Tokyo Mew Mew

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

This is my first manga I ever read with knowing it was a manga. I had a lot of fun reading it when I was younger and I still love it to this day. It may have a lot of tropes that we all know, but it dose it well. If you are someone who is older I wouldn't recommend it. But if you know someone who is around 6-10 I would recommend it. I feel like it is a good icebreaker manga to help younger viewers get in to the community. I love how it wants to help the environment too. My only problem ... is that I would like to see more of the other characters is the spotlight. For instance I would have loved to see more of Zakuro and pudding.

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.

This manga doesn't seem to do anything exceptionally well. The plot is very basic and similar to many other magical girl shows. It's about a typical girl who suddenly gets magical powers and now has to protect the world with a group of four other magical girls. This basic premise isn't bad, but it's nothing special. The issue is that almost everything else in this series seems to also follow this "Alright, but nothing special" -formula.

For example, let's take the characters. All 5 of the "Mew Mews" have distinct personalities. There's the relatable main character, the spoiled and sassy rich girl, the shy girl who ... is very kind, the hyperactive and very immature girl and the older cool and smart girl. Now, it's great that the characters all feel very different from each other. The issue is that all of them are very one-dimensional, and there is no chemistry between them. They simply do not feel like a believable group of friends and none of them have any development after they join the team. Also, the story of this series is mostly about the main character and her love interest. The other Mew Mews don't really influence the main story, so it feels more like they were there just to sell merchandise.

Magical girl series usually revolve around both the main character's day-to-day life and then their life as a magical girl fighting evil. For a magical girl series to be successful, both have to be interesting,so it's interesting to see how their day-to-day life affects being a magical girl and vice versa. Now Tokyo Mew Mew doesn't make either that interesting. The fights are very predictable and boring and the only way that being a magical girl affects the main character's day-to-day life is that she has to hide it from her love interest, but even that doesn't really matter since the love interest loves her so much that her weird behavior doesn't affect their relationship in any negative way.

The only thing that I consistently liked about this series was the artwork. The character designs are cute and there are some absolutely beautiful pages. Even then, there were some issues with the paneling that severely affected my enjoyment of the series. Sometimes the pages felt extremely cluttered with way too many panels. There were even a few times that I had to re-read certain parts just to understand what was going on.