List of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch characters

The following is a list of characters from the manga and anime series Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. They are group according to their roles in the series. Wherever possible, the spelling of the names are taken from the English translation of the Pichi Pichi Pitch manga. Otherwise, spellings are based on those used on official merchandise.

Main Characters

Three DVD covers showing the three forms of the main characters Lucia (blonde hair), Hanon (blue hair), and Rina (seaweed green hair): mermaid (left cover), human (center cover), idol (right cover).

Lucia Nanami (七海 るちあ, Nanami Ruchia^?)

Voiced by: Asumi Nakata

Lucia is the Mermaid Princess of the North Pacific Ocean, keeper of the pink pearl, and the main character of the story. She goes up to land to search for her pearl which she used to save a boy seven years ago. She is unaware of the danger in the marine world and of her real mission until she is told of them by her "older sister", Nikora. She is characterized by her simplicity and naïveté, but with having a strong will, typical traits of shōjo manga heroines. Her idol form is Pink Pearl Voice. Of all the mermaids in the series, Lucia's mermaid form and human form contrast the most (Lucia has short dark blonde hair and brown eyes in the surface while having long lighter blonde hair and light blue eyes while at sea).

• Some fans in the West still spell her name as "Luchia," due to a misunderstanding of the spelling systems of different languages. The Italian name Lucia follows Italian spelling rules, which say that "c" is pronounced as a post-alveolar affricate (the same sound that is written as "ch" in English) when it appears before a front vowel (in this case, "i"). That pronunciation is correctly represented in Japanese kana as るちあ. When attempting to transliterate the kana back into Latin characters, some people, unaware of the Italian spelling of the name, tried using the English "ch" to represent that consonant, resulting in the incorrect spelling "Luchia".

Hanon Hōshō (宝生 波音, Hōshō Hanon^?)

Voiced by: Hitomi Terakado

Hanon is the Mermaid Princess of the South Atlantic Ocean and keeper of the aqua (水色 mizu-iro "water-color") pearl. Unlike Lucia, Hanon goes up to land to escape water creatures. She is perky and feminine, yet a bit more worldly than her friend Lucia. This worldliness is evidenced by many of her actions—especially by her romantic pursuit of her music teacher, Tarō Mitsuki. Her idol form is Mizuiro (Aqua) Pearl Voice, although the first time that it is named in the manga, she is erroneously called Blue Pearl Voice.

Rina Tōin (洞院 リナ, Tōin Rina^?)

Voiced by: Mayumi Asano

Rina is the Mermaid Princess of the North Atlantic Ocean and keeper of the green pearl. Initially she is depicted as beautiful but stern and bent on revenge for the capture of her best friend, Noel. Later, however, she evolves into a more mature character, and acts as an older sister figure to Lucia and Hanon. She seems to love plasma TVs and shows this love in many anime episodes. She also seems to love watching comedy shows. Her idol form is Green Pearl Voice.

• Some fans in the West still spell her name as Lina, because the Japanese language does not distinguish the sounds "r" and "l", treating them as the same. This means that "ri" and "li" are both represented as リ, and it can be difficult to figure out what the intended romanization is until it is established by official sources.

Supporting Characters

Kaito Dōmoto (堂本 海斗, Dōmoto Kaito^?)

Voiced by: Daisuke Kishio

Kaito, the son of a pair of musicians, is an avid surfer, as well as Lucia's love interest. Though he is popular with girls, he is secretly in love with a beautiful mermaid who saved him from a shipwreck seven years ago, which killed his parents, and has yet to realize that this mermaid is Lucia. Later in the story, it is discovered that beneath Kaito's human exterior lie some distinctively inhuman qualities and that he is the prince of an ancient water race called Panthalassa and is the younger twin brother of Gackto. Kaito has a hard time when Lucia comes in her human form, because of having feelings for both her human form and her mermaid form. Kaito eventually realizes that the two are one, giving Kaito the ability to love Lucia no matter what form she is in.

Hippo (ヒッポ^?)

Voiced by: Miyako Ito

Lucia's guardian who serves as her guide. Hippo accompanies Lucia in her search for her pink pearl, and is among those who voice disapproval of her relationship with Kaito. He is also polite, always putting -さん, -san after every name, even when angry. In the anime, he is shown as Lucia's pet penguin. Later on, he is able to transform into a very cute human boy, as well as a creature called a Hippocampus. In his human form, Hippo falls in love with a Dark Lover, Yuri. In many anime shows Lucia and the other 5 mermaid princess try to get them meet, even for just a short time. Hippo transforms into a Hippopcampus using a key he got while trying to save Taro-chan from Sara.

