Rina Tōin
| Rina Tōin | |
|---|---|
| Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch character | |
| File:Rina-Toin-Human.jpg Rina in her human form as seen in the anime. | |
| First appearance | "Swaying Thoughts" |
| Last appearance | "Onward to That Dream" |
| Created by | Pink Hanamori |
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | Rina Tōin (Human) Green Pearl Voice Pincess of the North Atlantic Ocean |
Rina Tōin (洞院 リナ, Tōin Rina) Voiced by: Mayumi Asano is one of the central characters in the anime and manga Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch and its second anime season Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure. She is the mermaid princess of the North Atlantic Ocean. She is the keeper of the Green Pearl. Rina is a person who dwells on the past. She seemed to be cold and distant at first glance; but as the series progress, she begins to open up and shows a more friendly and gentle side of her.
Rina is the third mermaid princess to appear in both the anime and the manga. Her idol form is Green Pearl Voice. She has two image songs from both seasons of the anime: Star Jewel and Piece of Love.
Profile
In the Anime
Rina is first introduced in episode 3 as a transfer student in Lucia and Hanon’s class. At first glance, Rina seemed to be a person difficult to get along with because of her cool and distant attitude. However, she has a reason for that. Rina is the princess of the North Atlantic Ocean. Not long ago, her homeland was destroyed by the sea monsters. She met up with the mermaid princess of the Arctic Ocean, Noel, to escape together. However, they were attacked by Gaito and one of his Dark Lovers, Yuuri. It was Noel who sacrificed herself by throwing herself into Yuuri’s attack in order to give Rina a chance to escape. Rina experienced difficult emotions from this event, and she arrived on land to seek revenge.
As the series progresses, Rina shows a more gentle and friendly side of her after befriended with Lucia and Hanon. She is beautiful, elegant, and very mature compared to Lucia and Hanon. Rina is also very independent. She lives on her own in a small house instead of living with Lucia and Hanon at Pearl Piari. As she spends more time with Lucia and Hanon, she becomes very close to them, and showed a more cheerful and fun side of her. Despite her cold and mature exterior, she still does some silly things with Hanon and Lucia sometimes, such as the Mermaid Contest in episode 21.
While Hanon and Lucia quickly find love interests on land, Rina remains unmoved when boys approach her. Her reason is simply that she is “not looking for a boyfriend” [3] However, she has grown quite fond of Kaito overtime, despite the little misunderstanding she had with him the first time they met due to Kaito’s physical resemblance of Gaito. In episode 16, she feels she is starting to fall for him. But, knowing that Kaito is really Lucia’s guy, Rina knows better than to allow those feelings to develop.
In the second season of the anime, Rina receives a love interest, the motorbike-driving boxer Masahiro Hamasaki. Rina is shy and slow about confessing her feelings. However, when she leaves him for a ceremony, she starts to miss him.[4] In the second season, many of Rina's appearances have her dealing with her relationship with Masahiro.
In the Manga
Rina’s personality is almost the same in the manga, except that she meets Masahiro a lot earlier, before Gaito was even defeated. Rina also danced yearly at a shrine that was connected with mermaids.
Rina cares a lot for Hanon and Lucia. She is always there to help them, whether it is to fight the sea monsters or to give a shoulder to lean on, especially when Lucia has disagreements with Kaito. Rina is also very dutiful as a mermaid princess. [5]
Rina loves to read; she has a special talent for cleaning and laundry. Her favorite subject is mathematics, and she does not have a least favorite subject. Her favorite color is green, and favorite flower is the Lily. She likes vegetarian dishes, and dislikes anything pretentious. Her favorite type of boy is a reliable boy.[6]
Aspects and forms
A mermaid, Rina 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, Green Pearl Voice, and uses her voice as an offense. Her two songs are Star Jewel and Piece of Love, and in the manga, she uses 'Cool Shine Pitch' instead of the 'Love Shower Pitch' she uses in the anime, along with the rest of the mermaids.
Mermaid Form
Rina was born on a Saturday, thus making her a green mermaid.[7] Her outfit is the same as the rest of the mermaid princesses. She wears the similar shell bra, shell locket, a bracelet around one of her upper arms, and double pearl bracelets around one of her wrists and her tail.
Rina’s princess outfit was first seen in Chapter 14 of the manga. Her outfit is very similar to her regular mermaid outfit. However, some changes are a headband of small, yellow roses, two strings of pearls looped around the base of her tail, and a dress with a cleft and three bows on the side of her tail. Rina appeared in her princess form a second time in Chapter 19; this time her dress is identical to everyone else's - with both bows and the cleft in her skirts aligned in the center of her front side.[8]
Idol Form
When facing enemies, Rina transforms into her idol form, Green 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 consists of a long light green dress, long gloves to her upper arm, and high heeled sandals. Rina, along with Hanon and Lucia, gained her second outfit in episode 28 when the trio was upgraded by the goddess Aqua Regina. Her second outfit is noticeably different from her first one. Her long dress now is complete with double layers and a seaweed green bow on her right side. Her gloves now have a second layer, and the sandals are fancier. She also gains accessories such as a headpiece, a watch, and more fluffs alongside the top of her dress. Rina’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, Rina 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. She says "love shower pitch" in the anime, but in the manga she says "cool shine pitch."
References
- ^ Lucia's age is given as 13 in anime Episode 1; Since Rina is Lucia's classmate, thus her age is between 13-14
- ^ Hanamori, Pink (July25, 2006). "character profile". Pichi Pichi Pitch: Mermaid Melody Volume 2. Del Rey. ISBN-13: 978-0345491978.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Episode 10
- ^ Episode 10, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure
- ^ One instance is that in Episode 3 of Pure, when she is faced with the dilemna of whether or not to return to her country.
- ^ Hanamori, Pink (July25, 2006). "character profile". Pichi Pichi Pitch: Mermaid Melody Volume 2. Del Rey. ISBN-13: 978-0345491978.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Hanamori, Pink (May 1, 2007). "Back of Volume". Pichi Pichi Pitch: Mermaid Melody Volume 5. Del Rey. ISBN-13: 978-0345492005.
- ^ Pearl Song - Princess Dresses, http://www.boukenshin.net/pitch/princess.php, retrieved on November 1, 2007