Plot: Shirogane and Akasaka detect a new source of Mew Aqua seemingly on a ship headed for a harbor in Tokyo. As they try to figure out how to find it among the numerous cargo boxes in the ships, they hear the girls freaking out over the latest news – Zakuro has been offered a movie deal in Hollywood, and it’s speculated that she’ll move to America, leaving her standing as a Mew Mew in jeopardy.
When Zakuro arrives, she tells them that she has indeed been offered a movie deal in Los Angeles, but she’s currently debating whether or not to take it. The girls all argue amongst themselves, especially after Mint tries to beg Zakuro to take her with her to America if she decides to go. Fed up with their arguing, she chastises the group for their behavior, tells Mint she has no reason to take her to America if she decides to go and leaves the café.
Later, Zakuro returns, and the girls are sent out to the harbor to see if the Mew Aqua reacts to any of them, even though they know that the Mew Aqua will only react when their emotions are high.
The girls split up and look around, to no avail. Zakuro reads a letter she got from home and remembers a painful time from her past, which triggers a reaction to Mew Aqua nearby, but she can’t tell exactly where it is.
The aliens arrive and corner Zakuro, prompting the other Mews to transform and rush to her location. They’re shocked to find that Zakuro not only hasn’t transformed yet, but seemingly doesn’t want to, claiming she’ll decide if and when she wants to fight.
Nonetheless, the battle between the aliens and Mews starts. The aliens conjure a Chimera Animal based on a crab. In the middle of battle, the Chimera Animal attacks Zakuro, who stands perfectly still and doesn’t react. Mint steps in and saves her, but Zakuro’s expression is still emotionless and she remains silent.
Mint falls while trying to save Zakuro from another assault, and Zakuro doesn’t even react. Angered, Ichigo steps in and defeats the Chimera Animal with a Ribbon Strawberry Surprise. As Taruto is about to make another Chimera Animal, Pai stops him. He believes that they truly don’t know where the Mew Aqua is so it’s just a waste to continue the fight.
They leave to search for the Mew Aqua themselves.
The girls rush to tend to Mint, but Zakuro, again, stands without response.
Later, Zakuro tells Ichigo to take care of Mint since she tends to stress herself out with worries over the future and needs someone by her side.
That night, the girls meet up to discuss Mew matters, but Zakuro fails to show up. She leaves a note with Masha implying that she really has quit and plans to move to America.
At the meeting, Shirogane tells the girls to just let Zakuro go, citing that she let Mint get hurt in battle and didn’t make any effort to help either before or after the fact. They can’t make her fight if she doesn’t want to, and she’s a detriment to them if they try to force her.
Ichigo chews out Shirogane for his words, stating that he’s forcing them all to become Mew Mews in the first place, and Zakuro is simply feeling alone and lost right now. She can’t leave her behind in such a state, so she decides to grab Mint and the other girls to go find her and bring her back.
They find Zakuro in her church, but she’s not alone. Kisshu is there with her, on friendly terms.
Breakdown:
– They’re saying that noise is the signal of Mew Aqua, but it sounds exactly like a heart monitor.
– They do call her out on this, but why is Pudding so nonchalant and damn near happy to announce that the Mews are splitting up?
– I was actually content with the way the transformation mashup was working today. Each Mew got mostly their full transformation sequence, and they even went through Lettuce, Mint and Pudding before Ichigo….but then I realized they were plowing through their transformations to get to the ‘main event.’ Ichigo’s is not cut down at all, and they switch to an entirely different music track for it. It’s better than spitting out the other Mews transformations while Ichigo gets all the spotlight, but it still irks me.
– Wow, I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve seen the other girls summon their weapons. They usually only get their attack animations, and even those are usually cut down some.
– Though, admittedly, I am getting tired of the girls’ (barring Zakuro and Ichigo) attacks hardly ever working….
This episode sure is a back and forth on positive focus on the other Mews and then turning around and ruining it.
