#mia ikumi's translation project

[kuro93]

IKUMI’S TRANSLATION PROJECT by BERRY BERRY SCANS ♥

Hello guys! ♥

I’m KuRo93.

As you may already know, I'm taking care of Ikumi's Translation Project, which has as its goal to let the world know, read and love Mia Ikumi's most important mangas. Unfortunately, unless Tokyo Mew Mew, her mangas have been poorly supported outside Japan and have never been scanned or fan-translated from Japanese. Thankfully, most of them have been published in my country, Italy, during the early 2000's, following the massive success Tokyo Mew Mew had here. I bought a second copy of each Ikumi's manga volumes published in Italy (Super Doll Licca-chan, Repure and Wish).

I also bought from Japan Girls fight!, an Ikumi's oneshot published on Nakayoshi in 2004. This one in particular is pretty unknown to...the world.

  I will take care of scanning, translating and editing of the scans and will update the process in this post from time to time ♥ Some people will help me and will be credited for their work ♥ All the works will be signed with the Berry Berry Scans logo to prevent theft of material.

Please, be informed that we all have a life outside here, so we will work on the project when we will have time.

How about Koi Cupid? Koi Cupid has never been published outside Japan and the whole serie is extremely hard to find at the moment. Since we all want to read it, I will do my best to find it and do the same with this manga ♥

Lastly, I want to thank the followers who DONATED to support this project and helped me buying the volume copies. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH! ♥

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

HOW IT IS GOING ON~

SUPER DOLL LICCA-CHAN Volume 1 -Scanning COMPLETED! -Editing and cleaning 10% -Translating 0% -Lettering 0%

Volume 2 -Scanning COMPLETED! -Editing and cleaning 10% -Translating 0% -Lettering 0%

REPURE -Scanning 50% -Editing and cleaning 0% -Translating 0% -Lettering 0%

WISH -Scanning 0% -Editing and cleaning 0% -Translating 0% -Lettering 0%

GIRLS FIGHT! -Scanning 0% -Editing and cleaning 0% -Translating 0% -Lettering 0%

KOI CUPID TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED

*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

#mia ikumi #ikumi mia #ikumi translation project #ikumi's translation project #mia ikumi's translation project #mia ikumi translation project #tokyo mew mew #super doll licca chan #super doll rika-chan #koi cupid #koikyu #koikyuu #wish #repure #girls fight #scan #kuro93 #berry berry scans #berryberryscans

[berrychanx]

Girls Fight! - Mia Ikumi - Oneshot - English

A never before seen, Mia Ikumi, oneshot manga. Download Here

Scanned and Edited by KuRo93 Cleaning, Typesetting and Translated by @berrychanx

Proofreading by @hikayagami @ribbonstrawberrysurprise

About Mia Ikumi Translation Project - READ MORE HERE

#tokyo mew mew #mew mew power #girls fight #mia ikumi #ikumi mia #manga #fantranslation

[recentanimenews]

Tokyo Mew Mew New VA Unit Smewthie Posts English Message to Overseas Fans

    As reported, the five members of the Tokyo Mew Mew New's VA unit Smewthie has been learning English for their future overseas activities in the special YouTube program "Tokyo Mew Mew New English!" since July. In its latest fourth episode, they finally decide to deliver a message in English to their international fans.

  First, Ichigo Momomiya's VA Temma Yuuki prepares the message in Japanese, then all the members work together to translate it into English. Check out the results of the girls' efforts for two months in the video below! (the actual English message begins at 07:12)

          A twitter post by Momoka Ishii (Zakuro Fujiwara):

私たちの英語力はまだまだですが、少しでも世界の方々に感謝の気持ちが伝われば嬉しいです！是非見て下さい♡ Our English ability is still a long way off, but I hope we can convey our gratitude to people all over the world!!Please take a look♡ ↑合ってるかな？！怖い！#東京ミュウミュウ https://t.co/FlUnnRNucy

— 石井萌々果 (@ishii_momoka17) September 12, 2021

    Smewthie members:

  Yuuki Temma (Ichigo Momomiya)

Mirai Hinata (Mint Aizawa)

Ryoko Juni (Lettuce Midorikawa)

Rian Toda (Purin Fong)

Momoka Ishii (Zakuro Fujisawa)

      As part of the 20th-anniversary of the Tokyo Mew Mew manga created by Reiko Yoshida (story) and Mia Ikumi (arts), as well as the 65th-anniversary of Kodansha's Nakayoshi shoujo magazine in which the manga was serialized, the new anime project was launched in April 2020. The new TV anime series Tokyo Mew Mew New has been in the works for a premeire in 2022.

