Episode 1: Step Up! Ichigo’s Romance Enters the Next Stage!
Episode 2: Mint the Runaway!? I’m Going to Change the World!
Episode 3: Hi Mom, It’s Pudding! I’m Doing Great!
Episode 4: Droplets of Love – Lettuce and the Little Mermaid
Episode 5: Music Video Madness – When Two Prodigies Clash!
Episode 6: His Hidden Resolve – The Birth of the Mew Project
Episode 7: My Future Starts Now – This Is the Real Me
Episode 8: Quiche and the Blue Knight
Episode 10: Scattered Hearts and a Tearful Night
First and foremost, this ending somehow manages to diverge even further from the manga than the original anime did, which surprised me. New has not been shy about doing its own thing when it wants to while also trying hard to be as close to the manga as possible in addition to attempting to fix some of the bigger issues with the manga. I honestly think they’ve been doing a really good job in most respects.
Before I go any further, let’s recap the finales of both the manga and the original anime starting from where New’s starts.
In the manga, as Deep Blue is strangling Ichigo, Aoyama’s consciousness intervenes and stops him, temporarily anyway. To protect Ichigo, he puts her in a protective bubble. Deep Blue is so enraged by Aoyama that he forcibly takes back his body and claims he’s completely deleted Aoyama from his mind.
Deep Blue unleashes his assault onto the world, and Ichigo tries to escape her bubble to save everyone, but she can’t. Just then, Aoyama’s consciousness comes back to the forefront. He aims to kill himself with his sword to release the Mew Aqua and save the world and Ichigo. He succeeds – the power of the Mew Aqua spreads all over Tokyo, reviving the presumably dead and healing the wounded, including the other Mews and Quiche. It’s so powerful it even somehow manages to rebuild the buildings.
Aoyama, however, is dead. Ichigo, not accepting Aoyama’s death, transfers all of her power to him through a kiss. She resolves to either revive him or follow him in death if she can’t bring him back.
It works, and Aoyama is revived, but now Ichigo has expended too much energy and lies ‘dead’ in his arms. Aoyama….doesn’t particularly seem alarmed, though, as he somehow magically lifts them in a bubble up and back down to the others. They all grieve Ichigo’s death, but then Aoyama kisses her, she glows, and she’s brought back to life because love.
Pudding realizes Tart is leaving, so she tearfully bids him goodbye right before kissing him, passing a candy between their mouths, offering him more candy, and she says she doesn’t want this to be goodbye. Tart blushes up a storm before saying he might come back for more candy.
Quiche has made peace with not winning Ichigo’s love, though Ichigo shows appreciation for Quiche’s feelings. He tells her to be happy. He sneaks in one last cheek kiss before departing.
Shirogane gives the last of the Mew Aqua to Pie to allow him to rejuvenate their planet. They all then leave.
Skip ahead a few months and, for some reason, the cafe is still running and the girls still work there. (Also, despite the circumstances implying none of them are Mews anymore, Akasaka says the only thing different is Ichigo specifically is not a Mew anymore. Supposedly because she gave all her energy to Aoyama.)
Ichigo notes that Aoyama is preparing to study abroad in England. He wants to study red data animals, specifically the ones the Mews were fused with, in order to help save them.
The Mews implement Mew Project W, which involves them kidnapping Ichigo (while dressed as ninjas) and bringing her to a surprise mock wedding between her and Aoyama. And how did I go that entire review without mentioning whatever the hell this outfit is on Aoyama?
My word.
Ichigo also apparently didn’t notice the other girls forcibly changed her into a wedding dress.
Akasaka officiates unofficially and they exchange vows. Outside, Berry is shown walking up to the cafe but choosing not to enter because there’s a private party going on, promising they’ll have fun together later, sequel baiting Tokyo Mew Mew A La Mode.
Ichigo’s ears and tail pop out, implying she still has her Mew powers for some reason as she says her vows.
In the original anime, after Deep Blue tries to strangle Ichigo and claims he’s ‘killed’ Aoyama, Aoyama grabs hold of Deep Blue’s consciousness and tells Ichigo to kill him. She obviously doesn’t want to, but Aoyama implores her to believe in him. Deep Blue tries to fight back, but the girls, completely exhausted and collapsed on the ground below, hold hands and send their power to Ichigo.
Ichigo attacks, Deep Blue is destroyed, and Aoyama uses the Mew Aqua within his body to save the world and make amends for what he’s done, even at the expense of his life.
The girls and the aliens are healed by the Mew Aqua spreading over the city, and the city itself is healing from its power as flowers grow beneath their feet.
Back up above, Ichigo refuses to let Aoyama die so she gives all her power to him through a kiss.
The girls head up to the ship to check on her. Aoyama wakes up and finds her ‘dead’ on the ground next to him. They all mourn Ichigo before transforming back to normal, seemingly because their Mew powers vanished with the threat defeated.
Quiche, Pie, and Tart offer their help in getting them down from the ship as it collapses. Quiche also says he can use the remaining power from the bit of Mew Aqua they have to save their home planet. They teleport them off the ship, and, after the ship is atomized by the aliens, we see the aliens departing on a small ship of their own back to their planet.
Shirogane arrives and also mourns Ichigo as Aoyama gives her a farewell kiss on the lips. She glows, the cat leaves her soul, she transforms back to a normal girl and is revived. Also, the aliens somehow know Ichigo lived despite being in space now.
Some amount of time later, it seems at least Ichigo’s parents now have a bad view of the Mews since they blame them for all the destruction that happened to the city and the inconveniences they’re suffering as a result.
The girls all meet at the cafe, feeling as if they’ve been drawn there. The cafe has been closed down since the battle, and the girls haven’t seen each other in a little while. Shirogane and Akasaka show up explaining that a new enemy has arrived, and they need the Mews again. They believed their powers went away and they were allowed to be normal, but their powers had returned. Their loss was explained by the lingering effects of the Mew Aqua, however that works.
They can’t say no, so they rush out the door, transform, and head back into battle against the unknown enemy.
In New, Deep Blue grabs Ichigo and rambles in anger about the injustices inflicted upon his people. His new plan…I guess, because his plan before was to laser beam the planet and shift the continents around to what they were when the aliens lived there, is to call his people down to Earth to attack the humans themselves with their spaceships. Deep Blue opens a portal, but Ichigo, struggling against some force lightning, tries to convince him that some humans are trying to make things better for Earth. The humans and aliens can talk and compromise.
Deep Blue doesn’t believe that, but Ichigo persists, claiming she knows nothing is impossible if you work together. She learned that from the other Mews. And she learned the future can change, no matter how improbable, when Aoyama accepted her after finding out she was a Mew.
At this, Aoyama’s consciousness appears next to Deep Blue and says Ichigo has inspired him as well. When he was a child, he was always alone, and he hated humanity for ruining the Earth, but Ichigo gave him hope. Aoyama tells Deep Blue that he must also know and feel this deep down because he was there with him the entire time.
They flash back to their first date at the museum, but Aoyama shifts to Deep Blue. Ichigo says she wants to help the environment and animals, even if she doesn’t know exactly what she can do to make a difference.
Aoyama insists that Deep Blue has the same connection to Ichigo as he does, so he must find it within himself to trust her. Even just moments ago, when Aoyama was about to give up and kill himself to make things right, her words and influence have convinced him to not give up.
Just when it seems like Aoyama is getting through to Deep Blue, he snaps. He starts attacking Ichigo with more force lightning, but Ichigo finally summons her weapon and pushes away the energy. She tells Deep Blue that she wants to save the Earth and his planet – the humans and the aliens. They’ll work as hard and as long as they have to in order to save everyone and both planets. Ichigo eventually gets close to Deep Blue and reaches for his hand through the electricity.
This entire time, Pie is pleading with him not to listen and be swayed by the words of the humans. However, Ichigo’s hand finally grabs Deep Blue’s, and it seems he’s finally been persuaded.
As he and Ichigo are about to discuss what to do next, a confused Pie asks what he’s doing. Deep Blue says he no longer plans on killing the humans.
Pie is absolutely distraught. And while it seems like everything is over and done with, Pie does something shocking – he skewers Deep Blue through the back with his sword to release the Mew Aqua in his body, believing he has no choice since he doesn’t believe humanity can be trusted to work with them. As this happens, Deep Blue switches to Aoyama.
A beam shoots from the wound into the sky, opening another portal. This time, the aliens waste no time getting into their ships to go through the portal and destroy humanity. Pie is crazily ecstatic while Ichigo is horrified. She embraces Aoyama and begs for him to not do this (He’s uh….not doing this, Ichigo. He got stabbed, girl.)
Ichigo shines a brilliant pink light that reaches across the Earth and through the portal to the aliens. She begs for them to stand down and not destroy all the people and animals on Earth. She begs them all to work together for a brighter future.
She also says “We’ll serve up justice together!” which kinda ruined the moment. What does that even mean in this context? Justice for the environment?
Ichigo shines even brighter, and she somehow teleports Aoyama and herself above the ship in a pink bubble. Ichigo proclaims she’ll be with him forever, and Aoyama declares his unending love for Ichigo.
Down below, Masha teleports and reappears before them as a pink Mew Aqua Rod. Together, she and Aoyama use Ribbon Aqua Drops across both the Earth and the aliens’ planet. The power turns this desolate wasteland of a planet into a lush and vibrant green landscape, complete with water features somehow.
On Earth, the Mews all heal up, as does Quiche.
As the power cascades over both planets, Aoyama and Ichigo say they all write the future together. What do you want to do? What future do you want to write?
The portal finally closes, and as Ichigo embraces Aoyama, she sees an image of Deep Blue before her. He says he’s glad to have known her. He fades away into an image of the Blue Knight, who also fades away, implying that both consciousnesses are gone from Aoyama now.
They land on the ship, but Aoyama is either unconscious or dead. Ichigo is devastated. She shows him her bell, the first gift he ever gave her. That bell is what helps her return to him every time she has a battle, so she begs him to not get lost. She cries on the bell, it glows, as does Aoyama, presumably implying that there was still a tiny bit of Mew Aqua left in him, and he awakens. They kiss each other briefly before the others show up, including Quiche, Tart, and Pie.
While Pudding does give Tart candies, convincing him to visit for more candies, they don’t adapt the part where Pudding kisses Tart, passing a candy between their mouths.
Pie is…..bafflingly having a happy conversation with Lettuce about how they’ve accepted the other planet as their home now that it’s fertile and beautiful. Lettuce says they’ll protect the future of the Earth and she hopes they’ll do the same. Pie agrees.
Quiche basically does the exact same thing as the manga where he says he just wants Ichigo to be happy as he kneels on the ground, asks for her hand, then sneaks a kiss on the cheek before leaving.
The girls all get their angel wings back and return to Shirogane and Akasaka back at the cafe.
Cut to a month later, and the rebuilding process has begun. This time, they’re going to focus on putting more greenery through the city.
Moe and Miwa talk to Ichigo about how Aoyama is going to be studying abroad soon. She says she’s okay because this is a great opportunity for Aoyama. He’s going to be studying under the specialist he’s admired for so long, so she’s excited for him.
Suddenly…………..Miwa (*double checks* I EVEN GUESSED THE SPECIFIC CHARACTER’S NAME RIGHT! Whoo!) puts a blindfold on Ichigo. The other Mews appear from the sky dressed as ninjas, as in the manga, and kidnap her. They change her clothes to a casual yet fancy white dress. Aoyama appears in front of her in a suit that a sane person would wear.
It’s a going away party for Aoyama! Yeah, despite the fact that they clearly dressed up Ichigo as wedding-esque as possible without just putting her in a straight up wedding dress, New opted not to the do the mock wedding like the manga. They do note that they look like a couple about to get married, but they don’t ‘marry’ the two…..So…..why they’d need to be all secretive about a going away party, I don’t know. I mean, I guess it would make sense to be secretive to Aoyama, but he’s clearly in on it.
I love how everyone’s dressed to the nines (Except Lettuce. Girl, as someone with no fashion sense, what are you wearing? An old lady nightgown and an old lady sweater?), but Shirogane is still wearing his normal clothes. You being a little petty, dude?
Also, Moe and Miwa are here, and I think that’s a nice addition because they weren’t at the manga party.
