Talk about a manga series that's just cutesy for the sake of being cutesy.
There is absolutely nothing spectacular about this manga whatsoever. This has the same formula A as Sailor Moon. A couple of girls has some cute outfits and use their unique powers to defeat the evil bad guys.
While I never watched or read Sailor Moon I know that each of the girls represent a certain planet and each had their unique powers. Tokyo Mew Mew is no exception.
Instead of each girl representing a planet, each one is representing an endangered animal species. Ok, that's environmentally considerate but then it adds these alien villains that are making animals go insane and I really don't understand the purpose. It tries to explain it and I found the premise of the villains surprisingly complicated. But after it was explained, I just forgot about two minutes after reading it. It's trying to add science fiction and magic within the same story and it just doesn't make any sense to me.
On top of that, it also adds just cheesy cutesy moments that I found rolling my eyes. Like Ichigo interacting with that one guy that is in charge of the café. He does something unexpected and she blushes for it. It’s just the typical good-looking guy who is NOT the love interest doing repetitive and cliché actions that make the girl embarrassed or assume that he has feelings for her. Yeah, never seen that before.
In the first few pages of the first volume, we take a look at the main character going on a date with her crush. A few events happen to show all the girls in the Mew Mew project and people are trying to figure out who they are. When the last member joins they are on TV and become popular and no one can figure out who they are despite them not wearing masks or disguises. What really? Even in the most obvious scenarios.
I mean really? Are people that stupid where they can’t figure it out? To put insult to injury, they have the students at the school and the fans have no idea who they are! Is it just me, or is it so difficult just to give them masks of the animal that they represent? It’s not like we won’t be able to tell them apart. And speaking of which . . .
The characters don’t have much to them and their personalities are just revolved around their chosen animals. Let me give you a few examples. Zakuro represents the grey wolf and her characters traits are her being silent and by herself most of the time. Pudding represents some sort of ape and guess what her personality is like? She’s energetic, fun, and just can’t sit still. Get it? She’s just like a real monkey and Zakuro is the lone wolf in the group. *sigh*
Sadly, the only characters that I can think of that has some sort of a personality are Lettuce and Mint. (odd choice of names) Mint is a spoiled snob that adores Zakuro and can be a bit bossy at times. Lettuce is kind, shy, and is very clumsy but very sweet. Ichigo’s love interest is as entertaining as a cardboard box. Ryou is just there to be fan service for the girls and Keiichiro is just . . . kinda there.
I would have finished it since it was only like what, seven volumes? But I couldn’t take it anymore and gave up in the middle of volume 3. Sorry, there’re just so many cutesy moments I could take without any interesting characters or story.