Berry Shirayuki (白雪 ベリー, Shirayuki Berī) is a new character in Tokyo Mew Mew à la Mode, the sequel to the first manga. She was injected with the DNA of both the Amami rabbit and the Andean mountain cat. While Ichigo went with her boyfriend Masaya to London after losing her powers, she became the new leader for some time, when Ichigo returns she still helped, but chose to become the second in charge.
Plot[]
Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode[]
Berry Shirayuki is now twelve years old. She goes to a private, all-girls school which she worked hard to get into (though she admitted that the real reason she wanted to attend that particular school was because they had "cute" school uniforms). She must take a daily, hour-long journey on the train to get there. After her first day of school, Berry almost falls down a set of stairs, but is saved by Ryou Shirogane, who managed to catch her. He then invited her to Café Mew Mew and she accepted his invite and went there to admire the treats that were being displayed.
Later, Ryou caught Berry by surprise and she fell into a pastry display. She ran away, and went through a DNA infusion machine, which merged her DNA with that of two endangered animals: The Amami rabbit and the Andean mountain cat. She passed out after that and when she awoke, she was given R2003, a robot she nicknamed Ucha, by Ryou. Ichigo Momomiya, the former leader of the Mew Mews, is absent for most of this series because she is visiting England to study endangered animals with Masaya Aoyama. During her absence, Berry takes over as the temporary leader of the Mew Mews in chapter four.
As Berry meets the Mew Mews, she is also introduced to the new villains, who call themselves the Saint Rose Crusaders. Ucha gives Berry guidance and transforms into the unnamed staff Berry uses to fight. As the "second strongest" Mew Mew, Berry becomes the primary target of the Saint Rose Crusaders. They hypnotize the city of Tokyo into hating the Mew Mews, during this time Berry has realized she is in love with her childhood friend Tasuku, who still hugs her every day. Her feelings for him confused her until she was able to come to terms with her them. Together, Tasuku and Berry used their warm feelings of love to release the city's citizens from the Saint Rose Crusaders hypnotism. At the end of the series, Berry and Tasuku are still a couple, the "lovebirds” of the café, and work side-by-side as the cafe's new door-to-door delivery service and celebrate being in love.
Personality[]
Berry is a happy girl, as well as a cheerful, kind, and hard worker. She seems to say "eek" when she is nervous. When she first became a Mew Mew, she was greatly confused and scared, not sure if she would make a good leader, but soon becomes confident enough to start fighting back. She later realizes her feelings for her childhood friend, Tasuku, and became a bit awkward around him for some time. At the end of the story, she is finally able to tell him her feelings. In Petite Mew Mew, Berry also shows her kind and caring nature when she worries about Sleeping Beauty.
Appearance[]
Civilian[]
Berry's hair is very long and is light blonde, she has dark brown eyes, though according to Royal Highness, they look almost red. Her mother looks like an older version of her, though with darker hair. Berry's uniform for when she works in the café is pink, and her school uniform is a Japanese sailor uniform.
Cafe Mew Mew[]
When working at Café Mew Mew, Berry wears a bright pink dress with a heart-shaped white apron over top. Unlike the other girls, she doesn't have a lacy headband, but instead wears a pink ribbon in her hair.
Mew Mew[]
When she transforms into Mew Berry, she gets some body parts from both of her red data animals. She gets light, cream colored rabbit ears and a cat tail. Her tail has a thin bow that has a bell tied onto it, similar to Ichigo. Berry's dress has a poofy skirt, with bows either side of the waist part that connects the skirt to her bodice, which is plain cream. Her hair remains blonde and her leg band has a red bow on it and she wears ankle-length baggy boots. She has the same gloves as Ichigo, but they are a cream color like the rest of her outfit. It is unknown where Berry's mew mark is, although there is speculation that Berry has none as she was hit at close range with the ray from the Mew Infuser Machine.
Mew New[]
In the new manga, Mew Berry's outfit is slightly altered. It has spiked trim similar to that of Mew Ichigo's transformation upgrade in the PS1 game, only each spike has a small hole in it, and this extends to every part of her outfit with this trim. On her feet, she wears the same boots, only they have light colored bows in the middle of them, and she has spike trimmed socks on her leg.
