Why does a fictitious character need psychology?

In a psychology class I had last year, I was asked the question, "Why would a fictitious character need psychology?" The answer is simple: for believability. You wouldn't relate to a character who has no development, would you? To emphasize my point, I'm going to include an essay on the psychological development of Tokyo Mew Mew's Mew Ichigo I wrote for that class which earned a very high grade and proved to my classmates that anyone, real or not, needs psychological development from the beginning of the story to the end.

WARNING: if you haven't seen the series Tokyo Mew Mew and don't want it spoiled, read the rest of my article or watch the series before reading my essay as my essay summarizes the series through Mew Ichigo's character development from beginning to end. If you don't mind having a complete psychological summary of the entire anime series, read on or if you simply want to read what I have to say about Ichigo's development, read on. Just remember: you've been warned!

Here is the essay as it was written for class:

Before discussing the sequential development of Ichigo Momomiya, one must understand the basics of the anime Tokyo Mew Mew, in the United States called Mew Mew Power. It is a magical girl anime featuring a team of young girls enlisted, some against their will, to fight an evil that threatens to destroy all life on earth. Their source of power comes from “red data animals” who are listed as extremely endangered species on the brink of extinction. To understand Ichigo, one must also understand her friends and loved ones as why she chooses to fight. To understand this thirteen year old girl’s sequential development, we must take a closer look at the fifty-two episode series of battles and how she changes from crybaby to genuine hero of justice.

The series introduces her as a shy, ready-to-be-rejected girl who asks a very popular boy out on a date to visit an exhibit of red data animals. To her joy and slight embarrassment, he agrees; slight embarrassment meaning that her face turns redder than her hair. The scene is then turned to the morning of the date as she was dreaming about asking a boy named Masaya Aoyama out. As it turns out she really did ask him out and they meet to go visit the exhibit. She happens to walk past a picture of the irimote wildcat and stops to admire it. The date is mostly uneventful as they don’t know they’re being watched from a statue above the entrance of the exhibit. They wander into a park on the way home where she trips, not on purpose, on a root and he catches her. He leaves to buy her a drink and she’s hit by a strange light which causes her to have what she believes at first to be a dream. The dream is of the irimote wildcat entering her body. She wakes up and it is now evening and she is lying on the grass with Aoyama-kun’s jacket on top of her. I should add a cultural note here: the whole reason for him being called “Aoyama-kun” is a means of respect. Since their relationship at this point is still more friendship, it would be improper to call him by his first name, just as he calls her Momomiya-san. Continuing the storyline of episode 1, the following day, she tells her two friends about the date and realizing that he might hate her for falling asleep on him, she goes to apologize but cannot get close. She smiles down at the pictures they had taken the day before in one of those little photo booths and her friends get curious. She’s bumped accidentally and when she jumps to catch the pictures, she realizes she’s about ten to fifteen feet up. She falls and lands neatly on her feet to her shock. This is the development of her power, yes, and not her personality, but her power has a direct affect on her personality later. Lunch rolls around and she’s found napping at her desk. Her friends wake her up and she says, “You know, it’ll rain soon” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 1). Even during lunch, she acts like a cat, grabbing fish in her mouth before realizing it. Now she has realized that something weird has happened to her and observes for herself that she’s been “sleepy since morning, suddenly became agile, and ate fish before she knew it” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 1). Aoyama-kun then adds to her confusion about what’s happening when he mentions the commotion of her suddenly landing on her feet that morning but she assures him she is all right and when she expresses her gratitude for the day before, she adds, “nyaa” to the end of her sentence. She later returns to the park from the day before and her predictions of rain appear to be true as dark clouds appear behind her. She has a strange feeling but dismisses it as she spots Aoyama-kun walking around. She’s surprised to see something moving in the mist behind him that sends him flying before she can run over. As she approaches the fallen boy, she gets the first good look at what hit him: a giant mutated rat of some sort. Well, who wouldn’t be afraid of that? It moves to attack her but something fast whisks her away. She opens her eyes and finds herself staring at a blond man holding her in a tree. The rat attacks again despite her protests and demands to know who he is and he carries her into another tree where he points out that who he is isn’t important at the moment as the rat moves back toward Aoyama-kun. He suddenly pushes her out of the tree and she lands neatly on her feet again. She looks back up at him and he throws her a glowing object and calls her “Mew Ichigo.” This confirms in her mind that the dream of the wildcat entering her body wasn’t a dream at all. Her heart tells her the words “Mew Mew Strawberry Metamorphosis” and she transforms gaining black cat ears, a tail with a red bow and bell, a pink frilly dress, knee-high pink boots and pink hair. She barely stops to question this new attire before defeating the rat. Shortly after, she meets Keiichiro Akasaka who is quite polite compared to his blond counterpart he calls Ryou at this point. Thus begins the journey and the development.

