Notice: This review is not part of story of 2017 reviews. Readers discretion is advised.
Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome to my first Cartoon and anime review. Now, its my review that i like to pick some shows to share with you all, whether is from the past or in modern.
From a few years ago, i was talked by "Kill La Kill", and anime that is easily one of my fav, with interesting characters and insane action, its the one that i love to watched back then. Even though its not that perfect for my review, even if i barely called my "review". Its kinda i made my cheap opinion to recommend for watching, but i digress.
Anyway, for my first "Cartoon and Anime Review", i decided to go in Japan to pick an Anime's genre that everyone love to watch back in the 90's to the early millennium, that is magical girls genre.
The first magical girl that we introduce in the media that its (If not) the grandmother of the genre called "Cutie Honey". A series tells about an android girl (who's created by her dead father) has to save the world from the evil threat. This series became famous for the genre, the character and even fan-service.
But sadly, Cutie Honey is ended up getting overshadowed, due to the fact that in 1991, they introduced Sailor Moon that it became an icon of magical girls genre for bright and colorful. This is also mention to be influenced for the work. Some are the same but considered good and some that made the genre much darker, especially with Puella Magi Madoka Magica that it became famous for not only colorful, but also darker and disturbing.
But today for my review, im gonna talk about one anime that i saw as a young boy, which may sound bizarre which it was gear towards girls, but it doesn't matter, but more like 95% for girls and 5% boys like me. This is "Tokyo Mew Mew", ladies and gentlemen.
For those you don't know (Unless some girls who heard of), Tokyo Mew Mew is a magical girl series that was first introduced in manga in 2000 to 2003. It was written by Reiko Yoshida and illustrated by Mia Ikumi. It was well received with cute and entertaining story for the readers.
When the manga had a positive reception, the director name Noriyuki Abe along with four producers decided to cash in to make an anime based on the manga, and surprisingly, it was even more well received than the manga for the high rating of the show.
And for now on, its been 16 years since it came out. And perhaps nearly 20 years since their manga was started.
So, with all that said, will this show has a cute adventures with 5 colorful girls, or is it rather too boring that i'd rather watching Sailor Moon?
Lets find out.
The story and episodes
(Now, im not gonna do a comparison with manga , because i never read it. Perhaps im kinda doing comparison and talking a little bit about the sequel at the aftermath.)
It begins where a 13 year old girl name Ichigo Momomiya who's going to have a date with her crush name Masaya Aoyama. Not only dating, but also attending to an endangered species exhibit. However, her dating is going down that she sees a glowing light at her from the earthquake out of nowhere. But in next day, she starts acting like a cat in her school, with landing on her feet, sleeping in class, eating fish and cat puns. Once she left for her embarrassment, she believes that when she encountered the pink house from last day was being picked that she acting like a cat. But it was reveal that this apartment was a cafe called "Mew Mew Cafe". Not only that, but its also a secret hideout by Ryo Shirogane and Keiichiro Akasaka. They tell her that she was infused with a DNA of an extinct feline called Iriomote wildcat. Plus, she's not the only one who's gonna be a hero with infusion animal, she has four more members of her group known as "Tokyo Mew Mew". Mainly because Ryo and Keiichiro want them to save the world from the evil threat of aliens to searching with a orb called "Mew Aqua", which makes to healing, restore from pollution and even power-up for the Mew Mews.
Though i gotta say, i find it a pretty cool concept with having a magical girls with a DNA extinct animals dealing against the evil aliens. Even though it takes a while from the start since Ichigo has to finding her members before the big mission starts. I mean sure, it has a similar element in Sailor Moon, but unlike saving the world of love, its all about saving people's souls, animals without causing extinction and even the environment.
The show has almost plenty of environment elements that they mentioned. Its understandable that back in the old days, since we're trashing up everywhere, people starting to do a widespread message of saving our world of environment that we want to our planet to be cleaned. In nowadays, everyone is not only talking about it, but also stop the problem with a causing of climate change. I guess "Tokyo Mew Mew vs group of Climate-Change-Denial" wasn't even made to put on television. (Well, not really, its just my made-up... ^^;)
Aside from the main plot of saving the world, the show goes to a few side plot to focus the relationship between and Ichigo and Aoyama or perhaps our other members of the team, which i like to know who they are and what happen from the past, which it may help for their character development. For example, in 9th episode, it focused with Mint that she likes to do ballet in front of her older brother name Seiji, but she ended up alone, because he was picked in business of study abroad, which is rather unfair for her, since she wanted to reunite her big brother for her ballet performance when they grew up.