Nikora Nanami (七海 にこら, Nanami Nikora^?)

Voiced by: Eri Saito

Nikora is the virtual manager of the "petit-hotel" Pearl Piari (プチ ホテル パール ピアリ, puchi-hoteru pāru piari^?) on land, where Lucia, Hanon, and Rina work (in the manga, she is the owner of a bath house called Pearl Waters). A purple mermaid, she poses as Lucia's older sister in order to inform her of her mission. In the last chapter of the manga, it is discovered that she is seven years older than Lucia.

Madame Taki (タキさん, Taki-san^?)

Voiced by: Kumi Yamakado

Madame Taki is the owner of the Pearl Piari. A fairly major character in the anime who is a fortune teller and friend to the mermaid princesses. Everyone thinks her predictions are wrong, never saying yes when she asks if they want one. Sometimes though, they are right, leaving them astounded. It was also shown in Episode 13 that she can turn into a clam, possibly so she can swim under water and for protection.

Tarō Mitsuki (海月 太郎, Mitsuki Tarō^?)

Voiced by: Daisuke Kirii

Tarō is Lucia's music teacher and Hanon's love interest (she refers to him as 太郎ちゃん, Tarō-chan). He had met a mermaid in the past (Sara), and made a piano piece for her, not knowing what happened to her after their last meeting.

Noel (ノエル, Noeru^?)

Voiced by: Ryōko Nagata

Noel is the Mermaid Princess of the Arctic Ocean and keeper of the deep blue (i.e. 藍色, ai-iro) pearl. She helped Rina escape from the sea monsters, which led to her capture. She is calm, gentle, caring, and studious (as she sometimes wears glasses on land later in the second season of the anime). She is Caren's older twin sister by about a minute at the most. Noel cares deeply for Caren, the one that she had always wanted to meet. Her idol form is Ai-iro (Deep Blue) Pearl Voice.

• In the third volume of the English manga, ai-iro was translated as indigo, but deep blue makes more sense regarding the character's colour scheme; the colours may be based on the rainbow, but Lucia is pink, not red.
• Some refer to Noel's name as Noelle, because originally Noel is a male name, while Noelle is the female form, but the official English translation as well as the official Japanese romanization uses Noel.

Caren (かれん, Karen^?)

Voiced by: Ema Kogure

Caren is the Mermaid Princess of the Antarctic Ocean, keeper of the purple pearl, and twin sister of Noel. In the anime, she first appears as the winner of a beauty contest that the main trio enters; in the manga, she first appears to save them from the Dark Lovers. In the first season, Tarō asks her about his mermaid, and she later blames Rina for Noel's kidnapping. Even after things are straightened out, she chooses to go find Noel alone. She is Noel's polar opposite, having a mysterious personality. Caren and Noel are twins, born on opposite sides of the Earth. When Caren finally meets Noel, she launches herself at Noel, hugging her and calling her Onee-sama, a respectful term for big sister. Even though the two had not met before, Caren cares most for Noel and would do anything to save her, even if it meant Caren having to find her on her own. While she is cold and distant in the first season, she is found to be wild, humorous, and even a bit strange in the second. Her idol form is Purple Pearl Voice.

Coco (ココ, Koko^?)

Voiced by: Satomi Arai

Coco is the Mermaid Princess of the South Pacific Ocean and keeper of the yellow pearl. She is incarcerated by the sea monsters for most of the first season, so not much is known about her other than that she is a friend of fellow Mermaid Princess Sara. She is playful and gentle, yet brash and outspoken in the anime. Her idol form is Yellow Pearl Voice.

Aqua Regina (アクア・レジーナ様, Akua Rejīna-sama^?)

Voiced by: Kumi Yamakado

Aqua Regina is the ocean goddess who gives the Mermaid Princesses new songs and upgrades for their gear. However, this is all that she can do alone after expending a great deal of energy thousands of years ago. She is needed to ultimately stop the sea monsters, and the seven pearls have to be gathered to summon her; Gaito/Gakuto seeks to summon her as well, so that he can use her to destroy the world. Aqua Regina later gives bands to the mermaids to upgrade their singing power; as in many magical girl series, this is signified by adding frills and accessories to their dresses. She also upgrades their microphones in the end of season one, before she is finally summoned. At the end of the manga, Aqua Regina reveals that Lucia is to be her successor.

The following characters primarily appeared in the Pure season of the anime:

Seira (星羅^?)

