Tokyo Mew Mew

Publisher
Tokyopop
Writer
Reiko Yoshida
Artist
Mia Ikumi
Country of origin
Japan
Year
2001

Tokyo Mew Mew V. 5

By David Rasmussen
26th Feb 06

The last time I reviewed (Tokyo Mew Mew V. 4) I talked about how the relationship thing was taking the front seat, while the environmental thing got shoved in the back. Remember that?
Well if you think V. 5 will turn that about then… well, you’d be wrong.
Continuing the trend of focusing on Ichigo’s relationship with Masaru we now have a love interest rival in the so-called “Blue Knight”, who mysteriously shows up to be a cliché… sad, huh?
After saving Ichigo (as her Mew self) and then telling her that he was born to protect her (while hugging her a lot) she goes off to find Masaru only to run into him while in Mew form! Brief exchange and she manages to slip away to transform back into herself to reunite with him.

Then, for a change of pace, we actually focus on someone else for once… in this case it’s Pudding!
And how do we focus on her? We find out she has a stereotyped family of little siblings who are all like her, and she cares for them a lot (seen it). But if you’re thinking the story has finally wised up and started to give equal time to the other girls then you are so mistaken! Apparently this is just a “device” to get Ichigo and company to jump in and fight the newest baddie… only for him to end up possibly getting a crush on Pudding after his “time” with her.

Then just as quickly as it began it’s over, and we’re back to fussing over Ichigo’s relationship with Masaru… disappointing, huh? Anyway after another appearance of the Blue Knight Ichigo starts to think he’s the quiet one of the duo who runs the show with the Mew Mews (Keiichiro) after the Blue Knight gets hurt and Keiichiro shows up at work with the same injury. Then we find out that Masaru has a secret that he has to tell Ichigo (do you promise not to tell) and we find out Ichigo’s dad is… yes… a stereotype of boyfriend hating father material.

Then a few more revelations and we wrap up with a shocker, mainly the true “identity” of the cat that’s been helping Ichigo whenever she transforms into a cat… then, for a chance of “pace”, we watch two chapters of “Mew Mew Babies” with Petite Mew Mew… because we’ve only seen this done to death with Muppet Babies and Rugrats and X-Babies and whatever. Breakdown time.

Tokyo Mew Mew Breakdown the 5th
What’s Hot?
Slowly but surely the title is switching from what I started saying was good, and becoming a different reason for reading altogether. It used to be that the mix of relationship and magical girl team fighting and environmental stuff was good… not anymore. These days it’s just the whole Ichigo/Masaru relationship since the rest seems to suffer abit from lack of enthusiasm. Most of the real intense writing is Ichigo’s love for Masaru, with most of the big scenes focused on that… with the occasional smathering of eco alien fighting just to push the story forward of Ichigo and Masaru… uh-huh.

What’s Not?
HOWEVER if they wanted to focus on this then they should have stuck to the original concept seen in Volume 4! Why have a team of girls if they are barely seen in the book, with the focus being on Ichigo and Masaru! At least the first version was truer to the vision of the creators with one boy, one girl, alien powers and no background fillers who deserve better than to stand around and push Ichigo towards Masaru.

Moments to Remember?
Ichigo & Masaru standing in the rain… K-I-S-S… you get the point.
That and the whole “Mew Mew Babies” thing with Petite Mew Mew… despite the fact it’s a totally been there, completely done that thing seen to death, resurrected, killed, raised from the “dead” and… so forth.

What to Ignore?
Pudding’s Bogus Ketchup Journey, aka Pudding’s brief brush with relevance. Nuff said.

Overall?
At this point we might as well stop calling this title a Action/Sci-Fi and start calling it a Action/Romance since it seems to have more romance than sci-fi (which it barely has).
I like it, but not the same way I used to … I think I’m just here for the cuddling and relationship problems now, and the weird quirky stuff like Pudding and the weird back stories and stuff. Otherwise the book has stopped being an Arjuna meets Sailor Moon thing since last volume, and the aliens seem to take a backseat to Ichigo’s love problems… don’t think I signed onto that at the start, but I guess I can live with it.
Whether or not you can live with it, however, is something you’ll have to decide for yourself.

-- David Rasmussen 26th Feb 06