Lucia Nanami

Lucia Nanami (七海 るちあ) is the main protagonist of the anime and manga series Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch and its second anime season, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure. She is the Mermaid Princess of the North Pacific Ocean and the Keeper of the Pink Pearl. Lucia surfaced onto the human world to look for her pearl that she had entrusted to a boy seven years ago in order to save his life. When she succeeds, she accepts the task of uniting the seven Mermaid Princesses of the seven nations of the seas and defeating the sea monsters.

Lucia is a very cheerful person and has a very kind heart. Her idol form is Pink Pearl Voice. She has two image songs that are both from the first season of the anime (although 'Mother Symphony' from the second season is sometimes referred to as a character song of hers it is not officially considered one): Splash Dream and Koi wa Nan Darou.

Lucia means 'light' in Latin, and Nanami means 'seven seas' in Japanese. She is the only mermaid with blond hair and blue eyes.

In the Anime
Lucia Nanami ends up being the succesor to Aqua Regina. Lucia Nanami first appeared as a young mermaid seven years ago before the story started. One night when she ventured onto the sea's surface and encountered a cruise ship celebrating a festival, she met a young boy which in this case is Kaito. It was love at first sight. But before anything else happened, a giant wave crashed onto the ship and the boy fell into the icy ocean. Lucia went after the boy without a second thought. She saved the boy using her precious pink mermaid pearl and the boy kept the mermaid pearl ever since.

As the story begins, Lucia surfaced on land again, but this time her purpose is to retrieve her Pink Pearl. The age 13 is considered adult age in the mermaid world, but a mermaid princess without her pearl cannot receive her full power. Heading to the human world with her pet penguin Hippo which is a protector of all the mermaid princess including Hannon, Rina, Coco, Noel, and Karen, Lucia assumed a human form and took Nanami as her surname. She works and lives in the hotel Pearl Piari, along with her "older sister" Nikora and the fortune teller Madame Taki.

In time, Lucia retrieves her pearl and also reunites with the boy who she gave it to long time ago. She also learns that there is an enemy trying to capture the seven Mermaid Princesses and obtaining their pearls for evil. They have already destroyed the Mermaids' kingdoms and captured two Princesses. Only Lucia's kingdom wasn't destroyed because Aqua Regina used her power to protect it.

While on land, Lucia meets a surfer named Kaito, who looks awfully like the boy from seven years ago. Lucia could not believe it at first, but he most certainly is the boy who had Lucia’s pearl for seven years and whom never forgot about this mermaid. Lucia and Kaito have a troubled relationship throughout the story, mainly because that the mermaid Lucia is unable to reveal her human identity to Kaito. It is said that a mermaid who willfully reveals her identity will turn into sea foam. Lucia is desperate for Kaito to learn her secret, asking him to search for her. Kaito was troubled with his feelings about the human Lucia and the mermaid Lucia, whom he thought were two different people.

Lucia has a very cheerful personality. She has a good and simple heart, and a simple mind. But she also has courage and determination in abundance. She would help anyone that is in trouble. She is also very friendly, especially when she makes “friendship rings” for Hanon as well as Rina, although she hardly knew Rina at the time. However, she is also insecure sometimes, and gets nervous whenever she sees some other pretty girls around Kaito. She would even sometimes go undercover with Hippo by using Hippo as an advantage or in other words making up something such as taking him for a walk something really crazy.

Lucia shares a strong bond with her friends and fellow mermaid princesses. She met the first other mermaid princess, Hanon. Hanon and Lucia became quick friends, partly because of their similar personality. As for Rina, the green mermaid princesses, it was a hard beginning due to Rina's cold and distant exterior. However, as time passes, the three became close friends. They are always there to defeat the Dark Lovers, and they help each other whenever it is possible.

In the other arc of the story, Lucia has a rival for Kaito. And because of the upcoming danger, Kaito gave up his memory in order to protect the ones he loves. Lucia has to deal with the harsh facts that Kaito no longer remembers his precious mermaid, the enemy she has to face is very powerful, and she has to win Kaito over the girl who saved him and developed a crush on him, Mikaru Amagi.

In the Manga
Lucia is shown to be the succesor to Aqua Regina.

