Tokyo Mew Mew Omnibus, Vol. 1

東京ミュウミュウ [Tokyo Mew Mew] #1-2

by Mia Ikumi, Reiko Yoshida, Elina Ishikawa (Translator)

Unleash the full power of Mew Mew!

On her first date with the cutest boy in school, Ichigo is exposed to a mysterious ray that meshes her DNA with that of the endangered Iriomote wildcat. She soon discovers that she has developed superhuman abilities and enhanced agility. Her new powers are put to the test when she leads a team with four other girls, each endowed with special abilities on their own. Together, they must now protect the Earth from an alien menace known as Deep Blue.

This omnibus edition contains volume 1 and 2 of Tokyo Mew Mew.

Includes special extras after the story!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Romance, Shojo, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2011

Reviews

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for magical girl books. All I ask for is cute art (check), a sweet main character (check), some kind of overarching quest (check), and silly catchphrases (check!) and I will love it probably way more than it really deserves. The environmental theme (the Mew Mew girls have all been infused with the DNA of endangered animals, and there's a "saving the environment" thread) is... not exactly well-developed. It's just the backdrop for fighting monsters in adorable costumes. I am totally fine with this.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tokyo Mew Mew is like if Sailor Moon Guardians transformations were based on endangered species and the magical powers were based on fruit.

The story starts with our main heroine, Ichigo who goes to the museum with the cutest boy in school, Aoyama. What she doesn't know is that she and the other four random girls there will get hit with a mysterious ray that meshes their DNA with an endangered species. Ichigo discovers her abilities first and with the help of a mysterious high school boy, she must find the other girls so they can join together as a team to save the earth from evil aliens known as Deep Blue.

I LOVEEE this! It's so cute and reminds me of the Glitter Force and Sailor Moon so much which I adored when I was younger. The second volume was definitely my favorite out of the two so far and I don't know which Tokyo Mew Mew will be my favorite!

Ichigo is an Iriomote Wildcat, Min is a Blue Lorikeet, Lettuce is a Finless Porpoise, Pudding is a Golden Lion Tamarin, and Zakuro/ Zacro is a Gray Wolf! I can't wait to see where this story goes!

[Anne (ReadEatGameRepeat) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fun manga -I'm glad I picked them up after all this time. Used to watch the anime as a teen and I was so obsessed with it. This is just as good if not better

[madeline khloē · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this so, so much! Vols 1&2 are quite superficial and cute so far, but I’ve read spoilers of the laters volumes and and it gets dark, so I’m excited to see that transition.

It is a LOT more sexual (in a predatory sense) than I remember from my childhood. It’s worrying that the two characters I fancied as a ten year old are the ones that I am now, as a 22 year old, disgusted by.

Also, please note going into this that it was written in the early 2000s upholds very toxic views of femininity and the main characters all have a lot of internalised misogyny.

[Nelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.7 Stars

It is literally so bad but I love it. If you are looking for a series that is laugh-out-loud bad, then this is it. There are some embarrassingly cringe lines like “Because you’re my kitty,” which was after one of the love interests gifted her a choker necklace. Another questionable aspect of this series is a different love interest, who’s age is not told to us (because he is a magical elf boy) but seems like an adult compared to the child main character that he has fallen in love with. He is also a bad guy and tries to kiss the mc against her will multiple times, so I don’t see why the author is trying frame him in an even semi-romantic way at all. Overall, the plot is insanely bad, but if you want to turn your brain off and read a so-bad-it’s-good sailor-moon knock off then this book is the one for you.

[Nora Cayetano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo dije una vez y lo vuelvo a decir: si hay una serie que me hace sentir nostálgica, entusiasmada y avergonzada al mismo tiempo es, sin duda, Mew Mew Power, porque sólo ella tenía el suficiente mewmewestilo y toda la mewmewgracia necesaria para, que entre mi mejor amiga de la secundaria y yo, fangirlearamos a extremos desconocidos y esas cosas que a veces me temo aceptar que hice cuando niña.
Y, como muchos animes, Mew Mew Power inició con un manga (y este es su primer omnibus).