But some episode that i felt that it feels like a waste of concept, like in 29th episode where Ichigo meets a cat name Asano (Which im pretty he named himself from a train station, kinda like Paddington), which he wanted to be in relationship with lilac point Siamese female cat name Jacqueline. I mean, its cute and yet sad, but does this have to do with the main story? None.
But there's one is probably not my kind to watch was in episode 31th. In this episode, Ichigo is getting frustrated when her father is overprotective to her, mainly because he's not only jealous, but a complete arsehole to Aoyama. So rather than call the cops or anything, Aoyama was forced to confronting against Ichigo's father in kendo. This is easily the most weakest episode i'd ever seen for a boring father and daughter relationship story of this show.
About the ending, il talk about the aftermath later. So the story and some episodes are interesting and fun.. Even though some episodes are a big filler that i'd rather watch something good (Yes, im looking at you Dragon Ball Z.).
The animation
In this show, it was produced by a company called Pierrot. I find that the animation of this movie is pretty cool. Its cute, colorful and creative. Even though its slightly similar from the manga, but still its cute. However, its not a perfect animation, mainly because it has some errors that i noticed, like where Ichigo's father got changed his skin and his hair color or even Kishu's wrist outfit is mysteriously disappeared. I mean they could've finalized the animation of colors and others before airing on TV in Japan. Another flaws of this show is that, remember when you watch Sailor Moon that it has a transformation takes about 50 second? Well this show is one of them (Kinda.). It used every episodes that you've seen again, and again, and again and yeah... I know that its annoying that we want to get over it. Even the Mew Mew's weapon seen shown in the exact same clip in almost every episodes. They could've take more time to make more animation for the attack or something, but i guess it didn't matter for magical girl's logic. Not to mention, this show is not only have a drama, but it also has some jokes in the show, mostly the anime gags like the chibi and few other stuff. They did made me laugh of the gags, but some of them made raise my eyebrow or even scratching my head in confusion.
The animation is pretty cute and good, but they could've finalized before airing in Japan.
The characters
For this show, unlike Sailor Moon is about magical girls based on the planets of solar system, this one was actually with extinct creatures. Not only that, but il talk about some characters in the show.
Starting with the leader of the Mew Mew name Ichigo Momomiya, she's sweet, cheerful and sometimes crazy. She's a bit similar to Sailor Moon. But at least she's nice and yet a good leader of The Mew Mew. But sometimes she can be annoying if no matter if it doesn't work or exposing her truth, she will not be please. Its also mention that since she's infused with Wild Cat, she has the ability to jump high and landing on her feet. But she have some issue for her ability like when she's exciting, her ears and her tail pops out for her dignity or exciting/anger or other times accidentally kiss various animals to turning into a little cat. And as a Mew Mew, her weapon is a "Strawberry Bell", which it makes a final blow at Chimera creatures. Despite her anger issue, she's always be nice and cute, ever since she's in relationship with Masaya. I find her not only cute, but also interesting.
Second member is Mint (or Minto) Aizawa, she's easily my least favorite of the group. She's much as being selfish and a spoiled B****. Its mainly because she was born from her rich family. For the most time when she works on Cafe, she doesn't want to working, she just sits there and have a cup of tea in laziness. Not to mention, she's rather rude to Ichigo from the start, by accusing her as a "Vulgar girl", talk about a douchebag. But, she did gets better like adding empathetic personality that she cares about her friends and also a fangirl of Zakuro. As a Mew Mew, she's infused with Blue Lorikeet that she has the ability to fly, talking birds and her weapon is "Mint Arrow", which she shoots an energy arrow. She may be a good person, but her greedy personality doesn't help to love. Sorry, Minto.
Third member is Lettuce Midorikawa, she's shy, sometimes intelligent and a lack of confident. Its also mention that she's with three girls in her own school. Once she's in the Mew mew, she's considered selfless, kindness and gain confidence. Even though she's a kind of character that you feel sorry for her, but she's rather nice and kind, despite of her shy persona. As a mew mew form, she's infused with "Finless Porpoise", she can breath in the water, capable of swimming and her weapon is "Lettustanets", which she can also shooting energy or other times water. Another thing that she has, is to turning into a mermaid. Which in the anime version, she can turning into it when she found a "Mew Aqua", but thats a different story in the manga. Despite of awkwardness, but i think she's rather interesting and probably fan favorite.