    Smewthie's first digital single "bitter sweet darling" MV (March 22, 2021 release):

    Digital single jacket:

    Artist photo:

    "Tokyo Mew Mew New" TV anime key visual:

    Source: "Tokyo Mew Mew New" project official YouTube channel

  (C)KODANSHA / "TOKYO MEW MEW NEW" Production Committee

  By: Mikikazu Komatsu

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

[ribbonstrawberrysurprise]

An ad from the April issue of Nakayoshi.

Translation:

(Top left, pink bubble) Shaking up the Reiwa era*

*The Reiwa era is the current time period according to the Japanese era calendar scheme. It began May 2019.

(Top left, red outline) A new Mew Mew project!

(Top middle, red text) The world debut of a new logo!

(Logo) Tokyo Mew Mew New ❤︎*

*The “New” is unusual in that it’s written in hiragana (にゅー) instead of katakana (ニュー), which is more typical for foreign words. Not sure if this means anything… Also, just like “myuu” could mean both the cat sound “mew” and the Greek letter mu (Μ/μ), “nyuu” could mean both “new” or the Greek letter nu (Ν/ν).

(Middle left, green) It’s the start of a new project, nyan!

(Middle left, blue bubble) “New ❤︎”…?

(Pink bubble) This title is…?

(Blue bubble) This logo is…?

(Above pink bubble) Various developments are being prepared right now!

(Pink bubble) What the heck is this…?!

(Middle left, white and yellow, above big text) In the May issue of Nakayoshi, for sale 4/3 (Fri.)

(Middle, big red and yellow text) Next issue, the announcement of some super big news!!!!!!!!!!

(Brown, overlapping exclamation points) Please look forward to it ☆

(Red box with QR code) “Tokyo Mew Mew New ❤︎” official site: https://tokyo-mew-mew.com

(Top left box) “Tokyo Mew Mew, Nakayoshi 65th Anniversary Edition,” all 7 super-popular volumes on sale now ♪

(Top right box) “Tokyo Mew Mew a La Mode,” all 2 volumes

(Yellow starburst) Digital distribution begins ♪

(Bottom left box) The long-awaited anime broadcast starts!

☆ Broadcasting channels

dTV, d Anime Store, U-NEXT, Anime Houdai, Bandai Channel, Rakuten TV, GYAO! Store, and Video Mart

© Kodansha and Television Aichi Broadcasting​ / Tokyo Mew Mew Production Committee

(Bottom right box) (Red bubble) Collector’s edition!

“Tokyo Mew Mew” Blu-ray Box Set, Released 4/24!

The “Tokyo Mew Mew” TV anime comes to Blu-ray for the first time, nyan!

Special perk: Includes a newly-drawn, colored mini comic from Mia Ikumi-sensei; the newly-drawn manga is found in a special booklet.

#Tokyo Mew Mew #Translation #Tokyo Mew Mew New

[hikayagami]

Well, the year of the rat/mouse has arrived. I’ve been busy with the scans for Au Lait, so I unfortunately didn’t have time to make a doodle of “Mousy”. So here are both the Kodansha (left) and Singapore (right) English translations of the page Mia Ikumi made about her in Tokyo Mew Mew’s 1st volume. Kind of interesting how the translations differ. The Singapore translation was quite a bit more wordy and even seems to add stuff that the Kodansha and Tokyopop translations didn’t.

As for upcoming stuff for 2020, the “Year of Mew Mew!”, I’m about halfway done with Au Lait’s 2nd chapter scans. Also the first part of my big Mew Mew art project will be up on January 5th, along with an explanation on what it is (Hint: If you know Mew Mew’s significance to that date, you might be able to figure it out X3.). There are also 2 other secret Mew Mew projects that I’m making as well.

