Tokyo Mew Mew Ala Mode is one of those stories that has great potential, but doesn't use it and therefore comes across as a bit of a rip-off.

The new main character, Berry seems not to have much depth to her personality. She is somewhat of a carbon copy of all other blonde cute magical girl heroines you will find in the Magical Girl genere. Though she is cute, she seems mainly concerned with being cute, and/or falling in love with Tasku. I might even wager that she has less substance to her than Masaya. Many fans of the series say Masya is basically too perfect, and somewhat of a Gary-stu, but I think Berry really takes the cake. She becomes the perfect leader overnight, seems to have more power than all the other girls and is way too defenseless for her own good. I understand that she is a newbie at fighting Chimera Animas, but in most instances, somebody in her situation would have had some idea of how to fight the enemy more effectively.

Another point that I would like to make is that some of the original characters hardly make any appearance at all. An example would be Masaya, Pai, Kish, Tart and Deep Blue. The aleins make one small appearance in the first chapter of book one, but it's only for one panel and it doesn't even take place on earth.  Masaya only shows up when Ichigo thinks about him and even that is a small appearance. In book two he shows up again when he jumps out of a bush and hugs Ichigo.

Also, the other four members of the Mews Mews don't have a big enough role and seeem to blindly follow Berry and Ichigo around attacking things.

All in all I think that while the artwork is cute, there isn't much substance to this story, and I think Mia Ikumi could have done much more with it!