Tokyo Mew Mew New

Episode 6

I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't put it together until this week, but it looks like one of the reasons this reboot of Tokyo Mew Mew is titled Tokyo Mew Mew New, rather than something like Tokyo New Mew, as one of my colleagues suggested during the Preview Guide, is very possibly because “new” written phonetically, “nyu,” looks like one of the words for the sounds cats make in Japanese. Therefore Tokyo Mew Mew Nyu is basically a string of cat noises, which I have to admit makes sense, even if it might be approaching dangerous levels of self-aware cuteness. And while the show doesn't seem quite as obsessed with Ichigo's catlike attributes as it is with the characters' legs and butts, it still feels very on-brand for the franchise.

With that out of the way, this is one of the stronger episodes thus far, largely because it builds on what last week's did for Mint as a character. Now that the girls know that Kish is going to specifically target Zakuro because of her status as a non-team player, they can't just sit back and let it happen, and Mint is able to come to terms with her hurt. Yes, Zakuro was mean to her in a way that she didn't necessarily deserve, but that doesn't mean that Mint can't be the bigger person and go help Zakuro anyway. Ichigo may not be mature or savvy enough to know that pushing Zakuro isn't going to get her to join them, but Mint is aware that rather than annoying the other girl, a demonstration of their determination is a better bet. Maybe she's still hoping that Zakuro will change her mind and join up, but she's not going to let that dictate her course of action: she's going to stop Kish because that's both what's right and what she wants to do, full stop.

By this point we have a much clearer view of who each of the girls are as a person, and the continued effort to build on Mint's growth helps to solidify that. Bu-Ling may be the hardest to stomach, but she's also clearly the youngest, and she's full of ideas and schemes, even if they aren't all that well thought through. (Although in all fairness, if Lettuce had just kept walking, I feel like Bu-Ling's second plan might have worked. Lettuce made that outfit look good.) She's the resident never-say-die member, and she's got the energy levels to back that up. Lettuce is slowly starting to come out of her shell, which is really nice to see, and I don't just say that because she was my favorite character in the original series. That she'd even try to pull off being someone famous is a huge indication of how far she's come, because when she first met the other girls, she would have shrunk back into a corner to escape such a thing. She didn't pull it off, true, but she gave it a shot, and that's huge.

I think it's the combined earnestness of the girls, along with Mint's clear effort to stop making Zakuro uncomfortable and annoyed, that really gets through to the star. Yes, Ichigo makes some mistakes when she's under pressure, and yes, Bu-Ling ruined someone's magic show, but none of that takes away from the effort they're all putting in to be good superheroines, and that's something Zakuro, who always gives everything her best shot, can get behind. She doesn't like group work, but for this group, she's willing to make an exception. Plus Kish clearly sucks – it's like he figures out what everyone's weakness is and then does his best to exploit it. Technically, that's what a bad guy should be doing, but it doesn't make him any less of a pill, even if he is better at his job than any of the villains in Delicious Party Pretty Cure. (I think Waccha PriMagi!'s antagonists are the most impressive of the three currently airing magical girl shows.)

Time will tell whether or not getting filmed on live TV will be a good or a bad thing for the Mew Mews. The title of next week's episode, and the look on Masaya's face when he clearly recognized Ichigo on the screen, don't bode well for their entry on the public scene. But at least the team's all together now, and with five of them, I think they can handle most problems that may come their way.

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Tokyo Mew Mew New is currently streaming on HIDIVE.