Manga Review: Tokyo Mew Mew, Omnibus 3, by Reiko Yoshida and Mia Ikumi

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Kodansha Comics (Previously Tokyopop)

Release Date: 2012

Volumes: 7; 3 omnibus

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 2. a la Mode.

Goodreads Synopsis:

CAT-ASTROPHE!

Tokyo Mew Mew - the crime-fighting collection of girls imbued with the power of cat DNA  - face their greatest battle ever to save their beloved city of Tokyo. Arch-villian Deep Blue reveals a startling secret, and Ichigo and Masaya reveal their true feelings to each other. Will they survive long enough to celebrate their love? Find out in the thrilling conclusion to Tokyo Mew Mew! This omnibus edition contains volumes 5, 6, and 7 of Tokyo Mew Mew!

Includes special extras after the story!

FINAL VOLUME!

Review:

So. Um. This series was… yea.

I didn’t dislike it, for sure. But I also definitely didn’t love it. I wanted to, though, and thought I would like it more. Sadly, I didn’t.

I did like the story, and the character’s weren’t too bad. I wanted to read to the end, to see how it all wrapped up. The ending was a little cheesy, and seemed to work a little too well, but it was all right. The romance was actually all right, for the most part. I wanted to see how it all concluded.

I’ve watched about half of the anime at this point (it’s taken me, like, five plus years, but still), and I think it’s done better than the manga, though. The characters are given more time to develop, especially the minor-characters. It also seems less immature, and more cute magic-girl. So, better.

The writing here was immature and exaggerated. I’m not sure if the translations aren’t as good as Kodansha’s more recent series, but I think it might just be the author’s writing.

The characters are also hugely immature. Ichigo is immature and whiny and exaggerated. Ichigo freaks out over everything. She falls in love with Aoyama pretty much immediately, with no reason given, even after they start hanging out. There’s no real chemistry between them, at least to me. I think mostly, though, it was very one-dimensional. There wasn’t any real development or reasons or chemistry. It was very surface-level, all the way through the series.

There were hints of chemistry between Ichigo and Ryo, but that kind of fizzled by the end of the series. The other Mews were pretty much ignored for the entire series. They were given no development, very-little-to-no background, and seemed pretty much useless without Ichigo during the fighting. It was ridiculous, and a bit annoying. The fight scenes were hard to follow, too.

Honestly, I’m disappointed. I was expecting it to be a little immature and exaggerated, but not this much. I was expecting more development. I’m glad that I picked it up, and that I finished the series so I could finally see how it ends. I might go finish the anime now, though, since I know it has more development than this did. I do still want to pick up the Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode omnibus, as well. I read the first volume way back when and really enjoyed it.

I would probably recommend this to a middle-school and elementary age girly person. I think I would have liked it more at that age, in particular.