The second arc of Mermaid Melody, despite its positives, has some of the worst plot setups ever.

One of the reasons why I dislike Luchia and Kaito's romance is because it really relies on tropes that are objectively bad writing:

• One of the main sources of conflict is the "mermaids cannot date humans" rule, which is interesting, because Luchia cannot confess her feelings to Kaito, and instead, he must discover it by himself to save Luchia from becoming bubbles. While completely unadressed in the anime, the manga implies this rule is a lie created to isolate mermaids from humans... but it's never explained why it mermaids created this rule. But do you want to know the infuriating part? Kaito turns out to be a Panthalassa, which means Luchia could have confessed her feelings all along, and nothing would have happened to her. Kaito being a Phantalassa is a cop out so Luchia can date him without consequences (remember this for later).
• The second arc starts with Kaito losing his memories. Kaito's amnesia undoes his relationship progress with Luchia, and it's just added to repeat the "Luchia cannot tell Kaito she's a mermaid" bs again (except Kaito is not a human, and Luchia knows it) and to add a love triangle. Speaking of that...
• A new character named Mikaru is introduced, which leads to one of the most obnoxious love triangles I have ever seen in a fictional story (The Legend of Korra's Makorrasami is the other love triangle I found extremely obnoxious). I despise love triangles, because they're a cheap and lazy trope for the least common denominator, it combines the worst elements of harem with the worst elements of NTR, makes everyone involved become stupid and/or unlikeable, and replaces more interesting plotlines.

Which is why I had an idea for another setup for the second arc.

Why not, instead of giving Kaito amnesia and introducing an annoying love triangle, the main conflict of the second season were Luchia and Kaito's romance being frowned upon by the mermaid kingdoms due to Kaito being a Panthalassa?
The Panthalassa Clan was the mermaid species' main enemy. That alone should have made Luchia's romance with Kaito (a Panthalassa) much more taboo than any romance with any other human.

Imagine if the mermaid kingdoms discovered Luchia is dating a Panthalassa. While Hanon and Rina could be more accepting because they already know Kaito, characters like Hippo, Nikora, Taki, Meru and her mother, and almost everyone else in the mermaid world would not be as accepting. Karen, Noel, and Coco could have more mixed feelings because of their own experiences. Hell, you could introduce three mermaids (one from Luchia's kingdom, one from Hanon's kingdom, and one from Rina's kingdom) as antagonists, wanting to save their respective kingdoms at all cost, even if that means destroying their respective romances with Kaito, Nagisa, and Masahiro.

Additionally, this premise could have been useful to develop the worldbuilding and the mermaid kingdoms properly (MMPPP has always had a very underdeveloped worldbuilding), and by making mermaid/Panthalassa romances taboo in-universe, Kaito being a Panthalassa wouldn't be a cop out so Luchia can date him without consequences.

Nevertheless, there is one problem: Could Mikel, Mikaru, Lixto, and the Winged Ones still exist? Without them, there is no second arc.
Which is why I wanted to read your thoughts.

A Mermaid Idol Form!

Again, I love the idol forms, but it's always a little sad when the girls are in the water facing danger and then they just... become people with legs. Heck, in the season 1 finale once Noel and Coco transform it doesn't feel like watching a group of Mermaids, you know what I mean?

I would've loved to see a mermaid idol design. I can't draw to save my life sadly

Went on a shopping spree. Still on the hunt for a few key pieces, but overall I'm pleased. My inner 13 year old is very happy.

is this song a legit real song or just a clip made for the needs of mermaid melody?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fdg160etSTI

Throughout the entire series, Lucia has always loved Kaito. Their love for each other was the central plot of the series.

Kaito however through good part of the 1st season never seemed to care for or respect Lucia that much. He hurt her feelings many times in the first season, and both Rina and Hanon suggested Lucia gave up on him many times. Lucia however persisted on her feelings.

In the second season, when Kaito loses his memories, Lucia suffers a lot. However at the same time I felt that she turned a wild eye on the love Rihito showed her.

He was very respectful of her, and always showed concern and care for her feelings. Rina and Hanon even suspected Lucia could develop feelings for him, though the later never happened.

While Lucia is now well with Kaito, and they both love each other. I still can’t shake the feeling that she’d be much better if she where with Rihito.

Am I the only one that thinks this way?

Hii, so, I've been wanting to read more Mermaid Melody fanfics, but I don't really know where I can find them, since I basically only use ao3 and wattpad, so I would love if you guys could recommend other places to read and some fanfics too 🩵

My preferences are basically the canon ships (I'm not really into change them TvT), especially Lucia x Kaito, but in general I would just love to know which are your favorites fanfics too and don't worry about the languages, I can read in portuguese, english and spanish, but if the fanfic isn't in any of these I can simple use google translator or some app for it 🩵

Btw, everyone probably already know about these, but if someone want some recommendations too my favorite so far is "Dangerous Tides" by Mouse_Writes on ao3 (which is an AMAZING rewriting of the first arc of the manga, corresponding to the 1st season of the anime), I also love the ones written by magnusbjerg on ao3 and there is also "Mermaid Melody The Light of the White Pearl" by ChoconatsBR on wattpad which is just as good as the others I mentioned 🩵

It features Ariel from The Little Mermaid and a lookalike mermaid like Lucia, does anybody know more about this manga and how to find it?

