Tokyo Mew Mew

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My first manga. :). Okay, so here we go.

Tokyo Mew Mew - we have to save the world.

The plot is really simple. There's a girl, Ichigo, who falls for a guy Aoyama. He seemed to like her from the beginning :). Anyway, while being int the museum, or somewhere, there is an earthquake. She is with those 4 girls she doesn't know, and then BOOM ! She doesn't know what's happening, but she remembers a cat : ) Cool isn't it ? :D She became Mew Mew and got to save the world with help from Ryou, who's pretty hot. She has to find another ... Mew Mew's. So there's Mint, Lettuce, Zakuro and Purin. My favourite was always Zakuro, but there's nothing strange about that, I was twelve and inspired by her beautiful figure : D. So Mew Mew have to stop Kisshu, Tart and Pie, from helping Deep Blue to make him come back and destroy Earth. And there are thousands of funny moments. :D. When Ichigo can't control herself and she turns into cat and so on.

So plot was very interesting for a twelve year old girl :D. But when I read it recently I founf it rather childish. But still I think it's a great manga story for girls 10-15 age :D.

Art was good, but I was irritated by noses. When they were looking at left or right side, their noses were something like "We are from the Voldemort family" :D

I loved every character in this manga. Every character. My favourite was Zakuro, but after reading it few weeks ago, I think I like Kisshu the most. I was like "Ichigo you stupid catwoman. He loves you. He's great ! You don't deserve him" :D.

I enjoyed this manga :D. So I gave it fairly 6/10. Because it wasn't the best thing I've ever read but it wasn't also the worst one. It was pretty good.

So, girls, let's read it, shall we ?

(This includes A La Mode, too)

Tokyo Mew Mew has a lot of sentimental value to me as an anime fan. I actually knew that it was called Tokyo Mew Mew before 4Kids licensed it and changed the name to Mew Mew Power. I watched said dub religiously until it got unceremoniously cancelled. Furthermore, Tokyo Mew Mew was the very first anime I ever watched in Japanese, way back in 2005, but to this day, I still haven't finished watching the entire series (I do plan on rectifying this within the next year though). It's also the first real right-to-left manga I ever read and bought ... in its entirety, though I randomly started with volume 3, which I found at my local Borders before it was changed to a Books-A-Million. I still own all the volumes of Tokyopop's release of the manga, A La Mode included, and just recently, I re-read the whole thing. I still like it, but I'm not gonna lie, it's kinda silly and cliche, and nothing really worth gushing about.

The story begins with a young girl, Ichigo Momomiya, going on a date with her classmate, Masaya Aoyama, at an endangered animal exhibit. Later on, when a strange light suddenly engulfs her, she finds herself acting like a cat: Saying meow, sleeping more than she usually does, eating fish, landing on her feet when she jumps, and sometimes, she grows cat ears and a tail! As it turns out, she and four other girls were injected with the DNA of Red Data Animals, made into a form that allows them to become animal themed magical girls. The Mew Mews have the power to defeat parasitic aliens called Chimera Anima, normal animals mutated into monstrous beings. As part of the secret Mew Project, the masterminds recruit the girls to save the world from aliens that threaten to destroy it, while making them into waitresses serving at a cute cafe as a cover. But all Ichigo wants to do is be with Masaya and have a normal romance!

As much as I want to love on this manga, as it means a lot to me personally, I can't let nostalgia blind me to its faults, and I wouldn't be a good critic if I did that, now would I? The artwork is at the very least competent, with the characters having wide, sparkly eyes, reasonably proportioned bodies, and cute chibis used for comedic moments. The costume designs, while simplistic, are good and devoid of unnecessary embellishments. But I won't lie, Mia Ikumi's art is rather unpolished. At various points throughout the manga, the art style tends to flip flop in quality. Sometimes, the characters are outlined with bold, dark lines while other parts of them, such as hair strands, don't look as though they've been inked properly, with lots of missing spaces. There are other times when the characters' Mew Mew marks randomly go missing or are in the wrong places on their bodies. Furthermore, her chibis tend to be really weird looking, with characters' heads made even bigger than is appropriate, with their bodies looking either like sticks or jelly.

