List of Tokyo Mew Mew characters
The Tokyo Mew Mew manga and anime series features a cast of characters designed by Mia Ikumi. The series takes place in Tokyo, Japan, where five adolescent girls, called Mew Mews, are infused with the DNA of endangered species to combat aliens attempting to take over the Earth. The manga series is followed by a short sequel series, Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode, which introduces a new Mew Mew and a new threat.
The Mew Mews are led by the main character, Ichigo Momomiya, whose first task is to gather the other four Mew Mews: Minto Aizawa, Retasu Midorikawa, [|Bu-Ling Huang], and Zakuro Fujiwara. As the series progresses, Ichigo goes from having a crush on Masaya Aoyama to becoming his girlfriend while trying to hide her secret double life from him. The series antagonists include three aliens, [|Quiche], [|Pie], and [|Tart], and their leader, [|Deep Blue]. Originally from Earth, the aliens were forced to leave long ago due to deadly environmental changes. They have returned to kill the humans, who they feel are destroying their planet, and reclaim the planet. In a la Mode, middle school student Berry Shirayuki is introduced as the sixth Mew Mew and, in the absence of Ichigo, the temporary leader of the Mew Mews. A la Mode also introduces new set of antagonists, the Saint Rose Crusaders, a group of human teenagers with various psychic abilities with a desire to create their own utopia. Led by [|Duke], they make several attempts to kill Berry, eventually turning the local populace against the Mew Mews.
Ikumi's initial vision for Tokyo Mew Mew was a story called [|Tokyo Black Cat Girl] that featured a cat-girl battling alien invaders. After the story was transitioned to a more upbeat story of five female superhumans, the character designs were redone to have a lighter, more colorful feel. The main series characters were praised for being a perfect fit for the overall story, as well as for their cute appearances. The characters introduced in a la Mode were also praised for their visual appearances, but criticized as being repeats of the original series.
Creation and conception
spent a year designing the Tokyo Mew Mew manga before the release of the first volume in February 2001. The story she originally presented to her editors, Tokyo Black Cat Girl, featured a heroine named Hime Azumi who is given the ability to transform into a cat-girl by an intergalactic police officer named Masha. He then asks her to aid him in defeating alien invaders called the Baku using her new powers. Azumi agrees, while trying to keep her new double life secret from her crush. After the production team decided to focus on five female superhumans, Ikumi was asked to reconstruct the lead character and the darker Hime Azumi was changed into the brighter and more colorful Ichigo. She had reservations about the changes, as the character was originally designed for a more dramatic series.Ikumi created other girl–animal combinations while designing the four other Mew Mews, including a mouse girl with the same green coloring as Retasu. However, the mouse design was one of several designs rejected for use in the series as the choices were narrowed down. Once the main Mew Mew designs were finalized, Ikumi named them after various foods: Ichigo, Minto, Retasu, Bu-Ling, and Zakuro. During one of the project meetings, an unnamed editor remarked that the names might be hard to remember and suggested naming the characters after various colors instead, but the food names were kept. Although Ikumi initially suggested calling Ichigo's main attack "Strawberry Bell Bell" as a joke, the editorial team thought it was funny and kept the name. Ikumi noted that future attack names were decided by which sounded funniest. The only character from Ikumi's Tokyo Black Cat Girl to retain his original name and general appearance was Masha, but his gender was changed to female in Tokyo Mew Mew.
Mari Kitayama adapted the character designs from Ikumi's original artwork for the anime adaptation. Ikumi stated that she approved of the character designs, and agreed with the voice actor selections.
Mew Mews
The Mew Mews are quintuple young girls who have been injected with the genes of endangered species, giving them the ability to transform into Mew Mews. The project chose endangered species because they felt that these species would have the strongest desire to preserve their kind. These superheroes are biological weapons tasked with fighting the chimera anima, the monsters created when alien parasites infect a living host. They are later called on to fight the aliens that were the source of the Chimera Anima invasion. The creation of the first five Mew Mews occurred accidentally. The head of the project, [|Ryô Shirogane], originally intended to inject a Chimera Anima with the endangered animal genes directly to see if that would reverse the effects of the infection. Instead, it was accidentally injected into five different girls when the earthquake happened.The Mew Project was started by Ryô's father, Dr. Shirogane, five years before Tokyo Mew Mew is set. The manga never explains why the project was started or how they knew about Chimera Animas and the aliens, but Dr. Shirogane does mention that they must learn how to inject animal genes into human DNA in order to fight the aliens. In the anime adaptation, Dr. Shirogane discovered the fossilized remains of an ancient civilization called the Chimera during an archaeological dig and began researching the race of people who lived there with his assistant [|Keiichirô Akasaka]. This would eventually become the Mew Project. A laboratory explosion and a fire that kills Dr. Shirogane and his wife, leaving then 10-year-old Ryô orphaned. He moved back to Japan, with Keiichirô, to continue the Mew Project. According to the anime, the lab explosion was caused by a Chimera fossil that woke up setting the house on fire.