Shirogane notes that this is the last day of the Mews Mews since their mission is over. Ichigo processes this for a bit before Aoyama grabs her hand and asks if she’s okay. She says she is, and we transition to later when she’s showing off Aoyama at the airport. They hug, say they’ll be together forever, and Aoyama leaves.
Ichigo notes that Aoyama and Quiche are already on their paths to the future, and she wonders what her future has in store. As the sun rises, she realizes the future isn’t written yet. They have to write it themselves. As we get flashes of various animals, ending on representations of the Mew Mew animals, Ichigo resolves to help the Earth and all living things on it. She wants to become an ambassador between the aliens and the Earth.
As the ending theme starts, we cut to Mint, who has started her own company, the Mint Corporation, then Zakuro, who is putting on a Mew charity concert, then Pudding who is at home having a meal with her siblings and TART. She also wants him to spend the night, which he doesn’t want to, but her siblings convince him. Finally, we see Lettuce has become a tour guide for a museum dedicated to relics left by the aliens. Some people wave to her, and she says she started working there with some friends, but I’m at a loss as to who they are.
She’s also conveying this news to Pie through a physical letter she sent to Pie….somehow. Apparently, the postal service really extended their reach or something. Pie is happily farming with other aliens back on their home planet. Quiche is helping out cultivating strawberries (Ichigo) and says they’re just as cute as she is.
Back with Ichigo she runs towards the sunrise as she says she’s thankful to have known all of them, including Quiche, Tart, and Pie.
Cut to…sometime later, and we see Shirogane standing in front of the newly restored Cafe Mew Mew with Akasaka. They say they have to get started, but then they hear the girls in the cafe, ready to work. Shirogane is mad at them for being there when their work is done, but like…..who was going to work here if they were still planning on reopening the place? Also, why ARE they reopening the cafe? The cafe was just a front for their Mew Mew operation. Do Shirogane and Akasaka just want to get into it more permanently now?
The girls say they love everyone here, and it’s basically home to them, so they want to keep working there. Apparently, Mint can run a company and work at a cafe….and maybe go to school – how far ahead are we? Because Lettuce has another job now too.
They hear some customers arrive, and the girls welcome them all….to Cafe Mew Mew NEW!
We have a lot to go over, so let’s break this up a little.
Deep Blue’s Characterization
Obviously, one of the bigger curveballs of New’s finale in comparison to the other versions is that Deep Blue has a drastic character shift. In every other version, Deep Blue’s been a very cut and dry full-on villain. He has one goal, kill all humans, and he’ll mow down anyone who gets in the way of that goal. He doesn’t give a damn about Ichigo or even his loyal followers. It’s arguable if he even cares about any of his species because he just seems hellbent on killing humanity as penance for what they’ve done to the Earth.
In both previous versions, Deep Blue just dies – either by Aoyama’s hand or Ichigo’s. He’s a foe to be vanquished and nothing more.
Honestly, Deep Blue is one of the weaker parts of this whole franchise. He’s the big bad, but he’s just evil and boring. It’s a shame because a character who is fueled mostly on anger at humans for destroying the environment of a planet his people originally inhabited could easily work, but he’s just so one-note. It doesn’t help that we never learn….who the fuck Deep Blue is.
In no version of this story, not even in New, do we learn what or who Deep Blue is. Where did he come from? Why is he the leader of the aliens? Why is he treated like alien!Jesus? Why did he arrive on Earth like 15 years ago and become a human boy with no memories of who he actually is? How did he even get to Earth? If he can get there easily, couldn’t all the aliens have invaded? Why just three of them? If his hatred for humanity stayed within Aoyama, why did he bother being an ideal boy to keep up appearances with them? Why didn’t he let Quiche, Tart, and Pie know he was Aoyama or just a human boy in general before he did it? Why was it such a trial to get him to awaken? Especially if he has Mew Aqua in his body…….WHY DOES HE HAVE MEW AQUA IN HIS BODY?!
For a character who is not only the main villain of the franchise but also the alternate personality of the main character’s love interest, you’d think they’d delve into his story and what makes him tick a little more, but no. We get basically nothing.
I will give New some points for at least trying something….*sigh* new with the character (Get it?) Deep Blue being humanized a bit more is…..understandable. It makes sense for Deep Blue to retain some form of connection with Ichigo given how deep Aoyama’s feelings are for her. Aoyama retained Deep Blue’s intense hatred for humans even without remembering what he really was, so it tracks.
New also makes it clear that Deep Blue, while still being relentless and having a one-track mind, does hold his people in high regard and wants them to return to Earth. He’s kinda stupid about it because both of his plans would result in massive damage to the Earth and ecosystems. His initial plan was to bust the Earth through the center with a laser to merge all the continents back the way they were when the aliens lived on Earth, which would catastrophic. And his new plan of having the aliens come in and attack with space ships would surely severely damage the world.
However, despite the stupidity in play, it does show that he cares about the other aliens and isn’t just entirely focused on killing all the humans.
Was his turnaround corny?….Yeah, but not overly corny. And, like I said, it does make sense for him to change his mind due to Ichigo’s influence. It’s not like it was a quick thing either. It still took quite a while to get Deep Blue to simmer down and accept a compromise. I really did like that sequence where Deep Blue took the place of Aoyama during the flashback to their date to illustrate that he’s technically been present during those important moments in their relationship, and how he’s seen firsthand Ichigo’s caring and resolve.
The Aliens’ Planet Being Fixed
In both previous versions of TMM, they state that the aliens will use what little Mew Aqua they have left to revitalize their planet and make it much more livable, so they don’t have to pursue Earth anymore. This has always been extremely difficult for me to swallow.
You’re telling me just a tiny itty bitty bit of Mew Aqua is enough to completely transform their entire planet? And, if it was, why even bother with this crusade against humanity? Especially considering Earth was in such terrible shape when they left.
In this version, they use powered-up Mew Aqua Drops flowing through the portal to heal their planet, which I find much easier to accept. I still don’t know if I believe the whole planet would be affected, nor do I think water would just appear out of nowhere, but it’s much more believable. Plus, I like how this is one version where we actually see the aliens’ planet revitalized and the aliens happy in the end as opposed to the “Trust us, bro.” endings we got in the manga and original anime.
Pie to the Chest
Another very significant change from both previous versions is Pie’s role. He’s never fully consistent between each version. He’s always the most loyal of the aliens to Deep Blue and his people, but that’s about it with his consistency.
My jaw dropped when Pie stabbed Deep Blue because he’s so devoted to him. But it does make sense that he’d turn on him when Deep Blue opted to not kill humanity. Pie’s actually most loyal to his people. He’s only devoted to Deep Blue because he’s so loyal to his people. Deep Blue has been hailed as the savior to their people, their final shot at having a suitable home again. If he suddenly decided to join hands with their sworn enemies, Pie taking his shot to use Deep Blue’s Mew Aqua anyway by any means necessary makes total sense.
…..It does make his redemption that much more jarring, though.
His turnaround in the anime and manga were sudden and confusing, but this version takes the cake. You could say him seeing his planet all green and lively was enough, but still, the guy skewered Aoyama through the chest, and Ichigo later is still like “I’m glad I met Pie!” It’s just a bit weird.
Speaking of weird, what is going on with Pie and Lettuce? The manga, as far as I remember, didn’t have any moments of note between these two. The original anime had a few moments that seemed significant, like they were implying there was some connection between them. And, for some reason, this is one of the few things from the original anime that New decided to not only keep but kinda build upon. In fact, they shifted the exchange between Shirogane and Pie in the manga, after he gives the Mew Aqua to Pie, to Lettuce saying those lines to Pie.
And now Lettuce is sending physical written letters to Pie? With little drawings and notes about a cute store opening in her neighborhood at the bottom? I guess this can be platonic, like Tart and Pudding seem to be, at least for now, but it’s so weird. It’s like both anime versions wanted her to have a love interest because things obviously weren’t going to work out with Shirogane, but neither actually wanted to bite the bullet and write a romantic link between them.
I totally get why it would work even less here given how devout Pie is until the very end, but in that case….maybe just don’t write it in then. Maybe just….let her and Shirogane get together. I mean, they’re no longer Mews, so he’s free to be with her now. But oh silly me. Anyone besides Ichigo getting a romantic relationship is impossible. She has to have three, technically now FIVE guys deeply in love with her. But no one else can be in a loving lasting relationship. It’s the Sailor Moon curse….
Ichigo Doesn’t ‘Die’ In This Version
Honestly, I don’t much care. It was kinda redundant in both versions to have two death fakeouts anyway. It’s always kinda confusing too. Like, she has to drain all of the energy from her body to revive Aoyama, but a simple kiss from him brings her back? In this version, I think he just came back because he had some Mew Aqua remnants in his body that were activated by her tear and the bell….I think anyway. It’s unclear.
Ichigo’s Ending
Admittedly, I was sad we didn’t get the mock wedding. But I also understand why the writers opted against it. They are still pretty young, and they already promised they’d be together forever, so…..I dunno.
Ichigo’s ending across both previous series was focused purely on either being a Mew (The OG anime) or her being with Aoyama (The manga). This version does actually include something different.
The theme of this entire ending arc, and the whole series/reboot to a certain extent, is looking to the future. Making the future brighter, cleaner, and more hopeful for everyone. Ichigo has somewhat adopted Aoyama’s initial ending where it’s stated that she’s going to work toward helping every living being on Earth, particularly the animals, and also giving specific focus to the animals the Mews were based on.
Additionally, she’s going to be an ambassador of the Earth to the aliens. How that’s going to work and why that’s even needed is unknown, but I appreciate her ambition.
While it was difficult for Ichigo to process that she’s not a Mew anymore, kinda taking away her purpose in life at the moment, I like how the ending didn’t have them go back to being Mew Mews for the sake of sequel bait (because, let’s be real, A La Mode was never going to get an anime adaptation.) They fought their share of battles and deserved a quieter happy life. Going back to working at the cafe because they simply love being there with everyone was a good compromise, even if I can’t quite figure in the time distribution for Mint and Lettuce. I guess if Zakuro can juggle being a famous singer, a Mew, possibly a student, and a waitress, and Pudding can juggle being a single guardian for five small children with school and being a waitress and a Mew, they can juggle their own jobs too.
Aoyama’s Ending
Aoyama, oddly enough, didn’t really get an ending in the original anime, so I have nothing to compare there. He’s just with Ichigo still. The end.
New basically just took the manga’s ending but added the part with Ichigo seeing off Aoyama at the airport.
I’ve never been all that content with Aoyama’s manga ending. I just don’t understand why he has to suddenly go study abroad. I get that he wants to help the environment, but why can’t he do that in Japan? What’s in London? How long is going to be gone?
At least New says part of the reason he’s leaving is because he wants to do fieldwork under the tutelage of a specialist he really admires, so his motivation makes a little more sense. I think part of the reason why New chose to not have them do the mock wedding is also because it makes it seem like they had to have some sort of formal promise ceremony to ensure their love so Ichigo wouldn’t be as lonely while Aoyama’s gone, but with her newfound drive to do environmental and ambassador work now, plus just her general faith in Aoyama and the support of her friends, she doesn’t need that extra assurance.
Mint’s Ending
Nepotism!
Seriously, she just starts her own company? At like 15 years old? At first, I thought maybe she was just putting up a sign for her company as like a visual representation of her future ambitions….but nope. We pan down to see flowers and a note congratulating her on founding her company by Seiji and the Aizawa group. So it seems like this is a legit company.
Also, I think a finished version of the device she was making earlier in the series is on the roof.
………….Zakuro and Mint should have gotten together.
I’m not sorry. That is some bullshit.
They have never been on more even ground or closer than they are in New, and they still somehow didn’t wind up together. Bite me.
Pudding and Tart’s Ending
I found their ending to be fine. Arguably, the fact that we see Tart happily eating at her house and staying overnight (With nothing happening, of course) makes up for the lack of a kiss between these two. I’m pretty okay with their relationship seeming platonic for now because they are young and who knows what the future may bring. I hope they at least stay together forever because they’re so cute together, and Pudding could use some help taking care of her siblings…..even if that scene in Pudding’s house comes off like he’s just another mouth to feed.
I’m just glad we actually got to see Tart returning to hang out with Pudding and her family rather than only having the implication that he’d come back to visit.