As for the “reanimated” project, I’m thinking of giving it a go but it’ll have to wait until I’m able to find the time to separate all of the scenes. I’ll keep you all posted concerning that.

#Tokyo Mew Mew #Mew Mew Power #2020 is the Year of Mew Mew!!

[mahou-furbies]

I like reading magical girl manga, but unfortunately I’m not able to find that many. So I thought I’d check what else authors for well known magical girl manga have been up to outside that particular story. Mostly counting larger/more notable stories, I’m not going through every one short or series attempt that was canned after one volume.

Naoko Takeuchi (Sailor Moon, 1991-1997)

I thought she had done practically no manga after Sailor Moon ended, but it turns out I was wrong and she does have some very short works until the early 2000s (but after that I couldn’t find anything else form her other than work different Sailor Moon projects). However most of the stuff that’s listed for her is just one shots or one or two volumes at most, and nobody ever speaks of them. The only one I know is PQ Angels (1997), which is about two alien girls who try to live as schoolgirls and are able to transform into cockroaches, but it was pretty forgettable and was apparently discontinued because of Kodansha losing some pages of it.

Mia Ikumi (The artist for Tokyo Mew Mew, 2000-2002)

Has made only one longer work after TMM, Koi Cupid (2005-2008), which seems to be about 3 trainee cupids trying to become full-fledged angels. Fantasy, but doesn’t look like it fits in my definition of magical girls. Also only one volume has been published in English.

The TMM Writer, Reiko Yoshida, has been involved with writing anime starting from 1989 and continuing even today (Wikipedia lists her role as ‘script’, ‘script supervisor’ or ‘screenplay’ in works like Dragon Ball Z, Digimon Adventure, Angelic Layer, Sugar Sugar Rune, K-ON!, Bakuman, Silent Voice and Violet Evergarden). Couldn’t find any notable manga work from her outside writing TMM.

Moyoco Anno (Sugar Sugar Rune, 2003-2007)

My favourite magical girl manga! And unlike Ikumi, Anno has produced plenty of manga after Sugar Sugar Run too, but unfortunately none of it is magical girls. Or for girls in general either; most of her other work seems to be aimed at grown up readers, such as Hataraki Man (2004-2009), Happy Mania (1996-2001) and In Clothes Called Fat (1997), which feature 20-something women who struggle with various issues in their life. Sakuran (2001-2003), Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen (2013-2018) and Buffalo 5 Girls (2013) are about prostitution. Then there’s Flowers and Bees (2000-2003), Jelly in the Merry-Go-Round (1997-?) and Jelly Beans (1999-2002) which are about fashion or modeling which work with Anno’s strengths, since she’s amazing at designing clothes.

Moonlight Himejion (2007-?) is a little closer to what I’m looking for since it’s at least fantasy, but it seems to have been discontinued after one volume, but overall I could find very few works that had any fantasy elements. Which is a real shame since I’d love to see more fabulous magic outfit designs similar to Sugar Sugar Rune from Anno.

Peach-pit (Shugo Chara!, 2005-2010)

The duo behind Rozen Maiden (2002-2007) and its au stories, spin-offs and whatnot. Other than the story about fighting dolls which was pretty big back in its day they also have DearS (2001-2005), which looks like an ecchi magical girlfriend series to me, Zombie-Loan (2002-2011), which is a horror story involving you know what, and Kingyozaka Noboru (2012-2015), which has a teen girl helping a grade schooler (??? the MAL description is very unhelpful here), Wandering Wonder World (2014-2017) which is a shounen story about demons in an amusement park. Overall like with Anno their other works seem to be aimed at an older audiences and the colourful Shugo Chara! is more like an anomaly among their other titles.

Arina Tanemura

Has a lot of fantasy works with girls and magic, but I don’t count them all as magical girl series; for example I see Fullmoon o Sagashite as an idol story with fantasy elements (or maybe a fantasy story with idol elements?) rather than a magical girl one. Or maybe it’s just that I don’t care much for her works so I don’t have a lot of interest to feature them on this blog. Either way she has stuff like Time Stranger Kyoko (2000-2001), a short series that was clearly rushed to end about a princess who needs to gather 11 magic people to wake up her sleeping twin sister from an enchanted sleep, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (1997-2000) which is about a magical girl phantom thief, and The Legend of Princess Sakura (2008-2012) which is about the moon princess Kaguya’s descendant in historical Japan. Who I probably should count as a magical girl, she even has a henshin, but honestly I remember next to nothing of the first volume. Meanwhile 31☆Idream (2013-) turns the “little girl must transform into an older version of herself to become a teen idol” thing around with a 31-year-old woman who has to revert back in age to do the same.