Tras una larga reflexión en la que me dije a mí misma que nadie moriría si tomaba mis ahorros y compraba algunas cosas que hicieran feliz a esa parte nostálgica de mí...





¡Y no me arrepiento de nada!


Pero, volviendo a la reseña:
En el primer omnibus fueron compilados el tomo 1 y 2 de la serie, junto a los extras que ambos traían. Dejando la historia, más o menos así:

Ichigo Momomiya es una chica común y corriente que ha logrado reunir el valor suficiente para invitar a su amor escolar, Aoyama-kun, a salir. Queriendo lucir interesante a ojos del muchacho, Ichigo opta por ir a un museo, donde se ha montado una exhibición que busca concientizar a las personas sobre los animales en peligro de extinción. Pero lo que Ichigo no sabía era que se encontraba a unos metros del Cafe Mew Mew y que un experimento iba a salir mal, convirtiéndola a ella y a otras cuatro muchachas en las Mew Mew, las defensoras de la justicia y del planeta Tierra.
Con su nueva identidad a cuestas, Ichigo no sólo deberá de aparentar que todo es tan normal como era antes, sino que deberá de reunir a su equipo y luchar contra los aliens que quieren apoderarse de la Tierra.
Entre amigas testarudas, un sueldo de 12 dólares la hora y un trío de guapos muchachos distrayendola, ¿podrá Ichigo salvar el planeta y algún día volver a ser la niña que era?

¡Tener este manga en mis manos me hace extremadamente feliz!
Tokyo Mew Mew es una historia que peca de cursi, cargada de clichés y momentos que en un principio encontrarías tiernos, pero que en verdad son muy, muy extraños.
¿A qué me refiero? No a la manera en que Kish se comporta en torno a Ichigo, créanme. Si no a la manera en que la autora considera que las niñas visten y actúan xD
Una cosa es permitir que tu protagonista menor de edad se enfrente al alien hormonal en una pijama que ni siquiera puede cubrirle enteramente la barriga; otra muy distinta es que el muchacho al que las fans debemos de acpetar como el amor de la vida de Ichigo diga estas cosas y sean consideradas como "el romance correcto" del manga:







Pero, bueno, creo que fuera de eso, no tengo tantas quejas.
A cada página que leo recuerdo a mi amiga de la secundaria que aspiraba a ser como Zoey/Ichigo y me doy de facepalms al recordar las cosas que hicimos juntas.
Para la nostalgia, es un buen manga.
Para el aburrimiento, es un buen manga.
Para el shipping villano x heroína, es un buen manga.
La historia tiene huecos y es un poco deficiente, pero me gusta tomarlo el hecho de que no aspiraba a ser la siguiente gran obra del manga para chicas y que, como Mia Ikumi lo comentó entre sus páginas, fue creado más para la diversión suya y de los editores que para ser la historia de suspenso que ella en un inicio imaginó.

Los personajes no son complejos y puedes llegar a quererlos fácilmente por ello. Son como niños. Incluso Masha, que es el acompañante robot de Ichigo, es adorable a su manera (y quiero un peluche de él).
Los aliens, que son los malos de la historia, todavía no hacen su gran aparición. Excepto por Kish/Dren, mi favorito. Él aparece al final del primer tomo, durante la famosa escena (esa que las fans vemos una y otra y otra y otra vez, aunque no lo admitamos) en la que roba el primer beso de Ichigo.




(No es spoiler, porque hasta en el opening original del anime lo ponen de buenas a primeras. Aparte, me divierte que, no importa cuánto nos quejemos ahora, todas tuvimos ese momento de niñas en que no podíamos dejar de verlo)

Me emociona, me enoja y me hace tener mis momentos de fangirl y por eso me encanta. Tuve que recurrir a mi twitter (como pueden notar) para no llenar de mis tonterías esta buena página.

Así que, mientras les recomiendo este manga por lo que es, me paso a leer el siguiente de los tomos, para continuar siendo este pedazo de carne weeaboo en negación que soy~

[Daniy ♠ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I dont like Ichigo bc she is getting the boy in love by lying about the things she cares about :/

[Jade Rendell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my childhood and I am glad to revisited it.

