Since Im not exactly a fan of the original Tokyo Mew Mew I wasnt sure if Id ever pick up A La Mode since it doesnt seem to be as well liked by the fans. I made the choice to give in and just read it because of the shoujo podcast I was listening to and how their Tokyo Mew Mew episode covered A La Mode as well. I decided there was no harm in reading it so here I am. Do I regret it? Both yes and no. Before I get into the details I will discuss the plot of Tokyo Mew Mew a La Mode. Ichigo Momomiya the protagonist of the original series has gone off to London to study abroad with her boyfriend. The Mew Mews are now leaderless and lacking in enthusiasm. However Berry Shirayuki enters their lives when her DNA is fused with two different animals: a cat and a rabbit. As the new leader Berry leads the fight against the Crusaders a new enemy comprised of psychics. Im going to start with Tokyo Mew Mew a La Modes strengths which are its two new characters. I think Berry is a super cute character and I liked her a bit more than Ichigo. Berry is definitely a girlygirl and she is more levelheaded and reserved. Her love interest is her childhood friend Tasuku Meguro who is leagues better than Ichigos love interest Masaya which isnt a high bar to clear. He actually has a personality Hes considerate outgoing and silly hes often seen wearing roller skates. He just seems like a super sweet wellmeaning kid who can be a bit ridiculous in the way kids often are. Theyre both super cute and they have such a sweet adorable and touching relationship. I genuinely think this story would have worked had it been a monster of the week type series like Codename: Sailor V while building up their relationship. Unfortunately thats not what happens. The writing in the series is a mess. Its both rushed and aimless. The story is only two volumes long and half of the second volume is spent on random side stories. The antagonists started off promising since they appeared to be a bunch of psychic kids who were treated as outsiders and were being manipulated by their leader. But then the Mew Mews never even met the main antagonist and she just watched them from afar and changed her ways just by looking at their pure relationships. That just felt like lazy writing to me since there was no struggle and it was hard to believe this character who is the head of an evil organization would change her ways after watching friendship moments. It just felt like a cheap copout because Mia Ikumi ran out of pages and didnt have enough time to write a confrontation. I dont even think the antagonists had a clear goal since they just seemed to be doing evil things for the sake of it. It was just wildly inconsistent and I had no idea what the storyline was supposed to be other than the Mew Mews beating up bad guys with some new girl as the leader. I dont even know why this exists other than to cash in on Tokyo Mew Mews popularity and Mia Ikumis editors wanted her to write it. It feels like the other Mew Mew girls especially Ichigo were shoehorned in even though they really didnt do anything. The story focused so much on Berry that they really didnt need to be there. I cant even remember any of them doing anything of importance and Ichigo didnt need to come back since she didnt add anything to the story. With the sheer amount of focus on Berry the story should have just been about her and her alone. The art seems a bit cleaner than the original series but I could be a bit off since I read the Tokyopop translation for the original and the Kodansha translation for this and given the difference in time it may have something to do with the quality of the printing. Its still the same old early 2000s shoujo style with tons of screen tones. Even though I really like Berry and I think the romance has better writing than the romance in the original series I have to say that the rest of the writing is rather awful. It feels like a cashgrab rather than an attempt to do more with the world and concept of Tokyo Mew Mew.