Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch

Oh boy, where to begin on this review...

Story: Basically it's another "Magical Girl" anime plot, a girl who has the ability to transform must fight this evil group of villains with her friends/comrades as a Super Sentai team. The unique part of this anime is that the Mermaids don't attack, they SING, and their songs are painful to the villains' ears. Other than that, it's all cheesy.

Art: This depends on how you look at it. To me, the dresses for Lucia, Hanon, and Rina are full of many colors! (Practically every shade of pink, aqua, and green respectively.) On the other hand, the characters' appearances ... are okay, except it's too overdone. (I.e. Doumoto Kaito with the most repetitive hairstyle of any Bishounen.)

Sound: What I found unusual was that Lucia's voice is different compared to other Magical Girl heroines. While their voices are high-pitched, Lucia's is lower, unless you count her screaming. Hanon and Rina sound okay. The MMPPP songs can really get to you, even though they're all about love.

Character: This is what bugs me. Basically, the Mermaids' objective is to unite the Seven Mermaid Princesses in order to defeat the enemy. The problem is, for 52 episodes straight, ONLY LUCIA, HANON, AND RINA APPEAR THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE SEASON!! What about the other four? Well, Caren appears halfway through the season, but she distances herself from them. Noel and Coco were captured so they're stuck with the enemy until the finale. And Sara is a good guy turned bad. Wow. (Did they expect girls to love the main trio more than the four Mermaids in the back?)

Enjoyment: IT WILL GET ANNOYING. At some point, you'll realize that there's too many fillers. Luckily, Wikipedia has already identified the episodes important to the storyline so you can figure it out from there.

Overall: Obviously the ending was anticipated. When the last episode first aired, it was already confirmed that a second season, Pure, would be in the works. (Personally I liked Pure more than this season.) It was an okay anime, it did introduce me to all the beautiful songs in MMPPP. Still, there were obvious flaws that could've been fixed.

Rating: 8/10

I'm going to be honest, I have not heard anyone watch this in 2023... or at all for that matter.

Story:
I had to watch parts of it in 2x speed because of how much it dragged on. There are many times where the main character, Lucia, complains about situations she put herself in. The whole plot is easy to follow, but you have to keep in mind that this anime's demographic is for children.

I can't help but feel like a lot of viewers who rated this high did so because of nostalgia reasons, and not because of the story. No one comes to Mermaid ... Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (2003) for the plot, they come for the cute girls and catchy tunes.

Art:
The art is very much enjoyable. It presented the early 2000's art style that old anime fans can appreciate. Any anime fan can appreciate how every girl/mermaid had their own colour. It was nice to see each mermaids' human form and wardrobe.

Character:
It was nice seeing the characters interact with each other. Even though they did all have similar goals and interest, at the end of the day, that is what makes them such good friends.

Sound:
There are many songs in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (2003), each of them are lively and fun; and also very memorable! Even after months having finishing the series, 'Splash Dream' and 'Voice in the Dark' still play in my head quite often.

I watched the sub and found no major problems or unlikeness towards it.

Conclusion:
Even though I did not watch Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (2003) as a kid, I can see the appeal others have, and what made it hyped up so much.

First and foremost I watched because there were mermaids and I found a cantonese version online so I didn't have to read subs. I have no idea how I managed to watch all of it to be honest.

My first impressions of the anime: Bad art, annoying voices, and annoying characters. Know what? My opinion didn't change much. I didn't have any high expectations of the anime, I kinda expected it to be this awful.
The songs were kinda catchy though, but not really worth the effort of watching how ever many episodes there are.

Story line is a 1. Was there a story line? The story ... line didn't have much a to do with anything until the last 5 episodes. And they were drawn out and boring.

Then again, it was kind of my fault. I watched it for the nostalgic feel, the ugly art the annoying voices the cheesy music. Enjoyment was about a 7, simply because I somehow managed to enjoy the nostalgic feel of the anime. (Though I never watched it as a child, more of chibi maruko chan person ;))