MERMAID MELODY PICHI PICHI PITCH
A guide to Japanese terms of address!

1) NAME SUFFIXES

	-san = The most neutral suffix.  You can use this one for anybody, from
		a stranger that you meet on the street, to your own boyfriend/girlfriend.

	-chan = A diminuitive, or a term of endearment.

	-kun = Used to address boys and young men, like Kaito.
               Today -kun is increasingly used to address young working women.

	-sama = A term of utmost respect.  Usually only royalty or religious figures are
	 	addressed with -sama, and the same holds true in this manga.
                When you're in a department store or other commercial area, employees
		working there may address you as "-sama," however.   

	-sensei = "Teacher," and although it is always used to address teachers, it can
	  	  also be used for doctors and other professionals as well.

	no suffix = Usually an indication of either a) intimacy or b) contempt.  Watch
		    for the way that this is used in the manga.

2) TERMS OF ADDRESS

	Onee-chan = An intimate term for "older sister."  Lucia uses this to address
		    Nikora in the early chapters of the manga.

	Onii-san = A term of address for one's own older brother.  

	Onii-chan = An intimate term of address for one's own older brother. 

3) "HIME" VERSUS "PRINCESS"

	In the Pichi Pichi Pitch manga, the term "Mermaid Princess" is written out in
	phonetic katakana characters, "Ma - me i do * Pu ri n se su" (the "-" indicates
	a long vowel sound).  Everybody, including Gakuto and Aqua Regina, addresses 
	(and refers to) the mermaid princesses as "Pu ri n se su," which of course I've 
	translated as "princess."

	There is one exception, however.  Gakuto refers to Sara, and addresses her, by
	using the Japanese term "hime," which of course translates as "princess."  I 
	chose to use the term "princess" in my translations, because leaving "hime" in
	Japanese just looked too weird, even for me.  (It's completely arbitrary, I know,
	but that's how I felt.)  But I wanted to make a note of the difference right here.
	The use of "hime" versus "purinsesu" is one way that Gakuto uses to distinguish 
	Sara from the mermaid princesses.