Insert dramatic footage of Zakuro standing on a rooftop with her hair blowing in the wind, in case you've already forgotten who the last person is.
"Something's still missing" Zakuro moans... like having the ability to not get her hair messed up by nature is a nothing skill. She's singing about something that apparently doesn't rate a translation or even Japanese subtitles.. so while I assume it's plot related, I really can't be sure.
Aoyama is mobbed by fans at school as usual and Ichigo's friends are concerned about how chilll she is about it. They are more confused when Ichigo casually drops a 'meow' into her speech pattern but Ichigo decides to flashback to her zoo date instead of addressing it.
I think the flashback is meant to show that Ichigo is now secure in her relationship with Aoyama and therefore doesn't need to panic if he's drowning in a mob of fangirls... but it's a flashback of him putting that gross collar on her while likening her to a pet animal and ignoring everything else he did that was concerning.
Ichigo's squees attracts Aoyama's attention anyway but she has to leave for work.
He makes a hand gesture to indicate the aforementioned collar and Ichigo actually thinks 'Aoyama-kun motioned to me from all the way over there!' like it's some grand gesture from miles away instead of a few metres. And of course he couldn't just wave. Actually curious now to see stats on how many fans get into fetish petplay BDSM after all this, a la Twilight with vampires and thinking voyeurism is hot.
Ichigo is sooo happy that she walks on a ledge with her ears and tail out making cat puns and scaring the crap out of local animals.
At the café she gets mowed down by Pudding on a unicycle, even though if Pudding was delivering meals to customers or dishes to the kitchen then she has no reason to swing by the front door at the exact time Ichigo walks in. Except to flex on her with her mad skills.
Maintain eye contact. Roll on beach ball/unicycle or swing from trapeze. Eat subject's cake. Assert dominance. Yes, Pudding! Yessss!
Lettuce says she's in awe of Pudding's energy (who isn't??) and aspires to be more like her, to which Ichigo snaps back that she shouldn't be taking notes from Pudding at all.
Maybe that's supposed to be funny but I mean, Lettuce was just referencing how energetic Pudding is... not that Lettuce is going to start delivering cakes on gymnastic equipment. Ichigo still seems to be pretty controlling and dismissive of Lettuce. So who should Lettuce learn from then? Mint, the tea snob? You, the fetish simp? The creepy cafe owners? Ichigo couldn't just say "you're fine as you are, Lettuce?"
Ichigo both laments having to do more work despite having more staff, while simultaneously following Pudding around obsessively telling her to slow down instead of doing her own share. She then relaxes while Lettuce and Pudding do all the cleaning, and complains that she didn't get to eat any food on the job. Yes... what would the Mew Mew Café do without you, Ichigo?
She has a moment of potential mental clarity that it's all Ryou's fault for making her a bio-nightmare and a waitress.
I mean, it's only episode four! I've been saying it since episode one! Who knows how many actual days have gone by! But sure, it's something, I guess. She stomps up to Keiichiro to ask where Ryou is... conveniently not blaming equally-at-fault guy who just happens to be the one who feeds her cakes... and enters Ryou's open room without asking. There, she finds him standing at the window, shirtless, dripping wet and deep in thought. As you do.
Understandably, Ryou is freaked out and grumpy about it. Ichigo loses both her fire and train of thought, focusing instead on how sparsely decorated Ryou's room is, and how little she knows about him. This is where Ichigo is so frustrating to me, because she should be even more angry about being forcibly dragged into this operation when she doesn't know jack about the people running it and she clearly doesn't want the responsibility. Instead, she stares, blushes then gets Ryou food subserviently when he states he's hungry? Dude, you apparently own the kitchen, go get your own food.
At least we learn something about Ichigo - apparently, she can make good rice balls. I don't know when she does them as she's clearly never at her own home let alone her kitchen but sure. Masha steps in to ask why her heart rate has increased. Little cringebot.