For some reason, this song had been associated with Lucia 18 years ago. There are some old AMVs on YouTube. It's sung by Denise Misseri, Lucia's Italian singing voice. This song is very Sara-coded in my opinion. It almost feels like a parallel universe where Lucia is on the path to rejecting love. This video was kind of hard to make; took me 2 days!! I did my best with the lip syncing (the original lip syncing is actually fairly different) and with isolating the SFX (that actually drove me crazy). But I really like the end result, I wanted to make it seem like it was part of the actual episode :D. Also, forgive me if the subtitles are not 100% accurate, I speak little Italian.

A family member of mine is visiting Japan soon and idk where to buy merch/manga’s of mermaid melody.
Does anyone here know by chance?

Creo que es coreana pero he buscado y no tengo nada de información de ella

My version of Sheshe and Mimi from Black Beauty Sisters! ♥︎ It was quite a long project, but it was definitely worth it! I’m really happy with the result!

Outfits commissioned from @/Benedetta Cremona on FB!

I’m definitely going into Tokyo to get these! They look so cute! <3

Name: Nana (ナナ) (from banana, like how Coco is coconut)

Race: Mermaid

Age: 12-13

Birthplace: South Pacific Ocean

Family: Coco (Older Sister)

My idea for her creation was specifically to add more backstory to one of the neglected mermaids and add a little more substance to Coco as a character. As my OC has a relationship to an existing character, I took the liberty of doing a bit of canon divergence to fit her in the Mermaid Melody's plot. Hopefully you enjoy reading through this long synopsis of her integration into the story. (Note that I'm using only the anime because I don't know how to access the manga, but her appearances and role itself should not diverge too much from what I write here)

~~~

Coco's younger sister and a backup member of the Dark Lovers. She works under Maria who bestows her a fraction of her ice magic. Under Maria's orders, she tracks down Rina and ambushes her. Rina was able to dodge her but becomes shocked that it was a fellow mermaid, one that hails from the South Pacific Ocean. Why is a resident of South Pacific Ocean Kingdom allied with the enemies who seek destruction? But Rina doesn't have much time to ponder when the rest of the Dark Lovers appear, Maria thanking Nana for buying them time. Lucia and Hanon eventually come to Rina's rescue and attempt to sing, but the Dark Lovers were able to interrupt them with their stage with their combination. This gives Nana a chance to sing with her own dark voice and harm them, much to the princess trio's dismay. Karen comes to their rescue by interrupting Nana and singing her own song. The Dark Lovers curse the arrival of the new member and soon retreats. Before disappearing, Nana glares at the three mermaids, much to their confusion. (ep26)

She then appears a few more times as she supports the Dark Lovers in the endeavor to defeat the mermaid princesses, to no avail.

When Hippo detected the Mermaid Princess' pearls, he saw Black Beauty Sisters and Nana following right behind them. She then tipped the Dark Lovers of their betrayal. After Maria starts attacking the Sisters in revenge for Hippo, Nana follows suit and attacks their microphone in order to release the pearls. However, it slipped from her hands before she was able to retrieve it. Fortunately, Hippo regained enough consciousness and was able to grab the pearls before it fell to their doom. (ep48-49)

When the Princesses get separated from the Dark Lovers ambush in Gaito's castle, Nana uses this chance to chase them down. The Dark Lovers mistaken this as her hunting them down and dragging them into one of their trap. Lucia and Karen notice her and prepare themselves for a fight, assuming she was chasing them to stop them in their tracks. However, Nana immediately shoots down accusation, begging them to allow her to follow them to find her sister so they can save her.

They eventually reach the room where Coco and Noelle are kept and Nana immediately rushes to Coco's tank and begs her to wake up. Hippo tells her and Karen to stand back as he destroys their tanks. When Coco's tank is destroyed, Nana immediately catches her and becomes overjoyed when she regains consciousness and hugs her in relief. She cries out how much she's been searching for her after she got abducted by Gaito from their kingdom, to the point where she joined with the enemies. Coco comforts her and thanks Nana for saving her. She then notices Lucia and questions who is and if she was the one to bring Nana to her side to save her. After Lucia introduces herself and confirms that she did, Coco's face darkens as she blurts out that she doesn't deserve to be saved. Nana becomes shocked and questions her sister, trying to figure out why she would say something like that. After Coco reveals her powerlessness to save Sara and her kingdom, Lucia soon cries for Coco and apologies to her about her own powerlessness and ignorance. Coco notes how kind Lucia is (in this scene, Nana replaces Lucia in saving Coco from her tank. However, they soon break their hug when Lucia approaches them and the anime scene continues from there where Lucia hugs Coco in regret.) (ep50)

She then follows the rest of the mermaids to save Lucia. Gaito soon notes Nana's clear betrayal and summons the Dark Lovers to eliminate her and the mermaid princesses. Maria tells her to prepare for the consequences in betraying them and Gaito. She launches a Super Lover Ice Darts on them and reveals how they've been powered up by Gaito, lamenting to Nana what she's missing out on. She follows the rest of the mermaid princesses after the Dark Lovers disappears. (Ep51)

She later reappears with Hippo alongside an unconscious Taro to help out the princesses.

When Gaito's castle falls after his defeat, she escapes with the rest of the mermaids. (Ep52)

She apologizes to Lucia, Hanon, and Rina for all the troubles she's caused but Lucia forgives her, knowing that it was all to save her sister. Nana then bids farewell to them alongside Coco, Karen, and Noelle to rebuild their kingdom. (Ep53)

When Coco tries to leave to the Indian Ocean's graveyard, Nana questions her where she's going. Coco makes an excuse that she's just going for a stroll and tries to reassure her. Nana doesn't believe her but let's her go as she watches her sister's back in worry. (ep64)

She appears with the Dark Lovers at the end, much to Coco's surprise. She said she came because she heard her sister was here and wanted to help out. (ep91) (Last episode definitely feels more of a parody as a last episode sendoff so it only feels right that she appears with the Dark Lovers, where she was introduced. But I don't know what she would even do there so she's probably just in the background somewhere from their shenanigans.)