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura

Seira is the future Mermaid Princess of the Indian Ocean and future keeper of the orange pearl. She appears as a spirit to Lucia, taking the form of a young mermaid. When her time of birth finally came, Michel seized his chance and absorbed Seira into his body, and her birth was therefore delayed until Lucia could retrieve all the pieces of her heart contained in Michel's feathers. Every time Lucia retrieves a piece of her heart from one of Michel's fallen feathers, Seira learns something about an emotion, such as love or friendship. Once born, she is destined to become Orange Pearl Voice. Seira is very child-like and sees the good in Michel, realizing that he has good intentions for the earth.

Michal Amagi (天城みかる, Amagi Mikaru^?)

Voiced by: Ryoko Shintani

Michal is the girl who finds Kaito after he had lost his memories. She's a rich, yet desperately lonely girl who has lost all hope; she falls "in love" with Kaito to the point that, in Lucia's perspective, he has forgotten his mermaid love completely, and is desperate that he return her feelings. Michal also seems to be a sickly girl, collapsing to the floor every time Michel appears somewhere else or when Kaito is near Lucia (in order to keep Kaito to herself). In the manga, when Kaito states that he loves only Lucia and could never love Michal the way that she "loves him", Michal takes off her clothes and offers herself to him in desperation of keeping him; Kaito turns away from her and leaves. This is a large trigger for her collapses and allows Michel to take control of her. In the end, Michal is reborn and given to her brother to raise her from scratch.

Rihito Amagi (天城リヒト, Amagi Rihito^?)

Voiced by: Takahiro Mizushima

Rihito is an orchestra conductor and Michal's older brother. After initially seeing Kaito and Lucia at the airport, he becomes a "bridge" for the two. He observes Kaito's progress in regaining his memories (despite his sister being around) while he checks on Lucia and comforts her as she copes with the loss of her emotional bond. Rihito tries hard to get Michal to realize that she could never be with Kaito even though she doesn't want to hear it. In the anime, when Kaito leaves after telling Michal that he loves Lucia, Rihito restrains Michal from going after Kaito. When Michal is reborn, he promises that he will care for her and raise her again. It is later revealed that both he and Michal are part of the same race as Kaito, leaving Rihito to believe that that is the true reason why Michal is attracted to Kaito.

Masahiro Hamasaki (浜崎雅弘, Hamasaki Masahiro^?)

Voiced by: Kiyotaka Furushima

Masahiro is a flirtatious boy who has a crush on Rina. He wears glasses, rides a motorcycle and does some amateur boxing. It is later revealed that he comes from a family running a boxing gym. At the end of the manga, Masahiro is Rina's boyfriend.

• In the manga, he is introduced earlier (before Gaito/Gackto is even defeated) and is so mysterious that he is only known by his surname. The name "Masahiro" was not created by the animation team, but by Pink Hanamori's staff, as revealed in the fifth volume of the manga.

Nagisa Shirai (白井 渚, Shirai Nagisa^?)

Voiced by: Chihiro Kusaka

Nagisa is a young boy who has a crush on Hanon. After retrieving some sheet music for Hanon, he has been wooing her ever since. Unfortunately for him, the sheet music is of the tune Tarō Mitsuki dedicated to Hanon, which only reminds her of her fixation on the much more refined and older man. Still, his resilience is to be admired, and she eventually treats him better. In the manga, he says that he is two years younger than Hanon. In the end, Hanon falls in love with Nagisa and they have a relationship at the end of the manga.

Minor recurring characters

Though there are several minor characters on both sides who appear within both the manga and the anime series, the following listed below have played significant roles in the story.

Sara's servant (Bāya)

A manga-only character, she is Sara's servant and guardian from childhood, and worries about Sara's involvement with Gackto. However, Sara treats the woman like garbage and refuses to listen to her. The old woman therefore helps the princesses in secret to atone for what her ward has become. She is actually at the root of the incident that caused the events in the story.

Momo-chan (ももちゃん^?)

Voiced by: Naomi Wakabayashi

A pink dolphin from Lucia's realm. Initially appeared being showcased in an indoor aquarium for curiosity. After being rescued by the Mermaid Princesses and reunited with its mother, its role is later reduced to occasional messenger. While the Mermaid Princesses could communicate with it using their inner voices, whenever it is with Kaito, he can easily understand the meaning of its gestures.

Meru (芽流^?)