Having only met four of the major characters, I will now introduce the rest and how they affect Ichigo. Masha, also known as the R-2000, is the cute, fuzzy character that also happens to be a computer capable of detecting Ichigo’s enemies. Ryou is formally introduced as Ryou Shirogane, leader of the “Mew Project” that is more completely explained later in the series. Mint Aizawa is introduced in episode 2 as being a polite, spoiled prima ballerina that becomes Mew Mint whose red data animal is the Tahiti blue lory. Lettuce Midorikawa is smart, shy and consistently bullied at first but changes over time and becomes Mew Lettuce whose red data animal is the finless porpoise. Pudding, the youngest and most energetic is later introduced and becomes Mew Pudding whose red data animal is the golden lion tamarin. Zakuro Fujiwara is an already famous model and actress when the rest of the girls meet her, but they have quite a time convincing the lone wolf Mew Zakuro, whose red data animal is the grey wolf, to join them. She eventually does after Ichigo yells at her for not helping the other three and allowing them to be captured. Ichigo’s responsible side has come out at this point thanks to Pudding. The older girls do act like older sisters to the energetic little girl and do move to protect her when there’s a problem, which isn’t too common with Pudding as she’s a natural acrobat and gymnast. By episode 17, the team is gathered but aren’t fast enough to help the flu-ridden Ichigo with an enemy attack. There is one more hero-figure that appears and remains mysterious until close to the end of the series: Ao no Kishi whose first declaration is that he was born to protect Ichigo. Literally translated: the blue knight; the girls’ first guess about who he is, is that he’s Shirogane, who appeared moments after he disappeared. That’s all the heroes, now for the villains that have a very direct hand in her development by forcing her to fight.

The first “alien” to make his presence known is Kishu. He’s an almost playful enemy who, while he mostly takes his job seriously, has other agendas going on. Later, he’s joined by Pai and Taruto. Pai is an intellectual match for Lettuce and her gentle persuasion helps him understand a lot of things. Taruto, nicknamed Taru-Taru by Pudding is just her size and age. The two are constantly being accused of being kids and usually end up arguing with the adults just rolling their eyes and walking, or in the case of Pai and Kishu, floating away. The last major alien is Deep Blue, whose true self isn’t revealed until the final episodes. Then there are the various chimera animals much like the rat Ichigo defeats in episode 1. As it turns out, there are several levels of chimera. There are the ones fused with animals and plants that the girls are able to defeat fairly easily, and then there are the ones fused with human spirits that give them more trouble, and finally the one that killed Shirogane’s parents. This introduces the main characters and their importance particularly to Ichigo herself but there are two more: her parents.

Ichigo’s parents also play a role in her development. Her father, though good at cracking silly jokes, as Aoyama-kun states, “thinks the world” of her. It takes a long time for him to find out about Ichigo dating Aoyama-kun and when he does, he loses his cool. He challenges Aoyama-kun to a kendo match, leaving Ichigo feeling very gloomy. The two guys have their match leaving Ichigo at home with her mother. Her mother is a gentle loving sort who understands that Ichigo is growing up and happily accepted her dating Aoyama-kun when he came to visit while Ichigo had that summer flu. She also explains to Ichigo why her father’s so protective of her and tells her that she and her father also started dating in junior high. Her mother then tells her that her father disapproved of their dating and at that time, it also came down to a duel. What she didn’t tell Ichigo is that she got between the two battling males and challenged her father just the way Ichigo does to her father. Responsibility is beginning to surface for Ichigo along with self-esteem rising since she was unsure about letting her father meet Aoyama-kun. In battle, Ichigo’s self-esteem is strong and her power rising steadily. This causes side effects to begin appearing.