– Ya know, I usually think Zakuro is cool and reasonable, and I didn’t fault her for not helping the other Mews, but how big of an asshole are you to not even react, not in the slightest, when one of your friends falls in battle trying to protect you from an attack and falls unconscious as a result. No flinch of the eyes, no looking her way, definitely no going to her side to see if she’s okay – nothing. Not making a pun on the fact that she’s literally a female dog – what a bitch.
– The fact that no one’s angry about this is even worse. Again, I can understand if they were being sympathetic with her not transforming or fighting, but what she did to Mint is worth at least some anger.
– Zakuro makes a nice speech and observation about Mint after that scene, but if she’s so concerned about Mint’s well-being, why did she act that way? Am I not getting something? ‘Yeah, take care of Mint. She gets so stressed out about the future, but screw her if she gets injured and knocked unconscious. I don’t care.’
– So Shirogane’s the only one who even mentions what Zakuro did to Mint? Fair enough that it at least gets mentioned, but I feel like it should be more of an issue.
– By the by, that attack Mint protected Zakuro from? It was a huge glob of acid – powerful enough to melt a metal building in one second. Mint could’ve easily been terribly disfigured or killed if she didn’t have the power to stop that attack. And considering Zakuro still hadn’t transformed and couldn’t be arsed to react to the point of even removing her hands from her pockets, she could’ve easily been killed by that if Mint hadn’t stepped in.
So either, according to Ichigo, Zakuro’s confused about what she wants out of life and is lost to the point of near suicide, which I sincerely doubt, she’s incredibly stupid or she doesn’t care what happens to her or anyone else.
– And sure, let’s pepper in a dash of irony in that we’re also focusing on the fact that Zakuro’s religious in this episode. I’m sure God would’ve loved it if you let Mint become a burning husk on the ground as you stared off with that stone-cold expression.
I know it seems like I’m harping on this or being too harsh, but I can’t help thinking how I would’ve felt in that situation. I know Mint is more hurt than she’s letting on, the next episode preview shows that much, but the fact that the others aren’t even giving it a passing thought is annoying.
I know that this is all leading to Zakuro teaching the girls, particularly Mint some big lesson that I forget at the moment (it’s been a while since I’ve seen the tail end of this series), and maybe I won’t feel as angry as I do right now when that episode is done……but fuck off. You don’t have much of a lesson to teach to Mint if she’s a blob of melted flesh and bone.
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All in all, I probably have more malice for this episode than I should, but I’m not taking it back. That scene with Mint really, really bothered me, and this is coming from someone who doesn’t much care for Mint. From what I recall of the second part of this episode, I honestly don’t think Zakuro’s reasoning will be of much comfort either.
Again, if you have a lesson to teach the girls, fine. Don’t transform. Fine. Don’t fight. Fine. Make them believe you’re quitting. Fine. Don’t flippantly nearly let one of your friends be killed in a terrible horrific way to get your point across. The aliens had much more of an emotional response to Kisshu being injured than Zakuro did to Mint being knocked out and nearly melted to death. What does your lack of response help with this little lesson either? I don’t get it.
Ichigo’s also kinda acting poorly here. I get that she wants to help Zakuro because she realizes she’s going through something, but the Mint thing coupled with the fact that her reasoning comes off as basically ‘Shirogane is forcing us to be Mew Mews so we have a right to hunt her down and drag her back’ is a bit off-putting.
If it’s any consolation, I do recall this leading to one of the better episodes in the series, but I also believe that will be tainted with the explanation behind Zakuro’s actions.
Last note, the art and animation for this episode is weird. The animation is average but the art keeps jumping from bad to ‘oh they’re spending money this episode’ levels. One minute everything’s all nicely lit and well-detailed, the next Zakuro’s face is smushed and she has eyelashes that might as well be woolly caterpillars.
Next episode, is Zakuro gone for good? What will Mint do if she’s gone? What does this mean for the Mew Mews?
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The Anime Madhouse 