 and 2004, Konami produced three licensed video games based on the anime adaptation for the Game Boy Advance. ==Reception==

Critical reception Through a 2008 report published in the School Library Journal, Pichi Pichi Pitch ranked at no. 24 for all ages and no. 11 for ages 13–18 for the top circulated books in 41 libraries within the United States. Pichi Pichi Pitch received mixed reception overall from reviewers. Hanamori's artwork received general praise, However, the story was criticized, with Publishers Weekly describing the first volume of Pichi Pichi Pitch as an "industrial-strength " with "cardboard villains" and a "recycled love story." For the second volume, Anime News Network stated that, for older readers, the story was childish, "barely coherent", and confusing due to the gaps in the narrative. Mania.com scored all of its volumes Cs and below, with the final volume ranking an F−, concluding that the characters and Hanamori's storytelling style were "offensively stupid." In comparison, Pichi Pichi Pitch: Aqua, the sequel, Anime News Network criticized the artwork and logical issues with the plot. Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, the anime adaptation, also received mixed reviews. Animefringe and THEM Anime Reviews drew comparisons to Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon, while stating that the show offered "nothing new" for the and magical girl genres. Another review from THEM Anime Reviews was more favorable, praising the voice cast and their singing abilities. Likewise, fan response was more positive. The December 2009 issue of Monthly Business ASCII reported that Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch was popular among elementary school girls in Taiwan and more than 1 million VCDs were consecutively sold in the country across four volumes, with the first volume topping convenience store online sales rankings for one month. In 2009, the first season also ranked among 20 cable programs for 10 consecutive months in Portugal. This followed with multiple collaboration character cafés, pop-up shops, and other merchandise. Pichi Pichi Pitch became associated with nostalgia for the Heisei era (1989—2019), Premium Bandai created replicas of the E-Pitch and other magical items seen in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch as part of their Special Memorize line, a magical girl toy series for adult collectors. ==Notes==