Tinker & Linker >> everyone else.
Memory's charge shot on the outside seems good, but in reality you have no control over what you shoot. Mevious's charge shot isn't very good, and his special bats don't stay on the screen very long at all. I made a tier list in a different thread of a different board, let me go find it...
If I had to make my own Cali Tier list for TSS, it would probably be:
S Tier: Tinker & Linker
A Tier: Mackey & Pentell, Nonja Monja, Mevious
B Tier: Sprites, Memory, Griffon, Really Till
C Tier: Arthur Schmitt, Load/Dark Ran, Kim
D Tier: Yan Yanyan
That would be in order (So M&P > NM > Mev, etc.).
The only things you really need to consider are a character's charge shot, their movement speed, and their special attacks. Virtually everything else pales in comparison to those three things.
T&L has probably the best charge in the game, pretty good movement speed, and one of the best specials in the game. M&P and NM are pretty good at everything but movement speed, and Mev has good movement speed, but a poor charge (and decent offensive specials).
P.S. I've never played a non-arcade version of TSS, but I think Marin was on the Sega Saturn version of the game. They probably carried her over to the other versions, but idk. I play on MAME and Neo Geo. The Neo Geo version has lag and lag effects, while the MAME version doesn't. So if we were to get super pro tournament style we'd have to play on the Neo Geo board only in order to get true arcade perfection. But we're not going to, the MAME version is fine.
P.P.S. "Meirin" is Saturn only. Just double checked.