Out of her major works only the hilariously awful (fite me) Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross (2004-2008) doesn’t have any fantasy elements and is instead about rich kids’ teen drama.

Pink Hanamori (The artist for Mermaid Melody, 2002-2005)

Only has 3 other works listed on MAL: A Princess Knight (the Tezuka one)  sequel (2008-2009), Yume Yume You You (2005-2007), a story about a girl living in her sister’s shadow discovering another world in a mirror, and My Fiancé is a Monster!? (2007-2008), which looks like a supernatural romantic comedy. Nothing after 2009.

Like with TMM’s case the writer Michiko Yokote has worked on a billion anime projects (credited as ‘script’, ‘screenplay’ or ‘series compositor’), such as .hack, Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu LOVE!, Gintama and Princess Tutu, but has no other manga listed other than a .hack adaptation.

CLAMP

Everyone knows CLAMP, and they have so many well known works that they don’t really belong to a “minor works from one-hit-wonder mangaka” list, but a magical manga list without even mentioning CLAMP would be badly incomplete so here they are anyway. And they are actively bringing out new magical girl manga to the world with the ongoing Clear Card arc of Cardcaptor Sakura, a sad rarity on this list! And then they of course also have Magic Knight Rayearth, and you can see Sakura and company in their massive multiverse crossover thing Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle (+xxxHolic). Also CLAMP’s absurdly incredible outfit catalogue is worth mentioning and especially Sakura’s wardrobe is such a gift to the world.

Other works from CLAMP include Angelic Layer, Chobits, Clover, Gate 7 and Kobato. A lot of their stuff has fantasy elements.

It appears that in the end my search for new magical girl manga was unsuccessful at least when it comes to these old veterans, so I must look elsewhere. I am able to find short trope-y otaku stuff, but I’d like a more straightforward story like TMM or Shugo Chara. What do the kids read nowadays? What is the TMM of today? Is great stuff being produced but just not translated to us Western barbarians, or do plenty of English versions exist but I’m just too lazy and inept to find it? Or are magical girls out of fashion and little girls only want to be idols?

#magical girls #my stuff #ramble ramble

[kuro93]

Hello, any update regarding the Mia Ikumi Works translation project?? It's been a year already

Dear Anon,

I am sorry for my suuuuper late reply.

The last update for the project is dated July 2022 and I would love to take this opportunity to proper explain why.

I would like to specify / recall that the main staff working on the project is made by me and @berrychanx only.

We also took care of physically buying Japanese / Chinese copies of the mangas we are interested in translate and share with Ikumi-sensei fans during these last years.

Needless to say, we went through some problems with actually getting the material in our hands.

For example…

When we found out the existence of Mia Ikumi’s oneshot, ‘Girls Fight!’, I tried to search for it on the net. I was sure to have bought it, but the bunch I received included only the colored cover of the Nakayoshi issue where it had been published in 2004.

After that, @berrychanx found the os and bought it right away, but the item got stuck in customs.

Months later, I finally succeed in buying the Nakayoshi issue where the whole os had been published. Yay!

Secondly, we had to deal with finding proper translators for the project.

We needed people interested in working in a long term project and with enough proficiency in Japanese and Chinese for translation and proofreading.

We were searching volunteers especially for Chinese, since KoiQ scans are in this language only.

I managed to find two kind persons able to translate and proofread from Chinese to English and willing to participate in the project between the last August and November approximately.

Last but not least… me, @berrychanx and our collaborators had to deal with personal and health issues recently.

I personally had big anxiety problems during the last summer, and have to deal with unpleasant difficulties in my family and job which are still going on in the moment I am writing this post.

One of our Chinese translator got hospitalized in 2023 for at least a month, and @berrychanx too had to get through with her own health issues.

