Trivia / Tokyo Mew Mew

• Acting for Two:
  • In the 2002 anime:
    • Junko Noda voices Zakuro Fujiwara as well as R-2000.
    • Takako Honda voices Sakura Momomiya and several other minor characters.
    • Kiyomi Asai voices Tart in addition to some one-off characters.
  • For Mew Mew Power:
    • Amanda Lipitz voices both Ichigo/Zoey and her mom.
    • Andrew Rannells voices Keiichiro/Wesley and Quiche/Dren.
    • Elliot and the Blue Knight also share Sean Schemmel as their voice actor. Justified, as at the cutoff point of that one he was still assumed to be an alter-ego of Elliot instead of Mark.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Bree Sharp Sang the English OP "Team Up!" and most of the songs in Mew Mew Power.
• Completely Different Title: In Brazil, the series is called "As Supergatinhas" ("The Super-kitten" in Portuguese), using the 4Kids version as basis for the dub.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: In the 2002 anime, Masaya Aoyama, a boy, is voiced by a woman (Megumi Ogata). So were Tart (Kiyomi Asai), R-2000 (Junko Noda) and Ryou Shirogane's younger self (Junko Minagawa).
• Dueling Dubs: There are two Albanian dubs of this show. The first is called "Vajzat Mjau - Mbrojtëset e Planetit" and it's based on the English dub. The second is called "Luftëtaret Mace" and unlike the first one, it's based on the Italian dub instead (despite using the Japanese opening and ending).
• Died During Production: Mia Ikumi died of a hemmorage while Tokyo Mew Mew New was being produced for a July 2022 release.
• Dueling Shows: Tokyo Mew Mew New is this with Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure, another Magical Girl series with a food theme.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The series was originally going to be a horror series with a short-haired catgirl in pink being the only thing in common with its current incarnation. Execs at Nakayoshi pressured the artist to do magical girls instead, latching onto the catgirl and discarding the rest. The transition period between the scrapped horror manga and the final product is reflected in the manga short Tokyo Black Cat Girl.
  • The reason Berry had so much focus in Tokyo Mew Mew à la Mode - Mia Ikumi was told not to focus on the previous series' characters.
• Foreign Dub as Basis:
  • There were two Albanian dubs of Tokyo Mew Mew. The first one was based on the English version. The second one was based on the Italian version, though it kept the Japanese OP and ED.
  • The Brazilian Portuguese dub of Mew Mew Power was based on the 4Kids dub. However, the Portuguese dubbers clearly weren't fluent with English, as lines like "I've brought my fly swatter" in English are translated to "I've brought my flying sweater" in Portuguese.
• Franchise Killer: à la Mode was considered this for years, as nothing new was attempted with the series afterward for decades. Eventually subverted, though; in 2020, we got a short third sequel called Tokyo Mew Mew Re-Turn (which included Berii as just another member of the team, removing the biggest reason fans hated her in A La Mode), a spinoff called Tokyo Mew Mew Au Lait with a new cast taking advantage of the "girl with a harem of pretty boys" trend of the time, and an anime reboot titled Tokyo Mew Mew New.
• God-Created Canon Foreigner: Ringo Akai/Mew Ringo was designed by Mia Ikumi for the PlayStation game, which she is exclusive to.
• God Never Said That: For the longest time, many people believed Mia Ikumi claimed in an Italian interview from 2004 that the three aliens were brothers and that their surname was "Ikisatashi". After fans on tumblr went through an intense research, they found out Ikumi never said such thing in that interview and the "Ikisatashi" surname was invented by the Italian fandom.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • Mew Mew Power remains unavailable on home video in North America.
  • In Australia, the first ten episodes were released on DVD, but they are now out of print.
  • All 26 episodes were released on DVD in South Africa and as of 2021, they are the only way to see the complete Mew Mew Power.
• No Export for You:
  • Mew Mew Power is a special case. 4Kids Entertainment was only able to acquire the rights to the first half of the show and never purchased the second half (supposedly due to low ratings, but it was their highest-rated show). As of 2020, it remains unlicensed, and no other company's attempted to try and re-dub it even as Sentai Filmworks picked up the 2022 adaptation for Tokyo Mew Mew.
  • The official video game never was released outside Japan.
  • The 2nd sequel manga 2020 Re-Turn nor the all-male spin off Ole have not been licensed by North American distributors.
• Referenced by...: Undertale and Deltarune include mentions of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, a Show Within a Show that pastiches Toyko Mew Mew. The former game depicts Alphys as despising the Sequel Series to Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, riffing on the negative reception of Tokyo Mew Mew à la Mode, and the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One ports add in Mad Mew Mew, a sentient Mew Mew Kissy Cutie doll that resembles Ichigo.
• Science Marches On: Nowadays, the IUCN Red List lists gray wolves as "least concern". A couple of subspecies are endangered, but that is all. Finless Porpoises aren't considered endangered anymore, but are still vulnerable.
• Screwed by the Network: 4Kids really didn't seem to favour the English dub. Initially, it was one of three shows where a poll would decide which would get an early premiere, and it was winning for almost the entire run of the poll until a sudden come-from-behind win by F-Zero: GP Legend, giving the impression that 4Kids had rigged the poll either to push the latter, to stall for time since the other dubs weren't ready yet, or keep a girls' show from winning (though none of these have ever been confirmed). They also only licensed the first half of the show and never merchandised it; even their Ojamajo Doremi dub got merch, as rare as that was. It's speculated that 4kids simply couldn't find a toy deal, and because of this they left the dub unfinished.
• Studio Hop:
  • At first, the manga's North American publishing rights were handled by Tokyopop. Then, after Tokyopop's license expired, Kodansha USA picked up the rights.
  • The 2002 anime was produced by Studio Pierrot and the 2022 anime was produced by Yumeta Company and Graphinica.
  • The original series was licensed by 4Kids Entertainment in America. Meanwhile, Sentai Filmworks would simulcast the reboot on HIDIVE.
• Unfinished Dub: Only the first 26 episodes of the 2002 anime were dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment as Mew Mew Power.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The series was originally conceived as a darker Magical Girl manga named Tokyo Black Cat Girl. Mia Ikumi then reworked it into a more lighthearted series with five heroines at suggestion of her editors.
  • In Tokyo Black Cat Girl, Masha was an alien robot sent to look out for original heroine, Hime "Princess" Azumi. The most shocking fact? He could talk in complete sentences!
  • An early advertisement for the series◊ features Mint with long, flowing pigtails instead of her dual buns and a slightly modified outfit.
• Working Title: 4Kids originally considered calling the dubbed version "Hollywood Mew Mew" (which did not go over well with fans) before settling on the more generic "Mew Mew Power". The original proposed title became the title of Episode 11. 4Kids also considered titling the show "The Mew Mews" or even using the original title "Tokyo Mew Mew."

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