u/Nap-Lover

Even as teenagers they look like siblings. But my guess is that Wistoria’s character design makes it so that mages of the same magic type attribute have the same hair/eye color like Cariott and Sion, or Wignall and Ellenor.

Danmachi anime watcher here. I don’t know which series I would say is best but Wistoria managed to pick my interest faster than Danmachi. I would say that while Danmachi gets really good later on, Wistoria still feels in its early phases due to the wider cast not getting to shine yet, despite the author saying we are halfway through the manga already.

The mcs feel similar but the whole harem thing is fortunately toned down in Wistoria. Overall I would say I like Bell more because I found his character arc to be more profound than Will’s. On the other hand, I found Will’s friend group and love relationship to be more interesting. The characters are not the same except that Finn exists in Wistoria and there is an elf girl with the same surname as Riveria but with a different personality.

There is no obvious emphasis on powerscaling like in Danmachi and the abilities in Wistoria are not as diverse. Wistoria doesn’t focus as much on adventure either.

Overall, the feeling that Wistoria gave me when compared to Danmachi is that the author knew early on what story he wanted to tell. I wouldn’t say it’s better but it takes the elements of a magical school series and does a solid work with them in a way that’s enjoyable.

I think they are decently written as well. They are no less than the male characters; the girls are powerful, have motivations and interesting backstories.

There is not that much fanservice but I feel like they suffer from the shonen problem of multiple girls falling for the mc (especially, when there are more guys in the group). Also, not really an issue in itself, but the female cast is not as present as the male cast; Will is the male protagonist but I cannot really say that there is a female protagonist. We don’t get that much girl-to-girl interaction either.

I think they would have looked better with long capes like the male students.

I knew Stella and Diaspro had similar features but damn…

This might be an unpopular opinion and I might get downvoted for it but I kind of agree with Edward.

Let’s compare Will with Asta for a moment — no matter how much the Black Clover story says “magic is everything”, the title of ‘Wizard King’ is fundamentally more of a military position than being the no.1 mage in the country. Naturally, in most cases the Wizard King will also happen to be the strongest but as Julius highlights, what matters the most to achieving this position is merit. So when you think about it, even if Asta does not have magic, he does have a shot at being Wizard King as long as he builds trust and saves people through his own ways.

The difference between Wizard King and Magia Vander is that for a Magia Vander the way you work does actually matter. When it is time to cast a barrier, will Will make one of his attendants do the job for him? Would you make medical student who knows all the theory but can’t apply it on practice into a doctor?

That all said, in my opinion what is wrong with Edward is not his way of thinking but his motivations. Even if the exam question did make sense, he was going out of his way to make a single student fail and that is wrong. If Will is destined to suffer at the tower, it is not a decision Edward should make for him. In the end, the problem lies in the school’s credit system.

We went from Luchia trying to make Kaito realise she is the girl he likes in Season 1 to Luchia trying to make Kaito realise she is the girl he likes in Season 2. To be honest, few writers can pull off a good amnesia arc but in Mermaid Melody I don’t think Kaito forgetting Luchia brings anything new to the table. There is also the fact that Pure could have been used to explore the other kingdoms and mermaid princesses but instead we stuck with our main mermaid trio staying on land while their subjects were rebuilding the kingdoms Gaito destroyed offscreen.

I’d like to think they are either just random, background mermaids or the early designs of the mermaid princesses. Luchia’s palace looks different as well so maybe it’s just the author and artist still experimenting before solidifying ideas. Anyways, I really like seeing a fully pink mermaid and a red mermaid. Luchia’s design is a 10/10 but I still like to imagine what it could have been.

Agreed. But part of me likes to headcanon that since singing is a core part of being a mermaid they have a supernatural affinity to sounds and thus they can learn languages easily😙

This is actually a good example of suspension of disbelief. It doesn’t make sense how they can all speak the same language despite being from different parts of the world, let alone a human language, or how characters like Rina and Hanon chose a country on the opposite side of the world as their human hideout. But I’d rather not think about it because I love the concept of rainbow mermaid kingdoms scattered across the globe :3

I would say one of the issues with Mermaid Melody is the hyperfocus on romance so we don’t often see who the character is outside of their love interest. Lucia unfortunately suffers from this. On the other hand, Rina has a whole character arc about learning that it’s okay to show vulnerability and overcoming trauma. And I would say her romance arc is the best written in the manga and it ties back into her character arc of opening up to others.