The first side effects included her cat ears and tail appearing when she got excited resulting in several funny scenes of her trying to prevent Aoyama-kun from seeing them. The second side effect appears much later after she’s gotten a lot stronger and her power is increasing rapidly. What is it? The first time it happens is only because a dog barked. She changed completely into a little black cat. A small grey cat named Alto comes to Ichigo’s rescue who is later revealed to be Shirogane.  Akasaka-san explains to Ichigo that to verify the girls’ safety in the Mew Project, Shirogane became a test subject of the project that his father started and both of his parents died for. At this point, unknown to Ichigo, Aoyama-kun has some idea that she might be Mew Ichigo but hasn’t told her yet. Instead, he simply put a bell around her neck with a red bow saying, “so you won’t run away on me again… because you’re my cat! Just kidding” (Tokyo Mew Mew episode 13). Her power and confidence continue to rise as her relationship with Aoyama-kun gets stronger. At the same time, the alien attacks get stronger causing her to be late for dates with Aoyama-kun more often. As new items are introduced, Ichigo’s power continues to rise even further and to her dismay, she starts turning into a cat more often but soon seems to learn to control it. When something called “Mew Aqua” is introduced, the girls are given the task of finding it as it can be hidden in anything anywhere.

The strain of not seeing Aoyama-kun because of the search for Mew Aqua eventually gets to Ichigo and in a very cat-like way; she makes her displeasure known to Shirogane. She arranges a date with Aoyama-kun but ends up late because she’s stuck fighting at the Tokyo Tower. She is at least three hours late and it’s raining on top of it all. She goes to the arranged meeting place despite thinking he might have gone home and finds him still waiting in the rain. This is when he makes an important declaration: he loves her. In a very touching and drenched scene, he tells her this and hugs her. Instead of hating her as she was afraid he might, he does just the opposite. Her confidence in his love wavers again as she realizes she has been lying to him the whole time since they started dating.

It is now Christmas time and Ichigo has realized she has been lying to Aoyama-kun and becomes very depressed. Zakuro is the one who steps in to help her. She takes her to an antique store and tells her to pick something. A very pretty pendant catches the younger girl’s eye and Zakuro explains the meaning. “Tears for Christmas. The meaning of the pendant is up to the lovers who own it” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 38). Ichigo finally realizes that Aoyama-kun looks at everything directly and decides to tell him the truth directly. She is late for the Christmas Eve date due to a battle and he goes looking for her. In the process, he is hit by a flying piece of Mew Aqua and knocked unconscious. Shirogane sends Ichigo with him and tells the other girls to go looking for the pieces that fell after the fight. In the hospital, Ichigo is told to keep talking to Aoyama-kun until he wakes up. She tells his unconscious form the truth and starts to walk out of the room. He wakes up and asks her out. They go back to the scene of the fight, which had been over a public display Christmas tree and he finally admits a few things to her as well. “Actually, I noticed that you were Mew Ichigo a long time ago.” He explains about the times she could not explain herself being late and how he figured it out on his own. He continues, “To be honest, I was uneasy myself, scared that our relationship might be ruined if I mentioned it” (Tokyo Mew Mew episode 39). He then continues saying he has his own secrets and tells her about his being an orphan that was adopted for his intelligence and that his friends only found it useful to know him. He also says that Ichigo was genuinely different from everyone else he knew. She was a crybaby that could really make him laugh. He laughs and accepts Ichigo as Mew Ichigo as her ears appear in her excitement. He happily agrees to help her hide those ears and tail when they appear so no one else will find out. Her confidence rises further and she gives him the “Tears for Christmas” pendant and tells him what Zakuro told her. Adding in the last of Zakuro’s explanation, “They say it will shine if you have love. They say even your tears will shine” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 39). With tears of joy, her confidence is higher than ever.

Her confidence may be on the rise, but Aoyama-kun’s begins to fall. He begins having dreams of Mew Ichigo crying and a voice telling him to wake up. This becomes a recurring dream and holds great importance. Even knowing her secret, he still wishes she would not fight because of that dream, but he does not tell her about it. When he tells her he wants her to stop fighting, her confidence begins to drop as she questions why he would want her to stop. At this point, the fighting has gotten worse and Zakuro is growing tired of the childish arguments of the other four.