Lucia has similar personality in the manga. She was portrayed a bit more childish and fights over little things with Hanon often. She is also very dependent as a human, and afraid of lightning. However, her relationship with Kaito goes a lot deeper, especially in the second season. Mermaid Lucia is also given an even bigger role in the manga, especially in chapter 14 when the trio has to rescue the recently captured Caren, princess of the Antarctic Ocean. It was Lucia who believed and played the harp to call Aqua Regina's spirit. In the final volume, it shows that Lucia was destined to become the next Aqua Regina, and has now taken her place.

Lucia's hobby is singing, although she is tone deaf while she is in her human form. Her talent is making beaded things, like the three friendship rings she made in chapter 3 of the manga and episode 3 of the anime. Her favorite subject is said to be Home Economics, while her least favorite subject is mathematics, or any subject that you have to use your head. Her favorite flower is Cosmo and Roses, and favorite color is pink. She likes shrimp, but dislikes celery and raisins. She also dislikes monsters, thunder and being lectured by Nikora or Hippo. She is good at cooking poundcakes and cookies. Her favorite type of boy is a protective boy.

Aspects and forms
A mermaid, Lucia has to transform into a human in order to stay on land. When she is facing a sea monster, she transforms into her idol form, Pink Pearl Voice, and uses her voice as an offense. She is also the leader of the Mermaid Princess group.

Human Form
Lucia’s mermaid form and her human form contrast the most out of all the mermaid princesses. She has short dark blonde hair and brown eyes on surface while she has long lighter blonde hair in pigtails and light blue eyes as a mermaid. She is mostly seen wearing a pink and red sailor fuku style uniform.

Mermaid Form
Lucia’s mermaid form is the same as every other mermaid princess, with a bracelet around one of her upper arm and double pearl bracelet around one of her wrists and her tail. The bracelets on the mermaids are all different colors, according to their own 'main' colour (which is the pearl colour, e.g. Lucia's is the pink pearl, so her bracelets are pink).

Lucia's mermaid princess form is first revealed in chapter 6 of the manga. Her hair is loose and barely in pigtails. The ends of her hair are curled. There are also glittering pearls strewn and petaled flowers throughout her hair. She has lacy and fancy gloves on, and her dress has three bows and three layers, all centered in the front. Lucia appeared two more times in this form, in chapter 14 and chapter 19 of the manga with minor differences, such as adding a choker of laces and changing the petal flowers into roses.

Idol Form
When facing the enemies, Lucia transforms into her idol form, Pink Pearl Voice. In her idol form, she sings with the rest of the mermaid princesses and uses her voice as an offense.

Her first outfit is complete with a pink dress with short skirts, lacy pink gloves, and lacy pink boots. Lucia, along with Hanon and Rina, gains her second outfit in episode 28. The trio was upgraded by the goddess Aqua Regina. Her second outfit is very noticeably different from her first one. Her dress now is complete with a double layer and a long pink bow on her back. Her gloves and her boots now have a second layer. She also gained accessories such as a jeweled headpiece, a watch, and more fluffs alongside the top of her dress. Lucia and Hanon have the same dress but Hanon has a strapless one and in light blue color. Lucia’s second form is more powerful than the first one; it enables her to defeat the Black Beauty Sisters with her new songs.

Special powers and items
Like the rest of the mermaid princesses, Lucia needs her pearl in order to transform into her idol form. Her pearl is also needed in order to summon Aqua Regina. When in her idol form, her voice was transmitted by a microphone like object called the e-pitch, in order to defeat the enemies. Her voice is shown to be very powerful.

In the manga, due to Lucia being Aqua Regina's successor (since this was never mentioned in the anime) Lucia is the second most powerful mermaid princess after Sara. Unlike the other mermaids (and sometimes with Kaito's help) Lucia is able to defy the Dark Lovers' attacks at times and play Aqua Regina's powerful harp while fully believing in her to defy the sea demons.

Her character songs are "Legend of Mermaid," "Splash Dream," "Mother Symphony," and "Koi wa nan darou." She ends attack songs with the phrase "Love Shower Pitch" in both the anime and manga followed by "Encore wa ika ga?" (english translation "How about an encore?" or "Would you like an encore?")