Mew Mew Names; Explanation

There is a lot of confusion about the "correct" way to write the names in Tokyo Mew Mew compared to the way TokyoPop spells them. You do not need an indepth understanding of Japanese to understand the logic of them.

First thing's first. Japanese is written using three writing systems (exclu. romaji). Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana is used for native Japanese words, however, sometimes non-Japanese words (such as Tabacco) will be written in Hiragana. Kanji in the simplest sense, is used for specific "words" i.e nouns, adjectives, verbs, not for grammar.
Katakana is mainly used (especially in manga) for non-Japanese words, and for the sake of referring to Tokyo Mew Mew, it almost always means the word is foreign. In Tokyo Mew Mew, nearly all the characters have imported names. Because of this, the words, such as "Minto" are not imported 100% correctly, so "Mint = Minto" I am sure you have already noticed this, but this is where to begin.

This makes writing the words correctly in Japanese difficult. You cannot end on a consonant other than n(m) in Japanese, and there is no "th" sound, and no "qu". If you look at the Japanese katakana/hiragana chart, you will find there is no "le/la/lu/lo/li" sound; instead, the Japanese use "re/ra/ru/ro/ri" sounds instead, which often have an L-like sound. Similarly, B substitutes for "V" sounds in most cases.

Name Spellings & Transformations:

Ichigo/Mew Ichigo
"Ichigo" is the Japanese word for Strawberry, so because it is a Japanese word it does not need changing, neither should it be translated to "Strawberry." But, Ichigo's weapon, "Suturoberu" is written in Katakana and is an English word imported into Japanese, so it should be written in English as "Strawberry Bell" Ichigo is the odd one out here, as her's is the ony weapon which does not directly mimic her name.

Minto/Mew Mint
This is where things get confusing. When she is non-transformed, Minto's name is written in Hiragana, even though it is technically an English word. Because it is written in Hiragana, Minto when non-transformed should be written "Minto" not "Mint" When Minto transform, her name is re-written in Katakana; so when she is transformed she becomes "Mew Mint"

Retasu/Mew Lettuce
Retasu follows along the same pattern as Minto. When non-transformed it should be "Retasu" and when transformed she should be "Mew Lettuce." Some fans get confused about Retasu's name because it doesn't really look much like "Lettuce" However, if the 're' changes to 'le', then it makes "Letasu" which is what it usually sounds like. Different characters will pronouce Retasu's name differently, so for some there will be more of an 'r' sound, and others an 'l' sound.

Purin/Mew Pudding
Purin's name is written entirely in Katakana, because she is a chinese character. So her first name "Purin" can be "Pudding" an English word, and her last name "Fon" is a Chinese word which should be written "Fong".

Zakuro/Mew Zakuro
"Zakuro" is also a Japanese word, the word for pommegranite, so it does not need to be changed or translated. However, there is a lot of confusion about Zakuro's Attack;

Riboon Zakuro Supyua is not Ribbon Zakuro's Pure. For several reasons. Firstly, it is easy to write the word "pure" in katakana 'pu-re' or even 'pu-ru', see, it is made up of two sounds "pu" and "re" or "ru" to make it softer. It probably wouldn't occur to the Japanese writers to make it "Zakuro's" because that is really quite a complex piece of English grammar, the " 's " donoting possesion. However, the word "spear" is more difficult to write phonetically in Japanese, as there is no "sp" sound, so instead it would have to be "su" the "pear" sound which is created because of this, would also be difficult to phrase, so it makes the most sense that it is actually Ribbon Zakuro Spear

Kisshu/Kish/Quiche
In the Japanese manga "Kisshu" is written using Katakana to form the word "Quiche" as there is no "qu" sound in Japanese, they use the "ki" sound instead. TokyoPop uses the name "Kish" which is wrong. It should either be Quiche, or Kisshu. For some strange reason, they change it to Kish, maybe as a play on the word "Kiss" But really, it would have worked just as well with "Kisshu"

Ryou or Ryo?

When romanised, it should become Ryō. But obviously, it is difficult to insert the "ō" symbol everytime you type, so to create the ō sound it becomes Ryou. Sometimes in Japanese when romanising it will become "Ryo". When in doubt, it is best to spell it "Ryou" as sometimes only using the "o" can create an entirely different word, as in the case of Shoujo/Shojo.

Ribbon Strawberry Check:

It is definitely 'Ribbon' not 'Reborn': there is, after all, a manga magazine called 'Ribon' which is not romanised ever as 'Reborn'

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