She chases it from the room and runs into Mint - who has no qualms about work chat in the bedroom instead of the secret lab but sure. She's found a way to get to the last member. Wow, I wonder if it'll be a contrived audition? Yeah, yeah it is.
Ryou (finally clothed and in the secret lab) tries to explain about Zakuro but Mint came prepared with a slideshow presentation about her own fetish.
Things we learn about Zakuro:
* She has long luscious black locks that shine like a black pearl. This is all well and good, but the camera zooms in on Zakuro's hair and its bright freaking purple. Now I'm questioning if the other girls actually have coloured hair or if it's all in my mind!
* She has sapphire eyes that appear mysterious and wise, but they shine with passion. That's a really inventive way of saying she constantly looks bored, haughty or haughtily bored.
* Smooth, perfect legs with skin as radiant as white platinum. Strange to focus on how hairless she is when she's meant to be part animal.
* She's a perfect addition to the team. A warrior who will protect the earth with grace. C'mon Mint - you can't just list off her superficial appearance then decide she's actually a fighter. Plus, grace should be the last thing on your combat preference list.. what about her apparent Mt. Everest climbing skills that are glossed over here?? That's actually legitimately impressive and shows some endurance and stamina let alone survival and planning skills.
* Mint thinks Zakuro is actually royalty. Well no, she confirms she doesn't but explains to Pudding that she wants to show the 'proper respect'. Ugh. Don't worry, I'm sure hearing 'Queen Zakuro' a billion times won't be super irritating or anything.
Two seconds later... I hate it. I'm all for Mint having a fan crush... but I don't need OTT Stan behaviour playing out instead of actual plot. By the way, Zakuro's just SO famous and SO busy that she's been SO hard to approach and have her powers activate... which leads me to question even more how they knew she was going to be at that animal exhibition, and why the heck they didn't approach her THEN and say "HEY, we heard you like animals, want to help them??"
I mean, Mint was helping at the exhibit. Are you telling me she didn't recognise Zakuro then? She wasn't exactly incognito. This smells like a bovine paddock! Maybe I'm thinking too hard about this.. but comics and now two animes have rehashed this origin story and it's still not freaking clear what happened so that's on them!
The grand scheme is to attend open auditions to win a chance to star next to Zakuro in a musical. Definitely not a unique idea for any anime, especially shoujo genres. Mint dissolves into a fantasy where Zakuro hand picks her to be the winner and she babbles on about being a warrior defending the earth with no context and calling Zakuro 'Queen' in person.
Sure, it's basically a dream sequence but hit damn, the other contestants were right there and could have overheard! Would Zakuro really go in for a hug with a crazed fan talking nonsense??
Anyway, Pudding gets put out because she's too young to attend. For some reason, the writers made her act like the audition was something that you can eat...and I just don't get where she's supposed to get that impression or if we're just meant to think she's an idiot for no reason. You know who is an idiot? Any of the other people in the room who can see Pudding is upset about it but do nothing to comfort or explain the situation to her.
It's a major problem if you're going to have very young kids in your superhero team but don't know how to deal with them. I would wager a bet that she still hasn't been told all the details or ramifications about actually being in this team either. Which is a little disturbing given that she is the primary carer for several other small persons. Obviously the show is too cutesy for anyone to die or actually get injured.. but I think it's worth a conversation to figure out what she would do if she was rendered incapable of looking after her family because of something that happened fighting aliens.
Anywho, people in the next state watching a completely different show can see that this is going to backfire with Pudding showing up to the audition regardless and ruining everything.
Keiichiro has a weird conversation with Ryou about improving Ryou's people skills. Looks like Zakuro's going to be royalty alright...a royal pain in the butt! To deal with.. but Ryou deliberately kept this information from the girls. It will make them stronger? I mean... maybe? Have them work together to make the plan work and overcome any objections? Okay. Or they could fudge it up because they have a nice opinion of Zakuro and don't have a back up strategy for when she inevitably knocks them back and ruin the chances of her wanting to join the merry band of weirdos and suck ups?