I also like that the last shot of her part was the picture of her with her mother and all her siblings as babies.
Zakuro’s Ending
….Uhh…she’s still a singer…..She’s just putting on a vague concert for charity. What is the Mew charity? What do they do? Why did she not like the sets for this concert? I dunno…..That’s all we get for her.
…..She and Mint should have gotten tog–
Lettuce’s Ending
Well, she’s happier and is….something with Pie. She’s more confident and has some new unnamed friends, so I’m happy…ish with her ending. She’s got a neat job as a museum tour guide, helping spread the stories of the ancient aliens…..whom are rightfully just referred to as “The ancients” here because they’re not aliens. Really is super odd that they never came up with a name for this species.
…………………………………………………………………….She and Shirogane should have…..
URGH
Honestly, I know what I said in Pie’s section, but I can’t in good conscience wish for that. I would so love for them to have ended up together….but the fact of the matter is that Shirogane was too into Ichigo for me to want that fully.
I don’t want Lettuce to feel like a silver medal.
My girl deserves better than that.
They could have written it so that Shirogane was like torn between Ichigo and Lettuce or that he didn’t truly see her until she got more confident or he started spending more time with her or something. I definitely don’t want a situation where it feels like Shirogane understands that he can’t have Ichigo so he just settles for Lettuce.
Granted, it did seem like he felt something for her over the course of season two, definitely much more than was ever in the manga or the original anime, where both felt like entirely one-sided crushes, but it wasn’t given nearly enough focus, and they just chose not to cap that off in the end.
It’s so frustrating. I’m torn between being happy that they gave us more in so many regards but still ultimately flopped on committing to anything.
Hell, I could totally get on the LettucexPie train if they bothered fleshing out that at all either. Pie could get closer to Lettuce and struggle intensely over his loyalty to his people and Deep Blue and Lettuce challenging his views and his growing feelings for her. The added conflict of him hating humans would be an interesting layer there as well. It honestly felt like Lettuce had more influence on him in the original anime than it did in New.
I guess I’m fine with her ending up alone, but I feel like, out of all the Mews who aren’t Ichigo, she’s the one I really wanted to end up with someone romantically. I can cope with Tart and Pudding not being together (yet) or Zakuro and Mint just being besties with way too much chemistry. None of them ever seemed particularly interested in romance, and we don’t need everyone getting a romance ending. But Lettuce was interested in romance, and someone, ANYONE, else getting another romance would have been welcome.
But no.
This is The Ichigo Show.
She’s happy now, and that’s all that matters. I just wish she can find her special someone in the future.
Quiche’s Ending
Well, he got the most important thing, which is his planet being fertile and beautiful and his people being happy and healthy.
However, he’s still pining over Ichigo as he cultivates strawberries, so….eh. Ichigo’s just so hard to get over. She’s so great. I love main character.
Shirogane and Akasaka’s Ending
Shirogane got cucked, Akasaka got nothing, and they run a cafe as their main career now.
They didn’t get any sort of ending in the manga either, and their ending in the anime was just prepping to fight another vague threat, but in this version I guess they truly are just cafe owners and nothing else now. That’s…fine….but with all the technology and money they have, could they not have said they were doing something else to help the environment or something?
Akasaka got so shafted in this reboot, to be honest. He’s a nothing character here. He’s not much in the manga either, so I guess that makes sense, but they gave him absolutely nothing more in New. At least in the original anime they gave him a lost love backstory to flesh out his character a tiny bit. I can say basically nothing about Akasaka in this reboot besides he’s Shirogane’s assistant and he’s very polite.
And, ah, Shirogane……….you shoulda realized what you had, buddy. Ya blew it. Now you’re hosting parties for your crush and her boyfriend while the girl who was in love with you writes heartfelt letters to the alien you were trying to kill last month. Get wrecked.
No Berry
I don’t really care that Berry wasn’t here. Like I said, there’s no chance they’re going to adapt A La Mode, so who cares? I still haven’t gotten around to reading A La Mode, so I doubly don’t particularly care. This needed to be a definitive ending, so it’s perfectly fine. Even if, by some miracle, they do adapt A La Mode, they don’t need to set it up with sequel bait.
Is This the Best Ending to Tokyo Mew Mew?
Yes. Absolutely.
I’m not gonna say this ending is perfect. I have a lot of bones of pick here, obviously. But it is, in my opinion, the best finale we’ve had of the franchise so far. Bear in mind that I still haven’t read the spin-offs/sequels or the recent manga entry, so maybe I’m wrong.
….I feel like I’m not, though.
New actually gave individual endings to each character, which is much more than the original anime and manga gave us. Probably because, like I said, New isn’t sequel baiting. We got to see the aliens’ planet revived and the aliens happy. We got to see all the Mews happy. And we got a very optimistic and hopeful message for the future. Hell, this version even fixed that annoying “general populace in a Marvel movie” issue in the original anime of people whining about the Mews wrecking the city when they were saving it.
Even if it was kinda overly convenient and a little schmaltzy, I’m fine with it. It’s not like the other endings weren’t overly convenient and schmaltzy in their own ways. I’m content with this being the end all closer to the franchise, especially since I don’t want them to return to being Mews. They don’t have to keep fighting some evil forces. They’re busy enough trying to save the world in more traditional manners. Let them be happy and stay that way.
With that all in mind, we finally have to go over how this reboot stacks up in a full series review.
If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥
Our penultimate episode starts with the girls flying across the sky to Deep Blue’s ship to get the last bit of Mew Aqua. We get a brief glimpse of what other characters are doing as the final battle starts.
First, we see Mint’s brother, Seiji, as he uses his company’s resources for rescue, medical treatment, and support services for those affected by the disaster, which is nice and honestly an angle of this situation I didn’t think we’d get. Seiji quietly cheers Mint on when he sees the Mews fly by.
Next, we get Ichigo’s parents wondering where Ichigo is. It is dawn now, and she’s been out all night in a horrible disaster. They are concerned, but then they get a text from Ichigo saying “I’m going to Aoyama-kun’s. I’ll be okay!” followed by one of those texting sticker things that shows a happy cat saying “Don’t worry! I’ll be okay!” Her father gets understandably annoyed at Aoyama, but her mother calms him down saying she’s sure Ichigo has a good reason for going there now and they should trust her judgment. They look up to the Mew Mews flying across the sky at this moment, so I’m not sure if they’re implying that they know she’s a Mew Mew?
………But either way…..No. Her father only got slightly perturbed at this when they both have every right in the world to be absolutely LIVID. Their like 15 year old daughter was out all night in the middle of a city-wide disaster with god knows how many casualties, without contacting them until dawn, and all they get is a text that tells them she’s going to her boyfriend’s house. Uh. Huh.
Also, while Ichigo does seem to be the only one who bothered checking in with family, she doesn’t ask if they’re okay. She just says she’ll be with her boyfriend.
We then see Moe and Miwa (I REMEMBERED THEIR NAMES! WHOO! Which is weird because they had even less to do in this series than the original…) Pudding’s siblings, which….I guess means no one’s watching Pudding’s siblings during all this, nice, and Zakuro’s filmographer friend. They’re all cheering on the Mew Mews.
And that’s it……..
Does anyone want to point out the saddest thing in damn world?
…..Where’s anyone who’s cheering for Lettuce?
We don’t get to know any of her family, so she doesn’t have that. She doesn’t seem to have friends outside of the Mews, so she doesn’t have that. They can’t even bother showing Shirogane saying anything (He is watching through Masha).
Literally no one is thinking about Lettuce right now. My girl is treated like shit.
When they arrive at the ship, they’re confronted by Pie and Tart who bring forth a Chimera Anima for them to fight. And….it’s just a resurrected version of the moth they fought before with cybernetic parts. And, of course, the other Mews get “We’ll handle this guy – you go on ahead, Main Character”’d by this thing, which is kinda lame but I guess we did need to get them away somehow.
The girls all give bonus notes of appreciation to Ichigo as they push her to leave.
Lettuce, it’s sweet to tell Ichigo that you’ve gained more confidence since you’ve met her, but from a writing standpoint it’s also weird to attribute you falling in love to her as well. In most other circumstances, this would be fine, but given that Lettuce is talking about Shirogane here, and Shirogane has deep feelings for Ichigo and, apparently, he doesn’t care enough about Lettuce specifically to even show concern about her well-being after Ichigo may very well have gotten them killed and they went missing for hours…….eh, it’s just weird.
Once Ichigo is convinced to leave, she faces off against Deep Blue at the door in front of….what I think might be their special tree or….at least A tree. Deep Blue keeps attacking her with electricity, and he’s about to cut her down with his sword, and Ichigo’s just…..doin’ nuthin’. Was Ichigo really going to allow herself to get killed within a minute of getting through the door? Yeah, ‘I won’t let your trust be in vain, my friends!’ *dies*
She’s not even trying to just protect herself. What is she doing?
I’ll stick with Ichigo’s storyline for the time being since it’s the main one and I don’t want to make a big gap with the other girls’ story.
Quiche comes in to protect her, no longer concerned with serving Deep Blue or getting his planet back. He only wants to protect Ichigo.
As Ichigo watches him fight Deep Blue for her, she remembers all the love declarations Quiche gave to her since she’s known him. Ichigo, sweetie, maybe help instead of stare. Do something instead of watching Quiche die—oh there he goes.
Quiche slowly dies in Ichigo’s arms, but the emotion of the moment is kinda undercut by him clearly gawking at her boobs the whole time. I guess it’s better than him snuggling her boobs like in the manga.
As Ichigo cries over Quiche’s dead body, Deep Blue starts struggling in pain. Not from any wounds, but because the trauma of this moment, seeing Ichigo cry, is pulling Aoyama to the forefront, as shown by his eyes changing to Aoyama’s brown. Aoyama is devastated at what he’s done, but Ichigo asserts that it wasn’t him, it was Deep Blue.
As Ichigo holds Aoyama, the blood from one of his wounds drips on the floor and causes plants to spring forth, indicating that the last of the Mew Aqua is in his body. I mistakenly said in my AniManga Clash of this part that this was his tears in the manga, but after I reviewed the panels, it’s clear that it’s his blood in the manga too. Sorry about that.
Aoyama reasons that, if the Mew Aqua is within him, killing him and using it will return everything to normal.
Unlike in the manga where he shifts back after holding Ichigo one last time before he tries to kill himself, instead, he tries to kill himself with a dagger first, which is what prompts Deep Blue to come back as self-preservation kicks in. I like this change because it didn’t make much sense that he would change the way he did in the manga. He did know he was planning on killing himself, but I think it’s more dramatic and impacting to have him attempt it and then have Deep Blue come forth to stop him.
The episode ends on Ichigo getting strangled by Deep Blue, but we still have to go over what the other girls are doing.
Now, there’s no way they could botch the manga’s version of this battle because that was probably the lamest excuse for a battle I’ve ever seen in anime/manga short of a parody. Like, it was only barely better than Tenten vs. Temari from Naruto….the manga version.
In the manga, the girls launch one attack in one panel, the blast happens in a very small panel – we can’t even get spreads for this – and then the next two small panels are Pie lamenting their defeat, the next two are Tart telling Pudding he never hated her, and then we just get the girls collapsing from exhaustion. It was pathetic and a testament to how the author really didn’t give a crap about the other Mews enough to properly give them their flowers at the end.
In the OG anime, the battle was longer and more drawn out. They couldn’t do much, but it was more entertaining, and the aliens got much longer and more sincere scenes after their defeat and death.
In New, they break off. Zakuro and Mint fight the Chimera Anima, Lettuce fights Pie, and Pudding fights Tart.
By far the best part is Zakuro and Mint. It’s the biggest and longest battle of the three. They have great chemistry, Zakuro is propping up Mint, following her lead and encouraging her, while Mint is still giving starry eyes to her queen but still is firmly in warrior mode.
I didn’t think we’d get even more from Mint as we reached the end of the series because they’d already given her so much more than I expected, but they actually give Mint ANOTHER ATTACK. A COMBO ONE AT THAT.
