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A review by cyanide_latte
Mermaid Melody: Pichi Pichi Pitch, Vol. 1 by Pink Hanamori, Michiko Yokote
4.0
Years ago, I'd seen this in B&N and had thumbed through it out of mild curiosity but never read through the whole thing or picked it up to own. Picked up volume 1 from browsing Amazon, again out of mild curiosity.
As far as magical girl manga series tend to start off, this one begins with a little bit of existing self-awareness on the parts of the characters. They already know what their mission is, they have some idea of what their basic powers are, and their quest is already underway. There are seven mermaid princesses total with these powers, three of which we meet in volume 1, and our resident Big Bad (who shares the same face as the primary Love Interest) is...a...parody of Gackt, gone evil.
Most readers may or may not know who Gackt is in Japanese pop culture and in the event you're among the latter, you don't necessarily need to know who Gackt is in order to read this series. Otherwise you'll probably reach the Big Bad's intro and have the same flat reaction I did.
So, the good things about Mermaid Melody: Pichi Pichi Pitch.
It is cute and fluffy. Good lord, is it cute. The art is cute, it's very sugary-sweet shoujo, and it can just be mindless fluff when you need to unwind with an adorable series.
The things I didn't like? Eehh, I feel like there's a lot of unnecessary focus on our MC, Lucia's romance with her LI, Kaito. Yes, Kaito is important to the story too, but there's so much emphasis on foreshadowing the significance of his role, that as a result the rest of the cast doesn't seem to get a lot of character development. Heck, that's my other issue with this as a first volume to a series. A lot happens in this first volume (and quite a bit of time passes from where we open to where volume 1 ends) but there seems to be very little character development for Lucia or any of the other mermaids. There's just so much focus on Kaito it lampshades everything else.
That being said, I do recommend it to anyone who loves magical girl series, mermaids, or is just looking for something fluffy to read. I did enjoy it, and I look forward to seeing where the rest of the series goes.
As far as magical girl manga series tend to start off, this one begins with a little bit of existing self-awareness on the parts of the characters. They already know what their mission is, they have some idea of what their basic powers are, and their quest is already underway. There are seven mermaid princesses total with these powers, three of which we meet in volume 1, and our resident Big Bad (who shares the same face as the primary Love Interest) is...a...parody of Gackt, gone evil.
Most readers may or may not know who Gackt is in Japanese pop culture and in the event you're among the latter, you don't necessarily need to know who Gackt is in order to read this series. Otherwise you'll probably reach the Big Bad's intro and have the same flat reaction I did.
So, the good things about Mermaid Melody: Pichi Pichi Pitch.
It is cute and fluffy. Good lord, is it cute. The art is cute, it's very sugary-sweet shoujo, and it can just be mindless fluff when you need to unwind with an adorable series.
The things I didn't like? Eehh, I feel like there's a lot of unnecessary focus on our MC, Lucia's romance with her LI, Kaito. Yes, Kaito is important to the story too, but there's so much emphasis on foreshadowing the significance of his role, that as a result the rest of the cast doesn't seem to get a lot of character development. Heck, that's my other issue with this as a first volume to a series. A lot happens in this first volume (and quite a bit of time passes from where we open to where volume 1 ends) but there seems to be very little character development for Lucia or any of the other mermaids. There's just so much focus on Kaito it lampshades everything else.
That being said, I do recommend it to anyone who loves magical girl series, mermaids, or is just looking for something fluffy to read. I did enjoy it, and I look forward to seeing where the rest of the series goes.