But the artwork isn't the only issue Tokyo Mew Mew has. Personally, I feel the manga's biggest flaw is its characterization. To put it simply, all of the focus is solely on Ichigo, nobody else, and the other four main characters get little to no focus or any kind of meaningful development whatsoever. They're mostly just used as props to support Ichigo, never getting any time in the limelight, nor do the readers ever get any insight into what they're like outside of fighting crime. This is one issue the anime managed to rectify, as not only were the producers given 52 episodes to work with, they managed to give any character who's not Ichigo much more development and flesh them out more than the manga attempted (Except for Zakuro, who still doesn't get much focus). Say what you will about filler episodes in anime, but the anime for Tokyo Mew Mew recognized the manga's flaws and made optimal use of its run time to give each member of the ensemble their just dues, even the villains. The sequel manga, A La Mode, exacerbates the manga's disinterest in developing its side characters by kicking Ichigo to the side and focusing on a new character and nobody else. From what I've heard, Ikumi did want to do more with Ichigo's teammates and write stories that fleshed them out and gave them more development, but apparently, higher ups told her not to do so and practically browbeat her into shilling the new main character, Berry, for all she was worth and nothing else. That's...kinda sad, really. I personally don't hate Berry, as I've encountered characters in other media that are FAR more deserving of hatred than her, but I do feel the criticisms she gets is valid, and I'm more inclined to see Berry as just a product of really bad executive meddling. As for the characters themselves...they're fine, but again, the manga's disinterest in fleshing out anyone who's not Ichigo makes them come off as cliche, bland archetypes and not much else, and Ichigo herself isn't a very interesting character, even by magical girl standards.

As for the story itself, at the time the manga was published, magical girl shows never tackled themes such as animals and environmentalism before, so Tokyo Mew Mew became well known for challenging the status quo in that manner. But Tokyo Mew Mew just seems to wear its environmentalism themes like a hat, not doing much else with it other than giving the characters animal DNA and having the villains wreck the environment every now and again. Some anime fully embrace the themes and motifs they go for, conveying the appeals of the subject matter at hand and inspiring a desire to know more (An example being Heartcatch Pretty Cure with its intense focus on botany and fashion, or if you're looking for non magical girl examples, Laid Back Camp's focus on ground camping during winter) while integrating them into its setting. Tokyo Mew Mew doesn't really try to explore the issues and themes beyond scratching the surface, so it comes off as more window dressing than anything. That being said, Tokyo Mew Mew still revels in comfortable magical girl tropes and cliches, playing everything safe and not really trying to break new ground.

It really says something when an anime adaptation turns out to be better than its source material. Though rare, Tokyo Mew Mew's manga is one of those. It had the potential to be great, but it's inconsistent characterization, tacked on themes, cliche premise, unpolished art, and misuse of its time and resources make it little more than average. Just check out the anime, as not only is it longer, but fixes many of the manga's problems.

I started reading Tokyo Mew Mew (omnibus 1) a few years ago and decided to pick it up again recently. I wasnt disappointed, but it does have some flaws too.

The first few chapters are boring, but it gets better over time. The endangerd species fighting aliens is unique but it could have been done better. I really wish they would have done more with the fighting part of it because it usually gets resolved in around like 2 pages which made me more interested in the romance than the actual thing. I could see the relationships with Ichigo and the other characters all working some ... ways (except for maybe kisshu) but also not in other ways which left me not really knowing who to root for.

The artstyle though is amazing. It stays consistant throughout the series, and the color choices and character designs i found very cute. A lot of people have said the costumes are bland, but i like the simplicity of them. A lot of magical girl series go all out on the outfits which is fine but i just really love these ones. The 2002 anime failed to capture this however, which was the reason the mangas better honestly. The colors (specifically mew ichigos hair) stick out and is hard to look at. The new anime too did the opposite of this, instead making the colors too dull which honestly was a shame. The artstyle in the new anime is also not bad, but nowhere near how good the original is. Also went over the top with the outfits.

