Mermaid Melody: Characters

Luchia Nanami


Luchia 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 named Kaito seven years ago. Later in the series, Luchia and Kaito become lovers. 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. In the Pure season, Seira, is about to be born as well, waiting to meet Lucia. Lucia now has the job of retrieving all the pieces of her heart contained in Michel's feathers. Overall, no matter what the situation, she never gives up hope. 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). Luchia is the first Mermaid Princess to transform into her idol form. Some western fans spell her name with an "h" 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 Hosho


Hanon Hosho is the mermaid princess of the South Atlantic Ocean, keeper of the aqua pearl and the deuteragonist of the series. She is Lucia's best friend, but fights with her like any teenage girl. Unlike Lucia, Hanon goes up to land to escape water creatures. She is perky and feminine and a bit more worldly than Lucia, although she tends to be lazy in cleaning. This worldliness is evidenced by many of her actions—especially by her romantic pursuit of her music teacher, Tarō Mitsuki. In the Pure season, she develops an interest in a boy, Nagisa. Her idol form is Aqua Pearl Voice, although the first time that it is named in the manga, she is erroneously called Blue Pearl Voice.

Rina Toin
Rina Toin is the mermaid princess of the North Atlantic Ocean, keeper of the green pearl and the tritagonist of the series. During school, she wears the boys' uniform instead of the girls. 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. In the Pure season, she becomes close to a boxer, Masahiro. 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.