Tokyo Mew Mew New

Episode 9

Are terrible wingmen better than no wingman at all? That's the deep question asked by this week's episode of Tokyo Mew Mew New when Ichigo discovers that her life as a café-working high school-attending superheroine may be getting in the way of her love life. In all fairness, both she and Aoyama are so new to this whole romance thing that there isn't a whole lot to get in the way of, but in some ways that just makes it more frustrating for both of them. On Aoyama's side, it's mostly his fangirls preventing him from talking to Ichigo privately, and while that's not a great situation, I have to give this show credit for not turning it into a whole big thing – no one's sending Ichigo death threats over her budding relationship with Aoyama, or even all that aware that they're getting in the way, and I'll take obliviousness over cruelty any day.

Besides, Aoyama is sort of his own worst enemy at this point, even if that's only because he hasn't really met Kish. (Not formally, anyway.) He's so nice that it gets in his path before he's even gotten started; he doesn't seem able to tell anyone that he needs to talk to Ichigo in the first place, he just agrees to talk to his senpai or whomever. Yes, in some cases Ichigo's the one being skittish and running off, but in general he seems to be having a more difficult time getting the ball rolling, and he's not even the one leading a double life. But honestly, high school can be hard enough without trying to figure out how to go from “blushing in each other's presence” to “dating,” so it's more impressive that Ichigo's got time to think about it at all.

So it's a good thing she's got the other Mew Mews to back her nonexistent play! Or rather, to take it upon themselves to make sure that she actually gets a minute alone with her not-quite-boyfriend. While their methods may be…special, it's hard to deny that their hearts are all in the right place, especially since part of the reason she's so swamped when Aoyama comes into Café Mew Mew is the fact that they were all late to work. It's not that they're not helping Ichigo when they finally arrive, but more that she's got all of the tables sorted by that point, so having someone else jump in could cause more confusion. Or they're all kids more interested in watching things go down than stepping up to take on one of the tables Ichigo is handling; but in either case, they do recognize that the situation isn't a great one for the erstwhile couple. We also can't be sure that Ryo isn't involved in their hanging back from waiting tables, because he's definitely not happy to see Ichigo's reaction to Aoyama walking in the door, although at the moment he doesn't seem like he's ready to do anything about it.

Kish, on the other hand, is not going to just sit back, which is presumably why he's the villain and Ryo is the rival. His attack puts Ichigo in the awkward position of not being able to transform until the absolute last minute to avoid revealing her secret identity to Aoyama, and kudos to the show for not just knocking him conveniently unconscious again. Not only does this prevent head trauma, but it also reminds us that Aoyama's a kendo champion and able to fend off chimera anima to a degree. He does still need Ichigo to save him, but that's less from the monsters and more from things like “drowning” and “suffocation.” Watching the two of them fight against Kish and his chimeras is an impressive sight, and the action looks good despite plenty of scenes with limited animation. (There are also some really nice shots of Mew Ichigo in profile.) It's making the case for them being more equal than not, and since that's not Ryo's or Kish's deal, it's also a good argument for the two of them being endgame.

When that end will come feels a bit more up in the air, because there aren't a ton of episodes left and Ichigo looks like she's getting her version of the power Lettuce did last week in the next episode. But at least she and Aoyama seem to be in a good place, so we can be happy about that.

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Tokyo Mew Mew New is currently streaming on HIDIVE.