Tokyo Mew Mew New ♡ 2nd Season

The continuation of the prequel last Summer that despite some recommending the 20th anniversary remake of the anime, my feelings are unchanged over how Season 1 was to some lackluster showing overall, though I will give it a notch since this serves as the latter half to the reboot that turned out fine. Since even less people are watching the sequel (which as mentioned, is just a continuation of the overall Tokyo Mew Mew storyline), I'll just make this review short: it wraps up the manga adaptation indefinitely, though I could tell you that I cared EVEN less for the sequel since the initial Season 1appeal was just as uninspiring for such a monumental series, broken down by people who found a way to add their craft into an otherwise classic, but cheesy, Mahou Shoujo story. The music is there, and to me, the OP is a downgrade while the ED is an upgrade. Overall, you could do better watching something else, but if you really care THAT much for Tokyo Mew Mew in the first place, go back to Season 1 for the binge watch.

Having watched only a few episodes of the 2002 anime, I'm glad I went into this one without any bias. I think it deserves to be treated as its own thing, which is why I'm leaving this review of the show for other newcomers. The first season is good but the second one is where the plot really picks up. I liked how the mystery surrounding the aliens gradually unravelled and how the conflict escalated in both seasons. Both finales were really climactic and satisfying. The animation is mostly good, although the monster designs could have been more creative. The soundtrack by Yasuharu Takanashi really elevatesthe epic moments but it sadly doesn't fit the transformations too well. One of this show's greatest strengths are the characters. The mew mews are all likeable, having their own quirks and unique abilities. Ichigo is a well-written protagonist with more sides to her than just her romantic side. She got good character development and so did her friends. As for the aliens, they also have distinct personalities and feel like a real threat. The only potentially controversial character is Kisshu. Some say that his abusive behavior was romanticized, but I thought it was portrayed quite realistically. I suppose you have to judge for yourself. The character I was disappointed with is Ichigo's love interest, Aoyama. He does play an important role in the story, but his chemistry with Ichigo was really bland. Another big issue I have with this show is the pacing, which is very fast in the first season. It feels like we're missing a lot of interactions between the mew mews and between Ichigo and Aoyama, so their relationships don't progress naturally. In conclusion, Tokyo Mew Mew New isn't perfect, but I had a lot of fun watching it. Nowadays every mahou shoujo anime has some kind of twist, so it's great to see a return to form. It's funny without being childish and serious without being too dark. Most importantly, it made me love the characters, which is why I want to check out the 2002 anime as well.

I had a lot of fun watching this season and previous season. This season ramped up the drama and brought everything to its conclusion. I really liked watched the girls continue to grow. I also liked the twist. In many ways Tokyo Mew Mew felt not only like a means to get a pro-environment message out but also as a kind of response to Sailor Moon. There are a lot of shared components but done slightly differently. This made me like it a lot but at times made some things more obvious. I liked the ending though at times it felt a little clunky. Overall,I had a good time. If you liked the first season of Tokyo Mew Mew New, you like magical girls, and you like twists, then this will be a good choice of anime

Man, I really should be more excited for Tokyo Mew Mew New than I turned out to be. The first half of it definitely wasn't bad, but it was still a far cry from being as good as the 2002 anime. Granted, the manga isn't exactly a masterpiece by any stretch, and I've explained as such in my own review for it, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. TMM New, to its credit, did try to differentiate itself from both the old anime and the manga with the changes that it made, some of which continued in this second half. But nowthat I've completed this half of TMM New, I don't think it succeeded in carving out its own identity. Since this part takes place immediately after the first half of TMM New, I'm not gonna bore you with another summary of the series, as you can look to my review for the first half. I've mentioned that TMM New's animation, while a valiant attempt to give the series a new coat of paint, wasn't as dynamic and sharp as the 2002 anime was, but it still did its job. Unfortunately, I think the animation really started to fall apart in this second part. There were no small amount of off model shots, stiff action scenes, and still shots bogging it down, making almost every scene feel sluggish and slow when it shouldn't be that way. The fight scenes are especially affected by this, as a lot of them consist of cost-cutting static shots that are meant to give the implication of movement while showing as little movement as humanly possible. I'm not going to say the 2002 anime's animation was a visual feast for the eyes or anything, as that had its own issues, especially when it first aired on TV, but the action scenes there at least had more dynamic movement and the fights actually felt palpable, and the producers at least tried to make do with what they had. Part 2's animation even loses the refinement that even the first half had, and I can count on both hands the scenes I saw where the girls' faces just looked really off, or one of their body parts, such as their eyes, looked smaller or bigger than the other. Part 2 also carries over some flaws that Part 1 had, particularly not doing enough to flesh out the rest of the characters aside from Ichigo. It tries, it really tries, but the things they add to characters such as Mint and Lettuce don't really do enough to make them feel more three-dimensional or interesting. With the smaller episode count on both ends, this was inevitable, so I can't really fault the producers for trying to make do with what they had at least. But even some of the changes they did make seemed really odd. In one episode, Mint runs away from home and stays at Ichigo's place for a while, and has absolutely no clue what a middle-class house looks like, nor does she understand the concept of families sharing one bathroom. For as much as the series tried to make Mint smarter and more intelligent than she was in other adaptations, it feels jarring to see her act really dumb for what is ostensibly no reason and her behavior there goes against a lot of her established characterization. Say what you will about the 2002 anime, at least in that one, Mint's personality and behavior was consistent, and she wasn't suddenly retconned into not knowing certain really basic things! Bascially, all the characters, heroes and villains, don't change much and despite attempts to flesh them out, still come off as pretty bland and milque toast. I won't mention the soundtrack a second time, as it's pretty much the same as Part 1, still pretty good but nothing groundbreaking. To TMM New's credit, there are some things Part 2 did that I did genuinely like. Remember Mint's brother Seiji in the 2002 anime? There, he was just a filler character and only appeared in one episode, but TMM New decided to not only have him appear more, but even have him be more active in the story's main conflict. I'm honestly surprised they decided to use him that way, and I'm glad they actually bothered to give him something resembling a character arc and plot relevance. Secondly, one thing I wish both the manga and 2002 anime had done was elaborate more on the aliens' lore. To my surprise, TMM New actually does just that, not only actually showing other aliens besides Kish, Pie, and Tart, but expanding on why they had to leave Earth and having one of the characters learn more about them. It even shows what happens to them after Ichigo and friends save the Earth from disaster, which I don't think the manga or 2002 anime ever did, which is nice. I also appreciate that TMM New actually bothered to show a bit of Zakuro's background by giving her a friend who shoots all of her videos. They still don't do anything like show what her family life is like, or if she even has one, but it's way more than the 2002 anime ever bothered to do with Zakuro. Plus, while the Mew Mews voice actors aside from Ichigo and Lettuce are still kind of green, Mint's actress really seems to have settled into her role, and her voice doesn't sound as awkward as it did in Part 1. However, if I'm going to be honest here, I'm gonna say I still prefer the 2002 anime over both the manga and Tokyo Mew Mew New. For all the things TMM New tried to do, it's unable to break out of the source material's shadow, or even the shadow of the 2002 anime. It's a fine adaptation for what it is, but not every change it made benefited it, and in the end, it doesn't go beyond just average. But hey, Tokyo Mew Mew coming back into the limelight at all is still a miracle in and of itself, and is a fitting tribute to the late Mia Ikumi's memory. It's not going to bring the house down, but it's still a nice kids show to introduce your little sister, daughter, or niece to anime with, if you want a shorter alternative to the 2002 anime.

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