Zakuro appears to quit due to the bickering of the other girls and the uncertainty of how to handle the battles yet to come. Ichigo is the one who defends her saying, “everyone gets that feeling of being lost” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 42).  She sympathizes with Zakuro because Zakuro helped her when she was feeling lost. There was also a group-wide theory that the aliens have feelings too as they had made it clear they wanted to reclaim Earth so they could move their people back to their homeland. Mint is actually the first to doubt Zakuro’s loyalty to the Mew Mews and goes into what could best be described as “zombie mode.” She does everything seemingly on automatic and refuses to believe in Zakuro, whom she calls “oneesama.” Now a little note:  “oneesama” means older sister, but Zakuro is not related to Mint. It is, in this case, a term of respect and admiration. Ichigo, through her stubborn refusal to give up on Zakuro, clears up the misunderstanding. Zakuro had only wanted to talk to the aliens to see if she might understand them better. She had only been investigating the theory of them having feelings as well and Mint had been first to fear the worst. Through the misunderstanding, Mew Mint and Mew Zakuro have a quite dramatic battle in which Zakuro finally declares her loss to the younger girl thanks to Mew Ichigo’s intervention. The fighting gets even worse and Aoyama-kun’s dream gets stronger.

Episode 44 starts with Aoyama-kun’s dream and the haze around the crying Mew Ichigo is beginning to clear a little at a time. He still does not know what the dream means, but he wakes from it visibly shaken and wondering what it means. In the café, the girls discover any girl’s worst nightmare: a cockroach. Between Pudding’s bug spray, Lettuce’s slippers and Ichigo’s serving tray, the insect is hit outside and Mint closes the window on it. Ichigo comments they should team up like that in battle. Later, Ichigo and Aoyama-kun are out on a date – they are getting more and more common now – when an unseasonal thunderstorm hits. A clap of thunder spooks Ichigo and Aoyama-kun thinks momentarily that she is crying, thinking of his dream. She laughs and says she would not cry just because of a thunderstorm and that it caught her by surprise that is all. The rain stops and the date resumes, ending their uncertainty. The next day, a forest is discovered where the two had their date the day before. The girls are sent in to investigate, thinking that Mew Aqua might be behind it and Mint learns something interesting about her “oneesama.” Zakuro is terrified of roaches and one that happens to be bigger than Zakuro herself appears while the girls are walking through the new forest. During the battle where they think the Mew Aqua is, the theory of Ao no Kishi being Shirogane is shattered. Shirogane appears and saves the girls as a cat and Ao no Kishi also appears, proving the two are not one and the same.

The question of who Ao no Kishi is really is raised again until Ichigo’s mother mentions that Valentine’s Day is near. Her father is seen sulking and while the audience does not hear what her mother says, he brightens and tells Ichigo she can make chocolate for Aoyama-kun. Another cultural note: Valentine’s Day in Japan means that girls give boys they like tokens of affection such as chocolate and a month later, the boys have to either show return affection or rejection. In the café the girls all tease Ichigo about her cooking being bad and Akasaka-san, being the café cook, offers to help her make strawberry chocolate. Little note of irony here, as Ichigo means literally strawberry. With a lot of crashing, banging and an explosion, Ichigo makes her chocolate. Unfortunately, it is a muddled and odd-shaped thing that even Pudding cannot eat. Ichigo did not measure the ingredients correctly. It is clear she tries again this time with Akasaka-san walking her through the process and after sets up a meeting with Aoyama-kun. On the appointed day, Ichigo is well on her way to meeting Aoyama-kun when Kishu appears wanting her to go with him. She of course refuses and tries to escape. Aoyama-kun meanwhile, notes she is late and has an uneasy feeling. Ichigo, meanwhile is continuing to resist Kishu’s repeated attempts to take her with him and ends up in an abandoned area where she tries to transform but is interrupted by her pursuer. The other Mew Mew’s are alerted by this thanks to Akasaka-san’s being on the basement’s computer watching for signs of the aliens. Kishu meanwhile has begun accepting that Ichigo does not want to go with him and moves in for the kill instead. Just before he is able to strike the fallen Ichigo, Aoyama-kun appears and stops him. He attacks the fearless boy, injuring his right arm and to both his and Ichigo’s surprise, Aoyama-kun transforms into Ao no Kishi who begins attacking the alien but not as strongly as usual. In the midst of the fight, Ichigo’s transformation brooch is dropped and Ao no Kishi is more severely injured. Kishu is just about to deliver the killing blow when Ichigo intervenes this time. The blow would have killed Ao no Kishi, but she managed to transform and put up a shield as it hit. The smoke clears and reveals the pair unharmed. The other girls and Shirogane had arrived just as the attack was launched. She firmly asserts herself saying she cannot go with Kishu. Later, Ichigo has to feed Aoyama-kun the chocolate she made, which was an odd-shaped heart, because of his injuries. He looks quite surprised by the shape but admits the chocolate is good. The revelation of Ao no Kishi being Aoyama-kun is critical both to the storyline and to Ichigo’s development. While it boosts her confidence even more to have him by her side even in battle, Kishu makes his own important discovery about the boy and prepares more powerful attacks.