No non-Ichigo character ever gets more attacks (That aren’t just the Mew Aqua Bubbles thing) but I guess the writers just absolutely adore Mint. This attack involves Zakuro wrapping Mint up in her whip and then spinning her around rapidly, like Mint is a damn Beyblade, While spinning, Mint launches a volley of arrows. This attack is called the Mint Echo Spin, and it kinda kicks ass.
Together, they defeat the robo-moth, collapse, and unleash a flurry of feathers into the air that still fall as the other two battles go on.
Next, we get Lettuce and Pie’s much shorter battle. Lettuce gets one badass move and beats Pie in one attack, which Pie notes as being much more powerful than he calculated. Lettuce says it’s because they’re not fighting alone…..but like….they weren’t fighting alone before either. Lettuce collapses. However, Pie manages to gather enough strength to crawl to the wall and open the stairwell, hoping to get to Deep Blue.
Tart’s battle with Pudding is just as short but more emotional. Pudding doesn’t want to fight Tart and believes he’s truly a good person, but Tart is annoyed that she’s acting as if he has a choice. Tart struggles with summoning another bomb, and Pudding grabs his arm and hugs him, proclaiming that she loves him.
This took me off-guard for a bit, but then I remembered the various tiers of saying “I love you” in Japanese, which was easier to remember this time around because we hear two different characters say it in this episode.
When Quiche tells Ichigo he loves her, he says “Ai shiteru” which is definitively romantic. When Pudding says it, she says “Daisuki.” which is far more vague. It’s still the equivalent to love, but it can be platonic.
A very good breakdown about this on NihongoShark explained it in a much better way. It’s sorta like the difference between telling someone “I love you” and “I’m IN love with you.” When you tell someone you’re close to that you love them, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you romantically love them, but it could. It depends entirely on the context of your relationship. If you say that to someone you’re dating, it would definitely be taken romantically.
Pudding and Tart’s context is far more platonic at this point, but it could easily also be romantic. In the manga, there are definitely romantic feelings because she kisses him before he leaves. In the OG anime, it’s very vague because, while they did get ship tease and some sweet moments, nothing was overtly romantic.
I skipped ahead through the final episode, and I really think their relationship is just platonic in New. It’s still extremely vague, but they’re clearly not pushing that hard for them romantically in New. Plus, while Pudding is pretty open with her affections, I find it a bit farfetched for her to admit romantic love for Tart. I dunno, I just feel like they needed a bit more time together for them to get there. I guess they are just kids, though.
As a couple final notes, I mentioned Shirogane (And Akasaka) are watching what the Mews are doing through Masha. At the end of the episode, Masha also collapses in exhaustion for some reason. I don’t remember it doing anything or getting hit….I can say it maybe ran out of batteries, but I don’t know what Masha’s power source even is. Anyway, this means Shirogane and Akasaka can’t follow what they’re doing anymore.
The animation in this episode, at least with the slower scenes, is noticeably poorer than normal. That’s kinda odd given that this is the second to last episode, but….there it is. Eyeballs would change size along with shape when changing expression. You can clearly tell when only parts of a character are allowed to move. There was an especially weird moment where Quiche is shaking his hand back and forth and it’s clearly only keyframes. The actual fighting moments, especially with Zakuro and Mint, were perfectly fine. But they clearly either ran out of time or money with the less action-oriented parts.
Obviously, I am not complaining too much because the original series was an absolute mess in the animation department sometimes, so take this as just a note not a criticism.
Although, how did this shot not become a meme of any caliber?
Anyway, we have the finale coming up, so we’ll see if they fully stuck the landing with this reboot.
If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥
Plot: The Xiaolin Warriors are chasing the Serpent’s Tail through New York City. It’s a speedy Shen Gong Wu that can travel through anything. The only way they have to track it is by using the Falcon’s Eye.
Omi uses the Falcon’s Eye but winds up getting separated from the other monks as he chases it down.
Omi does his best to navigate the city, though many of the people be encounters are strange and aren’t of much help to him.
Omi stumbles upon three teenagers playing a game of basketball and goes to them for help, but they wind up trying to beat him up instead.
A young boy named Jermaine shows up and uses his basketball skills to help Omi and fend off the bullies. He and Omi hit it off, though Jermaine is confused when Omi tells him all about why he’s there and who he is.
The Xiaolin Warriors eventually meet back up with Omi, and Jack is right behind them. The Serpent’s Tail emerges, and Omi and Jack grab it at the same time. Jack challenges Omi to a Xiaolin Showdown for the Serpent’s Tail and says their game will be basketball. Omi can’t really play basketball, so Jermaine offers to help him. The only way Omi can accept is by Shen Yi Bu Dare – doubling up the bet to two Shen Gong Wu. Jack accepts with his transforming robot as his second.
It’s the Xiaolin’s Mantis Flip Coin and Falcon’s Eye for Jack’s Jetbootsu and Shroud of Shadows.
Their court rockets into the sky and shatters into a court where you can only safely step on the painted lines. Otherwise, you’ll fall into space. Jack has no issue because his Jetbootsu allow him to fly, and his robot is so big it would never fall through.
Jack and his robot quickly come out ahead, but with the Mantis Flip Coin, both Omi and Jermaine come back with a vengeance. As the timer runs out, Omi makes the winning shot. They have won the Jetbootsu, the Shroud of Shadows, and the Serpent’s Tail.
After the match concludes, Omi offers to have Jermaine join them in the temple to hone his skills since he clearly has so much potential. Jermaine politely declines stating that New York is his home, but he and Omi will always be friends. He offers his basketball as a parting gift, and the two bid each other farewell.
Breakdown: This one is a kinda strange episode. Not bad by any means – just strange.
Half the episode is mostly just Omi reacting to how odd and offputting the people in New York City are while the other monks and Jack chase after the Serpent’s Tail. A quarter of it is Omi bonding with Jermaine. And the final quarter is the Xiaolin Showdown.
Jermaine is a perfectly fine and cool character. He will be reappearing later down the line, but only once, oddly. I don’t know if they intended on making him a more prominent character or they just didn’t know what to do with him yet. We don’t learn much about him, is all, besides that he’s nice, cool, and plays basketball.
Jermaine is voiced by the late Lee Thompson Young. I looked at his Wiki page while watching this episode and, damn, it’s been 13 years since he passed….
He did a pretty good job with this character. I have no complaints.
The Serpent’s Tail is a cool Shen Gong Wu, but if it can travel through anything, living or otherwise, how’d it get caught at all?
Also, Dojo can turn into a train and have the monks travel INSIDE HIM!? EWWWWWWW!
That’s about all I have to say about this episode. The Xiaolin Monks are steadily replenishing their supply of Shen Gong Wu, which is good, and the monks have a new friend, which is also good.
Next time….
If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥
Character Debuts: Professor Ivy –
Oh, Brock, honey, we’re not there yet.
Professor Ivy is a Pokémon researcher specializing in the regional differences between Pokémon. It’s somewhat generous to put her in a Character Debut category instead of just a Character of the Day entry, but she does have a tiny bit of impact on the overall plot, given that Brock leaves the show temporarily to learn under her, so….here she is.
Pokémon: Well, she cares for a bunch of Pokémon but I’d be hard-pressed to say she owns any of them.
CotD(s): Ivy’s Assistants – I guess I’ll note them here. Ivy has three research assistants. They’re triplets, and they’re never officially named in the show, but supplementary material says their names are Charity, Faith, and Hope. They’re good at research, bad at housework, but they’re very much dedicated to Professor Ivy and Pokémon.
Reappear?: Technically, no.
Pokémon: None.
Character Departures (Temporary): Brock leaves us in this episode. I’m not going to give a big goodbye here because he will come back and stay for a long, long time once Johto starts, but it will be a bummer to have him gone for the entire season.
Plot: Ash, Misty, and Brock have arrived on Valencia Island to meet with Professor Ivy to get the mysterious Pokeball. Problem is, they have no idea where Ivy’s lab is located. They go into a nearby Pokémon Center to get directions and meet a Nurse Joy. She kindly gives them directions to Ivy’s lab, and they head there.
Out from a door in the floor of the lab emerges a set of triplets. They are Professor Ivy’s assistants, and they direct the group to Ivy.
As they walk to where she supposedly is, a Gyarados pops out of the water, scaring the three. But it turns out to be a Gyarados in Ivy’s care, and it’s perfectly docile. When the triplets tell her about why Ash and the gang are there, she rides the Gyarados to shore to meet them.
At the lab, they show Ash, Misty, and Brock the GS Ball – called as such because it seems to have the letters “GS” engraved on the front. It’s also half gold and half silver. They demonstrate their inability to transport the ball through the Pokeball transport system. They also note that they’ve tried everything they can think of to open the ball to no avail. Ivy wishes she could unlock the secrets of the GS Ball, but she has faith Oak can do it in her stead.
Ash calls Oak to update him on the situation and explain that they’re heading back with the ball.
Meanwhile, Team Rocket laments the destruction of their blimp. Jessie prods them to get to work fixing it so they can have a second chance at getting Pikachu as Ash and co. leave for Pallet.
Back with Ivy, she shows Ash, Misty, and Brock around the wooded area surrounding their lab. She needs all this natural space for all the Pokémon they study, breed, and care for. They note that the Pokémon on the island look a little different from the ones they see back home. Ivy explains that their different appearance makes perfect sense because the climate (and other factors, I imagine, like vegetation) would cause changes in biology such as darker colors and different patterns.
Ivy’s assistants bring out dinner for all the Pokémon, but a Butterfree refuses to eat. They’ve tried adjusting its food several times, ensuring it has the proper nutrients each time, but it won’t budge. Brock, curious, and to the shock of Ivy and her assistants, eats a piece of the food to test it out. After eating it, Brock runs off to get something.
When he returns, he has a plate of ingredients, a bowl, and a pestle. He starts grounding up some ingredients and explains that, when it comes to mixing Pokémon food, nutrients aren’t the most important factor. They want food that tastes good.
Brock sprinkles his concoction over the Butterfree’s food, and it rushes down to gobble it up. Brock explains that Butterfree like sweet stuff, so putting some mushed berries in their food helps them eat better. Ivy and her assistants are very impressed by Brock’s skills in formulating Pokémon food.
The group announces that it’s also time for their dinner, but they have to debate on who has to cook. At their house, Ash, Misty, and Brock are shocked to find the place as an absolute wreck. They’re so busy with Pokémon research all the time that they just let the house go to shambles. The dishes are stacked up, there’s trash everywhere, and it’s clear none of them can cook well.
Brock, spurred by this horrific mess, dons his apron and rushes around cleaning the whole house spotlessly while also cooking a feast for dinner. Ivy and her assistants are ecstatic about the meal and the clean house. Brock admires the sight of everyone happily eating after he’s cleaned since it reminds him of home.
That night, Brock brings Ivy and her assistants a midnight snack as they observe some Vileplume spreading their pollen around at night to deter other Pokémon from entering their territory.
Suddenly, a Raticate jumps into the area where the Vileplume are spreading their pollen. The pollen has a Stun Spore or poison-like effect on the Raticate, so Ivy jumps into action to get it away, causing her to be affected by the pollen as well.
Brock gets her and the Raticate to safety.
At the Pokémon Center, Joy treats Ivy and the Raticate. Both will be fine with some rest. Brock looks on with admiration of Ivy’s acts and how much she and her assistants care for each other.
The next morning, Misty and Ash tell Ivy that they’re heading back to Pallet to give the GS Ball to Oak. Brock is oddly missing, but then they see him and his Pokémon doing work on the lab and house. Brock has, shockingly, chosen to stay there with Ivy and the others, stating that he can learn a lot more about Pokémon if he stays there, and he believes the people and Pokémon there need him more than Ash and Misty do.
Ash and Misty are bummed he won’t be joining them anymore, but they fully understand his decision. They bit him farewell and leave but wonder how they’re even going to get back since the blimp they rode in on was destroyed (and captained by Team Rocket.) They arrive at the airfield, finding a totally new blimp sitting there. A crew hastily takes their tickets and pushes them onboard.
They depart, but the crew soon reveals that they’re Team Rocket in disguise. They trap Ash and Misty in a giant cage and demand Pikachu. Ash tries to command Pikachu to attack, but they tell him attacking would be foolish since it would cause the gas in the blimp to ignite and explode.