[Jessica-Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't plan on reading Tokyo Mew Mew so soon, but when the opportunity presented itself, it was hard to say no to such a pretty pink package.

I actually watched the first part of the English dubbed anime of Tokyo Mew Mew, so coming into this I already have a certain fondness for these characters. However, reading this, I was surprised how hard it was for me to get into the characters. The story is fun, and cute, and a little flirty, but something about the dialogue didn't sit right with me.

A lot is going on in these first two volumes as we're introduced to every main character and the role they play in the story. Each girl of this bio-weapon squad has to discover their power and join team Mew Mew, so introductions are fast and boss battles are happening every few pages to get them into the fighting spirit. This I had no problem with, but the dialogue kind of ruined it for me.

I don't know whether to blame the translation to English or the original text, but the conversations between characters did not sound natural. It was hard for me to just let loose and enjoy these adorable girls being adorable when I keep having to stop and cringe at lines that are either way too hyperbolic for the situation or just don't sound right in English. I wish I could give you examples of what I mean, but I don't have the book in front of me. It may just have been the style of the manga, I could understand that these girls are like the super-cute x1000 versions of normal people, so some things in the manga are just going to sound ridiculous and purposely so. But then there would be this stretch were I wouldn't notice any problems with their speech and then BAM! awkward sentence.

Unfortunately my problems didn't stop there...

Masaya. He's apparently this great guy, which came across pretty well in the anime, but here his most stand out moment is when he gives Ichigo her signature cat collar. And what is suppose to be this adorable gesture was not only very possessive, but rather unsettling for me. It's difficult for me to describe exactly what it was about this moment without pointing at the page and going "there, look at that", but keep in mind he's giving her a collar meant for an animal and I'm sorry, but that pushes one of my buttons. His possessiveness in his dialogue coupled with his expressions in the art made me uncomfortable.

So here's the equation that inadvertently happened in my mind when I saw this.
GIRL: Very sweet, but pretty much does whatever other people want her to do without much objection.
GUY: Totally perfect till things don't go exactly how he wants it too, which is when he suddenly does a complete 180 and gets really possessive giving GIRL a collar meant for a pet.

Wow, how incredibly romantic. That in no way remind me of any sort of unhealthy relationship dynamic. Nope. None whatsoever.

I know I'm probably thinking about this way to hard and being too harsh. I mean, Tokyo Mew Mew is suppose to be this fun manga with an interesting plot about endangered animals, and aliens, and cute girls in equally cute costumes. I need to step back and remember to enjoy those parts. Which I did! The girls were so much fun and I can see how the plot is going to get more and more interesting.

... but I just can't get past that moment.

I know that this guy is the romantic lead of the entire story and I am just so uncomfortable with how this blah moment just barged into the middle of my good time. However, I've decided that I will keep reading the series, it deservers an honest shot and who am I to deny it that. I just hope that I don't encounter more of these sort of moments.

[Mina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tokyo Mew Mew was a rather popular manga and anime in the early 2000s. Nowadays it is considered a classic in the magical girl genre.

The art is cute, very shoujo-like. The main characters are a group of magical girls who become friends and after an incident where they develop powers, decide to fight to save the world. Or well, animals in this manga’s case. I appreciate the fact that the girls develop abilities of animals that are on the brink of extinction - the so-called Red Data animals. While they fight aliens who infect animals to bring about the end of Earth, the manga also speaks up about protecting animals. I really like that the creators chose such an important topic as the thesis of their story.

In this first book we meet our main girl, Momomiya Ichigo. She is a regular 13 year old girl, who dreams about her crush and lives a normal school life. One day she asks out the boy she likes to a museum exhibit, where the topic is once again animals. Ichigo is a kind and compassionate girl but she does not care a lot about the exhibit, she just wants to spend some time with her beloved Aoyama. There is a bit of commotion and the two get separated. Ichigo and the other girls see someone getting bullied and come to the girl’s help. Suddenly there is an earthquake, and something strange happens to Ichigo. She is found by Aoyama and he walks her home. The next day Ichigo finds herself develop strange powers and her awakening to a magical girl starts.. By working at a cafe.

