Finished: 9/8/17
Hey everyone! If you’re coming from my last Magical Girl review, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pure, thanks for rockin’ with me, you’re the G.O.A.T. So sorry for this review taking longer than expected, we’re preparing for the holidays at my job and I started the new semester at school, so I’ve had my hands full with that. Let’s jump into it, shall we?
I was first introduced to Tokyo Mew Mew as “Mew Mew Power” in early 2005 during the promotion for it before it’s February 19 2005 English dub debut on 4KidsTV. I was excited to have another girly show on that network besides Bratz (I do remember Magical DoReMi) and I faithfully watched every saturday morning when a new episode appeared. I was left clueless after the episode of the Blue Knight rescued Zoey, wondering what would happen next until a few years later in middle school (when I was FINALLY allowed to use the internet on my own...thanks mom) that Mew Mew Power was just a heavily edited English version of Tokyo Mew Mew which had a decent following.
I am SO glad I discovered the original.
This show started out as a Sailor Moon inspired anime (as most late 90s and early 00s MGA do) but it gradually became its own with an awesome story, nice character backgrounds and decent plot.
Story: Like I said before, the story started out VERY similar to Sailor Moon, but eventually became its own. There’s romance, family drama, friendship, life lessons and a good bit of comedy. Some stuff was predictable, but not in a bad or childish way. I liked the relationships (I have a few that I shipped haha). The ending was a decent conclusion, but I wouldn’t mind knowing what happens next.
Character: I liked the characters a lot! Each seemed relatable and had a fair amount of screen time. Not all of them had love interests but had cool stories, nonetheless. Costumes were cute and unique, I haven't’ seen any similar to those except for Mermaid Melody (which came out like year or so after the original Tokyo Mew Mew...these two have quite a lot in common, and I wonder if the Mermaid Melody anime took inspiration from this...hmmm…). I love all the characters, I’m not sure if I have a favorite!
Art: The drawing style is reminiscent of (you know exactly what I’m going to say) of the anime in the early 00s from Cartoon Network and WBkids. It wasn’t sloppy from what I could tell, and I loved how the eyes were drawn. Also, if you notice on Ichigo’s clothes, bed sheets and other items, she has little strawberries just like Usagi from Sailor Moon had bunnies and moons and stars on her items. The transformations were cool to watch, but I didn’t too much care for the music, instead I liked the pieces the 4kids dub had when the Mew Mews would transform.
Sound: The original Japanese dub was very pleasing, I liked the voice actors in the original for some characters better than the 4Kids dub (the main one being Asoyama/Mark). The opening theme was cute and I added that to my YouTube Playlist “Ultimate Anime Theme Mix” but the end theme was kind of annoying. I didn’t like it at all first, but maybe around episode 30 I started to get use to it (no, it is not in that playlist). It reminds me of the earlier stuff of the Jpop girl group Perfume. With that being said, that is the ONLY thing the 4kids dub has over the original (most 4kids dubs have better music than the originals).
Entertainment: Overall, I enjoyed the show, I binged tons of episodes in a 24 hour period, and I didn’t want this show to end. I liked how Ichigo and Asoyama’s relationship actually took time to become serious and official. Also, their relationship is VERY similar to Luchia/Kaito and Usagi/Mamuro...but mostly Luchia/Kaito (Mermaid Melody).
In conclusion, if you like MGA like Sailor Moon or Mermaid Melody, I highly recommend this. I’d say the age group for this would be from middle school on up.
Thanks for reading my review! I’m on episode 37 of Revolutionary Girl Utena, so be on the lookout for that review! Stop by my profile for some announcements or something. Sayonara!
