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Top: The 5 Mew Mews together as a team in their Fighting costumes. Bottom: It's from the now defunct tokyo mew mew official webpage. This is the group of 5 girls who dressed as the Tokyo Mew Mew team at live events, this one being one of the 2002 Character Festivals, the lady who is Mew Ichigo is Youki Yoshida, and according to the manga-ka has an incredibly tiny waist. ^_^ I spent some amount of energy finding it when I saved it when it was still up. |
Tokyo Mew Mew
How much of it exists:
Very popular anime and manga series that ran for over 50 episodes (I lost count at some point), 10 books of manga. Official website is sadly
gone, but the images of the girl who dressed as Mew Ichigo had a tiny waist will hopefully live on. ^_^ Loads of dolls, including
Licca-chan as Mew Ichigo, and the girls in both their Cafe Mew Mew uniforms and as
their Fighter versions. Tokyo Pop is up to only book 4 of their unflipped editions.
Would Sailor Moon fans like it?
Undoubtedly YES. This series is like Sailor Moon but cuter. And for once, a Catgirl anime that everyone can enjoy!
Momomiya Ichigo is your usual junior high school student, a lively and active girl (genki!!) who has a crush on the school's star Kendou
athlete, a boy she calls Aoyama-kun. Thankfully, he also likes Ichigo, and in the first episode, the two attend a museum exhibit on endangered
animals, the Red Data Exhibit. However, there's something going on in the background that will certainly change Ichigo's life for some time...
because as the couple leaves the exhibit for fresh air outside, some commotion erupts, a little earthquake and a flash of light... And Ichigo
wakes up where she passed out on the ground, covered by Aoyama's jacket.
She fell asleep and the rest of the day was wasted, essentially.
However, the next day, she begins doing odd behaviors. Falling asleep in class, predicting it'll rain, and going nuts over fish being served for
lunch... Then she ends up having to jump over a railing to catch a little wind-blown sticker photo memento of her date the previous day...
and in spite of how high off the ground she started out, lands perfectly on her feet unharmed. ^_^ Ichigo begins to wonder.. why's she beginning
to act like a cat?
The action in the first episode of the anime soon reveals she can transform into a fighter with cat ears and tail, and she's got her own
attacks. She's also thrust into the situation by a blond guy named Ryou who somehow knows her, as it turns out right in the first episode, her
boyfriend Aoyama-kun is attacked.
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Top: Foamy head Mew Mews at the 2002 Tokyo Toy Show! Middle: Scan of the insert for "Love is A La Mode" CD single showing them in their waitress outfits. Bottom: more goodies. ^_^ Furuta knows how to sell candy with free Tokyo Mew Mew toys to go with it. ^_^ |
Then we find out more... And this is what makes Tokyo Mew Mew a fresh new take on Magical Girl anime. There are aliens out to destroy the
Earth by fouling its environment. They turn ordinary animals into Chimera Animals and in turn they attack humans and do damage.
Ichigo, when that flash and earthquake happened the day previous, had her DNA infused with DNA from an endangered species, the Iriomote Cat, giving
her powers to transform and fight to save the Earth. She's not alone of course... There are 4 others she needs to find and hope they'll work
with her.
She eventually does that, even though Mint is snooty and lazy, Lettuce has low self-confidence, Purin (my oldest niece's favorite character) is
a hyperactive but talented acrobatic performer who takes care of her younger sister and 4 brothers by herself, and Zakurou is a smart and
beautiful model and actress, but a loner at heart. They manage to work together well when it counts. And their mission changes almost half-way
through the course of the story. Just like in Sailor Moon, after Usagi finds her whole team and has to find the Silver Crystal, Ichigo now has
to find something called Mew Aqua, which if found and used, is a very powerful substance that can restore life and turn the environment back
to its (relatively) pure state.
Ryou Shirogane and his associate Keiichiro Akasaka own Cafe Mew Mew and invite her to come in and explain what's now going on, and eventually we find out which person has what anime DNA infused in them. Another side effect this has on Ichigo is her cat ears pop out when she gets excited. ^_^ kawaii!! But also, when their mission is done, the infused DNA will vanish and they'll be ordinary humans once again. Cafe Mew Mew is their center of operations which just masquerades as a desserts parlor. ^_^
Personal observations
I've seen less than half of the first part of the anime, and read the first 4 books of the manga in English. It's really good. I was hooked at the first episode. The ending song "Love is A La Mode" is really cute, and the animation for it is fun to watch. I really enjoy catgirls, and Ichigo is one of the cutest. The transformation sequences are fantastic.
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One of the goodies sold in Japan during the run of the anime. All 5 available in fighter costumes and as waitresses. They sure know how to sell toys in Japan! That'd mean 10 dolls per fan! Here we'd sell you the doll with the optional clothes included. Bottom:
Showing the differences between original Kodansha Japanese edition and Tokyopop's English edition. English speaking fans miss out on the cute artwork on the back and flaps which aren't on TP's edition. |
Episode 20 deals with Pudding's background and her attack is probably
the coolest of the bunch (I saw it for the first time in that episode - I'm sure she's done it in earlier ones but it was showcased in Ep.20).
She's able to encase her target in a giant mound of Flan-shaped goo, while her wind-up is accompanied by very nice Chinese-flavor music. This
is another anime I'd love to get the soundtrack CD for music like that. Zakurou seems to have become aware of her new abilities and was already
a very strong fighter, similar to Sailor Venus, also in the area that both were the last to join their groups. And like Tuxedo Mask, there
seems to be a similar character to him in TMM, but I haven't learned his name yet. I wanna see more!!! I wanna see all of the anime!!! T.T
The dolls that look most like the anime characters are really cute flexy-limb items. There's a collectable Licca-chan in the Mew Ichigo
costume. I'm sure that an anime like Tokyo Mew Mew ran the usual gamut of associated products in Japan, so don't lose hope. I got my Mew Ichigo
flexy-limb doll through a penpal and it had been discounted heavily. You will have to be VERY lucky to get those now... T.T I wasn't so lucky to
be able to get more.
The quality of the translation Toykopop is providing the manga seems to be a little off. I have V.1 in the original Japanese, and I spotted a
lot of differences in the first few pages. This is definitely one series (like Sailor Moon ^_^) that you need both the anime and manga versions
for all of the story, since the anime seems to expand on the manga, and that's a good thing.
For a short little Japanese lesson... (which will help you understand a few color schemes with Tokyo Mew Mew):
Ichigo - Strawberry - Red (or Pink)
Purin - Pudding (In fact, they list her name as Mew Purin, but say
'Pudding' in the anime.) - Yellow (like Flan)
Zakurou - Pomegranite - Purple
(Mint and Lettuce, while not strong candidates for names for babies in
my book, don't need translation. Mint wears Blue, and Lettuce wears
Green, btw.)
This is one to share with the youngsters, even if you have to tell them what's going on. My nieces love it.
Update 3:30 am- You might want to take a look at the Heavy Cat Multimedia Gemini Project site. After some great news earlier this week, it seems that the project is completely on hold for an indefinite period of time...