Despite the threat of more intense attacks from Pai, Kishu, and Taruto, Ichigo is overjoyed that Aoyama-kun is Ao no Kishi. To his dismay, however, his dream has grown more intense as he now sees Mew Ichigo crying over a fallen figure and he hears himself call Ichigo’s name before he wakes up. Ichigo invites him to join the Mew Mews and despite his initial hesitation and telling her he does not want her to fight, because of the dream, he finally agrees to go with her. In a hilarious scene, the other four girls welcome him into the group. Pudding in particular gives an energetic greeting that surprises everyone and causes Ichigo’s ears and tail to pop out. He laughs as she tries to hide them. Then he formally introduces himself to the whole Mew Mew team including Shirogane and Akasaka-san. The last two, despite a little uncertainty caused by Shirogane’s usual rude attitude, accept the boy and invite him along on the Mew Mews’ next mission. They are out to investigate a strange luminous phenomenon that might be Mew Aqua. Of course the aliens appear and the six transform. Mew Ichigo states herself, “The number of members increased, and our courage increased 100 times! We’ll be of service 100 times harder nyan!” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 46). Of course, Pai attacks after she says this saying it does not matter. She is the only one who does not jump out of the way of the water he sends at them and Aoyama-kun has to step in and help her. She gets his name a little mixed up and he comments laughingly, “Even while you’re transformed, you’re still Ichigo” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 46). As a pair, Ichigo and Aoyama-kun wipe out the swarm of chimera animals the girls were struggling hard to defeat. The search for the Mew Aqua in that location was a wild goose chase with a hilarious scene of Taruto and Pudding having a private battle in the water where the phenomenon was coming from. Both sides retreat and the mystery of Deep Blue deepens as he is apparently getting more powerful. Deep Blue soon after makes a bolder move. He tells Pai and Taruto to kill Ao no Kishi.

With orders to destroy Ao no Kishi, who happens to be Aoyama-kun, Pai begins planning his strategy. In the café, in the meantime, there is a huge line waiting to get in. the reason: Aoyama-kun. He now wears the same uniform as Akasaka-san and is working as a waiter just like the girls. So, all the girls who have a crush on him have lined up at the café. Zakuro is the one who calmly points out to the other three girls that Ichigo could become jealous and attack the customers. Ichigo barges in late again and spots Aoyama-kun. Instead of doing as Zakuro predicted, she acts just like the customers going as floaty as the girls he is serving. Pai now completes his strategy and announces a fatality rate of 99.2%. With a new chimera animal ready and waiting, he makes his move, drawing out Aoyama-kun and Ichigo from school. The other four join them as they run to the scene. Pai quickly proves that his calculations would have been correct if Ichigo were still the same as she had been in episode 1. The chimera animal manages to capture all five girls, isolating Ao no Kishi. Pai forces the boy to drop his sword and moves in for the kill. The final blow would have just like before killed Ao no Kishi, but Ichigo reacts and breaks free of the chimera animal’s hold to protect him. She is supporting him as the smoke clears when she says, “It’s not right to only be protected. This time, it’s my turn! I will protect Aoyama-kun!” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 47). Her attack is stronger than ever due to her apparent heightened emotion but there is no Mew Aqua this time. She destroys the chimera animal, however. Kishu is watching from the shadows and notes that the power that destroyed the chimera animal was not Ichigo’s but does not say whose it is. The mystery deepens further and Aoyama-kun’s dream gets more detail.