Mew Berry also has red, spike tipped little bows holding up each pigtail, her gloves are now dark with ribbons around the wrists, and she no longer has a pendant on her choker. Instead, she has an oversized red colored bow with a heart-shaped brooch in the middle, complete with a gold base and red gem center. Unlike in her first form, the trim is only on the bottom of the choker, not the top. Her choker is also no longer a deep red color, but rather the same cream color as the rest of her Mewfit.
Instead of the traditional garters with fuzzy trim as seen in the original series, Mew Berry now has a blue and red colored plaid ribbon with spiked red trim on her left leg. The new manga also depicts a zipper on the middle of the torso of her outfit. She has two-tone hair as well, still retaining her signature light yellow color but with a section of blue hair underneath. In her Mew form, she wears her hair down but now has pigtails up top as well. The blue streaks in her hair extend down each pigtail as well.
Abilities[]
As a Mew Mew[]
Berry replaces Ichigo Momomiya as the leader of the Mew Mews in a la Mode while Ichigo leaves to go to England with her boyfriend Masaya Aoyama. She seems to have no emotion-triggered power. Berry is the first of Mew Mew to have her DNA merged with two animals: The Amami rabbit and the Andean mountain cat. Berry gains abilities like jumping higher and hear things from far away, although in reality, the Amami rabbit's jumping ability is weak. Her taste for vegetables, specifically carrots, also increased due to the D.N.A of the Amami rabbit.
Weapons and Attacks[]
Mew Berry's weapon is the Loveberry Rod. Ucha transforms into a staff which has an upside-down strawberry at the end. It is surrounded by bunny heads. Some fans call it the "Raspberry Scepter/Wand" and "the Loveberry Staff" but the Japanese Wikipedia calls it "the Loveberry Rod."
Her attacks are Ribbon Loveberry Check and a joint attack with Ichigo called Ribbon Doubleberry Check.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Berry's father is the one who has taken care of her since the death of her mother a few years earlier, and does the cooking. He loves Berry, and happily invites Tasuku into their home whenever he comes over.
As well, when Berry was a young girl her grandfather taught her to speak French.
Quotes[]
- "Mew Mew Berry, Metamorphose!!"
- "For the sake of the world... I'll fight with all my might!"
- "Having energy is the most important thing!"
International[]
Name Changes[]
- Tokyo Mew Mew Part II (Chinese / Taiwan) - Hong-Mei (Cranberry) BaiXue / Mew Mew Hong-Mei
- New Berry Berry Mew Mew (Korean) - Bunny Shirayuki / Mew Bunny
- Mew Mew à la Mode (Italian) - Berry Shirayuki / Love Berry
Etymology[]
- Berry's surname Shirayuki means "white" (白) (shira) and "snow" (雪) (yuki).
Trivia[]
- Berry can eat 10 cakes at once.
- Berry is the youngest of the Mew Mews, with her birthday putting her at a few months younger than Bu-Ling.
- Berry does not appear in the Tokyo Mew Mew anime adaptation.
- Berry's grandfather taught her to speak French.
- Berry was first seen in the end of the Tokyo Mew Mew Manga as a minor character.
- Berry is the only Mew Mew whose first name is written in katakana.
- Berry likes collecting pretty things and cool clothes.
- The Amami rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi) is a dark-furred rabbit endemic to Amami Ōshima and Toku-no-Shima. It is often considered a "living fossil" due to its resemblance to prehistoric rabbits that once lived on the Asian mainland. It is listed as "endangered" on the IUCN Red List, with an estimated population of around 5,000.
- The Andean mountain cat (Leopardus jacobita) is a small wild cat native to the high Andes. It is traditionally considered a sacred animal by the indigenous Aymara and Quechua people. It is listed as "endangered" on the IUCN Red List, with an estimated population of under 2,500.
- Like Ichigo, in A la Mode, Berry's garter is on her right leg, whilst the other Mew Mews have theirs on the left. This may signify their statuses as the leader and co-leader of Tokyo Mew Mew. However, in the newest sequel "Tokyo Mew Mew 2020 Re-Turn" her garter/lace is moved to her left leg, most likely signifying that she's now just a regular Mew Mew team member.
- Berry may be based on white strawberries, a type of luxury fruit in Japan. One particular cultivar is known as yuki usagi, or white rabbit. Some white strawberries appear to have red seeds, matching Berry's theme colors.