...

We are all people fighting with our personal demons.

Also, we all have a IRL here.

We work on the project when possible, and when our minds and bodies are ok.

Please, be kind and have mercy of us ❤

We rely on you.

Thanks!

#mia ikumi #ikumi mia #mia ikumi translation project #kuro93

[berrychanx]

Omori Enka (Mia Ikumi Assistant) Ichigo Fuumi /Ichigo x Ryou Doujin - SMUT´- ENG

いちこ風味 (Ichigo Fuumi) ~ Tokyo Mew Mew Doujinshi by Omori Enka ❤

'Ichigo Fuumi' is a never-seen-before Tokyo Mew Mew doujinshi published in 2003 by Omori Enka, aka 'Rika-chan', one of Ikumi's assistant during Tokyo Mew Mew serialization. Enjoy! ❤

WARNING!! THIS DOUJINSHI IS A NC-17 PRODUCT AND RESERVED TO ADULTS ONLY.

DOWNLOAD in SUPER HD Quality HERE

Scanned and Edited by KuRo93

Cleaning, Typesetting and translated by @berrychanx

About Mia Ikumi Translation Project - READ MORE HERE

#tokyo mew mew #mew mew power #omori enka #ichiryo #ichigo momomiya #ryou shirogane

[berrychanx]

Mia Ikumi - Auto-Bio / Doujin Mia Kyatto ENGLISH Download

CREDITS

Scans and editing by @kuro93

Cleaning, tyepsetting and Translation by @berrychanx

Proofreading by @hikayagami @ribbonstrawberrysurprise

Download HERE

As the title says this is a doujin released by Mia Ikumi in 99 months BEFORE she won the nakoyashi shoujo award with Sleeping Princess of Strawberry Forest.

This is her second work as an independent mangaka, we get to know more about her personal life and struggles with keeping a job, deadlines for comiket and much more.

Please enjoy

About Mia Ikumi Translation Project - READ MORE HERE

#mia ikumi #tokyo mew mew #doujin #fantranslation

[berrychanx]

How is the Mia Ikumi Manga

fan-translation project going?

We haven't started yet. @kuro93 got a new job recently and is very busy.

Sorry for that but we hope you understand.

#Mia ikumi #berrychanx answers

[ribbonstrawberrysurprise]

Translation:

(top) In 2020... a big project to shake up the era!

A Mew Mew project begins!

As part of the Nakayoshi 65th Anniversary celebration, the Mew Mews are coming back!

(speech bubble) In 2020, we’re powered up and going wild, nyan ♡

[the color-coded lines are just their names]

(center left) Tokyo Mew Mew

There’s celebratory furoku in the next issue ♡ The Tokyo Mew Mew project starts! The Tokyo Mew Mew blackboard tablet will accompany it.

(center right) Manga: Mia Ikumi (征海美亜) *Pen name changed from Mia Ikumi (征海未亜)

[her old pen name used a character (未) meaning “not yet” or “still” for the “Mi” part, and her new one uses the character for “beauty” (美)]

Scenario: Reiko Yoshida

Drawn by Ikumi-sensei and Yoshida-sensei, the first part of “Tokyo Mew Mew 2020″ will be published in the next issue ☆ You have to check it out ♪

(yellow rectangle in the pink section) Tokyo Mew Mew is......?

Serialization started in September of 2000. It was a super popular series that combined the idea of a fighting squad of 5 beautiful girls with environmental issues, and had cute characters and plot twists to keep you on the edge of your seat. There was a TV anime and a game, and when a sequel was announced there was a huge commotion. ♪

(yellow speech bubble) This is a cover from when it was serialized.☆

(red speech bubble) Points on why Mew Mew is amazing!

1. Ahead of its time! The original cat-ear manga. Even now, the cosplayers are overwhelmingly enthusiastic!

2. Talks about environmental issues. The Mew Mews are infused with the genes of Red Data Animals, that is, animals that are on the verge of extinction worldwide, by injection and thus awakened their power.

3. Famous lines! “For the future of Earth, we’ll be of service, nyan ♡” The 5 girls are so cool, cute, and sexy*! Everyone admires them ♡

[*Yes, they literally used セクシー or sekushii here. I would’ve gone with something else if possible...]