Plus, personally I love how nuanced she is; she wears the boys’ uniform but wears a long, elegant dress as an idol, she is serious but has some gags like her love for plasma screen TVs and comedy shows, she is mature but part of that is fear of trusting others disguised as maturity, she appears as a lone wolf but actually really cherishes her friendships, etc.

Of course, this is all my opinion.

I think it has to be Hanon’s. The triple ruffle skirt combined with her wavy hair gives her such a flowy look. There is that contrast between the light blue of her outfit with her warm skin colour that is also nice to look at. Rina’s is also really beautiful, has great colour contrast and stands out among the rest. And I love Luchia’s petal-shaped skirt but I agree her overall look is too busy.

The twins’ outfits are very sexy but I think Noel’s outfit blends in too much with the shade of her hair, and Karen could have had more different shades of purple (her back bow blends in too much with her hair as well). But I really like their hair accessories.

But I am genuinely surprised to see multiple people saying they like Coco’s…I always thought she got robbed in the outfit department but that might be just me😅

Chill isn’t how I would describe Hanon but tbh she actually gave that first impression before falling for Taro. But I love the contrast of a cold coloured magical girl being extroverted.

An interesting concept would be if there were mermaids who are not happy with their princess (kind of like what we had with Hanon and Meru but lasting longer). At the end of the day, these girls were born into that position, not because they are the most fit to rule…

Maybe it’s because I am sucker for beautiful architecture but for me what sucks the most is that there aren’t enough palace shots🥲

Anyways, I imagine the culture to reflect the personality of the princesses, as they were raised in those environments. For example, I imagine Antartic mermaids to be more closed off and promote doing things yourself (especially considering how separated the Antartic is from the rest of the world), and South Pacific to be cheerful and easygoing. If we are speaking on terms of country culture, that’s a hard one considering that their palaces’ architectures don’t even fit their geographical location. But if we are speaking about geography, I like to headcanon which continent the kingdoms are closer to. For example, Coco’s would be closer to Australia than South America and Noel’s closer to the Scandinavian countries than North America.

They would probably have an idyllic, fairy tale-like society where everyone are like sisters (some more than others of course). They probably dedicate a lot of time to art and music. I don’t know how the hunting for food part would go (I suppose they eat fish but the fish at the same time respect them😅). I also like to headcanon that each kingdom has bases in the human world (just like how the North Pacific has a hotel in Japan) and import materials underwater with the aid of other sea creatures.

You can’t know for sure it isn’t hers; she may have posted it on a different platform or deleted it but the pinterest repost remained. At the very least this is not drawn by Yamamoto.

Hello! Your colouring is beautiful however I doubt that panel was drawn by Yamato Yamamoto. I think it belongs to an OnS fanartist called @vanni_chii.

(Twitter) Mermaid princesses only art 🫧

Luchia (@gokoart__), Hanon (@seastar_starry), Rina (@Slacky_y), Karen (@lucyht1908), Noel (@akemi_usagii), Coco (@harune_seira), Sara (@Seiranekokawaii) and Seira (@nomi_drawings)

(Twitter) Super Idol only art 🎤

Luchia (@sevendaysfriend), Hanon (@uguiyomi), Rina (@357Bp), Karen (@MiMiMimiMiiMint), Noel (@Miru_7), Coco (@CeriseBlue), Sara (@Kyranyan) and Seira (@czeilia)

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So pretty!💜 Link please🥺

Aside from the points you mentioned, the human world part of the story also feels underwelming even though it is the one that gets the most focus.

We are always getting the conflict of forbidden love due to mermaid princess responsibilities, yet I believe it would have been more interesting to explore the idea of the girls developing human passions (human hobbies, career aspirations, wanting to go to university, etc.) that will not be possible to pursue once they go back to their respective kingdoms.

That’s why the human world focus of the series has always felt weird to me. It gets so much screen time yet little effort has been done to make use of what it offers. The girls’ relationships with the humans feel nonexistent aside from the love interests (Kaito, Nagisa, Taro, Masahiro, Rihito, Maki - I know some are not humans but they were still introduced as ones). The other characters? I don’t even remember their names. Most were one-off characters, and the rest are Kaito’s guy friends and the girls that simp for him at school. Did the main trio even have actual friends at school?