It seems they’re all out of options, at least options that don’t require more than a single brain cell, but then Jigglypuff shows up out of the blue. It starts singing, lulling everyone onboard to sleep. Team Rocket dons parachutes and opens the emergency hatch to escape, taking Jigglypuff with them on accident.
Meanwhile, Ash and Misty are left on the blimp, asleep, with no pilot controlling the blimp.
Can they wake up before they crash into the ocean and drown? Or does their journey end here?
———————————
– Oak didn’t tell them exactly where to find Ivy?
– Nurse Joy: “I’m the second cousin of the sister-in-law of the Joy in Saffron City.” You’re related to a sister-in-law of a Joy? So you’re not blood related? How the heck?
– Was the part with Joy just a waste of time or did they want to take a second out to establish that there are Nurse Joys in the Orange Islands? Because that seems unnecessary.
– Why is there a door in the floor of this lab that matches the rest of the floor so well? I wouldn’t really ask if they didn’t smack Pikachu across the room when they opened it.
– Ash: “You see that? I wish I could train my Charizard the way she trained her Gyarados.” I wonder what her secret is. Maybe it’s doing literally any fucking training whatsoever with it. Hmmmmmmmm.
– Brock: “I wish she’d train me!” Okay, keep it in your pants, Brock.
– Ivy: “Well, there’s the Pokeball.”
So…..we finally meet again, you little bastard.
…Oh, I’m sorry. I’m so rude. Let me introduce everyone to the GS Ball, the Pokeball that will haunt me for the next 92 episodes.
I am…unreasonably annoyed by this thing’s simple existence for two reasons. They kept acting like this Pokeball would hold some amazing secret of the Pokémon world. That possibly some Legendary Pokémon was inside of it. We spend 92 episodes with this thing hanging over the narrative, and they do absolutely fuck all with it.
Years down the line, in 2008, an interview between Water Pokémon Master (Jon) from Pokebeach and Masamitsu Hidaka (the, at the time, storyboard artist and previous director of the Pokémon anime) revealed that, yes, there was supposed to be a storyline where they reveal what was in the GS Ball. Specifically, like in the games, the GS Ball would be revealed to contain Celebi (In the games, it summoned Celebi, but same difference). In fact, it’s implied that Celebi would have been with Ash and co. for some amount of time, and that story was more important than the GS Ball.
However, they opted instead to save Celebi for the fourth movie, meaning the GS Ball basically had no point anymore. They didn’t know what else to do with the ball if Celebi was off the table, so they just amputated that plot device from the series by leaving it with Kurt and hoped fans would forget about it.
I have nothing against Mr. Hidaka, and, as the interviewer states, this was likely just poor planning on the writers’ part…..but I am still so baffled that they built this up for so many episodes and then just dropped it and hoped the audience would forget about it. For all I know, quite a few did.
I didn’t.
For as long as I still watched Pokémon regularly as a kid, I would still randomly get reminded of the GS Ball, especially since I’d watch old episodes all the time, and wonder what the hell happened there. Once upon a time, I even mused that maybe the GS Ball’s fate was another victim of a banned episode or something. The fact that they couldn’t just come up with something, literally anything, to replace Celebi’s planned storyline and just assumed kids would forget about the GS Ball is lazy and insulting to the audience.
Wanna hear something even funnier?
4Kids didn’t forget either!
In Johto League Champions, which debuts a few episodes after the GS Ball is dropped into the Shadow Realm/given to Kurt, 4Kids added a little detail to every episode. Apparently, 4Kids was into the GS Ball storyline, because guess what they put on every single title card of that season? A GS Ball in three of the corners…
Admittedly, I’m kinda exaggerating my reaction to it now. I made my peace with it on my other rewatch where I’m much further ahead. And, if anything, I was most pissed that they just said they dropped it assuming kids would forget than I was that they dropped it in the first place.
I could have just accepted that the GS Ball was a mysterious item that doesn’t get solved in the time frame of the series. There are plenty of mysteries in the world where we’ve been unable to unlock the meaning of an artifact for many years – some are still mysteries to this day. It would be disappointing to not know what the purpose was of the GS Ball, but I’d get it.
The fact that they purposefully dropped it and just banked on kids forgetting it struck a chord with me. I mean, hell, you could have put the GS Ball IN the fourth movie….somehow, and, bam, you’re done. But just “Nope, we’re intentionally abandoning this plot device. We have created….a MACGUFFIN!”
Some other things I learned from that interview that I don’t know if I’d ever be able to bring up anywhere else:
– Ivy could have been Brock’s soulmate if they opted to keep him gone…..Which is…concerning because she’s clearly an adult in like her late 20s at the absolute best, and Brock is 15…..
– The reason they more often switched out girls instead of guys in the show was both because they wanted to keep Brock around and “they like to switch up the girls because it gives the boys some new eye candy every once in a while. He also said girls are more customizable and you can change their outfits, like when they are in their bathing suits.”……………………Fucking hell, just when you think Al Khan is the only gross man on a 4Kids show concerned with giving little boys eye candy.
Also, what, do guys just never change their clothes?
– Interestingly, we got some information about soundtrack usage. Hidaka said that all Japanese music, anime or otherwise, is controlled by a group called JASRAC (The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers). The usage of any Japanese music outside of Japan has to go through them. It’s a bit vague, but 4Kids did have the rights to use some of the music, but not all of it, especially the lyrical music. To acquire the rights would be a costly, complicated, and long process, so 4Kids probably thought they’d save themselves the headaches and just make their own soundtrack from scratch.
Now…..I believe and understand this, and I will fully eat crow for any time I’ve dumped on 4Kids for replacing music when they seemingly don’t have to…..but….it is odd that they started using more and more of the original soundtracks as time went on, especially in the movies. Hidaka says that for movies 4-8, they must have secured some sort of deal to have more freedom with the soundtrack usage.
4Kids definitely would have thought twice to secure the rights on season one. They were still just starting out, and the explosion in popularity that would come was likely after they had already done a lot of the work on the dub, perhaps even finished the season.
Note that they started using more of the original soundtracks after the boom of Pokémon popularity was starting to die down. So they opted to spend more time, money, and effort on obtaining the original soundtracks, again, barring the lyrical songs, right as they were making much less money on it?
I imagine part of why they didn’t immediately shift to the original soundtracks for the Orange Islands onward is because they were worried about alienating audience members who were accustomed to the soundtracks they were already making……Plus, ya know, they still make more money that way by selling their own OSTs. But then they shift anyway as interest is waning?
I don’t fully get it, but this does shine more light on the issue. I have copy/pasted this new information into my 4Kids Retrospective as an update.
– When asked if Ash would ever become a Pokémon Master, he laughed and said the show would end if that ever happened.
– When asked if Ash and Pikachu would ever be replaced, he said no. Well, that did happen. Being fair, this was still 2008, so I imagine he was like the rest of Pokémon’s audience where the idea of losing Ash and Pikachu seemed ludicrous. Hell, even when it happened it was hard to process that they’d bite that bullet.
– When asked if Ash and friends would ever age, he said no. This is still yet to be seen. Like I said, if anything, he seemed to get younger as time went on. I’m still holding out hope that one day we’ll get either a flashforward or just an updated view on Ash having actually aged in real time since his final episode. I want to see older more mature Ash like taking on the protagonist of the series at the moment or something. That’d be so cool.
…..I do worry, though, because it seems like when anime like these do jump ahead a bit and show the main character cameoing in a new series or something they’re either not changed at all or they’re clearly a bit older but they won’t show their full faces.
– I checked out the other interview they had with Hidaka before this one for more info. He said:
Bear in mind, some of this information could be a little inaccurate anyway. This interview was given with several translators acting as mediators giving summarized responses of what Hidaka was saying, so a transcript wasn’t in the cards. But still, these were very interesting interviews. I’m glad I read them.
By the way, Pokebeach is still going strong even today. That’s pretty damn cool.
….Oh my god, I got so far off topic…….Screw the GS Ball. The end.
– Wait….so in Ivy’s conversations with Oak, she never once either showed him the ball on the video phone or even mentioned that she named it the GS Ball?
– Jessie: “Before long, we’ll have our fly trap ready for that Pikachu!” Okay, that was definitely some of their best wordplay.
– While we don’t get to see many Orange Island variants, it is very interesting to see a beta version of sorts of how Pokémon eventually would commit to having regional variants.
….Although, I love how, for most of them, the differences are really just that they’re darker colored.
– Why weren’t the Gyarados and other Water Pokémon variants, though?
– That Orange Island variant Butterfree is absolutely adorable.
– Brock: “I found out that when a Pokémon decides to eat something, the most important thing isn’t how nutritious the food is.”
Assistant: “Huh?”
Brock: “They care about the taste. Pokémon like food that tastes good to them.”
I gotta say….most of the dumb moments in this series are rightfully attributed to Ash, but this one is like a top ten dumbest scenes in Pokémon moment.
Pokémon like food that TASTES GOOD?!
Holy shit, you’re a genius, Brock!
The fact that these PROFESSIONAL POKEMON RESEARCHERS needed to be told that maybe the reason a Pokémon isn’t eating their food is because it doesn’t taste good to them is baffling. Ivy’s a moron.
I love how he says he “found out” that Pokémon like food that tastes good, like it’s some groundbreaking discovery. I felt so embarrassed writing out that part of the summary with a straight laced tone. Geez.
– Ivy: “Well, flavor is a factor, but how can you determine what flavors each Pokémon likes?” The same way anyone would do with any animal – trial and error. My old dog, Skye, was ridiculously uninterested in food. But we found out she liked peas simply because we kept trying more things with her to get her to eat. One day, we had some leftover peas at dinner time, put the bowl on the floor, and she surprisingly loved it.
It’s also the same with human babies. You can’t know what they like either, so you try different baby foods with them to gauge their reactions and then adjust their diets accordingly. It’s not that hard.
-….Brock….did you put confetti on that Butterfree’s food?
– Assistants and Ivy: *after Butterfree happily eats Brock’s adjusted food* *GASP!* “Wow!”
Ivy: “That’s simply amazing.” You’re all idiots.
Although, I definitely will give Brock his props. The man knows his Pokémon food.
– Brock: “I noticed that Butterfree like sweet things, so if you add some mushed up berries to their food, they’ll eat it up every time.” Mushed up berries?
Wha—How is….what….mushed….that doesn’t look like…..eh whatever.
– Ivy: “I’m embarrassed to call myself a Pokémon Researcher when you’re the one who seems to know a lot more about Pokémon feeding habits.” You should be.
And, honestly, not just because she’s a Pokémon Researcher. Bear in mind, she bred and raised all these Pokémon herself. How do you do that without knowing Pokémon like food that tastes good?
– Ash: “He’s gonna be the world’s greatest breeder!” POKEMON BREEDER! PLEASE ALWAYS ADD “POKEMON” TO THAT TITLE, PEOPLE!
– Ivy: “Ah, a breeder….” POKEMON BREEDER!……I KNOW IT STILL SOUNDS BAD, BUT NOT NEARLY AS BAD AS JUST “BREEDER!”
….AND DON’T SAY IT LIKE THAT!
– Lapras is the Who’s That Pokémon today! N’awwww!
….Although, the sound it makes here is a lot different from how it’s supposed to sound.
– Okay, so they stopped cleaning their house because they got so busy, but the lab itself is pristine?
– Ivy: “Let’s thank Brock!”
Assistants: “LATER! LET’S EAT!” No…You thank Brock now. 😡
– It is interesting that Brock’s motivations for his decision later aren’t just that he admires Ivy and has an opportunity to learn more about Pokémon, but also that being there with her and the triplets, taking care of the house and cooking, reminds him of home. Kinda sweet.
– Ivy: *in reference to Vileplume* “They’re nocturnal Pokémon…” ….No they’re not. And if you wanted to say that, why did you show one awake during the day?
– Ash: *sarcastically* “I’m glad they came and woke us up….”
Misty: *sarcastically* “Good thing we didn’t sleep through this….”
You guys suck.
A Raticate and Ivy got hurt, nearly died….I guess, and you’re all “You woke me up for this?”
– Starts fixing up stuff around the house…..Allows his Onix to travel over a polished tile floor.