(bottom, top of yellow strip) Tokyo Mew Mew Nakayoshi 60th Anniversary Celebration edition — all 7 volumes are on sale now ♪

(bottom right, blue shape) A male version of the super popular work, “Tokyo Mew Mew”! “Tokyo Mew Mew Au Lait” begins on the next page ♪ Don’t overlook it, nyan ♡

#Tokyo Mew Mew #Translation #Tokyo Mew Mew 2020 ReTurn

[ribbonstrawberrysurprise]

Translation:

(top left) Tokyo Mew Mew: 2020 Return ♡ (Part 1)

(top center) Special first part ☆ You have to check it out ♪

(left) One day, Ichigo Momomiya, merged with the genes of the Iriomote Wildcat, ended up fighting against powerful enemies —?!

(center, speech/thought bubble) In 2020.....a Mew Mew project begins!

(far right) The start of a big project to shake up the era!! The legendary super popular work is coming back, nyan ♡

(bottom left) Manga: Mia Ikumi (征海美亜) Scenario: Reiko Yoshida Concept: Kodansha

*Pen name changed from Mia Ikumi (征海未亜)

[her old pen name used a character (未) meaning “not yet” or “still” for the “Mi” part, and her new one uses the character for “beauty” (美)]

(bottom right) Nakayoshi, February issue, released December 28th (Sat.)!

#Tokyo Mew Mew #Translation #Tokyo Mew Mew 2020 ReTurn

[recentanimenews]

TOKYO MEW MEW NEW VA Unit Members Check Their English Ability in New YouTube Series

    As a special program for the summer vacation period, the official YouTube channel for the TOKYO MEW MEW NEW project has started streaming a new series "TOKYO MEW MEW NEW English!" The five members of its VA unit Smewthie are learning English for their future overseas activities.

  In its first episode, they take simple tests to find out how good (or bad) their current English ability is. They have to translate their character names - Ichigo (strawberry), Mint, and Zakuro (pomegranate) - into English. Also, they have to translate short Japanese phrases and sentences into English, for example, "Ganbattane!" (Good job!, You did well!) and "Momoka wa Sono Anime ni Kandoushita" (Momoka was moved by that anime). Check out the video below to see who has the best English skills at the moment!

    Smewthie members:

  Yuuki Temma (Ichigo Momomiya)

Mirai Hinata (Mint Aizawa)

Ryoko Juni (Lettuce Midorikawa)

Rian Toda (Purin Fong)

Momoka Ishii (Zakuro Fujisawa)

        ✨????夏休み特別企画????『東京ミュウミュウ にゅ〜♡』いんぐりっしゅ！#1 公開????✨  第一弾はメンバーの英語力を抜き打ちテスト????‍???? 一番英語ができるのはだれだ！？????https://t.co/13mTgzS5DB TOKYO MEW MEW NEW English!#1 is up???? We hope overseas fans will enjoy it!????#mewmew_new #Smewthie pic.twitter.com/kyWOfowrvQ

— TVアニメ『東京ミュウミュウ にゅ～♡』公式 TOKYO MEW MEW NEW (@mew_mew_new) July 12, 2021

      As part of the 20th-anniversary of the Tokyo Mew Mew manga created by Reiko Yoshida (story) and Mia Ikumi (arts), as well as the 65th-anniversary of Kodansha's Nakayoshi shoujo magazine in which the manga was serialized, the new anime project was launched in April 2020. The new TV anime series TOKYO MEW MEW NEW is set to premiere in Japan sometime in 2022.

    Smewthie's first digital single "bitter sweet darling" MV (March 22, 2021 release):

    Digital single jacket:

    Artist photo:

    "TOKYO MEW MEW NEW" TV anime key visual:

    Source: "TOKYO MEW MEW NEW" project official YouTube channel

  (C)KODANSHA / "TOKYO MEW MEW NEW" Production Committee

  By: Mikikazu Komatsu

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

[ribbonstrawberrysurprise]

Ribbon vs. Reborn

This is one of those big TMM translation arguments.

I guess I’ve already taken a side due to my url...