In Tokyo Mew Mew, there are five Mew Mews: Ichigo Momomiya, Minto Aizawa, Retasu Midorikawa, Bu-Ling Huang, and Zakuro Fujiwara. Each Mew Mew has a "mew mark" left on her body, identifying her as a Mew Mew. Each mark is unique to the girl but all the marks are similar, representing an aspect of their power, such as Mew Ichigo's mark located on her inner thigh being shaped like her Strawberry Bell Bell weapon and Mew Mint's being a wing symbol on her back. The girls have powers related to their animal DNA when transformed while sporting the parts of the animals. They can also boost Mew Ichigo's power by combining their powers. The group were originally called the "Mew Mews," until they were accidentally caught on live television and Mew Ichigo introduced the group to the viewers as "Tokyo Mew Mew". This became the name the public would call them thereafter. As part of being Mew Mews, the girls work as part-time waitresses at the Cafe Mew Mew, their headquarters which was a cover from where they gather information on Chimera Anima activity.
In Tokyo Mew Mew a La Mode Ichigo moves to England for a little while and a sixth Mew Mew, Berry Shirayuki, fills in for Ichigo as the leader of the Mew Mews.
Ichigo Momomiya
Ichigo Momomiya is the series' main protagonist and the leader of the Mew Mews. She has short red hair which is usually tied up in pigtails. Ichigo is merged with the DNA of the Iriomote wildcat, giving her the ability to transform into Mew Ichigo, a powerful and heroic cat girl with pink hair. The transformation also causes her to exhibit various feline mannerisms while in her human form. At first, her cat ears and tail appear when she is excited, but eventually her cat DNA grows strong enough that when she kisses anything, she turns into a small black cat. She remains in a cat form until someone kisses her. Her ability of transforming into a cat is most likely because of her obsession towards Masaya or sometimes because of her energetic, hyperactive and short temper attitude, leading her to engage in petty arguments with her friends and alliesAt the start of the series, Ichigo has a crush on Masaya Aoyama. Although she believes that he is oblivious to her feelings, he later returns them and they begin dating. Midway through the series, Ichigo gains a mysterious protector, the Blue Knight. Throughout the series, Ichigo repeatedly rejects repeated advances by Quiche and although she can not accept his final declaration of love, she cries over his death and holds him as he dies. Ichigo dies after transferring her own life force into Masaya after Masaya kills himself and Deep Blue. She is subsequently revived by the last of the mew aqua which was housed within Masaya. Before Masaya goes off to study abroad in England at the end of the series, Ichigo participates in a mock wedding with Masaya. Tokyo Mew Mew a La Mode reveals that Ichigo lost all of her Mew Mew powers because of the Mew Aqua's influence and joined Masaya in England, but returned to Japan when her powers began to manifest again to aid in the battle against the Saint Rose Crusaders. Her theme color is pink.
In the 2002 anime adaptation, her voice actress is Saki Nakajima. In the 4Kids Entertainment adaptation titled Mew Mew Power, her name is changed to Zoey Hanson/Mew Zoey and she is voiced by Amanda Brown. In the 2022 anime remake, her voice actress is Yuuki Temma.
Minto Aizawa
Minto Aizawa is a blue-haired preteen girl who is the second Mew Mew to be introduced in the series. Infused with the genes of a Blue Lorikeet, Minto grows a bird's tail and a pair of bird wings when she transforms into Mew Mint, a powerful bluebird. Initially depicted as spoiled, snobbish, and self-centered because of her wealth due to her being born into a rich family, she is shown to be an empathetic person who cares deeply about her friends as the series progresses. In the beginning, Minto called Ichigo a vulgar person. She is a fan of Mew Mew Zakuro Fujiwara's works. and owns a pet Pomeranian named Miki. Her theme color is blue.In the 2002 anime adaptation, Minto is voiced by Yumi Kakazu. In the 4Kids Entertainment adaptation titled Mew Mew Power, her name is changed to Corina Bucksworth/Mew Corina and she is voiced by Andi Whaley. In the 2022 anime remake, her voice actress is Mirai Hinata.