The Pearl Tear (真珠の涙 Shinju no Namida) is the first episode of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch.
Plot[]
Lucia sets out to land to find the boy she saved from a tsunami seven years ago. But, it is not as easy as she thought.
Summary[]
Lucia Nanami, the mermaid princess of the North Pacific Ocean, was about to set out to land but some mermaids from her kingdom tried to convince her to stay. In the end, Lucia used Hippo, her penguin guardian, as a distraction to leave the kingdom anyway. Left with no other choice, the girls could only tell Hippo to go with her and his Pearl Radar.
After a few hours of swimming to the surface with Hippo, they make it onto land. Lucia transformed into a human, and she and Hippo glanced at the rising sun as Lucia proudly prepared to start her first day in the human world.
Meanwhile, in Pearl Piari, Madame Taki was looking through her crystal ball with Nikora. Taki's crystal ball detected a missing pearl coming back. The crystal ball suddenly showed Lucia peering into it, and Nikora subsequently opened the door to see Lucia standing there. Nikora was then seen in Taki's ball; however, it is now known that the crystal ball was a security monitor as Nikora exclaimed this.
Nikora closed the door and instructed Lucia how to address her, Hippo, and Madame Taki in the human world. After reminding Lucia about their agreements, Nikora gave Lucia some chores to do in the Pearl Piari. Despite trying her best, Lucia is shown to be quite clumsy as she creates more accidents than necessary, which ultimately leaves her exhausted. Nonetheless, Nikora acknowledged Lucia's work ethic and allowed her to take a break.
Lucia was then seen happily taking a bath with her bubble maker toy when Hippo suddenly rushed into the room. Lucia gets mad, splashing Hippo with water in the process, but Hippo only came to inform her about her pearl. Lucia started singing an apology song, but accidentally triggers an earthquake around the entire Pearl Piari hotel. Hippo berated her and explained that without her pearl, she can not sing properly. He went on to discuss about the importance of the pearl, but only gets more frustrated when he saw Lucia falling asleep in the bath.
Later that night, Nikora and Hippo were discussing Lucia's lack of self-awareness about her duties as a mermaid princess and the strange incidents happening lately in the sea world. In her room, Lucia was in her bed thinking if the boy she had saved from a tsunami seven years ago still has her pearl. She started to think about the events leading to their first meet-up.
In a flashback, a younger Lucia was seen popping her head above the surface of the ocean to witness a cruise ship, along with beautiful fireworks, which she identified as "flowers blooming in the sky." She then proceeded to sing a short verse of Legend of Mermaid, which attracted a young boy who had heard a "beautiful voice." Upon seeing Lucia, he asked her if the singing voice was hers and why she was out in the ocean, only to see Lucia display her pink mermaid tail. At that moment, however, a large tsunami wave (later revealed to have been caused by Sara, the Indian Ocean Mermaid Princess) crashed onto the cruise ship, causing the boy to fall overboard and into the sea. Knowing that the boy could possibly drown, Lucia swam down to rescue him. Upon bringing the boy to shore, Lucia tried to wake him up, but to no avail. As a last resort, she removed her pearl from her shell locket and placed it on the boy's body. The pearl almost immediately glowed and revived him, much to her relief. It is revealed here that the boy was also Lucia's first lover.
The next day, Lucia went for a morning walk on the beach nearby the hotel and saw a boy surfing. Later, when this boy approached her, they paused to stare at one another. Seeing this boy, Lucia began to think that this boy looked very similar to the boy she had met before, and she asked him if they had met before. The boy, Kaito, responded by inviting her to see him participate in a surfing competition this upcoming weekend. Lucia blushed profusely and ran away, leaving both sides to think that they were not the ones they were searching for. Kaito pulled out a pendant from his pocket and examined the pink pearl inside.