With Ichigo’s abilities getting stronger and her confidence at an all-time high, Aoyama-kun’s confidence continues to drop. Instead of showing it to Ichigo, he hides his feelings of uncertainty believing that they would only put pressure on her. The whole group is out having a barbecue in a very pretty area and in the midst of their conversations, Aoyama-kun comments, “the fighting will be over soon” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 48). Shirogane’s a little disturbed by this but does not move to disrupt the cheerful mood until after everyone is done eating. He tells them that their being there was not just for fun. They had gotten a signal from Mew Aqua from a nearby mountain. He sends the group off but stops Aoyama-kun for a moment to ask him what he meant. Even Aoyama-kun is uncertain what he meant and Shirogane lets him follow the girls telling him to protect them in his place. The reality of the situation is that Kishu has set up a trap using a false signal. He wants to test a theory of his own and settle a score with Ao no Kishi, whom he has repeatedly lost to. He separates the group, leaving Lettuce and Pudding together, Mint alone, Zakuro alone, and Aoyama-kun and Ichigo temporarily together. The last pair is separated when she is about to fall and he falls instead. Kishu repeatedly attacks the isolated Aoyama-kun asking why he does not transform into Ao no Kishi. Aoyama-kun at first, does not understand why he cannot himself. He figures out that it was Ichigo calling out to him from a distance that gave him the power to transform. When he finally does understand, he says, “I can become Ao no Kishi whenever Ichigo wishes for it” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 48). Kishu delivers an especially nasty attack and Aoyama-kun calls back to Ichigo causing her to appear and protect him again knocking the injured boy over in the process. He finally transforms and between Ichigo’s emotion and Kishu’s attack, his power hits critical mass breaking Kishu’s trap. The other four girls appear and convince Ichigo to put their shield up just before he turns the mountain into a crater. The girls marvel at what they see used to be a mountain and Aoyama-kun looks visibly upset. Pai and Taruto appear wondering what happened because they detected a huge power surge. They find Kishu and ask him, he just says, “I staked my life on it, but I verified it with my own eyes. Ao no Kishi… for sure, he is our savior” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 48). The battle has become a matter of power now. Everyone’s question is who has the most?

With the question of power arising, Shirogane decides to give the girls time off from the shop to prepare for the final fight. Lettuce decides to eat leftover cake with Shirogane explaining that it would only be wasted if they did not eat it, Zakuro goes shopping in town, Pudding plays with her siblings and Mint spends time at home. Ichigo goes to Aoyama-kun’s kendo club but finds he is not there. She goes looking for him and his mother calls saying he is missing and asking her to look for him. Kishu has now explained to the other two that if they can use Ao no Kishi’s power, they do not need Deep Blue’s help. He then shows them that he has been busy gathering the defeated chimera animals for a large scale attack. The attack is launched and the girls sent into action. The estimated number of chimera animals is 500. Ichigo is told of the attack, but is too busy looking for Aoyama-kun, who is just wandering aimlessly through the city. She reports that Aoyama-kun’s missing and Shirogane figures out that the aliens’ target is Aoyama-kun. Kishu is the first to find the boy and immediately starts trying to take out his spirit. Instead of his spirit coming out, his power rises for a moment and then he passes out. Ichigo arrives to find him out cold and sees Kishu nearby. She calls out to Aoyama-kun and he glows, changing briefly to Ao no Kishi before becoming Deep Blue to Ichigo’s confidence shattering shock.

Before continuing about Ichigo’s shock to Aoyama-kun’s latest form, there should be a small note put in stating the hints given right along in the story leading up to it. First of which is this: Ao means blue, yama means mountain. So, Aoyama-kun’s name literally means Blue Mountain. Then there is Ao no Kishi literally meaning blue knight. Finally, Deep Blue. Seeing a pattern, yet? Yes, it stems from Ao. Ao- yama, Ao no Kishi, and Deep Blue. There is a reason for all this, too. Pai is the one who finally explains to the shocked girls. “The three are one! The Aoyama and Ao no Kishi that you know are just parts of Deep Blue-sama (sama is a leadership term in this case) that you see before you. Deep Blue-sama’s spirit lives within the DNA of this planet’s humans, and humans inherited the long dormant spirit. And then when that spirit tried to wake up, there was no medium in which he could awaken. Until now only the closest to human of Deep Blue-sama’s three spiritual parts, Aoyama, and Ao no Kishi have appeared. Meanwhile, Deep Blue-sama’s true spirit existed in an alternate dimension and called us here from our far off home planet. But now Deep Blue has awakened. Now the other two sprits are no longer useful to Deep Blue and have been erased forever” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 50). Ichigo’s refusal to believe what is happening causes Mint to take over as leader for the moment.

