It’s Time to Talk About the Worst Magical Girl Anime Of All Time

Look, I know some of us have been fans for a minute, so let me get this out of the way: the mahou shoujo (“magical girl”) genre has got some weird ass concepts. I mean, some weird NSFW and even arguably mind-scarring concepts, so Reiko Yoshida and Mia Ikumi’s Tokyo Mew Mew has got a lot of competition when it comes to being the worst of the bunch. That being said, it’s time to remove the nostalgia goggles and really appraise this atrocity for what it is. Oh yes, I hope you remembered to bring back your badly-edited Mew Mew OC from middle school (no? Just me?) ’cause we’re about to pick apart the creation that would become the crown gem of 4Kids’ dubbing horror. Seven tankoban and 52 episodes later, here’s my spoilerific top 5 reasons that Tokyo Mew Mew is the Worst Mahou Shoujo of All Time.

[title type=”h2″]1) Those Names[/title] Oh, I’m not gonna hit you off the bat with the worst yet. We’re gonna start real light — which is bad enough if you ask me. So anime and manga characters, especially in shoujo, aren’t exactly known for naming their children plausible things. I mean, “Rabbit” of all things, right? There’s even an Ichigo (“Strawberry”) as the main character of shonen series Bleach. But you’re gonna tell me that all these parents sat around in Tokyo at about the same time like, “Word, I’m going to name my child Strawberry/Mint/Lettuce/Pudding/Pomegranate/Berry/Apple and I expect she’ll turn out super all right”? I don’t think y’all are hearing me: there are 93 — coun…