Tokyo Mew Mew's first anime adaptation premiered in 2002, and it has since gone on to be considered a classic of the magical girl genre. This June, to mark the anime's 20th anniversary, the 2000 manga is getting a new adaptation titled Tokyo Mew Mew New. Fans of the franchise have been wondering if this new anime will more closely follow the 2002 anime or the original manga, but its first trailer suggests a surprising answer -- it might follow neither.
New's first trailer premiered on Feb. 22, and seemed to show footage from the reboot's first episode. For the most part, it appears to follow the same plot as the previous iterations of the series -- Momomiya Ichigo is on a date at an endangered animal exhibit with her crush, Aoyama Masaya when she is infused with the DNA of the Iriomote wildcat and becomes the magical heroine Mew Ichigo. In the manga, the other four future Mew Mews -- Aizawa Minto, Midorikawa Retasu, Huang Bu-Ling, and Fujiwara Zakuro were also at the exhibit and received their own animal DNA at the same time as Ichigo. This is shown in the New trailer as well, with one key difference -- Minto is missing.
She isn't completely absent from the trailer, however. When Ichigo first transforms into Mew Ichigo, Minto, already in her Mew Mint form, tells Ichigo to fight, much to the catgirl's confusion. In the original series, Minto became a Mew Mew after Ichigo; in fact, Ichigo had to track her down and tell her how to activate her powers. Tokyo Mew Mew New's trailer implies that Minto is already a Mew Mew when the anime starts, which would be a major change to the story. Although Ichigo is still the protagonist and leader of the group, this would make Minto the first and most experienced of the Mew Mews.
Of course, fans have pointed out that the trailer may have shown its scenes out of order, and that the Mew Mint scene may not be from the first episode at all. However, an article from the April issue of Nakayoshi magazine, released the week after the trailer, seems to offer further proof that Minto's role in the story has changed. In the article, a new screenshot of the anime that was not featured in the trailer can be seen. It depicted Minto seemingly wearing Ichigo's school uniform and holding a pair of tickets. Minto does not attend the same school as Ichigo, so it would appear that she is infiltrating the school to give Ichigo tickets to the museum exhibit, ensuring that she will be present to receive her wildcat DNA. If this interpretation is correct, it means that not only is Minto the first Mew Mew, she is also actively involved in recruiting the others.
If a change this big has already been made as early as the first episode, it raises the question of what other changes Tokyo Mew Mew New might make to the original story. Notably, New has based its character designs on the two-chapter 20th-anniversary manga Tokyo Mew Mew 2020 Re-Turn rather than using the more well-known designs from the original manga and anime. This has already got fans wondering if the manga's many sequels and spinoffs might finally be adapted. This combined with Mint's apparent new role seems to suggest that fans should not expect the exact same story they've been familiar with for twenty years.
Fan reaction to these changes has been divided so far, with some disliking the new designs and worrying that the story might be changed too much. Others are excited that the franchise is doing something different and are eager to see what else it might do in the future. What exactly Tokyo Mew Mew New has in store won't be revealed until June, but for now, the hints that have been given are already getting the audience talking.