Mint asks what their objective is. Pai says, “We have just one objective, we will once again take back this planet we left three hundred million years ago from the humans. In order to do this, Deep Blue-sama was awakened from his deep sleep. The resistive force of the Mew Mew’s existence acted as a trigger to allow Deep Blue-sama to awaken early” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 50). Zakuro comments, “It’s ironic. In the end we cooperated to help awaken our enemy” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 50). In spite of her confidence being shattered by her love becoming her enemy, Ichigo tries to get Aoyama-kun to remember her. She holds out the bell he gave her earlier on but he knocks it away. Pudding is actually the first to attack, being upset at seeing her “big sisters crying” but she is knocked away as if she were just a fly. Mint tries as well but is also knocked away. Lettuce tries but has no success as well. Zakuro and Pudding team up and Pudding’s attack gets through but is broken. Ichigo now thinks everything is a bad dream and decides when she wakes up he will smile for her just like he always does. Deep Blue finally attacks and the other four try to defend the shocked Ichigo only to use up their power and lose their transformations. Ichigo is rudely snapped out of her funk by Mint, who yells at her, “Get it together, Mew Ichigo! It’s painful but how long do you intend to act like a spoiled child? That’s not Ichigo. The real Ichigo certainly always acts like a fool, but she’s always trying her hardest. How long are you going to weep for?” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 50). Ichigo is slowly accepting what is happening and finally attacks. While still attacking, she remembers Aoyama-kun’s smile and resolves to wait until it returns. Shirogane appears as Alto and attacks to save the weakening Ichigo leaving two scratch marks on Deep Blue’s cheek. Ichigo looks up at Shirogane and says, “My voice doesn’t seem to reach Aoyama-kun anymore” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 50). Shirogane restores some of her confidence telling her, “It will reach. You are the chosen super lady. You becoming Mew Ichigo wasn’t an accident. You meeting Aoyama, and the arrival of Ao no Kishi to protect you wasn’t an accident. Everything is certainly as the Earth wanted it to be. So the one that can save the Earth is Mew Ichigo. Only you can do it” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 50). He gives the other four girls the last of the Mew Aqua and restores their power. Ichigo finally recovers enough to say to the others, “I am a Mew Mew. That’s right, I am a Mew Mew. We will save this Earth. I lost sight of what is important. Everyone reminded me of what that is. Aoyama-kun, in order to protect the Earth you love so much, I will fight you… with everything I have!” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 50). Deep Blue attacks again and the five girls successfully block him. He then calls in a huge spaceship fortress with the final Mew Aqua sealed inside.

With Deep Blue’s ship overhead, Pudding then says best what needs to be said, “The Earth isn’t anyone’s possession. It belongs to everyone” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 51). Taruto and Kishu have decided to stop fighting for Deep Blue but are not helping the girls either at this point. Pai now stands between the girls and the ship. He creates the chimera animal that killed Shirogane’s parents who proves to be quite strong. Everyone tells Ichigo to get onto the ship and thanks to Zakuro and Taruto’s help, she succeeds. Taruto is killed in the process, though. Ichigo is now on the ship looking for Deep Blue and on the ground, Pudding mourns Taruto saying, “Fighting is less fun than playing as friends!” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 51). As Ichigo is weakened by Deep Blue’s repeated attacks the others are struggling against the chimera animal outside. Kishu prevents Deep Blue from delivering the killing blow to Ichigo by offering to do it himself. Instead of attacking Ichigo, he tricks Deep Blue but is killed anyway. As Ichigo mourns the fallen Kishu, Aoyama-kun’s dream becomes reality and the figure he had seen her crying over turns out to be Kishu. Now the internal struggle of Deep Blue begins as she cries, “I just can’t see your smile again! I just can’t!” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 51). She calls out to Aoyama-kun and a blue glow appears in Deep Blue’s chest. She uses her power to defend as his power rises again and escapes outside destroying the chimera animal. Pai attempts to block the power to save the girls and is killed in the process but he does save the girls. Ichigo wakes with the bell Aoyama-kun gave her in her hand. As she moves, it rings and Deep Blue visibly flickers between being Deep Blue and Aoyama-kun until Aoyama-kun finally takes apparent hold and drops the sword Deep Blue had been using to attack Ichigo. To his painstaking dismay, he sees the destruction around him including a very large hole in the top of the fortress above him and is quite upset that he caused it. He also is the one that figures out where exactly the final Mew Aqua is.

