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Manga
Anime (2002)
- Bu-Ling doesn't have it easy despite having an optimistic and joyful attitude for the most part. She's only around 8 or 10 years old, yet she's lived through her mother's death, her father's estrangement, she has to take care of and raise her siblings on her own, and to top it off, she has the pressure of protecting the entire planet on her shoulders. It's amazing that this kid hasn't been scarred with any serious trauma problems over the course of the story.
- The end of episode 20 of the anime is especially sad. Bu-Ling is sick throughout the entire episode, but she gets better with the help of her siblings and, in particular, her sister's teacher. Bu-Ling then asks if the teacher could pretend to be her mother, who passed away years ago, for a moment. The teacher agrees, and Bu-Ling then begins to cry. You can tell that was the first time she cried in a long time.
- If you think about it, the aliens. Somewhere, there is a *planet* full of people who are forced to live underground due to the cold and instability of the surface. As if that wasn't enough, a message from their home shows what seems to be an earthquake. Those people are dying from starvation, cold and probably diseases. It's no wonder they are so furious about how humans are destroying Earth.
- And the realisation later that Deep Blue doesn't care about their planet or their people. The aliens have been loyal to him since the start of the series, and he only values them as means to an end.
- Although the show doesn't go into details, Zakuro's life has undertones of this. For some reason, she cut ties with her entire family and apparently, the only person she loved died (and it's implied, though never said, that rumors and doubts led them to distrust one another, which may be the reason he died in the first place. We never learn if this was her friend, her father or even her lover). This girl is only fifteen.
- The letter she receives from home also states that they don't know if she ever forgave them for something. What if her family was behind said rumors?
- Anytime the stress of carrying the fate of the world on their shoulders shows in the group. The Mew Mews are five girls who have had their whole worlds turned upside down in a day. Some instances are Played for Laughs but other times the emotional toll on the girls is evident. Zakuro and Minto both go so far as to quit the team at one point.
- Retasu's utter terror when it's revealed her that she is a Mew Mew. Unlike Ichigo and Minto, she was aware that she could transform and that her body had been changed, but she was too frightened to tell anyone.
- In episode 49, towards the series' climax, the girls are given the luxury of a day off, but it's so they can prepare for the final battle. It's a heartwarming idea until you realise that the girls are essentially saying goodbye to their loved ones and old lives should they not survive. Bu-Ling has to stop herself from crying before greeting her siblings, and Minto asks her house-mother what she'd do if she knew that the next day would be the day that Earth dies.
- Later on in the episode, when it's time for the Mew Mews to assemble for the final time, Akasaka tells them that he's prepared a new blend of tea for them to try out, and so asks them to make sure they return home safely, his personal way of saying "Best of luck and be careful".
- The devastating cataclysmic blast that tears through Tokyo when Deep Blue manifests, leveling buildings and rupturing entire sections of Tokyo. Just how many fatalities came about as a result of this one blast?
- The fact that Aoyama is Deep Blue, or at least his body is chosen as the vessel for him. Suddenly, the one person Ichigo loves and would do anything for him becomes the very person that she has been trying to defeat this whole time, and her only choices are killing them to save the Earth, or to be killed by them and, along with all this, be a part of the Earth's destruction.
- Quiche having a change of heart and fighting against Deep Blue for the purpose of protecting Ichigo, which is both Heartwarming and a Tearjerker, because he is so in love with her that he would die for her. It's an extremely unhealthy way to be.
Tokyo Mew Mew New (2022)