– This actually isn’t a bad goodbye for Brock, if it was to be his final goodbye. He found a place where he really feels like he belongs, and his decision is only slightly based on him liking Ivy…..Actually, he didn’t lust over Ivy nearly as much as I thought I remembered him doing. When she’s first introduced, he’s pretty thirsty, but he’s entirely chill after that.
They even showed all of Brock’s Pokémon saying goodbye. I’m not sure any other departure has that.
….But, I do think he should have had a one-on-one goodbye with Misty, too….
– Okay, I guess Ash wanted to one-up the earlier stupid moment by pointing out he still had tickets for the blimp ride back home…And, look, I get that they were setting up the joke where, haha, Ash is like “The food was bad, and they didn’t show a movie.” as if the main issue wasn’t that the blimp both crashed and was piloted by Team Rocket, but still, that’s a little too stupid.
– WHAT THE SHIT!? Okay, I was fully prepared to believe Team Rocket could fix the blimp in one day, it’s cartoon and Team Rocket logic…..but that is just a straight up different blimp. These three are engineering geniuses when they put their minds to it. Holy crap.
– Of course they still don’t recognize Team Rocket is the crew of this one. Though I won’t get on their cases too much given that they get pushed onboard the blimp.
– I love how James’ response to Ash asking if the blimp is safe is “It’s safe enough, kid. What, do you want to live forever?”
– Hi, Jigglypuff.
*gets blown away*
Bye, Jigglypuff.
*reappears on the blimp somehow*
*sigh* Hi. Jigglypuff.
– Aw, they made a little seat for Pikachu.
– Ash: “Hey! WHERE’S OUR FOOD!” Geez, you’re a pushy little brat.
– Ash: *as Team Rocket reveals themselves* “It’s them!” *sigh*
– I love how Misty doesn’t even stand up after being trapped in a cage and Team Rocket reveals themselves. Like she’s so done.
– The Ash and Misty ship teasing Team Rocket throws in there near the end has stuck with me through the years. As a young shipper, you cherish all the crumbs.
– Today on “Ash Forgets He Has Other Pokémon Besides Pikachu”…..
– And today on “Misty Forgets She Has Pokémon Period”….
————————-
This is a pretty good episode. It was a decent enough sendoff to Brock, especially given how much they highlight all his good traits, and Ivy and her assistants are likable. I don’t much care for the reason why Brock got bumped off the show but he came back eventually, and that’s all that matters.
I don’t really feel like jabbering on about the GS Ball anymore.
The ending was thrilling because it’s actually scary as hell to imagine being on a blimp over the ocean without a pilot while the only people onboard are asleep. Granted, the steps leading up to that were stupid, but what can you do?….Not be stupid?…Come on.
Next time, we see if Ash and Misty drown in a horrific blimp accident. Also, LAPRAS!!!! WHOOO!! LAPRAS!
…..And Tracey’s there too.
If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥
Plot: 8A – “Real or Robots?”: After watching a scary movie, Tommy begins to believe his father is a robot. He and Chuckie decide to do what they can to prove it.
8B – “Special Delivery”: Tommy believes a new baby is coming in the mail when Stu orders a Tina Trousers doll to compare to his prototype, Patty Pants.
Breakdown: 8A – Watching old episodes of shows I used to be obsessed with is so funny sometimes. Because I didn’t remember too much about this episode, mostly vague “Oh yeah”s until Tommy broke out his tool chest and I said way too loudly “Oh no! This is the episode where Tommy wrenches his father’s nipples!” And, yup, it is.
Can I just give a big round of applause to Stu’s voice actor, Jack Riley, rest in peace, for his work in this episode? He is hilarious as sleepy Stu.
There’s not much else to note about this episode. It’s a perfectly serviceable episode where Tommy and Chuckie let their imaginations run wild again. It was pretty sweet that Tommy decided his dad wasn’t a robot just based on the fact that his dad said sweet stuff about him when he thought he was asleep in his crib, though.
There is one small note – in this episode, Stu tells Chuckie that his mom and dad will pick him up in the morning. As we now know, Chuckie’s dad is a widower, and she definitely died before this point, but the writers hadn’t established that as part of his character yet. I do remember being so obsessed with this show as a kid that even I nitpicked this when I would watch it back later.
8B – This episode is a very cut and dry “Tommy causes shenanigans in (place)” episode. The other babies appear, but only for one scene.
Once again, Chuckie mentions his mother when he shouldn’t have one, and, oddly, Phil and Lil mention that their parents are also considering getting a baby from a stork, which isn’t mentioned in the trivia page of this episode, but this has to be Betty and Howard either thinking Betty is pregnant or were at one point planning to be…..either that or they were literally ordering a baby doll, but I don’t know why Phil or Lil would known about the stork otherwise.
It’s a pretty bland episode, to be honest…..and it really seems to hate mailmen or anyone who works at the post office because no one here is painted in a good light, and they even show the skeleton of a mailman at the bottom of one of the chutes.
Parenting Fails
8A – Eh, nothing really to note here. Maybe I’d ding it for Tommy and Chuckie watching a scary movie, but Stu does catch them and turn it off immediately.
Didi also doesn’t hear two small children screaming in her room, but she has a pillow over her ears, presumably because Stu snores, so maybe I can forgive that.
8B – Stu doesn’t notice Tommy has jumped into the mailman’s bag, which I’m going to ding even harder because they show the mailman just getting mauled by a succession of dogs at each house he visits. +5
Stu, Didi, and Lou never realize Tommy’s missing despite being gone for, I’ll say…..at least a half hour given that Stu waited in line at the post office. +1
Stu doesn’t see his son in the box with Tina Trousers. There is no way in hell there was enough room in that box for him to not be visible. +1
Tally: 7
Next Episode….
….Previous Episode
If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥
Well, we’re here. We’re at THE moment. If you know Tokyo Mew Mew or at least my reviews on it, you know what I’m talking about.
TMM has had several moments that have rubbed me the wrong way, but usually these issues were disappointments or missed opportunities like how the girls seemed like nothing but props instead of close friends in the manga or how the original anime never gave the other girls their time to shine with the Mew Aqua.
Few things actually made me mad, outside the 4Kids version, but one moment stood out in each version.
After Ichigo learns that Aoyama was really Deep Blue, leader of their mortal enemies, she goes into a state of shock. She can no longer fight. She can barely move. She’s completely out of it. Her friends have no choice but to fight Deep Blue and, in turn, Aoyama, themselves.
In the original anime, Ichigo was reckless and put herself in harm’s way to convince Aoyama to snap out of it and return to her. She really thought it was all just some terrible dream they’d wake up from. She approached him because she didn’t want her injured friends to get further involved.
Her friends all knew she was out of her gourd at this moment, but they also knew how devastating this was for her and knew she had to get out one final effort to call out to Aoyama. They vehemently tell her not to, but Ichigo insists. When Deep Blue, not giving a damn about Ichigo’s smiling face, attacks, the girls jump in front of her and take the brunt of the attack themselves.
Now, I mentioned in my review of this episode that, while I was agitated by this scene because Ichigo was putting her friends in danger, I also fully understood her actions here. Ichigo is emotionally and mentally checked out. She’s respecting that her friends are getting hurt and tells them that she doesn’t want them to fight anymore, which is why she goes out there alone. Despite everyone’s warnings, she doesn’t register at all that Aoyama is now Deep Blue. She still believes Aoyama is in there. And Aoyama would never hurt her, let alone try to kill her.
So when Deep Blue launches a massive attack her way, the girls have no choice but to shield her because she’s not in a state to shield herself and would likely die taking that attack alone. The attack is so powerful that not only does it blast all four of the other Mews back like 100 feet into a gate, but it also de-transforms them all. The girls are wounded and exhausted as a result.
Ichigo runs back to her friends, horrified at what she’s done. When she rushes to Mint’s side specifically, Mint slaps her in the face to get her to wake up. Mint tells her she’s acting like a spoiled child and that the Ichigo she knows always tries her hardest. The other girls also give her a pep talk to finally get her to stand up and fight, even if she still believes Aoyama is in there somewhere.
This, especially when faced with the alternative, which we’ll get to in a minute, was perfectly fine to me. I even rewatched that scene to refresh my memory, and I’m even less annoyed by it than I was before. It’s a perfectly fine scene.
In the manga…..eurgh.
I got pretty damn mad at the manga’s version of this scene. Much of it goes the same way. Ichigo is devastated and in a state of complete shock after the Deep Blue reveal. She can’t fight, so the girls have to run into battle without her.
However, unlike in the original anime version, Ichigo stands in front of Deep Blue to shield him from their attacks. But…not only that…in order to get them to stop fighting….Ichigo attacks her friends. A big blast right in their collective faces.
This pissed me off so much. Not only because she consciously and willingly attacked her friends, but also because she did it to protect Deep Blue. Like I mentioned in that review, I thought Ichigo would just jump in the middle of the attacks to prevent everyone from getting hurt. But no. She cared more about Aoyama than her friends and only shielded him and fought them off.
Even if she really did believe this was a nightmare, she still did that. She still made that choice.
BEING FAIR, she did immediately regret what she did, and Mint also slapped her in the manga version to wake her up to the reality of what was happening, but the fact that Ichigo attacked her friends at all, let alone to the magnitude that she did – they were sprawled out on the ground and choking after the attack – made me lose respect for her as a character.
It was only exacerbated by the fact that the girls had so little to do in the manga that I didn’t really feel much when she regretted her actions or when Mint slapped her. They were going for something emotionally impacting with characters we barely knew or bonded with.
Considering New has improved upon both the original anime and the manga in so many ways, what do you think they did here in the reboot? Did they go the way of the manga, the original anime, or did they do something entirely different?
…..They went with the manga.
Now hold on, hold on, hold on. I had a snap reaction when I peeked into this episode after the last review. I didn’t get mad, but I did get disappointed, because I immediately thought they had fumbled the ball right as they were reaching the end. I was so impressed and enjoying the show so much. Of course they would do something foolish to ruin my experience. It’s happened with so many other shows.
But once I actually watched the episode full out, I changed my tune……buuuuutttt…….Hmm.
Here’s New’s version of this scene.
Like in the other versions, Ichigo believes this has to be a nightmare. She can’t believe that Aoyama is Deep Blue nor that the girls are fighting Aoyama. They combine their attacks to give a massive blow to Deep Blue, but Ichigo stops the attack. She splays her arms out in defense of Deep Blue. And in a surge of rage, she screams that he’s Aoyama so don’t hurt him.
She unleashes an incredibly powerful attack at the girls, knocking them all unconscious. Ichigo immediately realizes her grave error and cries out in devastation at what she’s done. However, unlike in the other versions, Ichigo does not run to the girls, nor does this lead into Mint slapping Ichigo and them giving her a pep talk. In fact, she backs away from the scene only to turn and see Deep Blue.
Like in the manga, when he realizes Ichigo is about to be killed by Deep Blue, Quiche interferes and asks Deep Blue to allow him to take care of Ichigo because she’s different. Deep Blue does not acknowledge Quiche’s request and says he’ll take down all who oppose him. (Later, Quiche earns back favor with Deep Blue by explaining that it was his plan that woke Deep Blue up in the first place.)
However, unlike in the manga, this does not lead into an Ichigo vs. Deep Blue fight. Ichigo’s about to be killed by the blast, but Ryo, in cat form, pushes Ichigo out of the way, which did happen in the manga. He gets wounded in the side in the process, which technically happened in the manga. He got hurt in the arm there.
The blast is so powerful it basically cracks the city in quarters. There’s a massive crater in the ground, buildings fall down, magma shoots from the ground, many people had to have died, but this is Tokyo Mew Mew so probably not.
Before the shockwave even ends, Quiche and Tart have to stare at Ichigo and Pudding as they fall into the rubble, knowing they can’t save them or oppose Deep Blue.
That night, when the dust has settled, Ryo transforms back and tries to carry an unconscious Ichigo back to Café Mew Mew. The other Mews are shown to have survived, and they’re all de-transformed. They’re also not where Ichigo and Ryo are. I kinda think they shouldn’t have shown them alive until later, but whatever.
Ichigo’s phone falls out of her pocket, and she sees the custom-made phone case the girls made for her with all of their faces on the back. Ichigo cries and says she’s horrible for attacking them.
