Manatsu/Summer is the lead cure of the season and is a beloved eternally motivated girl. She's an utter goofball and is here to experience EVERYTHING her new city life has to offer for her. Growing up on a small island with no other kids her age has left her with a distinctive and lovable child like hyperactive energy.
I know initially I kinda didn't think too much about Manatsu, as she slots perfectly into the classic lead cure archetype which doesn't particularly reasonate with me. However, in my rewatches for Laura Quest she grew on me significantly. Most of her traits are double edged swords as her want to do everything easily gives way to indecisiveness and her need to do what's most important now into impulsiveness. The 35th episode is a really good insight to this and it's one of my favorites for that reason.
She's also pertified of ghosts, a trait that I think offsets her usual fearless and determined attitude in a really effective way. This is brought up a couple of times and is primarily done for comedic effect but I really liked episode 19 in which she believes she's stumbled upon a ghost that is actually just one of the witch's servents, Elda.
Cute would be the best way to descibe Sango/Coral as the daughter of the owner of esteemed makeup store Pretty Holic Sango has had a passion for cute things her whole life. She struggles with the internal conflict of whether she wants to stand out from the crowd or not and has an arc in which she tries to become a model only to find out she prefers to be a makeup artist instead in order to support other's cuteness.
Oh man do I have a lot of thoughts here for the character with the least ammount of episodes dedicated to her. Sango's arc goes a lot of different places which are all well and good on their own but together kind of add up to a message that leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Her deciding to be a makeup artist is fine it's the way it contrasts with what her internal conflict is set up as that makes it feel like a regression I think.
I didn't realize how much of a flop Sango's arc was until I watched the final episode of it with two different friend groups and both of them responded rather viscerally to it. I feel like part of what makes the last episode in her arc (39) so unsettling is it expects us to believe things about Sango's relationships with the other girls that we just have not seen since the start of the show.
Minori is a quiet book/fairy tale obsessed nerd in the grade above Manatsu and Sango, with her favorite story of course being the little mermaid. She loved this story so much in fact the year before the events of the show she wrote her own mermaid story of which she's now greatly ashamed of. Her arc involves her coming out of her shell more and gaining life experience she can use to start writing again.
Where do I begin? The way Minori rewrote my brain chemistry when I realized how similar she is to me at that age was absolutely insane but I'll try and keep that stuff out of this. I think my favorite thing about her is the way you start off the show thinking she'll be the straight man of the group only to find out she's just as weird and eccentric as the rest of them. Also the juxtaposition between her civilian forms poker face and papaya's expressiveness is fascinating to me.
And then there's episode 15, the one where she body swaps with Laura and gets to experience being a mermaid for a few days. This is one of my favorites and was probably the episode that made me realize this series was going to be something special to me. The episode actually focuses a bit more on Laura's experience and how it solidifies her desire to become human but I also like to interpret Minori's side of the episode through a therian lens.
Minori is pretty autistic coded and whether that's the intention is up for debate but it's certainly how she comes off. Her fascination for sea creatures, and mermaids, and dragons really makes me speculate that she feels some sort of disconnect from other human beings and this leads me to a therian read of her character.
Asuka/Flamingo is a standoffish 3rd year student who due to a previous falling out with the current student council president, Yuriko, finds it hard to trust her allies initially. As an ex tennis club memeber, Asuka is the most atheletic/sporty of the group but also enjoys playing games like animal crossing in her free time. She's got a loyal heart of gold and a strong moral compass under that rough exterior.
I love Asuka full stop, the way her and Yuriko are so intertwined in this messy divorce arc is really enjoyable and I loved seeing them go head to head on multiple occasions as well as learning about the conflict which separated these two best friends. Her dynamic with the other tropical club members is also super fun especially with Laura where it's this reluctance that grows into genuine affection.
Due to being the oldest she kinda gets thrust into this big sister/mentor role to the other girls but she never feels too disconnected and perfect in comparison to them. She's got her own issues and faults and is just as big a goof as the others a lot of the time which is really nice to see.
Laura starts the show off as an egotistical and pompous mermaid obsessed with becoming the next queen of Gran Ocean and only hanging out with Manatsu and co for the furthering of her goal in that. While the show's official main character is Manatsu, the character who by far gets the most exploration and development within Tropical Rouge is Laura. If you don't like Laura after about 12 episodes then Tropical Rouge is not the show for you.
It's in episode 11 actually that we begin to see a change start to occur in Laura. She starts to feel left out as due to her being a mermaid she's unable to participate in the fun club activities that the others are always doing. And over the next few episodes this sense of lonliness is built up until it all comes to ahead during the 16-17 two parter in which Laura gets captured and becomes Cure La Mer out of the desire to save her friends.
But her growth is far from over by that point, we still have almost 30 episodes left! The rest of the season involves Laura getting used to being a human and being finally able to tropica-shine with her friends to the max leading up the ultimate choice of whether or not she'll choose to stay a human or become queen like she's always dreamed.
For as much as I say Minori had an impact on me I can't call her my favorite of the season, that honor goes to Laura Apollodoros Hyginus La Mer. This extremely egotistical and vain mermaid queen canidate won my heart over within the first few episodes. But that's certainly not all there is to her, not by a long shot, as I explained in her summary section she has the most fleshed out and explored arc in the series.
The growth which Laura goes through during the season left an impact on me. Seeing her gradually grow to appreciate and love the other tropical club members in her own Laura way is incredibly heartwarming. In addition to that she also helps the other girls grow as well particularly in the way she's able to bluntly ask questions and deduce other's feelings based off her intuition.
It completely catches her off guard however when characters like Minori then proceed to turn these tactics back on her. As my good friend Lion put it:
"Laura is usually very attention seeking and wants to be the center of attention. Yet when shes stuck being a mermaid and cant join her friends for land activites she doesnt voice her loneliness. She feels left out, yet she doesnt want to force her friends to hang out with her, because thats a vulnerable thing to admit. Liking your friends??? Ew gross. She doesnt need friends...."