Tokyo Mew Mew New Prologue! Part Two: RecapNovember 12, 2020 marked the release of part two of the T

Tokyo Mew Mew New Prologue! Part Two: Recap

November 12, 2020 marked the release of part two of the Tokyo Mew Mew New Prologue series, an online documentary showing us a look behind-the-scenes into the audition process and casting of Ichigo Momomiya in the new animation project, “Tokyo Mew Mew New”, announced on April 2, 2020 for Nakayoshi’s 65th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of Tokyo Mew Mew.

The documentary is narrated by Saki Nakajima, the voice of Ichigo in the original 2002 animation and subsequent video games.

This episode focused on three more of the twelve audition finalists, picked by judges and by fans on the “mysta” app out of the 57 entries that made it through all three stages of the screening process to attend the Event Screening. According to the documentary, there were some 3,000+ applicants in total!

The Event Screening consisted of two parts: reading lines on stage and singing and dancing to the new song “bitter sweet darling”. Judges for the event included opera singer and vocal director Sugai Hidenori, dancer and choreographer SA.KANA, director of audiography Kameyama Toshiki, editor-in-chief of Nakayoshi magazine Suda Shukuko and Yoshida Takeshi, a representative on behalf of Pony Canyon/Swallow.

Highlighted this episode were:

Entry 2766: Ai Aisa. “This audition brought back the memory of my childhood watching Tokyo Mew Mew. That inspired me like ‘this is it!’ and I applied.” She admitted that her favorite character was Mint. The first entrant to appear in the audition stream, Ai Aisa said that she wants to be a “voice actor who cheers up children” and that Tamura Yukari is a voice actress she admires. “I’m excited to perform on the stage. With many thanks to all of you who gave me this opportunity, I wish to perform my best.” She spoke about how she really enjoys singing, and like many of the other girls, had begun taking voice lessons in addition to singing and acting. She also bought a posture correction belt to help her stand straight on stage.

Despite giving her best performance, Sugai Hidenori was quick to criticize her for focusing too much on scales and not enough on the lyrics themselves. “When you sing a song, you sing the words not just the sound,” he stated. “Emotion that cannot be covered by words will spill over and be expressed by the sound. That’s what I believe.”

Entry 1699: Futaba Nana. “Ichigo-chan cares about her friends so much, and acts first to help them without forethought. I like that kind of thing about her.” She spoke about how she has always loved girls’ comics and that she wants to be like one of the tough, cute girls she’s admired. Her idol is Morizono Wakana from “Pretty Rhythm” and she credited her for bringing her here. “My ideal heroine doesn’t run away from anything and makes people smile. I really want to be a cute, cool and tough heroine. I cannot stumble now and I cannot fail here. I’ll do my best today.” She confessed that sometimes her face gets stiff on stage. To help her smile naturally, her mother gave her a cue to laugh.

SA.KANA encouraged her and another entrant to find a better balance between dancing and singing, saying that her dancing stood out too much.

The episode took a short break to show some footage of the girls practicing backstage before moving on to the third entrant.

Entry 2332: kanN.“Since I could get here, I’m going to push my way forward towards Ichigo-chan.” According to kanN, she has always wanted to be a voice actor. “To make my dream come true, I took this chance,” she said. The support she received from family, friends, fans, and a jury award helped to boost her confidence, but she said that a challenge has been not being able to talk to her friends. “I talked to only one - my best friend,” she said. “She cheered me up. That helped me a lot. It reminds me of the importance of friends like Ichigo-chan.” Her approach was to figure out what sorts of things Ichigo would do, and she even filled out a profile paper as the character to understand her better. She explained, “I acted like Ichigo-chan rather than just studying for the role.”

Kameyama Toshiki complimented her on how genuine her delivery was. “You spoke straightforwardly,” he said. “It didn’t sound like you lied, and that was great.”

The next episode will be released on November 22, 2020. With new episodes appearing on the 2nd, 12th, and 22nd of every month. We can expect the next two episodes to feature the remaining six finalists. The winner of the audition will be announced in a later program, perhaps sometime in December? We’ll have to keep watching to find out!

The Tokyo Mew Mew New twitter account is continuing to encourage feedback from fans outside of Japan, and just like part one, part two is also available with English subtitles. The video can be found here.

Tokyo Mew Mew was first released as a manga in Nakayoshi magazine, appearing in issues from 2000-2003, and Tokyo Mew Mew a la mode through 2004.