As Ichigo cries, Ryo laments that he’s responsible for her pain and tears. He made that his responsibility when he pushed that button and made them all Mew Mews. He wouldn’t blame her if she screamed at him or hated him. He winces as his wound bleeds more heavily and says this pain is nothing compared to what she’s had to endure.
Okay, I was getting on board with this until this moment.
Sure, it’s understandable to feel bad for Ichigo for finding out Aoyama was Deep Blue. But….why is he not thinking even a little of the other Mews? Why does he not care that she quite possibly caused their deaths? Remember, he doesn’t know if they’re still alive. They’re not where Ryo and Ichigo landed. Also, hate to be that person, but it’s very possible that he got hurt because of Ichigo, too. If the other girls weren’t unconscious because she attacked them he wouldn’t have had to push her out of the way of that beam.
I know Ryo loves Ichigo, and it’s understandable for him to have a bit of self-loathing in this situation as well, and I’m definitely not saying he should be yelling at her or even commenting out loud about her attacking the other Mews. But…not even a passing thought in his head about that? No “She attacked the other Mews?” No “Are the other girls alive?” Just pitying poor Ichigo.
Also, his internal speech here is technically in the manga, at least part of it. There, it was actually a tiny bit better. Ryo says his pain is nothing because he was the one who got them all involved in the Mew project. Also, this happened after Mint slapped sense into her, and they’re still close by, so he knew they were alive and conscious.
I don’t care for that change is all.
Ryo and Ichigo get to Café Mew Mew, but the place is destroyed. Ryo thinks the worst has happened to Keiichiro for a minute before he calls out to them in front of a makeshift tea brewing set as he had promised to make tea for them upon their return.
Ichigo is still completely out of it. Ryo has no idea what to say to her.
The other Mews stumble their way back from where they were, which seems to have been far away from each other, and arrive at the café. Keiichiro greets them….a bit too casually. Did Ryo not tell him that they were all downed by Ichigo’s attack before Deep Blue even cracked the city into pieces? For all they knew, they were dead. Also……do any of you want to check on your families?
They all quietly drink their tea. Some of them are eyeing Ichigo, who is sitting away from all of them with her back turned. Mint suddenly stands and approaches Ichigo as the other girls all watch. Mint tries to get her to snap out of it and join them. She pulls Ichigo to the table by her arm. When they greet her, she’s haunted by flashes of them on the ground after her attack.
She quickly frees her arm and turns away in shame. Mint knows this is about her attacking them, and then she says “Anyone would have acted out if that happened to the person they loved.”
No.
They.
Wouldn’t.
Don’t normalize what she did. Ichigo is the most powerful Mew. I may not like that favoritism, but it’s true. She easily batted away the full force of their combined attack and blew them all away with one attack of her own. She SHOULD feel like shit for a while for doing what she did. She SHOULDN’T be told that such a reaction is understandable and fine.
Mint doubles down and even says she would have done the same thing.
Now here’s where translation might trip me up. Mint’s speech to Ichigo after she finally slaps her is almost the same as the manga version, but there’s a key difference here, at least in the translation I read.
Mint says she knows this is hard for Ichigo in the manga, which is more indication that she’s talking about Ichigo struggling with the Deep Blue revelation and Aoyama.
In New, she says she knows that it’s terrible, but they can’t keep sulking forever. That can either imply she’s talking about the general situation they’re in, as in the city being half demolished and only having 24 hours to save the world (I forgot to mention. Deep Blue’s super laser will destroy the world in 24 hours. Basically, it’s going to pierce the Earth from one end to another and reshape all the continents back to what they were when the aliens lived there, essentially killing all of humanity.) OR the fact that they acknowledge that what Ichigo did was terrible, they are hurt by it, but they don’t have time to wallow in that.
I…..THINK it’s the latter. I choose to assume it’s the latter because it makes me feel just a little better.
Ichigo bursts into a gut-wrenching cry and runs into Mint’s arms. Mint comforts her as she cries herself and encourages her to do so since crying is good.
The other Mews start to cry and join in their hug. Ichigo apologizes to everyone as she cries. Great.
Zakuro says it wasn’t her fault…..Yes, it was.
Lettuce agrees, I don’t.
Pudding says she feels very bad for Ichigo, and I….okay I’m not going to say I don’t feel bad for Ichigo, but come on. All you had to say was “It’s alright.” or Lettuce’s follow-up comment “It doesn’t matter.” alone, or even “We forgive you.” Why do we have to wipe away her culpability?
I will say that, if this scene from the manga absolutely had to happen, I’d much rather it be the way New did it than the way it was in the manga. There, Ichigo never apologizes, and the event is over and done with in like six pages. In New, it’s given much more time to breathe. Ichigo clearly feels awful about what she did and can’t stand to even look at her friends afterward. She gives an extremely heartfelt apology, and they all have a well-earned cry about it.
I still think there are numerous ways this could have been improved upon, and you could certainly argue that I’m being too harsh on Ichigo, but New did make this part of the story quite a bit better. If the manga was an F in this part, New was a B-. The original anime’s version I’d probably give a C. It was definitely better than the manga, but New had more emotional impact because the audience was allowed to connect with the other Mews more over the series, and it had more time to reflect on what happened.
As the Mews collect themselves, Ichigo thanks them all. Then the conversation shifts to what they can do now. If they don’t do anything, everyone will die. But Lettuce brings up a moral quandary – the aliens were here first. Doesn’t that mean humanity is in the wrong?
Uhmm….That’s a gray area. The humans didn’t kick the aliens out of their planet. They left, humanity just happened probably….I dunno thousands or millions of years later, and, yes, we suck, we’re destroying the planet, but we had nothing to do with them leaving, and, I don’t feel this is a controversial thing to say – nothing justifies genocide.
Anyway, immediately following Lettuce’s query, Ryo passes out because he’s an idiot who never got any medical attention for his dripping gut wound.
Keiichiro patches him up, and Ryo gives the same speech from the manga about how he’s responsible for dragging them all into the Mew Project. Oh, so…why even do the internal speech from earlier?
He also finishes the manga speech (while also adding in an apology to all of them) saying they’re the only ones who can fix this. The Earth chose them to protect it. As another minor fix-it to the manga (and the original anime that was just blatant Ichigo favoritism), he addresses all the Mews by name instead of singling out Ichigo when he says they’re the only ones who can save the world.
Ichigo is filled with a new resolve. She says she wants to protect the planet and everyone on it. Aoyama will understand because he loves the planet too. Ichigo is adamant in getting Aoyama back. She doesn’t know how, but she’s going to.
Everyone else gets a second wind at Ichigo’s speech. Lettuce even surmises that they can reason with the aliens since they have feelings too. Mint also has a nice moment with Ichigo during all this.
Masha detects the last fragment of Mew Aqua left on Earth, and it’s high in the sky. If they can get it before the aliens, they have a fighting chance.
Ichigo calls for all the Mews to loan her their power. They do, and they all get angel wings.
No, it doesn’t make sense. No, I don’t know how she knew she could do that. But it happened in the manga, so I guess that’s justification enough for them to write this in.
Actually, no, I ranted about this in the manga review, so I’ll keep it here – why the hell does Ichigo suddenly have angel wing powers? They were more like butterfly wings in the manga, but still, what does that have to do with a cat or a strawberry?
Also…..why does Mint need those wings? She can already fly….and she already has wings.
Also also, how does it make sense that they get an extra ability by combining their powers….and then dispersing them amongst each other again?….
Also also also, being entirely fair, in the manga, it seems more like only Ichigo got wings, but she picked up her friends with them to fly with her. At least in this version they all get wings to fly separately.
The girls fly off, Ryo briefly has a nice moment of acknowledgment to Keiichiro about how he’s always by his side, and they watch the girls fly off, leaving the fate of the world in their hands.
So, did I like this episode?……Yes. It tugged at some heartstrings, it fixed some things that I had issue with in the manga, and everything was very well-executed, even if I had problems with what was happening. Even the attack on the Mews was well-done as a scene. The shift to a sketchy black and white as the attack hit. The look on Ichigo’s face and the rage in her voice as she attacked. Her reaction. All of it was great.
Also, the look on her face before Mint slaps her is probably the most devastated, broken, and guilty face I’ve seen in this franchise. Top-notch voice acting from Yuuki Tenma as Ichigo the whole way.
They didn’t pull off the “Ichigo attacks her friends” thing quite as well as I would have hoped, but it was still miles above what we got in the manga and slightly better than the original anime, so I can’t say I can complain all that much.
Next time, we’ll properly start the battle against Deep Blue.
If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥
Plot: 8A – Blader Bowl: A new skating pool has opened up at Madtown Skatepark exclusively for rollerbladers called the Blader Bowl. The local news covers the opening of the Blader Bowl, and Otto takes his opportunity to get his fifteen minutes of fame by jumping into the Blader Bowl to do tricks. Sam gets confused for Otto, causing him to accidentally steal Otto’s glory.
8B – Total Luger: Otto and Twister get into luging, but Otto doesn’t take it well when he realizes this is one sport where Twister outshines him.
Breakdown: 8A – I mentioned in “Twisted Cinema” that Sam and Otto tend to not have a great relationship on one-on-one terms. Well, this is one episode that highlights that they do care about each other.
Otto wants to be on the local news by barging in on the opening of the Blader Bowl. He has his hockey gear on, and he has the same helmet with a visor on it as Sam does. Otto does his tricks, but then Twister, upon hearing that Sam wishes he could do the same things Otto does, pushes him into the Blader Bowl. He actually manages to do a pretty awesome flip and land flawlessly, albeit likely on accident, so the focus gets redirected to him. He takes off his helmet to show his face.
Later, when the news airs, the entire town sees that they edited together the shots to make it look like Sam did everything Otto did. Otto is angry, and Sam is embarrassed, especially since his mother decides to brag to all their family about it, but neither decides to tell the truth. Otto lets it go, but he slowly gets more frustrated as Sam gets an unreasonable amount of attention for all this, becoming “Slammin’ Sammy” and later “Slammy.” Sam, who typically doesn’t get any attention, quickly starts soaking up the adoration.
Otto gets even angrier when the news airs another segment about it, even though they don’t have any new footage so I don’t know why they did that.
Later, Twister even shows off a video showcasing Sam’s skating skills, which is…shitty of him. We don’t see the video, but this pretty much means Twister is making the problem worse on purpose since he has to be editing shots together like the news crew did.
The same news crew shows back up explaining that they want to do another segment on Sam’s skating, but this time it will be live. Sam panics because he obviously can’t do the same tricks. He runs into the Rockets’ garage where Otto is watching videos on the couch. Otto is angry at first, but Sam starts crying. Otto feels sympathy for Sam, which is quite a strong character moment for him given his own current situation. And he goes even further by developing a plan with Sam that won’t out him and will give the people what they want.
At the event, Otto pulls Sam away to tell him to put on his “lucky jersey” right before they go live. He returns, clad in the clothes and helmet he wore the first time, and does a bunch of cool tricks before skating away from the park. He reaches an alley where Sam is waiting, and it’s revealed that it was Otto all along. He secretly did everything again to help prevent Sam from being humiliated. Sam says he’s had enough of all this and is hanging it up. He apologizes for whole mess, Otto says it’s no problem, and they do their group’s signature “Woogety woogety woogety” secret handshake thing, which was sweet.
As the live news cast…plays later or Reggie watches a taping of it, I dunno, the host asks what surprises Slammy will have in store for them next time, and Reggie goes “Yeah, who knows?….” which confused me. Was that indicating that she knew Otto took over for Sam again or….what? I don’t get this tag.
This was a great episode. Obviously, the setup is kinda trope-ish, but I like how Otto handled this whole situation. Yeah, he was upset, but he was willing to let it go, and he understood that the initial incident wasn’t Sam’s fault. Sam did let the fame get to his head, but unlike Otto who constantly eats up attention and applause, he understood that Sam usually doesn’t get any of that. Even if he didn’t fully deserve it (he still did a pretty cool flip) he should get some attention sometimes.
And, to Sam’s credit, he doesn’t let the fame go too far to his head. He doesn’t do that typical thing in plots like this where he starts acting like a snob and starts ditching his friends. Otto didn’t start getting all that mad at Sam until he started getting too immersed in the attention.
