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 don't even know where to begin.

This anime was utterly AWFUL for the first bit. I couldn't stand it, and sometimes I wanted to teleport myself to the world of Mermaid Melody and kill them all. I do admit that it got better, good enough for me to at least be ableto stand them... But if you really want to know, this anime can be summed up in the following words.

Predictable
Cliche
Girly

First off, before you rant at me with all the anger of your heart, let me say this-- it's just a matter of opinion. If you like girly anime where the main character tries to ... hide her true, magical identity from her crush while still trying to impress him, then this is for you. If you like the shows about a not-so-ordinary girl that goes to school, finds a crush, and tries to protect herself and the world from evil, then yes, this is highly recommended. You need to watch this. The art is decent and sorta cute, and everything is bright and happy.

But if you're like me? Steer very, very, VERY clear of this show. If you're the type who loves deep storylines with unique characters and a very enthralling, difficult puzzle to put together, then spare yourself of this excuse for an anime. The plot is repetitive, predictable, and so very NOT deep. There are no puzzles to piece together, and if there are, it's all spoon-fed to you in the same episode it was introduced.

I may be the type who adores a good horror with a lot of gore, but I'm not a senseless jerk. I like plot, and character development. This show had none of it. It's fine if it's not a horror, but does it have to be a total fail?

Anyway, I'm just stating my opinion. Spare me of arguments, because honestly, this show is just incredibly cliche. It's sooooo stereotypical, like the average magical girl anime. If you like that thing, watch this now. But as I've said before, if you're like me, try to completely erase this title from your mind.

Thankfully, the music isn't all bad. The voices (in the Japanese version, at least [is there even an English version anyway?]) are decent, actually good. The songs are catchy and they will grow on you (probably). Anyway, the sound was the only saving grace of this show, for me at least, and though I've heard THOUSANDS of times better, this was still good.

All in all, this show isn't highly rated in my book, but it's decent enough if you like magical girl and shoujo. I won't say any spoilers, but the ending is decent (though, sort of cliche) and it works with the anime, I guess.

Take a second look at the kind of shows you like to watch, and depending on your opinion, and the things I said in my review, decide if you're interested. If not? Leave. Now. If yes? Watch. Now.

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 ;))