Forth member is Pudding Fong (Don't be stupid for her last name! Don't! Or else...! Ok?), she's energetic, fun, friendly and acrobatic. Despite being a youngest member of the Mew mews, she also raised five children in her home while her father left for in the mountain of training and her mother was sadly died from her childhood. As a Mew Mew she's infused with Golden Lion Tamarin, she has her weapon called "PuRing Rings" (Over-ring much?) that it can create a pudding trap at the creatures. Its also mention the DNA fusion fits in for her personality, which i think it makes sense. Whether like her or not, she's one member that i find her cute and she's almost like stealing the show.
And fifth and final member is Zakuro Fujiwara, she's a lone, dark, intelligent, sensitive eyes and a star of professional model and probably the oldest and mature member of the Mew Mew. Its also mention that Mint was a huge fan of her, especially she was surprised that Zakuro was a Mew Mew. Even though without her, it hurts Mint's life for either completely lonely or even fight each other. Anyway, as a Mew Mew, she was infused with Grey Wolf (Lone-wolf, huh?), her weapon is called "ZaCross Whip", which is basically an energy whip. Even though she's nice and kinda asocial, but she has a typical badass character without origin, it didn't happen until she has a backstory that she's a estranged from her family in 2 years ago in anime. Even though she have some flaws, but i find that she's an interesting lone character.
For the side characters, first we have Aoyama Masaya, he's a main love interest of Ichigo, he was calm, polite, athletic, smart and respectful with her. Its worth noting that he's a popular in school for his kendo skills. Which at first he's just a character in filler, until later he gets a lot interesting for his appearance of the show. I find him to be interesting and well-respected character to Ichigo, calm, nice and probably understandable for her.
Then, we have a mysterious alien named "Blue Knight", who happens to be a protector of Ichigo, as he claimed to be born to be with her for safety and also helping out to solve a spot to dealing against Chimera animals. However, we don't know who he is, which Ichigo was having a conspiracy theory for who's behind the Blue Knight.
Next we have Ryô Shirogane, who's the owner of "Cafe Mew Mew" and the head of "Mew Project". The reason for that, its because in his childhood, his parents are killed by one Chimera Animal and his home got burnt down that he want his revenge to save the world by inject his genes that he can turning into a cat named "Alto" and created a project to choose five girls to considered them as the chosen ones to save the Earth from the threat. On his side, its Keiichirô Akasaka, who's not only Ryo's partner for the project, but also a manage of the cafe. Not only that, but he's also pretty charming to the mew mews and the customers (specifically females). They're kinda like a typical mixed bag personality for the objective to our heroes. Though Akasaka was a nice and charming manager, and Ryo was kinda rude to them, but he sometimes doing a backup plan to our heroes. Oh and there's Mew Mew's side robot named "Masha", who's like a scanner to detecting chimera animals. I gotta say, Masha looks pretty cute, though.
And finally, there's the villains. They're basically aliens from other dimension that their homeworld was destroyed from apocalypse (I think), so they're targeting Earth to taking over for their own race than humanity, which it was ordered by Deep Blue.
Deep Blue was started as a mysterious alien figure who started slept for his new body until one of his apprentice "Kishu" opened a portal for a mew aqua to revealing his new body. But again, we have no idea who this guy is. He's cold, cruelty and threatening for the end of humanity.
As for Kish, he's a second alien who survived along with his leader Deep Blue. He's playful and cocky for fighting against the Mew Mews. He's also known that he's targeting at Ichigo for his plan to joining his side after his surprise kiss. But other times, he gets psychotic, especially for Blue Knight. To be fair, he maybe an interesting villain, even he seems to be like a stalker, as if he wanted to murder Aoyama for his jealous reason. (Yup, another type of anime with a love-triangle cliche. Just that i forgot to tell it.)
Although Kish is not the only who's been ordered by Deep Blue, he has two partners for backup, Tart and Pie. Tart is a young childish, energetic and kinda immature towards Kish and Pie is a calm and serious partner. These two was introduced after when Kish was being defeated by "Blue Knight". While Tart is rather cute enemy sidekick, and Pie is rather above average.
The Mew Mews themselves are quite above average that i like (exception of Mint), while others are rather likable and some are kinda rude.
Spoiler Alert if you haven't watch them (Which i want you to skip ahead) or if you don't care, just keep reading.