Putting that aside for now, why is there a debate over the first word of the Mew Mew’s attack names? And does one option have more evidence?

The Mew Mew’s attacks all* begin with リボーン (ribōn/riboon/riboun). 

*except sometimes Pudding in the manga

Japanese syllables (except for “n”) cannot end in a consonant, so foreign words written in katakana try to sound sort of like the original pronunciation without violating that rule. Sounds like “or” and “ar” in English usually become an “o” or “a” sound held for twice the normal length (sort of like the British pronunciation).  For example, “star” would be broken down into su-ta-a, and written as スター, with “ー” meaning to hold the vowel longer.

This means that the typical translation for リボーン is reborn.

“Ribbon" would more typically be written as  リボン (ribon).

However, the “ ー ” in katakana just means that the vowel at the end of a syllable is held longer, not why it is held longer. So,  リボーン could be reborn, said normally, or ribbon, with the “bon” part held for a dramatically long time (i.e., Ribboooooooon, Strawberry Check!).

Like it is in the anime.

So, which was intended?

Unfortunately, as far as I know the attack names have never been written in English on any official Japanese merchandise or publication, and there’s no word from Mia Ikumi or Reiko Yoshida.

So what about the official English?

Both official English translations (Tokyopop and Kodansha) used Ribbon for the attack names. However, the Tokyopop translation is known to have seriously mistranslated lots of katakana and been incredibly inconsistent with attack and weapon names.

Kodansha is definitely better, but they still couldn’t get Quiche until a la Mode.

So, both versions of the English manga think it’s ribbon, but neither is infallible when it comes to translating names in katakana.

What about the anime?

Well, Mew Mew Power used entirely different attack names, so it and any dubs based on it won’t be helpful. Of the dubs listed on the TMM wiki, 5 were based on the original Japanese: Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai, and Italian. Of these, the Cantonese cuts out Ribbon/Reborn entirely, and the Korean and Thai transliterate ri-bo-o-n into Hangul and Thai script, respectively.

The Mandarin dub definitely uses ribbon because that part of the attack is written in English.

...but there are obviously some other issues. I can honestly see how サプライズ (sapuraizu) was misunderstood as スプライセス (supuraisesu) and ラッシュ (rasshu) as ズラッシュ (zurasshu), but you’d think someone would check the meaning of the English words...

The Italian dub actually uses Italian for the attacks rather than transliterating the original Japanized English. The wiki lists Ichigo’s Italian attack as “Ribbon of Light,” but this is misleading. Mew Berry’s attack in Mew Mew Amiche Vincenti is “Fiocco di Luce,” which would more accurately translate to Bow of Light. Her weapon is “Fiocco del Cuore,” (Bow of the Heart/The Heart’s Bow). Mew Mina uses “Cuore di Mina” (Mina’s Heart), and her attack is “Fiocco d'Azione” (Bow of Action). The other Mews’ are along the same lines as Mina. This isn’t really a use of ribbon, but it definitely suggests that the translators interpreted the original attacks as using “Ribbon” when coming up with the Italian ones.

So, the dubs and English manga seem to generally like “Ribbon”. Why then, is there a debate?

Aside from the fact that リボーン is translated as “reborn” in every other context, “Ribbon” is a totally random word that doesn’t seem related to any of the attacks or even the Mews in general. Admittedly, “Check” also seems totally random, but the other words at least seem vaguely suggestive of the attack or the Mew’s attitude. “Ribbon” is a random cute word, whereas “Reborn” is thematic.

There’s a lot of rebirth/resurrection in TMM, usually due to Mew Aqua.

Deep Blue is reborn as Masaya, a bird is reborn to show off the power of the Mew Aqua, everyone in Tokyo (the world?) except Ichigo is reborn due to the final Mew Aqua, then Masaya and Ichigo revive each other due to love (and possibly residual Mew Aqua).

The anime underplays this by specifying that the bird in ep. 21 was only injured, but it’s more explicit about the main characters’ deaths in the last few episodes. 

Either way, “Reborn” makes sense thematically because the Mews’ power seems somehow tied to Mew Aqua (e.g., it reacts when they’re close).