The next day at school, Lucia tried to find her classroom location and accidentally met Kaito again. Upon introducing herself to Kaito, he quickly identified from the board that she is one of his classmates. In the homeroom, Kaito again invited Lucia to come watch his upcoming surfing competition. After Kaito got up to go somewhere, a girl with blue hair approached Lucia and introduced herself as "Hanon." Hanon asked her if she wanted to be friends with her and offered to help Lucia get closer to Kaito. They went shopping after school and had some fun. They were checking out some pendants when Hippo, who had hidden himself among some stuffed animals, whispered Luchia's name. Hippo whispered a message asking Luchia if she could return to the hotel to help out Nikora, and they both eventually ran for home. Hanon, who had seen Hippo among the stuffed animals, saw the penguin running alongside Luchia, leading her to call the stuffed animal "energetic."
In the hotel, Lucia told Hippo that she would go watch the surfing competition. However, Hippo fiercely told her not to go since if Luchia were to make contact with the ocean water, she might transform into a mermaid before everyone's eyes. Lucia compromised by asking Hippo to come along and keep the event a secret from Nikora. Hippo reluctantly accepted the offer.
The next day, Luchia, Hanon, and Hippo went to the beach to support Kaito at the competition, while Hippo went searching for Lucia's pearl. Two boys tried asking them out, but Kaito appeared and protected the two of them. After Kaito left the two girls to prepare to surf, he wrapped his pendant containing the pink pearl around his neck, and the pink pearl shone ever so slightly. Unbeknownst to everyone, a dark figure appeared underwater, having been attracted by the shining pearl. Meanwhile, Hippo was having a rough time as two boys were using a stick to roll him over and over. Back at the competition, Kaito was surfing so well that Lucia was impressed. However, a large wave suddenly crashed on top of Kaito and dragged him below the sea. He fell unconscious as a water demon caught him. Simultaneously, the weather quickly became stormy, forcing everyone to evacuate the beach. Meanwhile, Hippo spotted his Pearl Radar close by, and saw it was detecting two pearl reactions.
Abandoning all caution and wanting to save Kaito, Lucia jumped into the sea to find him. After turning back into a mermaid underwater, she swam towards what appeared to be an underwater cyclone. There, she saw a water demon holding an unconscious Kaito as prisoner. The water demon introduced herself as Izuru, and asked her if the pink pearl located in Kaito's pendant belonged to her. Lucia recognized the pearl immediately, allowing her to deduce that Kaito was the boy she saved seven years ago. Seeing Lucia's face of recognition, Izuru summoned water dragons to attack the mermaid princess. Lucia's small scream of fright as she tried to evade the dragons unintentionally caught the attention of Kaito, who momentarily woke up. Just as he saw and recognized the mermaid who had saved him before, the pink pearl in his pendant began to shine fiercely. Realizing the pearl's rightful owner was in front of him, Kaito elbowed Izuru away and tossed his pendant containing Lucia's pearl over to her before passing out again. The pearl broke free from the pendant, turned into an E-Pitch, and transformed Lucia into an idol. After admiring her idol clothing, a mysterious voice instructed her to sing. Lucia obliged and sang Legend of Mermaid. This caused Izuru to feel pain, forcing her to release Kaito and retreat for the day.
Later, back on the beach, Kaito woke up to see mermaid Lucia peering over him. He thanked her for saving him again, but she replied that it was he who saved her this time. Finally reunited with the boy she had saved and fallen in love with so long ago, Lucia reached over and pulled Kaito up to embrace him with a tearful hug. Meanwhile, Hippo's Pearl Radar detected a second pearl nearby, just as Hanon appeared next to him. Hanon pulled out an aqua blue shell pendant and displayed an aqua blue pearl inside, revealing herself to Hippo as the Mermaid Princess of the Aqua Pearl. Watching Lucia and Kaito beyond the beach, they started discussing how dangerous it would be if Lucia confessed to a human.