Towards the end of second season, things start to get a big twist with a wild ride, it turns out that "Blue Knight" was actually Ichigo's love interest, Aoyama. For what reason he turned into a hero? Well, not only "Blue Knight" was her love interest, but Masaya was created by Deep Blue for the whole time in order to taking over the Earth. I mean wow, i've never heard it coming that Ichigo was dating the wrong person... Well kinda...
Deep Blue and Pie are working together for their destruction goal, but they got betrayed by Tart where he sacrificed from Pie and Kish wanted to keep Ichigo safe to stop Deep Blue, but sadly, get killed by his leader, leaving Ichigo incredibly devastated, but then, Deep Blue sees a vision of his dream like Masaya where she cried of Kish's death, causing him to lose his control of transformation (As well causing to use his power to striking on the ground at chimera animals and even killing Pie). But Masaya is still being controlled by Deep Blue, but not before the last Mew Aqua was in his body that he tells her to not only he has to be defeated by her hand, but also releasing it to her for power to restore the city, healing her partners and even revive aliens. But it was too soon for celebrating that her love returned normal and died. Heartbroken for his death, she uses her own life to revive for her own risk of death. While the Mew Mews returned, but once again, the celebration was too soon that witnessed their leader Ichigo was found dead on Aoyama's arm. The aliens, despite they're alive, they got the last "Mew Aqua" in order to going back home and thank our heroes to stop "Deep Blue". Before moving on, Aoyama was sad of her love interest dead that he gives her a kiss to say goodbye, but little did know, she was detransformed and resurrected, she was very happy to see him again. But in the end, the Mew Mews's powers are gone. Well, kinda, since they're temporarily have them whenever the new enemies is coming, which my only guess is that they're becoming a crime fighters in Tokyo.
The final act of the show is pretty damn good, but even though they're so many deaths that i don't know who died first. Its a good final act, but kinda confusing for the series ending.
But before il giving my final opinion, il talking about a little bit extras.
When i was doing a research like looking at the manga, i noticed that they're completely different than the show itself, most notably in the first chapter, where Ichigo meets four girls before the earthquake, but it was only their small appearances before they'll appear later on manga. I guess its because they don't want to introducing them way too early in the show. But i won't make another example of differences between manga and anime, because i haven't read the manga version.
Speaking of manga, after the first one was done in February 2003, Mia Ikumi decided to make a sequel on April in the same year. It takes place sometimes after first one, where Ichigo and Masaya travelling to UK for the study of species, while the other girls stay in Tokyo to facing against a new evil force called "Saint Rose Crusaders", a group of humans using powers with the remains of chimera animals. However, the Mew Mews have a new member named "Berry Shirayuki", who happened to be a first member of two DNA animals of Andean mountain cat and Amami rabbit. And the rest... Well, when i was reading in research, i find the sequel itself wasn't as great what we expect, with lame story, unlikable hero like Berry with shallow development, and the Saint Rose Crusaders are not only boring, but they're also offensive, because of the use of KKK. Its no wonder why it killed off the franchise with two volumes in the sequel. Though i heard some people liked it, but for me, its not as good than before.
And finally, since the show was well-received in Japan with big ratings and merchandise, it was brought over to Western like US for the dub by 4Kids Entertainment and by god... It was incredibly cringe inducing! Much like the previous anime in the 90's and early millennium, the translation of this show is horrible with some scenes were cut of appealing for kids, embarrassing dubs and the rewrite are the worst for the dialogue and even the name change like "Ichigo" to "Zoey" Though the music with Bree Sharp and Mollie Weaver are ok. This "Dub" was aired in 2005 with the first season only. I watched it when i was little that i though it was good, but looking back, i was absolutely regret to listening a poorly, poorly dubs for all the wrong reasons with 4Kids. Mainly because i was an idiotic kid back then...!
Sorry, for my little rant, cause i don't want to carrying away with my rage, like, just ignore the dubs like nothing happened in your mind and stick to the original one.
And now for my final opinion of this anime.
