WARNING: I DO NOT MEAN TO INSULT THE FANS THEMSELVES. *end capslock* This is wholly satirical, so go ahead. Read it. Maybe you'll agree or even laugh along at some of the points I make.

Have you ever received that one gift that you're utterly convinced you're going to love just because everyone else seems to have loved it? What about that one time where you receive the strangest thing possible and think that you're just going to abandon it after one day. Manga can be a lot like that; in a way, you're taking a lot of risks.

As much hate as I may get for this review, I will put my beliefs about this manga about as bluntly and humorously as I can: Pichi Pichi Pitch, to me, falls in the latter category. A lot of times, Internet fandoms have gotten me to try crazy, yet utterly fun things I never would've done before, like watch My Little Pony or participate in online roleplaying. When I first looked at the art and concept for this story, I bought all the volumes I could. I was pumped. As a genuine magical girl fan who loves these kinds of stories, I'm going to have to pull out the sort of argument that this fandom hates. Yep, I'm going to go so far as to call it a Sailor Moon ripoff--no, a ripoff of basically the entire genre. Saying such things about a manga like Tokyo Mew Mew, which actually made an attempt at world-building and lovable characters before Executive Meddling, is (for the most part) unwarranted.

This plays in a league of its own. Hint: it's certainly not the majors.

STORY (3):
Now here's the interesting part: Pichi Pichi Pitch actually has a pretty interesting story. The saddest part of this whole thing is that it didn't have to be this way; it could very well have jumped from one of my least favorite manga to one of my absolute obsessions. The thing that doomed it was bad execution. Mermaids are a territory magical girl doesn't go into as much, so it had potential. Unfortunately, it chose to go with things that pandered more to the demographic, such as idol singers and cute surfers. Neither being a bad thing (coming from someone who has Utau Hoshina of Shugo Chara! on her favorites list), but not something to form an entire manga around. The singing concept was interesting, but not something that converted well to manga. I would've vastly preferred to see more magic, spells, even physical fighting. Also, while past magical girl works have managed to juggle action and romance, PPP fails to do so. It got to the point where they cut the second arc to two volumes. Let me say that again: a magical girl villain gets defeated in TWO VOLUMES. Yes, SM did a similar thing in some arcs, but at least it wasn't entirely due to wanting to expand romantic arcs.

ART (7):
The art was rather beautiful and perhaps one of the real reasons I chose not to drop it (the other being the "it'll get better, it'll get better" mantra). But a few things began to aggravate me, one of them being Lucia's complete hair length, eye color and hair color change. These aren't uncommon in magical girl manga, but at least make the girl somewhat recognizable! *sigh* As much as I hate to pull out the ripoff argument, Lucia, your coincidentally blonde pigtails and blue eyes make it really hard. Your dress is really nice, though, so please transform using your far more original brunette bob and don't give Italian animators any more ideas about "mermaid hair changes colors underwater." Except, darn it, now it's too late and--oh, Hotaru's here too? I'm not even going to elaborate on that.

Also slight annoying factors: the fact that Coco's and Rina's outfits are essentially the same turtleneck dress with slightly different details, and that Caren's and Noel's dresses look like someone mistaking a long blouse for a dress and forgetting to wear leggings. The twin-similar-costuming idea was cute, but let's try to forget about those moments where weird celebrities made the same mistake.

CHARACTER (3):
Ah, the magical girl ditz stereotype, how it has been played. Cardcaptor Sakura decided to go more in a "childish innocence/naivete" direction, which put an endearing twist on it; Shugo Chara! pretty much avoided it with a heroine that was a breath of fresh air. Someday, maybe the team strategist can be the main. Until then, characters like Lucia will still come off as shallow compared to the "lesser" members. Rina just tends to be another cool type with ties to traditional Japanese culture that seems a bit too much like Rei Hino. Hanon is one of the more original (using that term lightly) of the three, so I liked her a bit more. I really liked Caren, Noel, and Coco when they had scenes and wish they had more, Coco being the most developed. Mitsuki-sensei and Sara were actually rather good. Too bad that much strength couldn't have been used for the other characters, though.

ENJOYMENT (2):
I tended to like the climatic scenes the most, but they faded away too quickly. The romantic scenes were nothing original, as much as I hate to say it. We barely even met some of the guys they end up with.

OVERALL (3):
Basically put, this is the lowest you can get with magical girl manga. Winx Club, considered by some to be the worst, gets a lot of flack for not being Japanese and for pulling some of the same things that PPP did (especially with romances). However, it's an insult to say that it gets to PPP level. I'm not saying this for just Winx in general. I'm saying it for all magical girl manga.