tek's rating: ½

Mew Mew Power, on TV Aichi & TV Tokyo
ANN; Characters Database; IMDb; Mew Mew Power Uncensored (archive); TV Tropes; Wikia; Wikipedia

The actual title is "Tokyo Mew Mew," but thus far I've only seen the dubbed version that aired for awhile on 4KidsTV, which was inexplicably renamed "Mew Mew Power," so that's how I think of it. Anyway, the show may seem like a major Sailor Moon rip-off, but I say you can never get too much mahou shoujo.... It's about these five special girls who are able to be infused with DNA from different endangered "Red Data" animals, which give them super powers, to fight evil aliens and whatnot. These aliens, the Cyniclons, use things called Infusors, which infuse animals and turn them into monsters called Predasites. The girls can transform into Mew Mews, and force the Infusors out of the animals, returning them to normal.

There are two guys named Elliott Grant and Wesley Coolridge, who've been studying Infusors for a few years now and looking for a way to fight them. They've found a way in these girls. They know there are five girls, who they have to find and recruit. The first one they find is Zoey Hanson (fused with Iriomote wildcat DNA), who's rather given to histrionics. She's also got a crush on a boy named Mark. When she discovers she's a Mew Mew, she doesn't want anyone, especially Mark, to find out, because she's afraid they'll think she's a freak. Although she does seem to be excited about being a superhero. The guys give her a cute little critter called R2000, although Zoey calls it Mini Mew. It can detect Predasites, and eats the Infusors after they've been forced out of the infested animals.

The next girl they recruit is Corina Bucksworth (ultramarine lorikeet), a rich and snobby ballerina. The third recruit is Bridget Verdant (finless porpoise), who's rather shy and bookish (she's my favorite Mew Mew, kinda like Ami, my favorite Sailor Scout). Around the time she joins the team, we meet a Cyniclon named Dren, who will be the main recurring villain for awhile (and much to Zoey's chagrin, he has a crush on her)... The first three girls are all around 12 or 13, I think. Later they recruited a younger (about 8 years old), homeless girl named Kikki Benjamin (golden lion tamarin), who likes to perform and is pretty hyperkinetic; she acts like a little monkey, so of all the Mew Mews, she seems most in touch with the DNA she's fused with, I think. Finally, they recruited an older girl named Renee Roberts (grey wolf), who's like a famous singer/actress/dancer/model/whatever. (She's supposed to be like 14, I guess, though she seems older than that, to me, definitely more mature than the other girls.) All the girls will have to work at the Mew Mew Cafe, which is a front for the Elliott and Wesley's secret headquarters, but also a real cafe. Also I should say that around the middle of the first season, Dren is joined by two other Cyniclons, Tarb and Sardon, who tend to belittle Dren for always losing to the Mews, as well as for his crush on Zoey. Of course, they don't have any more luck against the Mews than Dren does...

Something that strikes me as odd is all the girls are called Mew Mews even if Zoey's the only one infused with a kind of cat's DNA. But whatever. The show's very kawaii, so I don't worry too much about whether it makes sense or is cool, or anything. It's just a bit of simple fun. Of course, as with most 4KidsTV shows, a lot of anime fans say the dubbing and all the edits and stuff sucks. I can't speak to that, but I'd certainly like to see an uncut, subbed version of the series someday, not just to compare it, but also because 4Kids never finished airing the series, and I'd like to see the rest of it.


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