Tokyo Mew Mew New Episode 2 Summary and Impressions
Hi all! Janette here! Sorry for the delay on Tokyo Mew Mew New Episode 2! I’m doing much better after covid, but after that comes the next fun part…catching up on everything. Just know there’s some fun podcast content coming down the pipeline.
In other news, if there are any other shows you want me to check out this season, let me know. Usually, I watch the first episode of everything, but because covid I’m running behind, and not really sure what to watch! I tried to pick something at random and ended up watching the first episode of the incest but not really one. Let's just say it's decent trash but I will not be covering it here.
Onward to Tokyo Mew Mew New. The episode picks up where we left off, with an introduction to the base of operations, the adorable Cafe Mew Mew. From there Ichigo will fight the greatest threat to our environment to date…aliens.
Someone call the History Channel.
In fact, our passionate cafe owner is probably well known on the History Channel! He’s no cafe owner, but Keiichiro Akasaka, a high-ranking scientist studying in the field of cryptids. Thanks to science (in the loosest sense of the word) he has discovered the cryptids are in fact Chimera Animals, powerful alien-made creatures that are an affront to God and nature. Their purpose is to help aliens take over the earth, one fucked up rat at a time.
Since no one wants to be enslaved by aliens, there’s only one answer. Recruit five high school girls, fuse the DNA of an animal with their human DNA, thus giving them magical powers, activate said powers, and have them fend off the creatures…though not necessarily in that order. Seems a bit out there to me, but I'm no cryptid scientist.
While the details are nice, this is really just the backbone of the real meat of the show, magical girl battles and watching Ichigo blush as cute boys flirt with her.
It can’t be all cute boys for Ichigo. She has some real-world problems. Such as the fused DNA making her an active menace to society.
Then it turns out fighting aliens aren't all there is to being a Mew Mew. It also includes working part-time at Mew Mew Cafe...
Easier said than done when her coworker, Mint, is a slacker.
But her problems are nothing compared to the problems of the green-haired girl from Episode 1, named Lettuce. Basically, her friends are shit. It’s one of those who say they’re friends but they’re actually bullying and taking advantage of Lettuce. Which she puts with in order to have “friends”. A problem a depressing number of us can relate to from our high school years.
Ichigo gets her away from her so-called friends for a second. She takes the moment to offer to be friends with Lettuce instead, but they’re interrupted. It won’t be their last meeting though.
Lettuce is a Mew Mew and needs to activate her powers. Fortunately for everyone, there’s a disturbance in the school pool that may prove the perfect opportunity! And Lettuce is already headed to the pool at the request of her terrible friends. It’s become quite the urban legend it seems. Ichigo and Mint head to the pool to be there to assist Lettuce.
Getting there they discover their enemy is no other than rather Lettuce herself. The poor girl has had enough of failing to make actual friends, and because of her breakdown, her powers are out of control. Luckily Ichigo calms her down by offering once again to be her friend…for real. With that Lettuce gains control and joins the team. The episode cut to the next day where Lettuce finally ditches her fake friends for real ones.
Cue the end of the episode where we see…aliens. Well, it's just the one, really. Spoiler he’s also a cute boy.
Impressions: Tokyo Mew Mew New delivers an episode that's on par with its first episode. This show isn’t high art, but it knows what it wants to be, and embraces it. What it wants to be is a Saturday Morning Cartoon, and I have no problem with that. I did like getting to spend more time getting to know Mint and being introduced to Lettuce. The characters are paper thin, but likable nonetheless. Lettuce in particular has a compelling story behind her character and one that is appropriate and relatable for the target audience. Mint, on the other hand, is just a little poo, but I like her anyway.
I don’t know if I’ve really talked about the character transformation scenes, but they’re really good. Definitely one of the highlights of this series so far. Even if you’re not interested in the series itself, I recommend watching the transformation sequences.
