Tokyo Mew Mew

Animal Girls | Mew Mew Team | Sequel

Tokyo Mew Mew

Tokyo Mew Mew is a legendary Japanese manga series written by Reiko Yoshida and illustrated by Mia Ikumi. Tokyo Mew Mew was first published in the fall of 2000.

Animal girls

The story revolves around five girls who were injected with the DNA of rare animals. This gives them special powers, allowing them to transform into "Mew Mews." The leader of the group is Ichigo Momomiya.

Mew Mew spin-offs

Thanks to the popularity of the manga series, it also became an anime (animated cartoon) series beginning in April 2002. Following that, it was also made into two video games: one for the Game Boy Advance system and another a role-playing game for PlayStation.

In addition, American publisher TokyoPop has since come out with an English-language version of the manga.

The story

The series begins with the young Ichigo Momomiya attending an endangered species exhibit with Masaya Aoyama, her future boyfriend. Following an earthquake, Ichigo and four other girls are exposed to a strange light. At this very moment a cat appears before Ichigo - and (in manga-land) merges with her.

The following day she starts acting like a cat. She learns, after meeting Ryo Shirogane and Keiichiro Akasaka, that the DNA of the Iriomote wild cat has fused with her own. And this is what allows her to transform into "Mew Ichigo," a superhero cat girl.

The Mew Mew team

She later finds the other girls who were exposed at the exhibit. This group makes up the Mew Mews. They are Mint Aizawa, Lettuce Midorikawa, Pudding Fong, and Zakuro Fujiwara.

Each girl is different, and each has come away from the above experience with separate skills and genes.

Mew Mew personalities

Mint is the rich girl, a bit on the spoiled side; she received the genes of the Ultramarine Lorikeet. Lettuce Midorikawa is the quiet type, often bullied, and her gene pool gets mixed with a Finless Porpoise. Pudding Fong is infused with the genes of the Golden Lion Tamarin. Last is Zakuro Fujiwara, a beautiful model whose DNA has been mixed with the Gray Wolf.

Enemies

The Mew Mews' main enemies are the chimera animas and their alien controllers, Kish, Pie, and Tart. Many twists and turns over the course of the series lead at one point to the fearsome Deep Blue, who wants to destroy humanity.

Sequel

Needless to say a sequel followed. In the sequel, Ichigo and Masaya move to England to study species that are endangered.

The other girls continue to fight chimeras and a new enemy: the Saint Rose Crusaders. A sixth Mew Mew, Berry Shirayuki, comes on board and becomes the leader.

Both the original manga series and anime have been wildly popular, both in Japan and abroad, and it has spawned the standard release of merchandise.