Marli is the Swordfish Princess, with her crown being a cheerful swordfish hooked in her hair. Her depiction in the series differs between the books and animated series.
In the books, Marli is a very intelligent girl, who can work without a lot of effort. However, asking her to read her work in class is not a good idea as Marli is very shy and lives with shame for reasons she doesn't know. In conversation, Marli listens much more than she talks; sometimes her friends think that she does not pay a lot of attention, but Marli is really waiting for everyone to finish talking before giving her own opinion, often covered with reason.
In the cartoons, Marli is shown as an arrogant girl and a rival to Ester, wanting to overcome her at school and at any activity. However, she is a good girl despite all this.
Character highlights[]
In The Babysitters, Marli and Ester sign up for the same job babysitting the Whale Queen’s son, Naimo and the Whale Queen allows them to do it together as a trial. When Naimo starts going around the house looking for Cici, Marli and Ester go on a wild goose chase before they try to think like he thinks. When they realise that Cici is a doll and that it could be in the wash, they manage to find Cici in the laundry and bring Naimo to it just as the Whale Queen returns. The next day, Marli and Ester learn that the Whale Queen is recommending them to other people, but they want them to babysit their children together, so they decide to try working together for a little while.
In The Doll, Marli’s mother, the Swordfish Queen, is said to be collecting old toys and giving them to other children. When Marli comes to Tubarina’s room as they are about to go to dance class, she sees Tubarina’s doll, Bebe, and ridicules her for still having one, claiming that she is a lot more mature than most girls her age. Out of impulse, Tubarina decides to let Marli take Bebe and it is given to the Salmon Queen’s daughter.
In Bad Vibrations, Marli has an argument with Ester over swapping babysitting jobs. When bad things start happening to her, Ester tries being nice to Marli, but to no avail. Eventually, Ester decides to give Marli some flowers and drop the argument between them, which makes the bad things stop.
In The Ring, the girls get Marli when Tubarina suspects that a swordfish ate Salacia’s ring. She initially laughs at the story, just as Tubarina predicted, then decides to gather the swordfish to find out which one ate it. The girls manage to retrieve the ring, but it falls into a hole with seemingly no way of retrieving it again.