I really like the main characters. Ichigo is sweet and kind, although she spends too much time thinking about boys. Mint is funny but a bit arrogant. Lettuce is a klutz but really sweet and helpful. They have a few characters helping them, who know more about the threats the Earth faces, Shirogane and Keiichiro. I find it funny that they came up with running a cafe as a cover for the whole magical girl business. It seems completely unnecessary and over the top.

I like the first volume, we get to know Ichigo and she is on a mission to find her future team mates. The adventures are a bit wacky, but the plot promises to have more depth as the story progresses.

There was one aspect though that I did not appreciate, how easily they seem to sexualize the girls. While there are no fanservice shots when the girls are running around in their short magical girl dresses, Ichigo gets put in weird scenes one after the other. Her magical girl mark is on her inner thigh and one of the boys forces her on her back to “check it out”. I also lost count on how many accidental, one sided kisses happen to her. I will chalk this up to the manga being rather old, and hopefully we won’t see any of these things in the new, 2020 Tokyo Mew Mew.

The first omnibus volume is free to read in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited and it collects the first two manga volumes.

[Audrey (Warped Shelves) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

This was fantastic! What a lucky break--I didn't even know this existed until I happened upon it at the library. I loved this so much! Tokyo Mew Mew is exciting, funny, adorable, and just overall outstanding!

Ichigo is so fun and cute; she is a wonderful main character! The art style is also very pretty and easily readable; I didn't get confused during the actions sequences at all.

I can't wait to read the next omnibus volume and see what comes next. Honestly, reading this reminded me of why I love manga so much!

Popsugar 2018 Reading Challenge: Your favorite prompt from a previous Popsugar reading challenge (A book with a cat on the cover)

[cardulelia carduelis · Rating 3 out of 5]

What if aliens decided to invade the Earth by using parasites to infect animals and turn them into super-charged versions of themselves: monster animals called Chimera?
What if Earth's only hope was 5 teen girls infused with the same the very same parasite but ALSO DNA from near-extinct animals? What if they could team up and had special abilities? And that their names were food/colors? What if each one had exclusive character traits, social classes, and personal struggles?

And so it was.

Here's the cast:

The shy one is called... Lettuce.. and everything she wears is green. She is fused with a finless porpoise that, despite the name, does indeed have fins. Her special power is creating a pair of catañets (lettucenets?) that she clicks a little rythm with and then sprays someone with water. She's frequently clumsy and bullied but lo and behold in her transformed form the proverbial and literal glasses come off.

Next is the bitch.

Her name is Mint but her clothes are more of a sky blue. She's fused with a blue lorikeet and has cute space-buns that exude non of the lorikeet's exquisite plumage. Her special power is the Mintone arrow which is a special bow and arrow that fires a burst of energy. Minto is very wealthy so she scorns those in a lower class and idolizes the beautiful.

Just kidding, this one is the real bitch.


Her name is Zackuro (actually Pomegranate - it's not clear to me why some of the characters's names get translated and other don't). She's fused with a grey wolf. Her special power is a Ribbon Zackrus Whip which comes out of her metal cross. Pomegranate is super pretty, literally a signed model, and prefers to be alone - not surrounded by these little girls, especially sycophant Minty.

There has to be an annoying kid.

Her name is.. Pudding. She is fused with a Golden Lion Tamarind. Her special power is the ... Ribbon PuRing Ring Inferno, which despite its name involves rythmic gymnastics and a tamborine that make a force wave with the consistency of pudding. Pudding is very annoying (Na no da!) and acrobatic. She seems to have a low-IQ but is in great spirits.

And then there's the everygirl.

Her name is Ichigo (translated it means Strawberry). She is fused with the Iriomote cat - which is some small wildcat but she acts more like a domestic maid girl. Her special power is the StrawBell Bell which is a heart shaped wreath that she points at enemies to fire a blast of energy. Strawberry's main character trait is that she has a very middle-grade crush on Mr Perfect at school who takes her out on dates and often holds her hand. This would certainly imply mutual feelings in most cases but for some reason Strawberry isn't sure. I'm secretly hoping he is working for the aliens but I think that's going to be too large a plot twist for this cutesy story.