Overall, "Tokyo Mew Mew" may not big as "Sailor Moon", but i considered an underrated magical girl show, the story is good (despite some cliches), the animation looks cute, colorful and nice looking (despite some botched moment) and the characters are rather likable that i may root for some (except for Mint, i hate her...). But like i said, this franchise died less than 5 after a sequel didn't get much appreciated and 4Kids's dumb-down dubs. And im not sure if some people in Japan could bring it back for a reboot for improvement animation or live-action, as well for fixing the dubs with big companies like Funimation or Viz Media. I also sure if they'll bring them back with DVD or Blu-Ray for the original one than the dubs, like i found the full episodes on Youtube which i actually watched, but due to Youtube's rule, they're all removed, however, some users got their hands to reupload either on Youtube or in other video websites, its like digging a rare treasure that nobody ever heard of. If you're a fan of magical girls, i recommend it if you like going back in old time (If you're lucky to find them), or perhaps you could stick to Puella Magi Madoka Magica for a serious level.
So, il rate this anime an 8/10. And for the dub, 4Kids's One Piece/10.
So this ends of my review, if you have your opinion or any suggestion for other shows, let me know in the comment bellow.
Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.
For those you don't know (Unless some girls who heard of), Tokyo Mew Mew is a magical girl series that was first introduced in manga in 2000 to 2003. It was written by Reiko Yoshida and illustrated by Mia Ikumi. It was well received with cute and entertaining story for the readers.
When the manga had a positive reception, the director name Noriyuki Abe along with four producers decided to cash in to make an anime based on the manga, and surprisingly, it was even more well received than the manga for the high rating of the show.
And for now on, its been 16 years since it came out. And perhaps nearly 20 years since their manga was started.
So, with all that said, will this show has a cute adventures with 5 colorful girls, or is it rather too boring that i'd rather watching Sailor Moon?
Lets find out.
The story and episodes
(Now, im not gonna do a comparison with manga , because i never read it. Perhaps im kinda doing comparison and talking a little bit about the sequel at the aftermath.)
It begins where a 13 year old girl name Ichigo Momomiya who's going to have a date with her crush name Masaya Aoyama. Not only dating, but also attending to an endangered species exhibit. However, her dating is going down that she sees a glowing light at her from the earthquake out of nowhere. But in next day, she starts acting like a cat in her school, with landing on her feet, sleeping in class, eating fish and cat puns. Once she left for her embarrassment, she believes that when she encountered the pink house from last day was being picked that she acting like a cat. But it was reveal that this apartment was a cafe called "Mew Mew Cafe". Not only that, but its also a secret hideout by Ryo Shirogane and Keiichiro Akasaka. They tell her that she was infused with a DNA of an extinct feline called Iriomote wildcat. Plus, she's not the only one who's gonna be a hero with infusion animal, she has four more members of her group known as "Tokyo Mew Mew". Mainly because Ryo and Keiichiro want them to save the world from the evil threat of aliens to searching with a orb called "Mew Aqua", which makes to healing, restore from pollution and even power-up for the Mew Mews.
Though i gotta say, i find it a pretty cool concept with having a magical girls with a DNA extinct animals dealing against the evil aliens. Even though it takes a while from the start since Ichigo has to finding her members before the big mission starts. I mean sure, it has a similar element in Sailor Moon, but unlike saving the world of love, its all about saving people's souls, animals without causing extinction and even the environment.
The show has almost plenty of environment elements that they mentioned. Its understandable that back in the old days, since we're trashing up everywhere, people starting to do a widespread message of saving our world of environment that we want to our planet to be cleaned. In nowadays, everyone is not only talking about it, but also stop the problem with a causing of climate change. I guess "Tokyo Mew Mew vs group of Climate-Change-Denial" wasn't even made to put on television. (Well, not really, its just my made-up... ^^;)
Aside from the main plot of saving the world, the show goes to a few side plot to focus the relationship between and Ichigo and Aoyama or perhaps our other members of the team, which i like to know who they are and what happen from the past, which it may help for their character development. For example, in 9th episode, it focused with Mint that she likes to do ballet in front of her older brother name Seiji, but she ended up alone, because he was picked in business of study abroad, which is rather unfair for her, since she wanted to reunite her big brother for her ballet performance when they grew up.
But some episode that i felt that it feels like a waste of concept, like in 29th episode where Ichigo meets a cat name Asano (Which im pretty he named himself from a train station, kinda like Paddington), which he wanted to be in relationship with lilac point Siamese female cat name Jacqueline. I mean, its cute and yet sad, but does this have to do with the main story? None.
But there's one is probably not my kind to watch was in episode 31th. In this episode, Ichigo is getting frustrated when her father is overprotective to her, mainly because he's not only jealous, but a complete arsehole to Aoyama. So rather than call the cops or anything, Aoyama was forced to confronting against Ichigo's father in kendo. This is easily the most weakest episode i'd ever seen for a boring father and daughter relationship story of this show.
