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There are a number of very clear parallels between Tokyo Mew Mew and Sailor
Moon, beyond the fact that they're both magical girl animes. At 7:35 of
[this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4D-c2LrlV8), the scene is incredibly
similar to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynzTghJmTjw) at 00:53:10.
There are other very striking similarities, like the personalities of the
characters. Have the creators of either series commented on the similarities?


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2013-05-03T01:45:34.433
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sailor-moon tokyo-mew-mew
Have the creators of Tokyo Mew Mew or Sailor Moon commented on the similarities?


This does not actually answer the question, but here’s why I think they’re not
”that alike”:

Many mahou shoujo (magical girl) series have similar elements, especially
those of same decade or genre, like both of those series are shoujo series
(targeting for teenage girls or so), so finding element or two similar or same
in both series is nothing strange. It’s kind of finding same kind of jokes in
two different comedy series.

As plot wise, I think their plot is pretty different in nuances and narration,
even if the theme is much alike. They are, after all, two series of same
genre, for same audience.


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2013-05-05T22:58:53.247
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Unfortunately the second link you provided has been removed from YouTube so I
could not look at it, but based on watching the Tokyo Mew Mew link you
provided I can guess which scene from Sailor Moon you’re thinking of. The
scenes are indeed similar.

However, the creators of the series would not need to comment on the
similarity because Sailor Moon pioneered the genre of team fighting _mahou
shoujo_ (magical girl) series. The **key point** here is **the combination of
_sentai_ (team fighting) with _mahou shoujo_**. To merely say Sailor Moon and
Tokyo Mew Mew are from the same genre and for the same target audience doesn't
**nearly** explain their large similarities, because neither look much **at
all** like any of the _mahou shoujo_ series that preceded Sailor Moon.

Before Sailor Moon, the long history of _mahou shoujo_ series were usually
EITHER one girl who could transform into a magical version of herself OR one
magical girl from another world who is temporarily living in our world and
uses an Earthling disguise except for when she needs to transform into her
true self to use her powers. In both cases, most of the occasions for which
she transformed were for day-to-day events, NOT for trying to save the world.
(Magical girls living solely in magical worlds, such as _Kero Kero Chime_ or
_Akazukin ChaCha_ , do not technically fall within the genre of _mahou shoujo_
because everyone in their world is magical; a _mahou shoujo_ is a girl with
magic powers in a generally non-magical world.) At the same time, there was a
long history of live-action _sentai_ (team fighting) series like Power
Rangers. Sailor Moon was the first series ever to combine _mahou shoujo_ with
_sentai_ : a team of magical girls trying to save the world.

The Sailor Moon manga ran in the shoujo manga magazine Nakayoshi, published by
Kodansha. During its years-long run, Nakayoshi built off of that success by
introducing more magical girl series, some of which were the more traditional
style (Kaitou St. Tail), some which in the newly-minted team fighting style
(Magic Knight Rayearth, which was also a parody of RPG video games), and one
was even a parody of the genre itself which masqueraded as a typical _mahou
shoujo_ for months before introducing a plot twist (Card Captor Sakura). Most
of these also met with great success. Once Sailor Moon’s run ended, Nakayoshi
continued trying its luck with _mahou shoujo_ , and met with varying success
(such as Akihabara Dennougumi Pata-Pi, Cyber Idol Mink, etc.); obviously,
Nakayoshi never regained thei height of popularity that Sailor Moon and Card
Captor Sakura had given it.

One of the series Nakayoshi came out with in this period was Tokyo Mew Mew. It
received enough popularity to get animated, and the reasons for its particular
similarities to Sailor Moon are explained by the fact that it came so soon on
the heels of Sailor Moon; there were very few _mahou-shoujo_ -mixed-with-
_sentai_ series yet made for it to draw from: Sailor Moon was the main
“inspiration” for it, you could say. In other words, Tokyo Mew Mew is a direct
result of Sailor Moon; without the innovation of Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew
would never have come into existence. Being published in the same manga
magazine, the publishers couldn’t have cared less if it was just a copy of
Sailor Moon churned out to turn a profit. If it did anything unique, great; if
it didn’t, they wouldn’t have cared. Being from the same publisher, it didn't
need to worry about copyright infringement by "stealing" any ideas. Manga
magazines are growing more and more [unprofitable to publish](http://matt-
thorn.com/shoujo_manga/colloque/index.php) in print (evidenced by the fact
that the _furoku_ [freebies] they give away with each issue have sharply
dropped in quality since the era of Sailor Moon’s run), so any hit series they
can get is important. Tokyo Mew Mew did well enough, and did not need to do
much original work, it just needed to utilize what made Sailor Moon and the
hits of its day work. In summary, it would not occur to the creators of Tokyo
Mew Mew to comment on the similarities, because that is basically _atari mae_
(当り前, a given, obvious). Creators of ensuing _mahou shoujo_ series from other
publishers, such as Ai Tenshi Densetsu Wedding Peach or Cutey Honey F (or even
the newer Pretty Cure franchise), could make comments of comparison, but it
would not behoove them to do so since their series are rather obviously Sailor
Moon-inspired (if not knock-offs) and Sailor Moon was dreamt up by and owned
by their competition, so they wouldn't want to draw attention to that fact.


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2014-10-15T09:58:19.637
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