The problem i have is the characters. Almost all of them have a bad backstory or literally no backstory at all. When recruiting the other members its all the same with the characters not wanting to be apart of it at first but then warming up the next page, then afterwards not becoming much of a main character at all despite being one of the main girls. The character i hate the most though has to be Pudding. She is one of the most annoying characters ever. Everytime she spoke it made me hate her even more. Her character trope is definently one of the worst, but it can be done right rarely (yotsuba). Pudding is not an example of that.

9/10 because mint and zakuro should have gotten together

Tokyo Mew Mew is definitely a childhood classic for many today. With the reboot aired this year, I decided to finally sit down and read the entire manga.
Let's start with what I liked. The premise was very unique. Animal magical girls fighting polluting aliens does not sound like a common pitch. And this novelty definitely gives the manga points. And, the art. I am a sucker for 2000s shoujo art with the large glossy eyes and youthful faces. The costume design is cute and while the attack names are a bit cheesy, it's very fun.

However, good art and premise does not make up for the ... weaknesses of the manga. The plot is very rushed with little to no development and backstory for each girl. The Mew Mews are one-note characters with Ichigo being the plucky protagonist, Mint being a snobby rich girl with a soft side, Lettuce being a reserved shy girl, Purin being the young and mischievous one, and Zakuro being strong and silent. That's it. We don't know why the girls really chose to fight except that they just transformed and went. Why does Mint do ballet? Was Lettuce always so reserved or did bullying make her that way? Did fighting constantly and keeping secrets worry Ichigo's parents? Why did Zakuro choose modeling? These questions and more never get answered. The plot, in general seems very rushed. There's no real time for any girl to really relax and bond. It's fight after fight after fight. These characters don't have room to do anything other then work at Cafe Mew Mew and fight.

In conclusion, if you want a cutesy romance-filled fun manga, do pick up Tokyo Mew Mew. It is definitely exciting with Ichigo and her love life. However, this may not be for you if you value character development and realistic characters.

I was a huge fan of the original 2002 anime adaptation. I remember collecting the manga as a kid, but then when I sat down to read it, I just couldn't get into the series in this form. Now that I finally have made the time to read it, I'm not surprised. This manga gets off to a really rough start.

Between this, that original 2002 anime, and the remake anime that's currently airing now, I have to say that the manga is the weakest version of this story in general. To the point where those early volumes had me impressed that it even got ... an anime adaptation in the first place. Neither the artwork nor storytelling is quite up to par with what I expect from a professionally published work. The drawings can speak for themselves, but the story is really choppy and rushed. To the point where I wondered if we were missing a few panels (or pages) in certain places. The early conflicts tend to get introduced and then taken care of before you even have time to blink, sometimes making the story practically incomprehensible. Early on, this series must have been surviving on the cute, somewhat meaningful idea behind the premise but not much else.

However, by the time you get to around volume 4, it does start to look consistently better. A bigger plot is introduced and backstories start getting revealed, giving the whole thing a little more focus. And I think even this version does a pretty good job with the final conflict. I do love seeing manga artists develop over time, and that final volume was really nice, visually.

There are a few things that are rough all the way through. I think the romances are the weakest aspect of the whole story, which is unfortunate, because a lot of time and focus was directed towards the love story aspect of this series. I think it just goes back to one crucial point: ALL of the characters could have used a little more depth. (They get SO CLOSE with Ryou, but his backstory reveal was one of the few places in the later volumes that still felt rushed, unfortunately.) If this manga had just spent a little more time with each of the characters, it would have gone a long way. With the other girls, especially. They each got a tiny moment to shine when they're first being introduced and recruited, but after that, they practically fade into the background except to be Ichigo's sidekicks. Which made the friendship element fall just a little bit flat as well.