Voiced by: Ema Kogure

A young South Atlantic mermaid coming up to land asking the Mermaid Princesses for help in finding her mother. Like many of the mermaids, she is displeased seeing Hanon and Lucia having relationships with humans, at which Yūri takes advantage. However, she is enamored by Kaito so much that not only she changed her outlook about relationships with humans, but also makes a second appearance in the anime just to ask his hand (playfully) for marriage, to Lucia's chagrin.

Maki (真木^?)

Voiced by: Keijin Okuda

The owner of the nearby beach house where Lucia, Hanon, Rina, and Kaito work part-time. He is a widower and still keeps a picture of his late wife Saori at his bar. He is attracted to Nikora, leading to a marriage proposal which the latter called off (due to conflicting feelings).

Antagonists

Marine antagonists

Gackto (楽斗/ガクト, Gakuto^?)

Voiced by: Daisuke Kishio

Gackto is the leader of the sea monsters who is bent on taking over the marine world. He is always depicted drinking wine, and wearing black. His resemblance to Kaito made the latter a subject of initial ire by Rina. He is known in the anime as Gaito (ガイト). He is in one episode turned into Kaito and seems to get feelings for Lucia's human form. He was lonely half his life at the bottem of the sea until he met Sara the orange pearl princess. He loved Sara, and always tried to please her with "gifts"

• There is no definite reason for the name change from the original "Gakuto" in the manga to "Gaito" in the anime, but one obvious reason is to distinguish him from J-Pop star Gackt, whose name is spelled the same way in katakana. In the Del Rey manga translation, the above spelling is used in order to emphasize the comparison between the character and the singer.

The Dark Lovers (ダーク・ラバーズ, Dāku Rabāzu^?)

Gackto's four female followers who serve him in exchange for his love for them. There are composed of the following:

Izuru (イズール, Izūru^?)

Voiced by: Sayori Ishizuka

Izuru is the most mature of the four, she has the power to control waves and marine beasts and has the ability to create dragons from water. She is also the most obsessed with winning the heart of Gakuto.

Eriru (エリル, Eriru^?)

Voiced by: Yuki Matsuoka

Eriru is the one with the multiple personality disorder. At one phase, she is cute, beady-eyed, and acting as if she were antsy (spinning around and never saying any normal speech). In another phase she can speak correctly and is more observant of her surroundings. In her third phase, when threatened (or when she spins around), she becomes scary, her eyes glow red, and she changes her voice accordingly.

Maria (マリア^?)

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi

Maria is the one closest to Gackto in terms of love. She seems to be the most innocent of the group, but in actuality she can be very cruel at times, and sometimes seems to see Gackto more as a boy-toy than a love prospect. She has the power to make and/or manipulate ice and snow.

Yūri (ユーリ, Yūri^?)

Voiced by: Chieko Honda

Yūri is the youngest-looking of the four. She has the ability to control people and objects, especially with the use of her music and, if any, a nearby piano. Although Yūri is loyal to Gackto, his continued treatment of her as a child leads her to a star-crossed relationship with Hippo, i.e. his human form.

Black Beauty Sisters (ブラック・ビューティー・シズターズ, Burakku Byūtī Shizutāzu^?)

They are composed of the red-wearing older sister Sheshe (シスターシェシェ, Shisutā Sheshe^?, Voiced by: Miki Tsuchiya) and the blue-wearing younger sister Mimi (シスターミミ, Shisutā Mimi^?, Voiced by: Noriko Shitaya). Gackto hires them after the Dark Lovers' failed attempts to capture the Mermaid Princesses. These two have the ability to sing tunes more powerful than the songs the Mermaid Princesses themselves sing, although in the anime and the second arc of the manga, the Princesses manage to get strong enough to overpower them. Though Gackto turned them back to their original forms (two angler fishes), they are brought back in the second season after being revived by that season's antagonist, Michel, and made them his servants. It has been shown that Mimi has a human form. She is the only one whose hair gets longer and wears glasses over her (in human form only) brown eyes. In human form, Sheshe looks the same, but loses her horns, demon ears, and other inhuman body parts.

Sara (沙羅^?)