The girls were infused with the rare animal DNA on a field trip to the zoo (?) by some other high schoolers (??) who own a cake-themed maid cafe at the zoo (???) that they then contract all the girls to work in(????).
There it is:



And here are their work uniforms:



It's all very sus. Why do the girls need to work there? Isn't there a more reasonable way for them to await instructions? Why are they not more annoyed at this new responsibility? Who are these cafe boys and why do they know about the aliens?
The first two volumes haven't given any sort of explanation so maybe it will be resolved in one of the five remaining.

Look, this is a series that has a lot of nostalgia for many people. I feel exactly the same about Disney's W.I.T.C.H (five magical teens, each one connected to an element, each one with a different cultural background and insecurities - all must protect the world from an evil dimension!!) and there are lots of other version of this like Winx, Totally Spies, and of course Sailor Moon. This particular one wasn't mine but it probably hits the spot for someone else.
My main gripe with it is the sexualization of the girls (Strawberry is assaulted twice by alien invader called *sigh* Quiche) in their skimpy maid outfits coupled with the strange choices like the cafe. Even for this genre of manga they're very impersonal.

So, this one's not for me and I won't continue with it. But if the cover appeals to you you'll likely enjoy the content.



===== 2025 winter holiday reads =====
Let's read some kids books for the holiday season!
Here's what I got to:

[More to come]

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a fun book to sit down with. It's not to hard to get into and the art style is really cute. The five main characters are all at the museum at the same time and a laser ray fuses their DNA with the DNA of extinct animals. I love the colors that are used for each character and that the leader of the pack is fused with an extinct cat!

I enjoy the characters and story and hope that they bring to anime back to the US.

[Kayla Brunson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started another series to continue on my magical girl manga quest. I have to say that these two volumes were a bit of a letdown. I can see how it did well during the time it was published but it definitely doesn't hold up now.

[Aurora · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much childhood nostalgia 🥰💖💫

[Lisa Firek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn’t really sure of it at first but I’m glad I didn’t put it down I enjoyed it and I probably would read it again one of these days cause I love magical girl manga/anime.

[Tally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tokyo mewing

[Patricia Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m one to struggle with reading. This series I actually am starting to enjoy struggled to get into first reading this book but once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down. Love the story line so far can’t wait to read the next couple of volumes.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talk about a trip down nostalgia lane! The first time I read Tokyo Mew Mew was going into my freshman year of high school, back when it was being published by Tokyopop. I didn't own the series myself but between all the friends who collected it, I was able to read it. Recently I was hit with the urge to re-read the manga, and thus decided to buy the Kodansha Comics omnibus editions with the updated translations.

For those unfamiliar, Tokyo Mew Mew is a magical girl series centered on Ichigo Momomiya and four girls that become her teammates in an on-going battle against a race of aliens who are trying to take over the Earth by infecting animals with alien parasites to use as biological weapons. Ichigo and the girls are all fused with the DNA of various "red data" animals that are near extinction to help them combat the alien threat.
Cynics will probably take one look at this series and denounce it as uninteresting due to the heavy number of magical girl tropes, cues borrowed from other magical girls series (especially Sailor Moon,) and the additional slice-of-life aspect that pervades the storyline.
Personally, I don't think that anyone should let that prevent them from giving this series a try. It tends to be pretty light-hearted, and for a lot of younger individuals who were still cutting their teeth on anime back in the early 2000s, this was the gateway defining magical girl series for them. It's fun and the characters have a lot of heart, and my opinion of it hasn't diminished since the first time I read them as a young teen. I do recommend reading the omnibus editions by Kodansha Comics if you want to pick it up; Tokyopop doesn't deserve anyone's money, and even if you could find Tokyopop's single volumes of the manga, the translations are lacking compared to the Kodansha editions. (The only issues I really take with Kodansha's English translations are the shortening of Zakuro's name to "Zacro", and translating Pudding's speech tag of "no da!" into the longer "na no da!", which feels a bit excessive.)

I've enjoyed this first volume and can't wait to continue on with the second~.