So, “Reborn” is thematic, but “Ribbon” is a cuter word (always a concern for girls shows) that’s probably more familiar to the target audience. After all, the loanword ribon is a term used day-to-day to refer to stuff like hair ribbons, whereas riboun is not very common*. Official translations favor “Ribbon,” but none of them are flawless translations, and all of them are influenced by previous translation choices (e.g., the Tokyopop translation influenced fansubbers, who influenced the fandom, who influenced the Kodansha re-translation). 

* It’s become more well-known due to the Reborn! manga/anime, but those came out after 2002, when the TMM anime takes place.

Choosing between them seems like more of a matter of personal preference, but I think choosing just one is unnecessary. 

(EVERYTHING PAST THIS IS HEADCANON)

How did the Mew weapons, etc. get named? (In universe, so Ikumi/Yoshida is the wrong answer.) 

Presumably either Keiichiro or Ryou designed and named everything themselves. We know that they at least created the Mewberry Rod because Ryou gives it to Ichigo in episode 15, and it can’t be that different from the other weapons because Ichigo summons it by default from then on.

Ryou is intelligent but has no people skills.

His idea of a fun nickname is “biological weapon”.

Ryou cannot have named the weapons or attacks because they aren’t something like “Chimera Disintegration Beam”. Keiichiro, who is used to smoothing things over when Ryou offends someone and is at the very least capable of designing cakes, is a much better candidate for the designer/namer of the weapons, outfits, cafe, etc.

It’s also possible they outsourced it since we know they don’t work entirely alone. I don’t want to go through the whole series right now, but I’m pretty sure the anime mentions them getting results from a lab a few times, and Mary McGuire at least seems to know Ichigo’s secret identity. (Also, why else were they hosting a party if not to gather/recruit members of the project?)

Regardless, I think Ryou pushed for something too scientific or unappealing and person B compromised with something that the average Japanese elementary or middle school student wouldn’t hate. Thus “Reborn” to get him to agree, but secretly “Ribbon”.

To explain/justify that, let’s consider the name of the Mew Project. 

ミュウ (myū/myuu) is a slightly irregular spelling of  ミュー , which can refer to the cat sound “mew” but also to the Greek letter “Μ” or “μ” (mu) which is pronounced the same way. The symbol μ is used to represent the mutation rate of a gene in genetics research, and the Mew Project is sometimes written as the μ-Project in the anime.

Greek letters also show up in a manga illustration.

(In case you’re wondering, horizontally is an attempt at “Ichigo Momomiya” and vertically is an attempt at “Tokyo Mew Mew”)

There’s no way that no one noticed that μ is both scientifically appropriate and a cat pun. Similarly, there’s no way no one noticed that “Reborn” sounds like “Ribbon”. Considering all of the weapon names are already puns, it should come as no surprise that the names of other things are puns as well.

I think that whoever named them (probably Keiichiro) always intended them to be both at once. So, both μ-Ichigo and Mew Ichigo, both Reborn and Ribbon. Ryou would approve of the first and either not notice the second until too late or grudgingly agree that it makes an okay cover for a cafe name

Out of the Mews, only Zakuro might know the Greek alphabet and possibly be aware of its use in genetics. Theoretically all of them might have the English knowledge from school to get both “ribbon” and “reborn,” but Ichigo “I am a Ichigo” Momomiya is not great at English. She definitely knows the word for hair ribbons though, because she uses it in episode 1 (about 3 min. in, “Arrhh! The ribbon snapped!”). Ichigo is also one who officially names the team “Tokyo Mew Mew” to the press, and even Ryou ends up using that name eventually, despite reacting negatively when he first hears it. Since that name gets accepted as official both in and out of universe, I feel like Ichigo’s interpretations of all the names should be the “official” ones unless specifically talking about Ryou and Keiichiro’s research. 

So, both options are correct depending on the circumstance (e.g. Ichigo talking vs. Ryou talking, official Project report vs. news broadcast), but Mew and Ribbon should be the default.

tl;dr, 

Ryou tells μ-Ichigo about her attack, Reborn Strawberry Check.

Mew Ichigo tells the media about her attack, Ribbon Strawberry Check.

Keiichiro has once again saved the day using people skills and puns.

#Tokyo Mew Mew #TMM #Long post #Meta #Attacks