We don’t waste any time as the girls immediately start their next mission: Protect and save Zakuro from Kish’s attack, and then recruit her for real. This proves to be harder than they thought when Mint jumps in, and just the wacky hijinks.
This episode wasn’t half bad, though I still don’t really understand Zakuro. She claims that she wants to better herself and surpass who she is right now, and she doesn’t believe that teammates will help her with that I’m assuming. She doesn’t like the idea of being in a group with comrades but she decides to give it a go after she had helped the rest of the Mew Mews out against Kish. Throughout the episode she’s been stubborn and questions Ichigo why she takes part as a Mew Mew. She was affected by Mint’s change of attitude, so much so that she blanked out during her rehearsal because she loved her resolve. Obviously it’s possible to better yourself when you’re with others, but Zakuro doesn’t really get into the reason why she likes to be alone. The main problem is that we don’t even know who she is. While Mint approached her differently, treating her as a person with personal goals like herself, it still doesn’t give us insight to who she is exactly. Is her journey to surpassing herself just a personal goal or is there more to it? Why is she so against having teammates, and does it connect to a moment in her past? Zakuro was her usual self this episode and we didn’t get more out of her so I can’t say I know who she is. I’m just “Yep, that’s Zakuro I guess” but I don’t have an attachment to her like I do with Mint. This is just the start of her character and we still have time to get to know her on a deeper level, and she is the fan favorite character from what I know so we’ll have to wait and see for when that time comes.
The episode’s structure was pretty simple. It started off pretty funny actually as the girls tried different plans to get past the security guard at the front. It felt very old school with all the different plans and it was really funny how some of them failed. And again I think it’s all really cute and does a good job of making the girls bond with each other. Even with the amount of episodes we’ve gotten so far, they really do feel like a friend group and it’ll be fun to see how Zakuro adds to it. The rest of the episode dealt with the girls trying to find Zakuro and Kish, Zakuro’s performance, and then the fight. I noticed the animation was a million times better this time around, with the girls being more in model and the actions scenes being better as well. Lots of hilarious expressions too. It felt super lively. The past two episodes have been really rough visually so I was happy with how nice this one looked. Also nice we got to see Zakuro’s transformation. I admit, she’s pretty and all but I’ve never been a fan of her Mew Mew design. I get she’s the mature one but ehh, not a fan.
In a surprising twist of events, the girls were being filmed on live national television as they had to crash into Zakuro’s program. This means they basically outed themselves as heroes of justice (well, mainly Ichigo) so now the whole nation knows who they are. Of course Aoyama watched the live broadcast and I’m pretty sure he knows that’s Ichigo. I know their hair changes a little bit but they all look the same, but hey this is magical girl logic. The preview for next episode hints at something dramatic happening and I’m guessing it’ll involve Ichigo and Aoyama.
Now that we have our whole Mew Mew gang…now what? I’m assuming the other villains are going to show up and they’re going to go full force, but there has to be more intel that Ryo and Keiichiro are going to share with the girls.
This is a fantastic face btw