[Nazish Ahmed (Nazish Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't decide if I should rate this 3 or 3.5 stars.
This review is going to be all over the place because I don't know how to structure this since my feelings and thoughts are all over the place as well.

I have watched the English dub growing up. I can't remember exactly what years it was except that it was in the early 2000s, either around the same time as Sailor Moon or after I stopped watching Sailor Moon/Sailor Moon ended. At the time, I was around 7 or 8 years old and didn't know manga existed, I only knew about American and Canadian comics. Then in 2007, I discovered manga and the first series I read was Bleach and Inuyasha. At the time, I didn't know that Mew Mew Power (as the English dub was called) was based on a manga until a few years later. Anyways, to make a long story short, I finally bought the vol. 1 omnibus earlier this year and finally got to reading it this month and unfortunately, as you can tell by the rating, it was just ok.

I can't compare the manga to the anime. I'm talking about the old one, I didn't watch the new one because I'm sick and tired of companies being too lazy to do anything new and just rehashing stuff from 20 years ago, I know that making an anime based on a manga series isn't a new show idea either, but at least it's a new tv show, which is a big reason I'm against Bleach being remade, use those resources for a brand new anime or continue one from years ago that stopped midway through the series. The other reason I didn't watch it is because I heard that the older version, despite it having a lot of flaws, is still better, yikes. Also, the art just doesn't look that good to me, especially compared to other anime that came out around that time. Anyways, it's been over a decade since I watched the anime, so I can't remember differences, in fact, there were some things that happen in the manga that I questioned myself if they happened in the anime or not. If I wanted to compare them, I would re-watch it but I have no incentive to, I don't make any money from these reviews and even if I made a video, I don't think I would get many views, plus I only have 105 followers on youtube. Also, it won't be much fun since Ichigo (it's so weird seeing that name for a cute girl when I have been rereading Bleach in the last few years and watching Thousand Year Blood War) is like those older shojo series main characters that annoy so much. She didn't annoy me as much as Usagi from Sailor Moon or the main character from The Gentlemen's Alliance + (I forgot her name and don't feel like looking it up😅), but she's still dumb (I'm not 100% sure on this but it seems likely since for some reason, back in the 90s and early 2000s, manga writers thought they had to make the main character dumb, regardless of them being male or female, it got really annoying really fast, except for Ichigo Kurosaki, Edward Elric, and Shinichi Kudo, they're the only ones I can think of who weren't dumb main characters), easily influenced by people (she just went along with the saving the world thing so easily without, look at Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach, he had no interest in it at first, he was forced to do it and since his spiritual pressure was already so high, he had to fight the hollows weather he wanted to or not), too nice that she forgives people too easily (this is a problem for even main characters nowadays and even my favourite ones), she lets people walk all over her and gets stuck doing all the work (Mint, I hate her, I hated her as a kid, I hate her now), she's obsessed with this guy who we don't know much about except that he's nice and is one of those annoying environmental activists (a little bit is fine, I'm like that too but he's too much, kind of reminds me of Sam Manson from Danny Phantom), he just sounds boring and too perfect, I don't know what she and the other girls in her school see in him. Now that I think about it, we don't know a lot about the other girls either, except some basic surface level stuff. I don't know if that's because the story seems rushed or if more will be revealed later. I know we do learn some more about the guy later but he's still not that interesting to me. I'm just not too fond of any of the characters and I don't remember how I felt about them except Mint/Corrina as a kid. I did like Pudding a little, she was cute and funny. I just don't have strong feelings for most of them, maybe that will change as I read the rest of this series, I don't know. I was also never too fond of their magical girl outfits either as a kid and am still not. I did and still do like Mint's transformation sequence in the anime and Zakuro's transformation background music. I mentioned that I grew up watching the English dub, I didn't about their original names until a few years later and I thought they were ridiculous. I think their even more ridiculous now as an adult. In one of the margins the mangaka talks about when she presented the idea and for some reason thought they were cute names (their not, maybe Pudding and I can see how Ichigo can be a cute name but like I said before, all I see when I hear or read that name is a tall scowling orange haired guy, but that one is not the author's fault😂) and her editor disagreeing, but some how they still became their names. Maybe to Japanese speakers they sounded better? I don't get it. I know that some food names like Momo are popular, but that one sounds cute, it's hard not to laugh or cringe when I read lettuce or pudding as names.