Ichigo then has a dramatic daydream where she wins, completely forgets about Zakuro and aliens in favour of her rave reviews and new modelling career.
Daydream Aoyama shyly tells her she's out of his league which she denies and says she'll always be his (and she's even wearing that cat collar in most of her photo shoots... what sort of professional would allow that across different brands?)
This makes Aoyama make some serious advances - backing her into a wall, getting up in her face and kinda intimidatingly putting his arms up on the wall, blocking her in.
"Then be mine, and only mine. What do you say to that?" He demands.
Ichigo is sweaty and nervous but squeaks out "I do" . She did this without a ring and without seeming entirely comfortable about the scenario she herself imagined. She can't even picture them kissing without getting embarrassed. True, you don't need a ring to get engaged or married but something symbolic that's not a grotty used pet collar would be nice. Besides, how old is she in this scenario? Aoyama's still wearing his school uniform by the look of it. Way too young to be making these kind of life changing decisions.
Mint makes the hypocritical decision to call Ichigo out for daydreaming when she did this herself in the last scene. At least her daydream included Zakuro and fighting aliens I guess. I think Ichigo forgot aliens existed entirely in the face of Aoyama.
'Wow, are all of these people trying out for the same role?' They ponder after waiting outside with these people, going in the same hall with these people and standing around wearing the same audition numbers/outfits as those people. Did they honestly think no one would attend except for them? If they'd said 'Wow, there's a lot of people trying out for this role!' it would have made them seem a lot less naïve and dumb.
There's not really a time frame on when this audition is. In real life it'd probably be a few weeks away if it's advertised in a print magazine and I get that we the viewers don't want to sit around waiting for storyline paint to dry but Mint clearly knows what's up - that Zakuro isn't here for the first round and will show up when it's time for the acting parts. "We better show mastery of the basics" she says at the time if the audition itself. So... did none of them practice or did they have no time to practice? Did they have parental consent? Do parents exist in this show?!
Anyway Ichigo is asked why she deserves the role after practically goose stepping onto the stage and she freaks out and imitates a cat because a fly flew past. Wow, are flies so uncommon in Tokyo that she's only seen one? I gotta move!
She tries to cover by saying she's good at pretending to be a cat which is a) probably not helpful to the musical unless it's actually Cats and b) was a stupid idea, especially if she had her ears pop out or something.
Lettuce somehow gets a leek instead of a microphone and tries to do a mic check. The judges appear unnerved by this but also afraid to intervene. Mint appears for the dance round and gets off to a great start with her ballet.. but then the show runs out of time or budget and we get a bunch of still images of her dancing?
I mean, okay fine. Probably not that bad. But this is her time to shine! Unlike the original show we haven't really explored Mint's ballerina side yet. Instead we see Ichigo and the others going WOW SHE'S SO GOOD and even gushing about how she knows traditional dance too.. when all we see is Mint sloooowwwlllyyy bringing a fan to her face.
I wish they could have made more of an effort. They made a farce of showing other people auditioning kinda... but only Mint 'dancing', then failed to use it effectively. Ichigo just tells her how pretty she looked, instead of saying something like 'wow, I didn't know you did ballet', 'that was so elegant' or 'you were great!' No, just a very superficial comment about a nothing scene we barely got to see.
Conveniently, Zakuro arrives just as it's conveniently announced that people will conveniently audition in groups of three.
Which leads me to ask why Ichigo as #15 isn't with the previous group #13 & #14? Unless you can choose your groups of three? Convenient.
Mint and Ichigo sword fight while Lettuce is... a rock.
Was this the only role left? Did she deliberately choose it? Who put the role of a rock in a freaking audition for acting, dancing and singing skills?!
Hey look who arrived to interrupt! My, who could it possibly be? Is it... Pudding? Yeah, its Pudding.