Voiced by: Kana Ueda

Sara is the Mermaid Princess of the Indian Ocean and keeper of the orange pearl. She joins Gackto in his quest to take over the marine world after an incident bestowed her a dark power, turning both her orange hair and her orange pearl pitch black (though her eyes stay orange) and destroying her own kingdom. That incident was a proposed rendezvous with Tarō, her secret human lover, in which he never showed up. (In the manga, he actually arrived before, but Sara's guardian found out about the relationship and insisted that he leave, convincing Sara that he had abandoned her.) In a fury, Sara unleashed a wave of power, destroying her kingdom and causing the wave which killed Kaito's parents and from which Lucia saved Kaito. In the manga, her villain name is Black Pearl Voice and she transforms into an idol in a black dress reminiscent of a diva. However, in the anime, she does not transform until she turns good, and instead has the power to sing offensively in a humanoid, amphibious form like the villains and mermaid idols, with or without her E-Pitch microphone. In the end, she decides to join the other mermaids as is her duty. She, herself, seals the gate to Gakuto's castle in the book because it's her duty and she unsealed the gate after her kingdom was destroyed. In the TV show, Aqua Regina seals the gate and Sara goes with Gaito because she loves him. The manga shows that she goes with him because she realizes that he is the one that needs her the most and that what he did was partly out of love for her and the want to make her happy. She also appears in the second season as a spirit, informing Lucia of the future Orange Pearl Voice and offering her assistance where she can. Sara is also seen singing with the other mermaid princesses in the very last episode of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure.

Winged antagonists

Michel (ミケル, Mikeru^?)

Voiced by: Junko Minagawa

Michel resembles an angel and is the one who launched a personal vendetta against the Mermaid Princesses after learning their relations with the human world. Although he is strong enough to resist any song the Mermaid Princesses would dish out against him until the finale, he is cursed with a weak body. He steals both Kaito's memories and Seira's heart in order to keep himself alive. In the manga, it is revealed that Michel is under the control of Fuku and is very good and gentle at heart. Michel is an ancient angel and is disgusted by what humans had done to the Earth that him and the other angels created. This explains why he needs Michal's body, Seira's heart, the heart of a mermaid princess, which means a fairly large amount of power, and Kaito's memories because he is a very powerful prince whose powers may rival those of the mermaid princesses. Michel believes that "angels" and mermaids are superior beings to humans because both species understand the importance of the Earth and each have powers, in one form or another.

Fuku (フクちゃん, Fuku-chan^?)

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi

Fuku appears like a super deformed angel with the head of a boy and the body of a bird. He's Michel's "right hand man", as well as his messenger to his servants, but at times orders around even Michel. He turns out to have a larger role later in the story.

The Great One (あの方, Ano kata^?, him/that gentleman)

Voiced by: Hajime Iijima

A spirit in the form of a flame atop of Michel's castle, he guards it for him. At one point, Fuku-chan claims that his words are Michel's words, and Michel's are That One's words, and That One's are God's words. He has a higher authority than Michel and has a strange relationship with Fuku-chan, where it is unclear who is in charge. During the final battle, it is revealed that he is, like Michel, a pawn.

Lady Bat (レディバット, Rēdī-batto^?)

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi

Lady Bat calls himself "the wings of love and pleasure." Michel's vampire-like servant. His song hypnotizes the listeners into his spell so he could "bite" the person while they are asleep. There is certain controversy about his real gender, especially among fans in the West; in the manga, Lady Bat is actually a man wearing women's clothes. He is also strong enough to bring the Idol-form Princesses back into Mermaid-form. While in the manga Lady Bat identifies himself using feminine pronouns, in anime he uses the masculine pronoun "boku" Another difference is that in the manga he is about as tall as Mimi and his ponytail is shoulder length; while in the anime he is considerably taller (slightly taller than Lanhua) and his ponytail reaches the waist. Also, in some anime episodes, when concealing himself, he has worn male clothes. In his real form he has dark red hair and lavender-colored eyes; while in his human disguise form the hair is black and the eyes are greenish-blue.

Lanhua (蘭花, Ranfa^?)

Voiced by: Megumi Kojima

Lanhua calls herself "the wings of desire and contentment." Michel's butterfly-like servant. She can divide into a dozen smaller versions of herself (which really do not look harmful or dangerous; in fact, very cute) to play a tune that makes the listeners dance until they die. She is called Ranfa and Lang Fa in some merchandise, but the English translators for the manga decided to follow the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of her name. In her real form she has purple hair and red eyes, in her human disguise form the eyes are brown and the hair color is the same.

Alala (あらら, Arara^?)

Voiced by: Masayo Kurata

Alala calls herself "the wings of dreams and decadence." Michel's fairy-like servant. She's quite peppy and upbeat most of the time. She sings two songs in the anime; a peppy song that shoots stars at the Princesses and a sugary sweet song that makes men cheer for her. In the manga, she can make people (or at least a Mermaid Princess) dream about anything she wishes, including nightmares. In her real form she has green hair and pink eyes, in her human disguise form the eyes are brown and the hair color is the same (albeit retaining her pointy ears).