This is so precious🥺🩷

It would have been a good idea to explore how are Noel and Coco coping about being captured. They don’t need to go full psychological thriller with it, but it would have been great to explore their insecurities.

It would have also been nice to see them bonding over it as well. Coco and Noel are always together during the singing scenes after all.

Coco’s loyalty is arguably her main character trait. That could be a great start point to turn her into an actual character rather than a satellite! She could have this internal arc/struggle, that would result in a character growth: Coco is loyal, almost to a fault, and this leads her to believe that, if someone has a tragic backstory or has suffered, then bad behaviour can be forgiven and excused. Coco believes that Sara’s actions are excusable because she suffered. Howerer, that mindset, despite being very well-intended by Coco’s side, is very misguided. They say hurt people hurt people, but hurting people is never right, even if you were hurt. Coco needs to understand that bad behaviour cannot be forgiven or excused just because the perpetrator has suffered, and in order to actually help Sara, to actually be loyal to Sara, and to be an actual good friend, Coco has to make Sara learn (even if it’s in the hard way) that her actions are terrible and unexcusable, and that she needs to get accountability for what she did.

If it was me I wouldn’t have forgiven Sara but at the end of the day everyone has the right to decide themselves whether they want to forgive or not. However, it would have been more compelling if Coco was angry at her despite forgiving her. I mean, those years she spent sleeping in a glass cylinder aren’t going to come back and anyone who values themselves even a little would be mad about it. Sara might be dead but Coco could still easily be taken advantage of by someone else if she doesn’t start to respect herself. Mermaid Melody could have delivered a powerful message if things were written differently.

Another problem I have with Mermaid Melody, the fucking pacing! 91 chapters, and they aren’t used to develop the world or the characters. Want to see the mermaid kingdoms and their different cultures? Want to see chapters focused on Karen, Noel, and Coco? Fuck you!!! 20 chapters about Luchia being whiny and insecure about how Kaito doesn’t talk to her, and 15 chapters of the hateful Luchia/Kaito/Mikaru love triangles!!!

I like romance but amnesia arcs are not really my thing, especially not after we spent the first half of those 91 episodes with Luchia trying to make Kaito realise she is her mermaid. I have a bigger issue with how many episodes we have about random human characters we never see again instead of the mermaid princesses though. It would have been one thing if the amount of screentime they spend on land interacting with human characters was for the princesses’ personal growth but it is not. They do develop, but not much from these many interactions. It’s sad how most of what we get from human/land screentime are crushes and love drama. With how much the girls spent time in the human society it would have been an interesting character arc if at least one of the girls found a passion/hobby/dream job that conflicts with living underwater and their duty as a mermaid princess.

It’s sucks, because the fact that the main characters are mermaid princesses, each one ruling a different mermaid kingdom, is such a good idea, and the fact that they could have worldbuilt as wonderfully as Avatar: The Last Airbender... but they get conformed with this...

Mermaid Melody is a fun show (the songs are great, and the mermaid princesses are hot), but the more you think about the writing, the more plot holes and bullshits you find.

Mermaid Melody got me into anime and despite watching many more animes afterwards I still think they have one of the best lores imo. Different oceans, different palace architectures, different colors, etc. to appeal to the entire audience. Mermaid shows are also rare which is disappointing. I criticise the show but that critique comes from a place of love and knowing how much better it could have been…

Because of the way the story is written and presented it feels like we have less mermaid princesses than the actual real number. It’s sad because Noel and Coco must have so much trauma and yet the plot doesn’t even bother at all with them. I know it’s a show/manga for young girls and kids just take everything at face value but sometimes I wish more care was put into it. For example, I know Coco is a very forgiving person but I don’t know how to feel about how even after the death of Sara the story still tries to make it about her (Sara). This is one of the things that bothers me; correct me if I am wrong but Coco was imprisoned for 7-8 years, right? Yet the lack of acknowledgment of its sometimes makes me doubt myself and what I thought was true for years.

To think that we got 91 episodes and still they couldn’t spare two episodes for them. The only reason I liked the Coco (Sara-centric) Pure episode was because we got a look of Coco’s palace and wow it was beautiful (we really have a lack of palace shots from kingdoms other than Luchia’s and Rina’s but Mermaid Melody’s lack of underwater world building is a whole other post).