Seeing the chaos, Zakuro steps onto the stage and begins to sword fight then sing. Again, no subtitles or translation here so I don't know what she's singing or if it's relevant. It's probably just a chance for the voice actor to show off her skills - pretty sure they're all singers.
Anyway, she steals the show which the Mew Crew thank her for later.. but why thank her? Their audition was ruined regardless.. her interruption just placated the judges a bit. Mostly offscreen. She barely interacts with the Mew Crew, so she's not helping them out by giving them a chance to redeem their act, she's steamrolling them and making it the Zakuro Show.
I wouldn't care so much but this is a large scene - or instead one that seemed to have a lot of importance put on it, and I'd rather have watched something more interesting and that actually contributed to the plot. Or if it made room for some answers!
Then the Mew Crew just casually go up on the roof to meet Zakuro? Was it planned? What time is this? Looks like really late at night. Were they kicked out of the audition? What day is this? How long was the audition?!
The comparison episode from the original series #10 'The last member, the legendary lonely wolf' is incredibly similar to this episode but done so much better.
We see a mysterious Zakuro like figure save random people from Chimera Anima while Kishu observes. Someone mysteriously took a photo of her posing in the moonlight and Ichigo, Pudding and Lettuce all puzzle about which of them it could be. Pudding uses her mad scissoring skills to cut out the existing Mew Mews figures to compare and prove it's not them, and also defaces an idol book that Mint tries to hide when she turns up.
In fact, this is the stupidest bit of the episode - I can overlook someone getting a perfect night picture of a vigilante because it seems like Zakuro has been doing this kind of night work quite often.. but the girls spend so much time trying to figure out who it is from their team (when really it should be: who wears thigh high boots? Who has a tail like that? Who wears their mid length hair loose? Who is that tall?) before going "Oh wait, none of us have gone to this park after dark by ourselves.. maybe it wasn't us?" And then Mint comes over anyway and identifies her immediately anyway. Derp!
They do spend an unfortunate amount of time talking about how Ichigo isn't curvy enough to be the figure, Lettuce is too curvy and Mint is too short.. so focussing on the physical traits/body shaming of a 13 yr old girl (and however old Lettuce is, I forget) instead of saying hey, that looks nothing like our costume or animal features etc etc.
It then goes into a description of Zakuro not unlike what the new series does but also gives the model/actress's height, weight and starsign stats and tells us she's very multilingual. She saves someone else at night, Kishu has a mysterious meeting and the girls - sans Pudding - attend an audition. Ichigo still harbours a little fame fantasy but this time Daydream Aoyama tells Ichigo she's so famous that he'll give up on her, and she's the one to approach him and tell him she'll stay with him.
The musical is an American-Japanese production with a less gender diverse panel, as Zakuro is the only woman there.
#15 Mint is about to start dancing when reports of a small fire breathing monkey interrupt and herald the arrival of Pudding. She's upset that she's too young to attend and breathes an impressive amount of fire non-stop while Ichigo tries to catch her.
The director thinks they're making fun of him and announces that the audition is cancelled. Ichigo begs him to allow Mint to dance and says they'll leave the audition but it's Zakuro who saves the day. She tries to calm the director down and speaks in his language about a generous explanation of what just happened. She agrees to dance for him (clearly showing her off as a character but does come off a bit creepy).
Mint is over excited about this flashdance homage and runs out on stage to approach Zakuro who gives her a stern look. Mint carries on anyway, telling Zakuro that they're here for their comrade and asking Zakuro if she has any marks on her body that would prove she's a member. Zakuro shows surprise at this but ultimately rejects Mint as a weirdo who has a fetish for marks on Zakuro's body and seemingly wants to indoctrinate her into a cult. She tells Mint that she only did this to secure her paycheck and leaves Mint in a vaguely blurred black and white world of shock.
