Mia Ikumi

Tokyo Mew Mew, Vol. 1

honour

Reiko Yoshida

After her DNA is accidentally merged with that of an almost extinct wildcat, Ichigo and her friends become a part of a secret project to protect the planet from aliens using wild animals to attack humans. Illustrations.

Tokyo Mew Mew

Kirsten Simkiss

In this volume, you discover that Masaya is also an alien! But not just any alien, but the alien all the other aliens now answer to. As he continues to develop his alien side, he loses his memories. Why was he living as a human? I'm not sure it ever says. You also learn more about Ryou's back story and what made him into the science genius he is now. Nothing like watching your mother run into a house fire while wearing a frilly dress to save your father to traumatize your love options, right?

Stuart Hazleton

Ikoi Hiroe

The crime-fighting crew is back once and for all to save Tokyo from utter destruction. When super villain Deep Blue reveals a shocking secret, will Ichigo give up her life to save her one and only true love?

Shockingly (note the sarcasm here), Alto the cat turns out to be Ryou in disguise! Kish is put out of commission for a while by the mysterious blue knight and Ichigo finally comes clean to Masaya - only to discover he knew about her being a super hero already. It's a little silly, but it's cute.

Seventh-grader Ichigo and her fellow Tokyo Mew Mew members, other girls who have had their DNA merged with the DNA of nearly extinct animals, must defeat the aliens before they take over the world and Ichigo worries that Masaya may know her secret identity.

This volume reveals that the aliens were original Earth dwelling, which makes little to no sense. They want the planet back from the humans. In order to do that, they plan on ramping up the natural disasters. Likewise, the reason they fled Earth before the rise of humanity was because of the natural disasters. That just... doesn't really make that much sense to me.

In any case, the relationship drama gets ramped up to a ten in this one with Ryou presenting as an alternative love interest in full in this volume. Also of note, Ichigo turns into a real cat!

Tokyo Mew Mew, Vol. 2

This one is a little more fun than the first volume, but it's still not something with a lot of substance. The collection of magical girls is now complete, adding a monkey and a wolf to their genetically altered menagerie to fight aliens. Kish, finally identified, continues to cause a commotion as Ichigo pursues her relationship with Masaya.

I remember reading these as a kid and now, going back to reread them, I realize they're definitely meant for that young teen age group. It's your standard magical girl style manga, complete with relationship drama and multiple potential love interests for the main character. I remember really liking Kish, who only pops up toward the end of the first manga. (As the villain! Huahaha!) It's a cute little manga series. The art is adorable, although it's not at all realistic if that's what you're into. This requires a lot of suspension of disbelief as a reader for sure with aliens, magical girls, and boy drama combined in one manga.

Tokyo Mew Mew, Vol. 1

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