Berry Shirayuki

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Mew Berry on Tokyo Mew Mew a la mode Vol. 1

Berry Shirayuki (白雪　ベリー, Shirayuki Berii^?) is a fictional character in the Tokyo Mew Mew à la Mode manga series. She is seen on the last page and volume of Tokyo Mew Mew, and it doesn't appear to tie into À La Mode's story.

[edit] History

After Ichigo Momomiya goes to England to study with Masaya Aoyama, Berry takes over as the leader of Tokyo Mew Mew. After a hard first day at her new school, Berry almost falls down a set of stairs, but is saved by Ryou Shirogane, who catches her in his arms then gives her an invite to Café Mew Mew. She accepts the invitation and later appears there, where she proceeds to admire the assortment of treats.

Being caught by surprise by Ryou (and falling into the pastry display), she runs off embarrassed with her eyes closed, and coincidentally, into the DNA injection machine. She passes out and Shirogane gives her R2003, a newer design of the earlier R2000 (AKA Masha). She later names him Ucha.

Later on, she meets the other Mews, being Mint Aizawa, Pudding Fong, Lettuce Midorikawa, and Zakuro Fujiwara. She is also introduced to the new villains, who call themselves the Saint Rose Crusaders.

Ichigo also makes a return appearance later in the first volume just in time to save Berry Shirayuki from one of the Saint Rose Crusaders, but she turns into a cat shortly after. While in cat form, Ichigo says that her powers started coming back while on vacation (meaning that she must save the world again), but she can only be a Mew Mew for 3 minutes, but Berry can't understand what she's saying. While in cat form she helps Berry by blocking the ultra-sonic waves from Happy Child's attack (while getting dizzy from the waves). Berry is able to fend off Happy Child. Ichigo and Berry become friends quickly. After that, all the Mew Mews transfer to her school so that they can be with her in case of an enemy attack.

When the Saint Rose Crusaders used hypnosis to make everyone think Berry was the evil Mew Mew ruining Tokyo Mew Mew, the Mew Mews stood by her side.

[edit] Personality

Berry is like Ichigo in many ways, but much more ditzy, and can be very overreactive when it comes to small issues (ex. tripped on a stair and said "Wah! Oh no! I'm gonna fall!"). She is also very gullible and trusting, especially of Tasuku, and is a terrible liar. She almost never gets mad, but tends to be very embarrassed often.

[edit] Romanization

Unlike the other Mews' names, which are written in hiragana or kanji when they are in their normal form, and in katakana when they are in their Mew form, Berry's name is always written in katakana. The reason for this is unclear. So, in that case, her normal name and her Mew name were written the same way even in the original manga, and Tokyopop wrote her name as "Berry" in both cases.

[edit] Profile

• Name Translation: "ベリー Berii" - Berry (Japanese equivalent in kana), "白 Shira" - white, "雪 yuki" - snow
• Name Pronunciation: Beh-ree Shee-rah-yoo-kee
• Alias: Mew Berry (ミュウ・ベリー Myuu Berii)
• Signature Color: White, though it looks closer to off-white/cream. This maybe be reference to the French phrase À la mode, which to most Americans, means "with ice cream". The Saint Rose Crusaders, however, refer to her as "The White Mew Mew".
• Age: 12
• Birthday: January 5
• Zodiac sign: Capricorn
• Height: 5'1"
• Weight: 85 lbs.
• Hair Color: Natural blonde (slightly darker blonde in her Mew form)
• Eye Color: Brown (Dark Red in her Mew form)
• BMI: 16.1
• Blood Type: A
• Favorite Foods: Cake, Fruits and Carrots (probably due to her being fused with a rabbit)
• Least Favorite Food: Chicken
• Likes: Collects Cute Clothes, and her new friends at Café Mew Mew
• Mew Mark: None. Berry's reason for not having a Mew Mark may be because she is infused with DNA of two animals. It may also be because she was infused at close range instead of from a distance with a laser, like the original five Mews, meaning that the DNA entered all over her body instead of at one point, which would be where the Mew Mark would appear (Ryou Shirogane strengthens this). Another reason maybe to an oversight by Ikumi and Reiko, though.
• Transformation saying: Mew Mew Berry Metamorphose!
• Animal: Andean Cat and Amami Rabbit
• Motto: "Having lots of energy is the most important thing!"
• Skills: Speaks French (grandfather taught her), and can eat ten cakes at once
• Love interest: Tasuku Meguro. At first, Tasuku was her childhood friend, and she was mainly annoyed by him, by how he would appear out of nowhere and hug her. Later she would start screaming when he was around, and eventually realized she hates him more a lot more

[edit] Weapons and abilities

Upon transformation she sprouts off-white colored bunny ears and a cat tail. Berry gains abilities like jumping higher, hearing things from far away and a taste for vegetables. She seems to have no emotion-triggered power.

Weapon: It's actually Ucha (R2003); He transforms into a staff/wand topped with a upside down strawberry, surrounded by bunny heads. The exact name of this weapon is unknown, possibly because of an overlook by Ikumi and Reiko, but many fans refer to it as "Raspberry Wand", "Strawberry Staff", "Loveberry Rod"(possibly related to her attack name), and variations of those.

Attacks: Reborn Loveberry Check (リボーン・ラブベリー・チェック riboun rabuberii chekku)
This attack could possibly be a spin-off to Ichigo's attack.

Reborn Doubleberry Check (リボーン・ダブル・ベリー・チェック riboun daburu berii chekku)
This attack is used with Mew Ichigo.

"Reborn" was incorrectly translated as "Ribbon" in the English version of the manga. In the Japanese manga it was written as リボーン riboun, which is "reborn". But, to an English native speaker, it roughly looks like "ribbon", so Tokyopop assumed it was "ribbon" which is seen throughout the entire manga series. However, many fans still call it "ribbon," as do fansubs and fandubs, as a vast mojority of fans do not know the correct translation.

"Ribbon" was to be used only once in the Tokyo Mew Mew franchise; the opening song of the anime, sang by Rika Komatsu, which sounds very different from リボーン riboun. リボン ribon was never to be present in the manga, but the English version of the manga has "ribbon" present.

A screenshot of the opening song of the Japanese version showing Rika Komatsu sings リボン ribon, not リボーン riboun.

リボン ribon and リボーン riboun do look similar, with the only difference being a dash between ボ bo and ン n, called a chōon, used in katakana. The chōon represents the length of the a vowel, which is very important in determining the meaning of a word, regardless of a words looking similar. Many non-Japanese fans who have seen the Japanese version of the manga and the anime most likely either didn't know that the chōon is important in determining the meaning of a word, or knew but didn't catch this.

[edit] Trivia

• She and Ringo Akai are the only two Mew Mews who do not have Mew Marks.
• Berry is the only Mew with no character songs. This is presumably because she wasn't in the anime or anything else that would give her a voice actor.
• Berry is the only Mew whose signature color doesn't seem to represent the food she is named after. The berries of poison ivy are white, but due to the lighter tone of Tokyo Mew Mew, this is more likely a coincidence. The red trim on her garter, collar, and the bow on her tail could represent some types of berries, most likely strawberry or the raspberry.
• The garter on Berry's thigh is a different design from the other Mews': It's smaller, and has a bow on it.

[edit] References