Overall, this omnibus was ok but I think I enjoyed the anime more (whether it was because I was a kid at the time or maybe because the pacing felt so rushed in the manga that I feel like I don't know much about the characters, I'm not sure) and I don't care for the characters like I should, but I will continue reading this series since I don't hate it and I do like the concept and the story. I also love magical girls even if I don't love some of those characters, it's always fun to watch old school transformation scenes and even have some of the magical items, like I have Sailor Mars, Venus, and Jupiter's transformation wands/pens.

Usually, I have really strong feelings for nostalgic series, but that's not the case this time, same with Sailor Moon, I think a big pert of that is the story feels rushed in some parts for both series, the main characters in both series and all of the characters in this series. To be honest, I'm not even sure if this review is even helpful to anyone since it was so hard to gather my thoughts and I'm also sick right now so my mind is a bid hazy but it has already been 3 days since I finished this book and I just wanted to get the review over with already. I didn't have to write one, but since no one I know in real life will listen to me talking about manga and anime, this and instagram are the only places I could think of. So, I'll just leave this review here since it took me so much time to write it.



Blog: nazreads.ca
Twitter: Naz_readsanime
Instagram: nazishreads, nazcosplay, nradesigns, charmedanimegirl01

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Tokyo Mew Mew as a series - it introduced me to manga, it made me want to start drawing more seriously and it's just a fun, sweet yet serious story. However, I think for me, the beginning is quite weak. I've always been a bigger fan of the latter couple of volumes, and re-reading the first 2 really cemented that for me. The pacing feels off - everything happens too quickly and with little explanation, the characters change their mind and feelings all the time, and it just feels a bit rushed. The art also fails to do it for me at times - the anatomy is off, the compositions are often cramped and sometimes the pages just seem weird.
However!
There are some scenes that still work so incredibly well - like the scenes with the pillowfight at Mint's house which I loved just as much as the first time I read it, both from a character development standpoint and an artistic one - and sometimes the pacing and visuals are absolutely stunning. When Tokyo Mew Mew is good, it's REALLY good - and for me, that's probably something that evolves as the series continues.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume of manga brought me back to my childhood in the sense of what I remembered from the anime years ago except there was more explanation/endgoal occurring in this omnibus.
• I feel this omnibus is fantastic starting point to this series. It explains characters, goals, and friendship dynamics
• I think it's also a good manga starter for younger audiences its simple straightforward and no fan service occurring. It also teaches about endangered species and how to help the environment from pollution.
• I loved the artstyle it reminds me so much of the older anime/manga artstyle but in the best way.
• I think my only issue with it is that the ending was unfulfilling to move on to the next omnibus although that means I just need more.
Overall, I enjoyed this omnibus and am extremely pleased with my revisit of this story. Because of these points, I have to give this a 4 out of 5 stars. I am excited to continue this series.

[Kinzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This unlocked so many memories ! I used to LOVE this show when i was a child 🤧

[vifslan pifslan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished on the second day of reading! Fun to read after such a long time from this series. The main thing that bothers me though is all the sexual remarks from the male characters. It‘s almost always Ichigo that’s targeted by the boys, and they behave like she’s their property. On page 212-214 Masaya says that he has to but a bell on Ichigo so he never loses her again, and then proceeds to call her his “kitty”. That’s gross behaviour! Ichigos reaction to this is pure bliss, which doesn’t sit right with me either, because it tells me that this is the ideal. I get that getting a gift from your crush is a big deal, but the way he gives her this gift is SO WIERD. It’s also an improvised gift so he hadn’t even thought about giving her something before this happened. And the sexual remarks and out right ASSULT (the unwanted kisses) Kish thinks is totally normal… what the-?? Argh it makes me so frustrated. And the sexualisation of Ryô on page 114 is also wierd. I forgot this but he’s also a total creep in the first book. Grabbing her waist, her chin, grabbing her skirt and thigh when showing her her special mark, bluntly ordering her to get undressed… and like Masaya, claiming ownership over her!! Calling her HIS “important biological weapon”. AGH, I could go on forever about this.

