This review includes discussion of A La Mode as I feel A La Mode is too short for me to justify giving it its own review. This was also written years before Ikumis untimely death Tokyo Mew Mew has a lot of sentimental value to me as an anime fan. I actually knew that it was called Tokyo Mew Mew before 4Kids licensed it and changed the name to Mew Mew Power. I watched said dub religiously until it got unceremoniously cancelled. Furthermore Tokyo Mew Mew was the very first anime I ever watched in Japanese way back in 2005. Its also the first real righttoleft manga I ever read and bought in its entirety though I randomly started with volume 3 which I found at my local Borders before it was changed to a BooksAMillion. I still own all the volumes of Tokyopops release of the manga A La Mode included and just recently I reread the whole thing. I still like it but Im not gonna lie its kinda silly and cliche and nothing really worth gushing about. The story begins with a young girl Ichigo Momomiya going on a date with her classmate Masaya Aoyama at an endangered animal exhibit. Later on when a strange light suddenly engulfs her she finds herself acting like a cat: Saying meow sleeping more than she usually does eating fish landing on her feet when she jumps and sometimes she grows cat ears and a tail As it turns out she and four other girls were injected with the DNA of Red Data Animals made into a form that allows them to become animal themed magical girls. The Mew Mews have the power to defeat parasitic aliens called Chimera Anima normal animals mutated into monstrous beings. As part of the secret Mew Project the masterminds recruit the girls to save the world from aliens that threaten to destroy it while making them into waitresses serving at a cute cafe as a cover. But all Ichigo wants to do is be with Masaya and have a normal romance As much as I want to love on this manga as it means a lot to me personally I cant let nostalgia blind me to its faults and I wouldnt be a good critic if I did that now would I? The artwork is at the very least competent with the characters having wide sparkly eyes reasonably proportioned bodies and cute chibis used for comedic moments. The costume designs while simplistic are good and devoid of unnecessary embellishments. But I wont lie Mia Ikumis art is rather unpolished. At various points throughout the manga the art style tends to flip flop in quality. Sometimes the characters are outlined with bold dark lines while other parts of them such as hair strands dont look as though theyve been inked properly with lots of missing spaces. There are other times when the characters Mew Mew marks randomly go missing or are in the wrong places on their bodies. Furthermore her chibis tend to be really weird looking with characters heads made even bigger than is appropriate with their bodies looking either like sticks or jelly. But the artwork isnt the only issue Tokyo Mew Mew has. Personally I feel the mangas biggest flaw is its characterization. To put it simply all of the focus is solely on Ichigo nobody else and the other four main characters get little to no focus or any kind of meaningful development whatsoever. Theyre mostly just used as props to support Ichigo never getting any time in the limelight nor do the readers ever get any insight into what theyre like outside of fighting crime. This is one issue the anime managed to rectify as not only were the producers given 52 episodes to work with they managed to give any character whos not Ichigo much more development and flesh them out more than the manga attempted Except for Zakuro who still doesnt get much focus. Say what you will about filler episodes in anime but the anime for Tokyo Mew Mew recognized the mangas flaws and made optimal use of its run time to give each member of the ensemble their just dues even the villains. The sequel manga A La Mode exacerbates the mangas disinterest in developing its side characters by kicking Ichigo to the side and focusing on a new character and nobody else. From what Ive heard Ikumi did want to do more with Ichigos teammates and write stories that fleshed them out and gave them more development but apparently higher ups told her not to do so and practically browbeat her into shilling the new main character Berry for all she was worth and nothing else. Thats...kinda sad really. I personally dont hate Berry as Ive encountered characters in other media that are FAR more deserving of hatred than her but I do feel the criticisms she gets is valid and Im more inclined to see Berry as just a product of really bad executive meddling. As for the characters themselves...theyre fine but again the mangas disinterest in fleshing out anyone whos not Ichigo makes them come off as cliche bland archetypes and not much else and Ichigo herself isnt a very interesting character even by magical girl standards. As for the story itself at the time the manga was published magical girl shows never tackled themes such as animals and environmentalism before so Tokyo Mew Mew became well known for challenging the status quo in that manner. But Tokyo Mew Mew just seems to wear its environmentalism themes like a hat not doing much else with it other than giving the characters animal DNA and having the villains wreck the environment every now and again. Some anime fully embrace the themes and motifs they go for conveying the appeals of the subject matter at hand and inspiring a desire to know more An example being Heartcatch Pretty Cure with its intense focus on botany and fashion or if youre looking for non magical girl examples Laid Back Camps focus on ground camping during winter while integrating them into its setting. Tokyo Mew Mew doesnt really try to explore the issues and themes beyond scratching the surface so it comes off as more window dressing than anything. That being said Tokyo Mew Mew still revels in comfortable magical girl tropes and cliches playing everything safe and not really trying to break new ground. It really says something when an anime adaptation turns out to be better than its source material. Though rare Tokyo Mew Mews manga is one of those. It had the potential to be great but its inconsistent characterization tacked on themes cliche premise unpolished art and misuse of its time and resources make it little more than average. Just check out the anime as not only is it longer but fixes many of the mangas problems.