Back at the cafe, Pudding apologises to the sad Mint, Keiichiro and Ryou share a dodgy looking nod. Later, Masha wakes Ichigo up to tell her that the fifth member is in danger. They all meet at the church we saw Zakuro praying at earlier in the episode, and like complete noobs they all run into the same entrance at the same time and don't bother scouting.
Inside, they see Zakuro trying to pray at this super elaborate and potentially unsafe altar when she gets interrupted by crazed animal themed fans.. and then actual crazed crows. These kind of look like normal crows.. but Kishu is here with a giant horrifying crow-anima. Zakuro's mere transformation is enough to change the ordinary crows back to being... um, ordinary? She's able to jump, avoid and fight both Kishu and the big crow faster and better than the other four who just stood there screaming basically before falling on their butts while attack animation replayed around them.
Is this to make Zakuro more impressive? Is it an animal thing? Are wolves faster than cats or monkeys? Is it because she's older and more physically able? Who knows. She one-shots the crow and scares off Kishu before saving her hat.
The Mew Crew are so happy and Mint tries to welcome her into their group but Zakuro says she don't need no creepy blue bird or any weird new friends. Mint's like but we found you! And goes to hug Zakuro before getting knocked on her ass. Zakuro tells Mint that she sucks and leaves this church that can't possibly be real.. are they supposed to be Mew Pews?!
ANYWAY that's the run-down of the classic episode that explains how they found Zakuro, why Zakuro didn't want to join, showed off her celebrity persona at the audition and established that Zakuro is definitely a lone wolf and really doesn't need any hangers on. There were people she saved, there was interaction with the other judges etc. This new one tries to hint that there's something going on with Zakuro but really only shows off her singing. The audition establishes that she's not a team player but it's done in a weird way. Like, original episode almost gave me whiplash from happy Zakuro stepping in to smooth things over then having serial killer eyes at Mint.. new episode makes it seem like she tried to help the audition but made it all about her because she just wanted to jam out to her own song.
While it's true that neither crew in either series knew how to approach someone who is potentially one of them, and that's fine! They got lucky with subservient Ichigo, spineless Lettuce and "I just wanted an animal tail no questions asked" Pudding. Only original Mint came off as at least kind of subtle with asking about marks while new Mint is just YES STEP ON ME QUEEN ZAKURO ON YOUR WAY TO JOIN OUR TEAM!
HOWEVER - it does look like they'll be exploring this a bit more in the next episode which is something I'm keen on because while it's a given that she's going to join the team, I want the Mews to suffer with this. I want them to learn that it's NOT normal to just say "oh you're one of us, yes you're going to join us!" to a random person like she signed up for this. She did not. It's just like with Lettuce - they just say "oh you're a Mew Mew" like that even begins to explain what their deal is.. Ichigo is the only animal that would Mew anyway, so why are they called Mew Mews here when she's not the most powerful, natural or even the first to show powers?
Ugh. I have feelings about this. Anyway, I don't like this episode because there's no world building. This series as a whole just focuses on Ichigo's love life and wardrobe, and occasionally shows that the other girls exist. They show that there are other audition people but they don't get animated. They have judges but they don't do anything and don't say much. There are no random people in this town that Zakuro saves. The only other people we really see interact with our main characters are Ichigo's boring friends and a nameless, faceless throng of shrieking prepubescents that we're pretty much told aren't important anyway. We don't even see Ichigo's house. It's just school exterior-cafe-auditions for some unknown time frame and rooftop. Nothing else exists in this world. Which is the penalty for speed running your reboot.. you trim the fat but you run the risk of losing the charm and depth too.
Both series had the same problem with flying opponents.. the crows in the original just dove and flapped their wings in the Mew Crew's faces while they stood there pathetically begging them to STAHP. And I get it, I own birds, I've seen a mere feather fluff scare people. Possessed birds in a dark enclosed place would be terrifying. But they just stood there.. they didn't even try to duck or roll into the pews. Heh.. Mew Crew Pews. The same thing happens here too, only it's on a generic rooftop instead of a cool location.