If I look past all this I think it’s a wonderful book. I love the writer’s notes pages, the girls in the story are wonderful, I love the illustrations, the incorporations of flowers in important or especially cute panels are seamless and beautiful. But after reading I can’t help but focusing on the sexual themes, how wrong it feels, how bad I feel for the girls and how unnecessary it is. What is the importance of putting these characters in compromising positions etc?

- the sexual remarks, compromising positions, and how the boys in the series claims ownership over Ichigo
+ overall story, beautiful art, getting to know the team behind the manga, the bond between the girls

[Juniperus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tokyo Mew Mew is a title I remember checking out from the public library when I was ten or eleven years old, but no other details stuck with me. I know I did read it though, because I vividly remember the wildlife facts page, specifically the too darkly printed picture of an Iriomote wildcat. So it was at once new and nostalgic to revisit this series. It’s in the tradition of magical girl manga series like Sailor Moon, but the hook is that each character is infused with the DNA of a different endangered species, in turn infusing the narrative with environmental overtones. As for the story… it’s fine. It was pretty funny, and I liked that more time was spent on the psychological aspects than the supernatural fights. Nonetheless I can’t help but feeling that it would be fairly generic if not for the environmental activism. This 2-volume omnibus concluded right after their five-person team up, and only began to scratch the surface of those themes towards the very end, so I’m interested to see if it’s explored more in later volumes.

[Soobie is expired · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am sure I read the Italian edition of this series but I can't seem to be able to find it. So maybe I read it but then I sold it... Silly me! It's worth at least 50€ now!

Anyway...

I've never watched the anime, as it happens with most of my manga. This made difficult to follow the action sometimes. And the art, albeit extremely cute, didn't help.

The story is a bit simple and Sailor-Moon-like: five girls receive magical power via fusing their DNA with those of five endangered species: the Iriomote cat, the blue lorikeet, the finless porpoise, the golden lion tamarin (a kind of monkey), and the grey wolf. They have to fight some aliens turning animals into chimeras.

It's quite funny and the characters are quite distinguishable.

I'll read on.

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, I loved this series when I was a kid, twenty years ago. *crumbles to dust* However, I'm not overly impressed with the newer translation that's in this omnibus. There are some awkward sentences that feel like they've been translated directly from the Japanese and weren't shifted to make more sense in English, as well as some word choices I was a bit confused by. Basically they didn't "localize" it enough and I feel like a lot of nuance was lost because of that. That may just be my own tastes, so YMMV.

[Hailey Vieira · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved how fun and cute this Manga was! Ah! Adorable and I’m very excited to read the rest of them!
I fell in love with the art style! And the characters (though some of them need some character development). I’m really enjoying the story line and the villains… like all in all, this is great haha. Plus, it was just what I needed right now. So, glad I picked this up and started reading it :)
I will say my favourite character (as of right now) is Ichigo and then Lettuce! Love those two girls!

[☠︎︎ A.K. ☠︎︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 ✩

• this was the first magical girl series I read as a pre-teen, so this was very nostalgic and fun to read ~15 years later
• I enjoy the art style and the way the characters are drawn, they're all very cute; however, sometimes the visual storytelling was a touch confusing and sloppy
• the narrative started rough, but quickly found it's footing
• unfortunately, any kind of characterization was mostly nonexistent, even the lead character, Ichigo, had no real personality traits or character development for the whole book

[Mary]

I bought this manga because it felt so nostalgic for me. I used to devour ALL manga and anime of Tokyo Mew Mew. I don't grow up with Sailor Moon, but I grow up with Tokyo Mew Mew.

It explained why I was obsessed with cats, I guess, and how I wanted wing tattoo on my back like Mint, ha. If you're into cute girls turning into cute extinct animals fighting monsters and saving the world, maybe you'd like this too.

((I don't think I can rate this book objectively though. I loved it as a child, but I definitely I noticed some "huh???" moments when I read it as an adult.))