About the ending, il talk about the aftermath later. So the story and some episodes are interesting and fun.. Even though some episodes are a big filler that i'd rather watch something good (Yes, im looking at you Dragon Ball Z.).
The animation
In this show, it was produced by a company called Pierrot. I find that the animation of this movie is pretty cool. Its cute, colorful and creative. Even though its slightly similar from the manga, but still its cute. However, its not a perfect animation, mainly because it has some errors that i noticed, like where Ichigo's father got changed his skin and his hair color or even Kishu's wrist outfit is mysteriously disappeared. I mean they could've finalized the animation of colors and others before airing on TV in Japan. Another flaws of this show is that, remember when you watch Sailor Moon that it has a transformation takes about 50 second? Well this show is one of them (Kinda.). It used every episodes that you've seen again, and again, and again and yeah... I know that its annoying that we want to get over it. Even the Mew Mew's weapon seen shown in the exact same clip in almost every episodes. They could've take more time to make more animation for the attack or something, but i guess it didn't matter for magical girl's logic. Not to mention, this show is not only have a drama, but it also has some jokes in the show, mostly the anime gags like the chibi and few other stuff. They did made me laugh of the gags, but some of them made raise my eyebrow or even scratching my head in confusion.
The animation is pretty cute and good, but they could've finalized before airing in Japan.
The characters
For this show, unlike Sailor Moon is about magical girls based on the planets of solar system, this one was actually with extinct creatures. Not only that, but il talk about some characters in the show.
Starting with the leader of the Mew Mew name Ichigo Momomiya, she's sweet, cheerful and sometimes crazy. She's a bit similar to Sailor Moon. But at least she's nice and yet a good leader of The Mew Mew. But sometimes she can be annoying if no matter if it doesn't work or exposing her truth, she will not be please. Its also mention that since she's infused with Wild Cat, she has the ability to jump high and landing on her feet. But she have some issue for her ability like when she's exciting, her ears and her tail pops out for her dignity or exciting/anger or other times accidentally kiss various animals to turning into a little cat. And as a Mew Mew, her weapon is a "Strawberry Bell", which it makes a final blow at Chimera creatures. Despite her anger issue, she's always be nice and cute, ever since she's in relationship with Masaya. I find her not only cute, but also interesting.
Second member is Mint (or Minto) Aizawa, she's easily my least favorite of the group. She's much as being selfish and a spoiled B****. Its mainly because she was born from her rich family. For the most time when she works on Cafe, she doesn't want to working, she just sits there and have a cup of tea in laziness. Not to mention, she's rather rude to Ichigo from the start, by accusing her as a "Vulgar girl", talk about a douchebag. But, she did gets better like adding empathetic personality that she cares about her friends and also a fangirl of Zakuro. As a Mew Mew, she's infused with Blue Lorikeet that she has the ability to fly, talking birds and her weapon is "Mint Arrow", which she shoots an energy arrow. She may be a good person, but her greedy personality doesn't help to love. Sorry, Minto.
Third member is Lettuce Midorikawa, she's shy, sometimes intelligent and a lack of confident. Its also mention that she's with three girls in her own school. Once she's in the Mew mew, she's considered selfless, kindness and gain confidence. Even though she's a kind of character that you feel sorry for her, but she's rather nice and kind, despite of her shy persona. As a mew mew form, she's infused with "Finless Porpoise", she can breath in the water, capable of swimming and her weapon is "Lettustanets", which she can also shooting energy or other times water. Another thing that she has, is to turning into a mermaid. Which in the anime version, she can turning into it when she found a "Mew Aqua", but thats a different story in the manga. Despite of awkwardness, but i think she's rather interesting and probably fan favorite.
Forth member is Pudding Fong (Don't be stupid for her last name! Don't! Or else...! Ok?), she's energetic, fun, friendly and acrobatic. Despite being a youngest member of the Mew mews, she also raised five children in her home while her father left for in the mountain of training and her mother was sadly died from her childhood. As a Mew Mew she's infused with Golden Lion Tamarin, she has her weapon called "PuRing Rings" (Over-ring much?) that it can create a pudding trap at the creatures. Its also mention the DNA fusion fits in for her personality, which i think it makes sense. Whether like her or not, she's one member that i find her cute and she's almost like stealing the show.
