SSBS – Tokyo Mew Mew Episode 50: Ichigo’s Trial – I Am A Mew Mew

Plot: The truth has been revealed – Aoyama was secretly Deep Blue the whole time.

Pai explains that Deep Blue is actually an amalgamation of all three beings. His spirit resided in the DNA of humans, and eventually his being split off into two mediums, Aoyama and the Blue Knight. However, his true form could not emerge unless he had met the proper conditions. Ironically, all of the conflict with the Mews triggered his Aoyama and Blue Knight forms to meet with his spirit and eventually awaken his true form. In the process, both Aoyama and the Blue Knight were erased from existence. There is only Deep Blue now.

Ichigo, paralyzed in shock, refuses to believe what she’s being told. She begs and pleads for Aoyama to remember her, but she’s only met with an icy stare that is soon replaced with an onslaught of attacks.

After Pudding and Ichigo have both been downed by Deep Blue, the girls resort to their only option – they may all be friends with Aoyama, and Ichigo may love him, but they have no choice – they must attack.

Ichigo, however, is still processing all of this. And now, she can’t believe that her friends have to resort to fighting Aoyama. While they give a good effort, the girls are quickly felled easily by Deep Blue.

Still lost in a delusion brought on by grief, Ichigo walks towards Deep Blue, showing him the bell Aoyama gave her and asking him to remember her. He swats the bell out of her hands and prepares to attack her. The other Mews stand in the way of the massive blast and get slammed into the nearby wall, causing them to de-transform.

Ichigo goes to them, still in a haze – confused as to what’s happening. Mint slaps her in the face and tells her that, while it’s understandable to need to grieve at this time, it’s also their responsibility to do what needs to be done to save humanity. She and the other Mews remind her of how much she’s brightened up their lives and all the good she’s done as a Mew, and now they need her to get up and continue being Mew Ichigo for the sake of the entire world. They return her bell to her, and Ichigo becomes reinvigorated by their words.

Just as she’s about to get back into the game, Deep Blue swings his powered-up sword and slams it into the ground, causing massive destruction within a mile radius. The Mews are able to weather the attack, but the other damage has been done.

Taruto, surprisingly, joins their side. He damns Deep Blue for his plan and supports a weakened Pudding. The other girls all get up behind Ichigo as she swallows her pain and sets out to attack as Deep Blue rears up for another assault.

As her Ribbon Strawberry Surprise and his powerful sword clash, she tries to remember Aoyama and everything they went through together. While she seemingly accepts that Pai was right and there is no Aoyama anymore, only Deep Blue, she resolves that she will wait to see his smile again no matter what.

Despite her power and resolve, Ichigo is starting to lose the battle against Deep Blue. As she staggers, Ryou (in Alto form) comes in to save her, cutting Deep Blue’s cheek in the process. Ichigo apologizes to Ryou, explaining that her voice no longer reaches Aoyama, but Ryou argues that that’s not true. There was a reason she was chosen to be a Mew, and her voice can certainly get through to him and save the world.

Ryou gives the other Mews the last bit of Mew Aqua that they have in order for them to transform yet again. Back in Mew form and ready for their final battle, the girls group up and attack Deep Blue.

For the sake of the planet Aoyama loved so much, they will defeat him no matter what.

———————————-

– I think it’s a bit overboard for Ichigo to nearly faint at the Deep Blue revelation. But this is anime, where girls are constantly fainting.

– Maybe he just figured this out right now, but Pai is talking as if he knew all along that Aoyama, the Blue Knight and Deep Blue were one and the same. If so, he’s either got a really good poker face or a lot of his past actions have become quite confusing. And if he did know the whole time, did Pai figure it out himself or did Deep Blue tell him? If so, why not tell Kisshu or Taruto?

– The solidarity that the girls have when they react to the Deep Blue revelation is quite sweet. Mint in particular surprised me by explaining that she always admired the relationship the two of them had.

– Wow. Mint’s second Mint Echo was really cool with the way she flipped and shot.

– Okay, I understand that Ichigo is really just…not here right now. She’s still in shock and everything, but when it reaches a point where she’s so delusional that she’s putting the other girls in harm’s way, that’s when I start getting agitated. Ichigo would have died if the others didn’t jump in front of her.

However, I won’t really rant about this because they do handle this situation quite well. Mint slapping her and ramming her back into reality was exactly what I wanted to see happen.

I can fully understand her being in shock and not wanting to believe what she’s witnessing, and it’s nice that the girls gave her time to weep while they took on the battle for a while, but they have a job to do and they know they can’t afford to allow her to stay like that forever. The longer she does, the more they and the world are put at risk.

It’s not that Mint and the other Mews are jerks about it either. After Mint literally slaps some sense into Ichigo, which was necessary, she and the other girls all give her sweet words of encouragement to help get her back up and into battle to save humanity. It may hurt, and it may suck, but that’s the situation presented before them.