Appearances[]
Characters[]
- Lucia
- Hanon
- Nikora
- Hippo
- Kaito
- Madame Taki
- Izuru
- North Pacific Ocean mermaids
- The Announcer
Places[]
- North Pacific Ocean Palace
- Ocean
- Pearl Piari
- School
- Beach
Adaptations[]
| Language | Title | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Korean | 진주의 눈물 Jinjuui nunmul |
|
| Chinese (Cantonese) | 珍珠之淚 Zan1 Zyu1 Zi1 Leoi6 |
Tears of the Pearl |
| Chinese (Taiwanese) | 真珠的眼淚 Zhēn Zhū De Yǎn Lèi |
Tears of the Pearl |
| Hebrew | דמעות הפנינה | |
| Greek | Τα δάκρυα του μαργαριταριού Ta dakria tou margaritariou |
Tears of Pearl |
| Serbian | Сузе једног бисера Suze jednog bisera |
Tears of a pearl |
| Italian | Una sirena fra noi | A Mermaid among us |
| Albanian | Një sirenë mes nesh | A Mermaid among us |
| French | Les larmes de la perle | The Tears of the Pearl |
| Spanish | Las lágrimas de la perla | The Tears of the Pearl |
Episode Songs[]
| Timestamp | Song Title | Character(s) Singing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Intro
|
Taiyō no Rakuen ~Promised Land~
| ||
05:29
|
Koi wa Nandarou
|
Lucia Nanami
|
Performed badly because of missing pearl
|
18:40
|
Legend of Mermaid
|
Lucia Nanami
|
First Appearance
|
Outro
|
Daiji na Takarabako
| ||
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This episode is based on the first chapter of the manga.
- This episode premiered on Lucia's voice actress Asumi Nakada's 15th birthday.
- This episode marks the first appearances of the following characters: Lucia Nanami, Hanon Hosho, Hippo, Kaito Domoto, Nikora Nanami, Madame Taki, and Izuru. Also, the songs Koi wa Nandarou and Legend of Mermaid and Pink Pearl Voice debut in this episode.
- This episode features a running gag throughout the first season where Hippo rushes into the mermaid's bathroom with a mermaid already inside and suffers some kind of consequence, which is usually getting splashed in the face by water.
Difference in Adaptation[]
- The prologue featuring Lucia's departure from her kingdom and the transformation into her human disguise at the shore are completely absent in the manga, which instead opens with a splash page of the protagonist explaining the duty of the seven mermaid princesses and the power of their pearls.
- While Madame Taki is featured prominently in the anime as a supporting character, having two filler episodes dedicated to her (Episode 20 and Episode 34) and often contributing indirectly to the main plot of certain others (such as Episode 23), she never moves to the surface in the manga, only making a brief appearance in Chapter 6 at the North Pacific Ocean Palace and never again afterwards.
- In the anime Nikora is only playing the part of Lucia's sister, while in the manga she's her actual older sister.
- Instead of the Pearl Piari hotel owned by Madame Taki, Lucia and Nikora work at the Pearl Waters bathhouse owned by the latter. In the manga, Lucia also specifies that it's the opening day of the activity.
- The manga starts directly at the end of Lucia and Nikora's workday, the two taking a bath together and Hippo appearing only to scold them for leaving their clothes out of the hamper.
- Hippo's Pearl Radar is broken in the manga due to a strong reaction to detecting (presumably) either Lucia's or Hanon's, but it'll be repaired and work just fine like in the anime during Kaito's surfing tournament.
- In the anime, as Hippo is screaming at Lucia for losing her pearl, he mentions that she needs it to become an adult mermaid, while in the manga Nikora tells her so.
- In the manga, Lucia specifies that her first encounter with Kaito was seven years ago, meaning she was six years old as she'll turn fourteen in Chapter 6.
- Lucia and Kaito's encounter on the beach is immediately followed by her introduction to the class in the manga.
- Lucia and Hanon's last stop during their shopping spree is at a swimsuit shop, where Hanon invites Lucia to buy a bikini, but she's embarassed at the thought of being seen wearing it by guys and, while admitting it's not that different from what she dons as a siren, she specifies that the mermaid world is all female.
- Instead of sending Hippo, Nikora goes out looking for Lucia directly, interrupting her and Hanon's shopping.
- In the manga, Lucia and Hanon both sport bikinis at the surfing tournament and Hippo dresses a shirt and sunglasses; he's less reluctant to enjoy his stay at the beach and isn't bothered by anyone.
- Instead of being simply swallowed by a large wave, Kaito is attacked and captured by Izuru herself as he's surfing still.
- The manga chapter ends with Hanon approaching Lucia on the shore after Kaito faints, without revealing that she too is a mermaid.