And fifth and final member is Zakuro Fujiwara, she's a lone, dark, intelligent, sensitive eyes and a star of professional model and probably the oldest and mature member of the Mew Mew. Its also mention that Mint was a huge fan of her, especially she was surprised that Zakuro was a Mew Mew. Even though without her, it hurts Mint's life for either completely lonely or even fight each other. Anyway, as a Mew Mew, she was infused with Grey Wolf (Lone-wolf, huh?), her weapon is called "ZaCross Whip", which is basically an energy whip. Even though she's nice and kinda asocial, but she has a typical badass character without origin, it didn't happen until she has a backstory that she's a estranged from her family in 2 years ago in anime. Even though she have some flaws, but i find that she's an interesting lone character.
For the side characters, first we have Aoyama Masaya, he's a main love interest of Ichigo, he was calm, polite, athletic, smart and respectful with her. Its worth noting that he's a popular in school for his kendo skills. Which at first he's just a character in filler, until later he gets a lot interesting for his appearance of the show. I find him to be interesting and well-respected character to Ichigo, calm, nice and probably understandable for her.
Then, we have a mysterious alien named "Blue Knight", who happens to be a protector of Ichigo, as he claimed to be born to be with her for safety and also helping out to solve a spot to dealing against Chimera animals. However, we don't know who he is, which Ichigo was having a conspiracy theory for who's behind the Blue Knight.
Next we have Ryô Shirogane, who's the owner of "Cafe Mew Mew" and the head of "Mew Project". The reason for that, its because in his childhood, his parents are killed by one Chimera Animal and his home got burnt down that he want his revenge to save the world by inject his genes that he can turning into a cat named "Alto" and created a project to choose five girls to considered them as the chosen ones to save the Earth from the threat. On his side, its Keiichirô Akasaka, who's not only Ryo's partner for the project, but also a manage of the cafe. Not only that, but he's also pretty charming to the mew mews and the customers (specifically females). They're kinda like a typical mixed bag personality for the objective to our heroes. Though Akasaka was a nice and charming manager, and Ryo was kinda rude to them, but he sometimes doing a backup plan to our heroes. Oh and there's Mew Mew's side robot named "Masha", who's like a scanner to detecting chimera animals. I gotta say, Masha looks pretty cute, though.
And finally, there's the villains. They're basically aliens from other dimension that their homeworld was destroyed from apocalypse (I think), so they're targeting Earth to taking over for their own race than humanity, which it was ordered by Deep Blue.
Deep Blue was started as a mysterious alien figure who started slept for his new body until one of his apprentice "Kishu" opened a portal for a mew aqua to revealing his new body. But again, we have no idea who this guy is. He's cold, cruelty and threatening for the end of humanity.
As for Kish, he's a second alien who survived along with his leader Deep Blue. He's playful and cocky for fighting against the Mew Mews. He's also known that he's targeting at Ichigo for his plan to joining his side after his surprise kiss. But other times, he gets psychotic, especially for Blue Knight. To be fair, he maybe an interesting villain, even he seems to be like a stalker, as if he wanted to murder Aoyama for his jealous reason. (Yup, another type of anime with a love-triangle cliche. Just that i forgot to tell it.)
Although Kish is not the only who's been ordered by Deep Blue, he has two partners for backup, Tart and Pie. Tart is a young childish, energetic and kinda immature towards Kish and Pie is a calm and serious partner. These two was introduced after when Kish was being defeated by "Blue Knight". While Tart is rather cute enemy sidekick, and Pie is rather above average.
The Mew Mews themselves are quite above average that i like (exception of Mint), while others are rather likable and some are kinda rude.
Spoiler Alert if you haven't watch them (Which i want you to skip ahead) or if you don't care, just keep reading.
Towards the end of second season, things start to get a big twist with a wild ride, it turns out that "Blue Knight" was actually Ichigo's love interest, Aoyama. For what reason he turned into a hero? Well, not only "Blue Knight" was her love interest, but Masaya was created by Deep Blue for the whole time in order to taking over the Earth. I mean wow, i've never heard it coming that Ichigo was dating the wrong person... Well kinda...