It’s also for Aoyama’s sake. The Aoyama she knew would never want innocent lives to be snuffed out or for the earth to be destroyed by his hand. It’s not just about saving the world, it’s about stopping him from suffering the guilt of doing such a thing if Aoyama is still alive somewhere in Deep Blue.

– Okay, so the whole thing about them hypocritically destroying the environment while also trying to reclaim the earth for themselves wasn’t nonsensical, it was just the aliens wanting to ‘reset’ the world before calling their kind back to it……No wait, that’s still nonsensical. Do they have the ability to quickly regrow plants and respawn untold numbers of animal species? Do they have a whole ecosystem of their own animal species they want to transport here? I find it doubtful many animal species can live on their current planet if it’s such a challenge for their own species to survive.

They could have just left it at them wanting to destroy all of humanity and anything manmade. I really can’t wrap my head around why they’d want to destroy all living beings. Just seems like it would damage their cause or otherwise be a massive hassle for them for little reason.

– Wow, thousands of people had to have died in that first strike considering all the buildings that were destroyed.

– Pudding only mentioned needing to protect her brothers as she got up. She has a sister too.

– N’aw! Taruto holding Pudding up and asking if she’s okay. N’aw!

– Even n’awer him apologizing and Pudding saying she’s 100x stronger now that he’s here! I love these two so much.

– So…were Taruto and Kisshu also unaware of Deep Blue’s intentions on destroying the world (before reinvigorating it, I guess) while Pai knew?

– That monologue and clip show of Ichigo’s memories of Aoyama was very touching.

– Am I not understanding something? Why did Ryou need to be in Alto form when he came in? I mean, he managed to scratch Deep Blue’s face, but he could have easily saved Ichigo without transforming.

– *Ryou jumps over massive crater* ?!?!

……Well…I guess I can just chalk this up to Ryou’s Mew powers, right? Ichigo has similar abilities when she’s not transformed, so I suppose it only makes sense that Ryou has some, even if he doesn’t have an actual Mew form (outside of Alto.)

– Ryou: “You are the chosen super lady.” This isn’t the subtitles because I can specifically hear Ryou say “super lady.” I dunno, it’s just such a weird way to phrase that.

– Ryou: “So the one who can save the earth….Mew Ichigo. Only you can do it.”

Ryou: “Also, Lettuce, Mint, Pudding and Zakuro, your role…”

Zakuro: “I know. In order for Mew Ichigo to get the Mew Aqua in the end…”

Trying so hard to shove down the blatant Ichigo favoritism on display here as the girls are literally relegated to ‘helpers’ while Ichigo is ‘the only one who can save the earth.’ I am holding out that hope that maybe the other Mews have some big finale moment that I’m just forgetting about, but that line kinda dimmed that hope. It’s even more troublesome because I definitely remember the aliens’ big moment but nothing is coming to mind in regards to the other Mews.

I mean, at least they’re allowed to re-transform after all that, but still.

– And even in their last transformation of the series (I presume) they can’t give the other girls their full transformation sequences….

—————————————————

I really do like this episode a lot, just not quite as much as the previous one, and, as petty as this is, yes, the only thing marring it enough for me to say it’s not at the same exact level as the previous episode is that frickin’ line about how Ichigo’s the only one who can save the earth and the other girls are basically just helping still.

Being absolutely fair, they kinda did get their time to shine…ish in this episode since they fought valiantly against Deep Blue. But even their combined efforts couldn’t make him flinch. Ichigo alone could clash energies with him head on for well over a minute before starting to falter.

And even though I did like Mint slapping some sense into Ichigo and the other girls building her back up to get back into battle, that is also technically more them getting focus because they’re supporting Ichigo.

I know, I’m sorry, it really seems like I’m harping too much on this, but I can’t help it. When I first made my review on Tokyo Mew Mew way back in the day, this aspect of the series was definitely annoying enough to note a few times. I thought rewatching this after so many years might give me a new view on this. Maybe there were moments I didn’t really give enough credit to. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as my inexperienced reviewer brain thought.

Now, even though I have gained more respect for certain aspects of this series on this rewatch, the favoritism thing has only gotten worse the more I analyze the episodes. Before, I was really only complaining about how the girls don’t get more weapons and attacks or animal traits when not transformed like Ichigo does, or how Ichigo gets like every guy falling in love with her but the girls get practically nothing in the romance department, but now I realize how much the other Mews regularly take a back seat to Ichigo. Sometimes, they’re in the trunk!

Like I said, that bit of hope that my horrible goo pile of a memory is working against me is the girls each have their own bright moments to shine in the last two episode is still alive, but each episode that goes by makes me increasingly worried.

But enough of that malarkey, we’re heading into the final stretch and the entire world’s on the line! Can’t Ichigo’s voice truly make it through to Aoyama, if he is still inside Deep Blue somewhere? Can the Mews save the world from Deep Blue’s destruction? And what of the other aliens? Will they stand in their way?

…Previous Episode

---

If you enjoy my work and would like to help support my blog, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