Otto also didn’t just let Sam take the blow of ousting himself on live TV when he was upset with him. He remembered that Sam wasn’t at fault for this. Twister was at fault for pushing him in the first place, and the TV crew edited the shots. It was really big of Otto to offer to swap places with him and do the tricks to help Sam save face. And, technically, this gave Otto the chance to get some more praise for his skills because, even if he couldn’t take credit for the tricks in the end, he still had everyone cheering him on in the moment.
It’s a great Otto and Otto and Sam episode, which aren’t easy to come by, so I welcome it with open arms.
………But there is one very weird part of this episode that isn’t even mentioned on the Fandom page.
In the background of the host as he’s introducing the live show, there’s a UFO in the background that abducts a whale…..I had to pause….and question my sanity for several minutes because what the actual frick was that about?!
The IMDB page for this episode says it’s a reference to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which, if true, fine, but why is it in this completely unrelated to aliens/sci-fi episode?! It’s one of the most random Easter eggs I’ve ever seen.
8B – It’s very interesting to immediately follow the previous episode with this one.
Whereas “Blader Bowl” had Otto being understandably mad about someone else getting attention and he handled it maturely, this episode is about Otto being a jealous child and handling it poorly (Until the very end.)
Otto and Twister’s dynamic is always that Otto is the best at things and Twister is second place, if he even gets that close. Otto is just naturally better at extreme sports and is always looking for new ones to be great at so he can get even more attention. Twister, for the most part, is cool with this dynamic. However, when Otto discovers street luge, he quickly realizes that Twister has a natural affinity for it, and he just can’t keep up.
After losing every single practice heat to Twister, Otto can’t bring himself to genuinely feel happy for his friend, choosing to sulk instead, even as Reggie points out that Twister never gets this psyched. (Debatable)
Otto is so concerned he’ll lose the actual race that he opts to take a shortcut. Apparently, this shortcut is so well-known even Lars and his cronies know about and discuss taking it, but no one actually officiating this race bothers to keep an eye on it to ensure no one’s cheating. The only reason Reggie and Sam find out is because they’re watching from the Shore Shack with binoculars.
I like how they had Lars explaining the shortcut to his cronie before the race because it both explains how Otto knew there was a shortcut there and shows how skeevy this actually is by having it first be Lars’ idea in the first place. Why no official thought it was weird that Lars had a damn map out and was openly discussing taking a shortcut and cheating minutes before the race at the starting line, I have no idea.
Reggie and Sam rush down to stop the awards ceremony before Otto gets his trophy, but then they just…don’t. They get there with plenty of time to spare, Sam asks Reggie to tell someone, and she says that they can’t because, if they do, everyone will know……AND!? He’s a stinkin’ cheater. Oust his ass.
Otto gets called on by name and given an unreasonably large trophy for a little local luge competition that only had four participants and was won by a kid who started luging like the day before yesterday. And I mean it. This trophy is massive. He has to wheel it around in a wagon.
Twister just gets called “This young man who just missed beating Otto Rocket” and is given a trophy so small he can fit it in his pocket.
Otto gets a party later to celebrate his win, and Twister is trying to be supportive of Otto like always, but he’s bummed because he really thought this was one sport he had bested Otto in.
Reggie kinda tells Tito about her dilemma, but he’s no help. He relays a story about how he and Raymundo once won a volleyball tournament by letting some of the air out of the ball on the last exchange. They say they felt so bad about cheating that they didn’t compete for weeks…..but they never told the truth, never gave back the trophy – in fact it’s being displayed in the front of the Shore Shack with a photo of them both from the event – and Tito even polishes it after the story.
I know half of these stories being relayed by Tito and Raymundo are commonly either lies, heavily exaggerated, or purely for comedic effect, but this one actually kinda irks me. If he had just told this story, it would have been fine, I guess, but the fact that he and Raymundo still put the trophy and photo out on display like they’re not really ashamed of their cheating is definitely disappointing at the very least.
By the way, Reggie’s side plot goes nowhere. She never tells anyone, and when Otto confesses to her what he did, she just tells him to figure it out himself.
Guilt eventually eats away at Otto and he comes clean to Twister. In order to fully decide who gets the trophy, they have one last race, and Twister wins. Otto learns to finally be a good loser and even tells Twister he’ll probably win a lot more things in the future.
It is nice to see Otto swallow his pride and learn to lose with grace, and I love that Twister finally found his specialty sport, even if I’m pretty sure this doesn’t come up again. I’ll have to get back to you on that.
I guess my biggest problem with this episode really is Reggie’s dilemma. She really should have told someone, but it seems like in a lot of media that tackles stuff like this they seem to believe letting the person stew in guilt and eventually come forward themselves is better than being ousted. I dunno. In the TV world, that makes sense because most characters would follow the breadcrumbs of the story and just eventually feel bad and come clean, but in most real world scenarios I feel like that just wouldn’t be the case.
And, remember, Reggie’s issue was moreso ousting Otto in front of a lot of people not just assuming one course of action would help his character develop more than another.
Is this a snitching thing? Because I feel like cheating is one of those things where snitching shouldn’t be frowned upon, but that’s just me.
Overall, a pretty decent episode, but I much prefer “Blader Bowl” over “Total Luger”.
Next episode….
If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥
Plot: Ten thousand smoits are stolen from a dancing duo right before a big competition. Smoits are essentially as good as money, redeemable for a variety of big prizes, so the suspect list is large. Fillmore and Ingrid have to figure out who the thief is and get the smoits back to their rightful owners.
Breakdown: Man, I love the vibe of this episode. It’s got a 1950s and then a 1920s type feeling to it. It’s great.
This show can’t really have kids stealing or gambling with massive amounts of money or else the real police would get involved, so we gotta deal with a fictional currency called smoits instead. Still, they’re redeemable for so many prizes that kids act as if they’re real money, allowing the story to go down fun routes like having an underground casino where smoits are being used as money.
Also, funnily enough, all they play down there is Old Maid and a game called Dandy for Candy, which is literally just Go Fish with candy-based cards. However, I do have to call shenanigans on that claim because there’s clearly a Craps table down there too.
Anyhoo, not only is the vibe very fun in this episode but so is the mystery. There is no shortage whatsoever of suspects in this episode, and they fit them all very organically into the runtime. Since everyone would want a massive amount of smoits, everyone has a motive.
Granted, the culprit turns out to be the one person who acts as if they don’t like smoits, which makes them a little obvious, but they were honestly so obvious that it looped me back around to thinking it couldn’t have been them. And even then it wasn’t the full story nor were they the only culprit.
That’s one of the weaker parts of this episode, to be honest. The partner that the culprit had didn’t fit in very well, especially given that the only other time we saw him in the episode she was treating him like crap for no reason if she was really in cahoots with him.
If I had to bring up other weak parts of the episode, I’d say there was really no point to the whole belt B-plot, if you can even call it a B-plot, and having the smoits get re-stolen in the end just to immediately get them back and also make it impossible to punish this culprit because he’s moving away the next day was weird.
With the belt B-plot, it’s literally just that Fillmore is too attached to his safety patrol belt that he refuses to get a new one even though his is literally falling apart. And, in the end, it melts in chili and he’s forced to get a new one. That’s it. There’s no lesson about moving on or being overly attached to stuff – it’s just, oh well, I guess I really do need a new belt now.
As a final note, this was probably the most Fillmore and Ingrid-shippy episode I’ve ever seen. Not only do they put Ingrid in a flapper dress and have her act as Fillmore’s, I guess, arm candy as he plays at the casino, but the ending is pretty blatantly shippy as they echo a line shared between two characters who, while never being said outright, are clearly romantically linked.
I did ship these two as a kid, but not hard, and today I really don’t. I just don’t think I’d want to see them dating. They work much better as a platonic partnership and best friends than I’d ever imagine they would romantically. Maybe things would change when they got older, but I doubt we’ll ever see a flash forward of this series.
All in all, an awesome episode and great season premiere.
Next Episode….
(One last thing, the Fandom page incorrectly says Tony Clementina is in this episode as a main character. He’s not. The character in question is named Toby.)
If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥
Plot: Jack has forgotten his and Maddie’s 18th wedding anniversary since he’s too preoccupied with catching ghosts, which enrages Maddie. She leaves for her sister’s house in Spittoon, Arkansas. Jack pleads with her to stay, but Maddie leaves anyway, mentioning something about a divorce before the taxi pulls away. To Jazz’s surprise and utmost confusion, Jack immediately follows her to apologize and win her back, leaving Jazz as a mess for days because him apologizing goes against everything she knows, and she’s always right.
Danny, meanwhile, is too panicked by the mention of divorce that he scrambles to do what he can to prevent his parents from splitting up. He cleans the house from top to bottom, accidentally knocking a gift Jack got for Maddie into the Ghost Zone. Recruiting Sam and Tucker to help by monitoring him, Danny heads off into the Ghost Zone only to be captured by Walker – a Ghost Zone prison warden who is stern about following rules. Walker also happens to have the present.
Danny is forced to team up with his old adversaries, who are also imprisoned, to defeat Walker and get the present back to Jack and Maddie to hopefully save their marriage.
Breakdown:
They show that Jack and Maddie’s anniversary is on Friday,
but the next day, what should be Saturday, they show Danny, Sam, and Tucker at school.
Anyway, I never cared for the Jack and Maddie portion of this episode. Nothing too wrong with it, but it’s just never been all that interesting to me. I do appreciate that Jack acknowledges that he screwed up and immediately (As in right after she drives away) goes off to apologize and make things right.
After the first act, Jack and Maddie are just hanging out with rednecks all day cycling through various southern stereotypes (And Jack searching for a bathroom because apparently no one in this town has a bathroom or outhouse. Everyone just tells him to do it outside.) until Jack finally breaks down and gives a proper apology. Danny and Jazz come in with the present to save his butt there, but we never learn what the gift actually was.
It is nice to see more of their relationship, but it just didn’t do much for me.
In the A plot, Danny is rushing around the Ghost Zone trying to find this gift because he worries if he doesn’t retrieve it his parents will divorce, which is honestly legitimately sad.
Danny’s search leads him to a run-in with Walker, the prison warden of the Ghost Zone. Danny briefly met him before the theme song when he accidentally drove the Specter Speeder into the portal, but Walker let him off with a warning.
Walker is…fine as an enemy. He’s perfectly memorable as a DP villain, but not one of the most memorable. His unique powers mostly just lie in his controlling the Ghost Zone police and bending everyone to his rule book. His rigidity in following the rules outlined in the rule book is his main character trait, but it is weird that, at one point, he clearly adds a new rule to the book when he says Danny broke a rule by bringing unauthorized recording equipment (his two-way radio) into the Ghost Zone.
Danny is arrested for various charges, including bringing real world contraband into the Ghost Zone (The present). Walker sentences him to 1000 years in prison.
By far the best part of this episode is Danny having to team up with his old enemies, particularly Skulker, to bust out of prison. Teaming up with enemies is always a fun storyline to play with, and it works well here. They don’t become best buds, and they don’t double-cross Danny. They honor their agreement, help everyone escape, and agree that they’ll resume their dynamics in the future.
One of the most memorable parts of this episode to me, for some reason, was the revelation that real-work objects and human beings are the “ghosts” of the Ghost Zone. They can pass through ghostly buildings, objects, and ghosts like ghosts can in the real world. This doesn’t stay consistent from what I remember, but it was an interesting way to resolve the conflict.
Jazz has a C plot in which she is completely ignoring her parents’ marital issues and is instead panicking about being wrong – particularly in something that is very predictable like her parents. She can’t fathom Jack immediately going off to apologize to Maddie, so Jazz freaks out and combs over everything she’s ever noted about her parents to figure out how she could have made an error. She’s just filling time being annoying, basically.
In the end, it’s revealed that the divorce Maddie mentioned was her sister’s divorce. She was planning on throwing a ten year divorce anniversary party for her sister, which is why she actually left, even if she was still mad at Jack, which is wild. She was planning on leaving for her sister’s house to throw a divorce anniversary party the same day of her own anniversary before Jack even forgot their anniversary.
Don’t worry about her sister, though. She’s extremely happy about being divorced.
This is a mostly decent episode. The part with Danny and his enemies breaking out of ghost prison is more than worth the price of admission, but everything else is kinda blah.
Next time….
If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥
The Anime Madhouse 