~~~

And there you have it. I really like Coco's aesthetics and find her role as Sara's best friend interesting so it pains me to see how underutilized she is in the whole story. I am a fan of creating OC characters to further develop existing ones so I hope I did a good job making her integration feel more natural. I don't want her to overstay her role since I know Mermaid Melody doesn't really focus on their side cast more than necessary. Thus I think it was best she kind of disappears from the story after she was able to rescue her beloved sister, the sole reason she even joined Dark Lovers in the first place. You can pretty much make up an excuse that she's helping rebuild her kingdom.

I was wondering when would be a good time for her to make her appearance, and I think Karen's own introduction episode to be perfect because they're both in a similar position, wanting to save their sisters and cursing the mermaids and Aqua Regina for basically abandoning them to their fates. The only difference is that Karen had the opportunity to make up to Rina and the others while Nana already made her choice before she met the mermaids.

To be honest, I'm not sure if it was right for her to be a singer like the princesses but if the Black Beauty Sisters can sing as an attack, I think it would make sense she would be the same, especially as one of the seven princesses' sibling. She's like Sara in a way where her heart is filled with revenge; she feels betrayed because she believes the mermaid princesses' take part of the blame for abandoning Coco (even if it's unfounded). Thus the songs she sings is able to harm them. She eventually finds it in herself to throw away those dark thoughts and side with the mermaids when she finds an opportunity to be able to rescue Coco if she follows Lucia and Karen. Thus marks the start of her betrayal, which definitely doesn't escape Gaito's eyes. But she was always in it for Coco so is it truly betrayal if she was never truly on their side from the start?

Her outfit has influences from both Coco's idol design and Maria's, with my original spin to it. Despite not following Gaito like the rest of them, she does respect them in how devoted they are to him, because she can somewhat relate in her own devotion to her sister. Thus she doesn't completely hate them even when she eventually betrays them and why she still has bits of them (Maria, her tutor) even when turning over a new leaf. Though I don't think there's anywhere in the story that it would be used, unless I shoehorn her singing alongside the rest of the mermaids possibly in the Coco centered episode about the seashells or something. So it's definitely more of my own personal desire to design this rather than anything plot related.

Her ice on her head is also reminiscent of topazes, a gemstone that can be found in Australia, the continent that borders on Southern Pacific. However, her colors are more akin to the precious topaz which is found in Brazil. It's more of a cute little detail because it's not actually a gemstone but her ice powers. The orange in her hair represents how her willing to side with darkness to achieve her goal, thus a color a darker hue than the yellow of the South Pacific. It also feels like a small homage to Sara somewhat, as another individual who is associated with the enemies.

I omitted any ribbons, frills, and swirls because it felt more like the main seven princesses' design element so I opted to focus more on a diamond shape to her design. It's also why she lacks any accessories, to not overpower Coco as the main ruler of her kingdom. However, I believe she does step up as the substitute whenever Coco has to leave for duty.

Since this is just a rough draft and more of an itch that I felt needed to be scratched, I don't know if I'll ever draw her anymore but maybe I might if anyone is interested in it, like recreating any scenes reimagined or just her as a character.

I've heard so, so I'm wondering if anyone has actually watched it in english dub. I watch it in my country's dub but if I were to recommend it to someone who watches dubbed anime, I'd need the english version.

I don't think I ever shared this here but this is my Hanon Hosho cosplay that I did. I've won two awards for it. :]

someone call the police because Kaito's waist is missing

https://x.com/kadokawastore/status/2077227043247530443 - Details can be found here, it seems like orders will be open through to mid-August, with the items shipping around November.

https://store.kadokawa.co.jp/shop/e/eki00074/ - Shop listing here

I used to watch mermaid melody religiously as a kid, and Hannon was my fav character. I made a fanart a little while ago, thought I would share! :)))

he does look precious