Deep Blue and Pie are working together for their destruction goal, but they got betrayed by Tart where he sacrificed from Pie and Kish wanted to keep Ichigo safe to stop Deep Blue, but sadly, get killed by his leader, leaving Ichigo incredibly devastated, but then, Deep Blue sees a vision of his dream like Masaya where she cried of Kish's death, causing him to lose his control of transformation (As well causing to use his power to striking on the ground at chimera animals and even killing Pie). But Masaya is still being controlled by Deep Blue, but not before the last Mew Aqua was in his body that he tells her to not only he has to be defeated by her hand, but also releasing it to her for power to restore the city, healing her partners and even revive aliens. But it was too soon for celebrating that her love returned normal and died. Heartbroken for his death, she uses her own life to revive for her own risk of death. While the Mew Mews returned, but once again, the celebration was too soon that witnessed their leader Ichigo was found dead on Aoyama's arm. The aliens, despite they're alive, they got the last "Mew Aqua" in order to going back home and thank our heroes to stop "Deep Blue". Before moving on, Aoyama was sad of her love interest dead that he gives her a kiss to say goodbye, but little did know, she was detransformed and resurrected, she was very happy to see him again. But in the end, the Mew Mews's powers are gone. Well, kinda, since they're temporarily have them whenever the new enemies is coming, which my only guess is that they're becoming a crime fighters in Tokyo.
The final act of the show is pretty damn good, but even though they're so many deaths that i don't know who died first. Its a good final act, but kinda confusing for the series ending.
But before il giving my final opinion, il talking about a little bit extras.
When i was doing a research like looking at the manga, i noticed that they're completely different than the show itself, most notably in the first chapter, where Ichigo meets four girls before the earthquake, but it was only their small appearances before they'll appear later on manga. I guess its because they don't want to introducing them way too early in the show. But i won't make another example of differences between manga and anime, because i haven't read the manga version.
Speaking of manga, after the first one was done in February 2003, Mia Ikumi decided to make a sequel on April in the same year. It takes place sometimes after first one, where Ichigo and Masaya travelling to UK for the study of species, while the other girls stay in Tokyo to facing against a new evil force called "Saint Rose Crusaders", a group of humans using powers with the remains of chimera animals. However, the Mew Mews have a new member named "Berry Shirayuki", who happened to be a first member of two DNA animals of Andean mountain cat and Amami rabbit. And the rest... Well, when i was reading in research, i find the sequel itself wasn't as great what we expect, with lame story, unlikable hero like Berry with shallow development, and the Saint Rose Crusaders are not only boring, but they're also offensive, because of the use of KKK. Its no wonder why it killed off the franchise with two volumes in the sequel. Though i heard some people liked it, but for me, its not as good than before.
And finally, since the show was well-received in Japan with big ratings and merchandise, it was brought over to Western like US for the dub by 4Kids Entertainment and by god... It was incredibly cringe inducing! Much like the previous anime in the 90's and early millennium, the translation of this show is horrible with some scenes were cut of appealing for kids, embarrassing dubs and the rewrite are the worst for the dialogue and even the name change like "Ichigo" to "Zoey" Though the music with Bree Sharp and Mollie Weaver are ok. This "Dub" was aired in 2005 with the first season only. I watched it when i was little that i though it was good, but looking back, i was absolutely regret to listening a poorly, poorly dubs for all the wrong reasons with 4Kids. Mainly because i was an idiotic kid back then...!
Sorry, for my little rant, cause i don't want to carrying away with my rage, like, just ignore the dubs like nothing happened in your mind and stick to the original one.
And now for my final opinion of this anime.
Overall, "Tokyo Mew Mew" may not big as "Sailor Moon", but i considered an underrated magical girl show, the story is good (despite some cliches), the animation looks cute, colorful and nice looking (despite some botched moment) and the characters are rather likable that i may root for some (except for Mint, i hate her...). But like i said, this franchise died less than 5 after a sequel didn't get much appreciated and 4Kids's dumb-down dubs. And im not sure if some people in Japan could bring it back for a reboot for improvement animation or live-action, as well for fixing the dubs with big companies like Funimation or Viz Media. I also sure if they'll bring them back with DVD or Blu-Ray for the original one than the dubs, like i found the full episodes on Youtube which i actually watched, but due to Youtube's rule, they're all removed, however, some users got their hands to reupload either on Youtube or in other video websites, its like digging a rare treasure that nobody ever heard of. If you're a fan of magical girls, i recommend it if you like going back in old time (If you're lucky to find them), or perhaps you could stick to Puella Magi Madoka Magica for a serious level.
So, il rate this anime an 8/10. And for the dub, 4Kids's One Piece/10.
So this ends of my review, if you have your opinion or any suggestion for other shows, let me know in the comment bellow.
Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.
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