Aoyama-kun figures out that the glow in his chest is the final Mew Aqua and that in order to destroy Deep Blue he must release its power. “If you use this Mew Aqua, the people and the lives that I hurt might be able to be saved” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 52). He assures Ichigo that it is the best way and manages to hug her before Deep Blue reasserts himself. With the struggle now being visibly internal, he forces Deep Blue to stop choking Ichigo and begins arguing with him. Deep Blue appears to have the upper hand again as he attacks Ichigo and she is sent flying painfully into a wall. Deep Blue tries to activate the Mew Aqua but fails when Aoyama-kun’ soul rises out of the body and drags Deep Blue’s with him causing the physical body to disappear. Aoyama-kun is behind Deep Blue holding him firmly and telling Ichigo to attack and destroy Deep Blue. She hesitates thinking her attack would kill Aoyama-kun too. “Believe in me!”(Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 52) he tells her. Deep Blue manages to attack her one more time despite being held by Aoyama-kun. Ichigo finally moves to attack but her power will not appear. On the ground, despite being out cold from the chimera animal’s final attacks before it was destroyed, the four Mew Mews manage to send their power to Ichigo. Ichigo finally attacks and Deep Blue tries to counter but is stopped by Aoyama-kun. Deep Blue is finally destroyed and Aoyama-kun releases the power of the Mew Aqua. He’s told Ichigo, “It doesn’t matter what happens to me as long as the Earth and everyone can be saved” (Tokyo Mew Mew, episode 52). In spite of this, Ichigo kisses him declaring he can have all her power as long as he is safe. On the ground, Pai and Taruto wake up along with the other girls as the Mew Aqua heals everyone that was hurt. Aoyama-kun is the first to wake inside the fortress and believes Ichigo is dead. The girls all arrive and see what happened. Their transformations disappear and Kishu wakes up. Pai and Taruto appear too noting that the ship is likely to crash into the ground and undo what Aoyama-kun did with the Mew Aqua. The three aliens send the six humans back to the ground and dissolve the parts of the ship they do not need and fly the rest home. On the ground, Aoyama-kun returns Ichigo’s favor by kissing her back. Her transformation dissolves and she wakes up in his arms.

Ichigo is proven that she’s willing to sacrifice herself for the ones she loves and clearly moved from the slightly clumsy crybaby she was in episode 1 to a seasoned fighter by episode 52. The manga version of this storyline, from personal research has revealed that there is a continuation that was never animated. The anime leaves the story open for such a continuation, though. The girls are just getting used to being normal when habit brings them all back together at the café they are reminiscing when Shirogane finds them and tells them they have a new enemy to fight. Ichigo protests saying they have lost their power but he then tells her to look at Pudding’s forehead where her red data animal’s mark had been before and finds it is back along with all the other girls’ marks. He finally tells them that their power disappearing was only temporary due to the effects of the Mew Aqua Aoyama-kun released and sends them out to fight again. They are almost laughing as they leave the café and transform into the team of heroes they have become.

Now to give a slight history of the genre of Magical Girl: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon literally translated Beautiful Soldier Sailor Moon is considered the first of the magical girl genre of manga and anime. This is why an anime such as Tokyo Mew Mew would have a Sailor Moon stage show in the background during an amusement park scene. This is also a series that could be considered a shorter version of the 200 episode, 4 special and 3 movie anime series of Sailor Moon. Ichigo and Usagi, whose name means bunny or rabbit and who is Sailor Moon, have a lot in common. They are both clumsy, both in junior high, and both crybabies. The difference is it takes Usagi two years of fighting to grow up enough to be responsible where Ichigo takes about a year of fighting. A psychological sequential development essay on Usagi would be far longer than this one is which is the reason for choosing Ichigo. She is similar enough to Usagi that anyone who understands her would in turn understand Usagi, who starts her battling of evil at the age of 14 and is 16 by the end of the series. Ichigo starts at 13 and ends apparently at 14 in the series. Thus the sequential development is parallel for the two girls. Different situations, but the development is the same. Each moves from crybaby to ally of justice at her own pace.

That's the essay from class. The idea naturally notes that Ichigo develops a great deal in accepting her new responsibility as a hero and leader.The concept of crybaby to hero and leader is one that as I stated in the essay, was started by Sailor Moon herself. However, such development isn't limited to just the magical girl genre of writing - it goes for all types of writing. From what I've learned as a writer, it's the best part of the meat of writing and makes a story far more believable as it also allows the reader to relate to the character they're reading about. If you think about it carefully, why do you read books? To have a fictitious world to enjoy and take yourself temporarily out of the real world and enjoy a whole different world that is purely of the imagination, right? That's one of the usual reasons for reading a good fiction novel, isn't it?