New Zakuro goes on about how she wants to improve herself and overcome any obstacle.. which is nice but only vaguely ties into why she stepped into the audition. Obviously the Mews are HER obstacle currently but it doesn't really explain why she jumped in to show off during their audition when she could have just sat back and let them get dropped from any chance of ruining her musical.
Anyway - Kishu just appears and shoots birds at them. We still don't get to find out HOW he knows where they are. Is he stalking Ichigo? Plausible.. but why wait so long? Lettuce says "Those crows are Chimera anima!" and the other girls are just gasping, jaws to the floor shocked, SHOCKED that this could ever happen in a confrontation with an alien that has been known to use Chimera Anima in all of his schemes so far. This is so ridiculous it took me even further out of the scene and into space.
Speaking of moving somewhere else - Mint runs to shield Zakuro with her body, tells the girls to transform, then in a literal blink Mint is no longer in front of Zakuro. She's a lot futher away and in one of the only normal poses out of the group. Why are all of their knees so pink?
Mint and Pudding manage to hit each other's attacks and then they're defenceless against birds because that's how super powers work I guess. This would be less irritating if we hadn't just seen Mint sending a thousand and one arrows in the last episode. I do like Pudding's cheerful response about that they must be friends - that was funny and sweet.
Then Zakuro gets attacked and just stands there while the stock footage birds flap at her.
Masha appears out of nowhere again. Kishu team rocket's himself away. The girls continue gushing after they've de-transformed. Ichigo gets a close up while she internally monologues about how SHE feels about this, because that's clearly more important than how Zakuro feels about it.
Zakuro tells them to bugger off and that they stink. Mint is destroyed internally. The other girls are amazed someone can withstand their crazy cool sales pitch about having to join a team and work as a waitress for some reason.
This blog post is more like an uncoordinated ramble than a review and I'm sorry but I just really hate this episode. It's even worse when you know there is a better episode of this story that already exists. I've given enough discussion to how poorly the Mew Crew approached Zakuro and how messed up the timeline is but here's my other pain points.
The fight was lazy. Original Zakuro was impressive because she showed that she basically had mastery over her powers and was able to take on the demon flock, the honestly creepy AF giant demon crow as well as Kishu.. all by herself, and without a monologue about justice. New Zakuro didn't have to have any prior skills - which given how useless New Mint is despite having powered up before Ichigo, is FINE by me! - but the amount of fawning she gets afterwards for taking out a couple of really normal looking birds is almost double what it should be and it's just so wierd. "I knew someone of your queenly stature could do it!" What does THAT even mean!? You can only be a queen if you're tall?? But literally everyone except Pudding is taller than Mint!
The aforementioned Mint/Pudding collision is one thing but Ichigo and Lettuce don't even attempt to fire off their powers? But they had time to pose before they got swooped? Then have time to gasp and yell out to Zakuro like there isn't a murder of crows up in their faces? Then right after Zakuro's transformed there are no birds present and the Crew have enough time to form a cheer squad?
Kishu just appears out of nowhere and then vanishes just as fast, without even seeming invested in the battle? Which is it, show? Are they in trouble or not? Is there an element of danger or not? It just feels like a poorly edited collection of different scenes where we're just missing enough information to notice the gaps.
Zakuro tells Mint she's annoying after Mint continuously wets herself over being in her presence and refuses to listen to Zakuro say she's not interested. Mint drops to her knees in tears like Zakuro decked her, and Ichigo dramatically thinks "Zakuro, why? JUST WHY?!"
Sure, never meet your heroes.. that way you can't be disappointed when they don't live up to your expectations but seriously.
So overall this was a pretty disappointing episode for me. I commented in episode two that I didn't mind cutting the filler and going breakneck speed through the 'story' and noted some issues with this in episode three but this episode took the cake, it really did.
I know I'm not the target audience as such but I think this episode did the people in this demographic dirty by acting like they're stupid.
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