Zakuro Fujiwara

Zakuro Fujiwara (Renée Roberts in the 4Kids dub) is a character in the manga and anime series Tokyo Mew Mew, and one of the main heroines of the story. She is the fifth of the Mew Mews to be introduced and her DNA is merged with a Grey Wolf.
She is voiced by Junko Noda and Momoka Ishii in the reboot in the Japanese version, and by Mollie Weaver in the English version.
==Biography==
Zakuro is the last member of the team to be introduced and a famous model whom Minto greatly admires. She has powers prior to meeting the others, and is reluctant to join them at first, but joins them and opens up to them. She has the DNA of the gray wolf (which is actually no longer endangered). She is independent and mature, as she is known to give others advice.
==Plot==
Zakuro Fujiwara is the last of the main Mew Mews introduced. As with the others, she first appears at the start of the series, helping rescue Lettuce from bullies at the endangered animal exhibit. She reappears at end of the second volume, when Mint finds a picture of her in a magazine and recognizes her from the museum. When the Mew Mews first meet Zakuro, she seems friendly, but after discovering who they are, she coldly brushes them off. Kish decides to target Zakuro, because she is separated from the others. The Mew Mews come to her aid, and after the battle, Zakuro decides she will make an exception for them and become a part of the team. Infused with the DNA of a Gray Wolf, Zakuro has a wolf tail and ears while in her Mew Mew form, and fights with a whip.
Zakuro is presented as a mature character, who works as a professional model. As her biggest fan Mint effuses, Zakuro has "long, glossy, raven hair" with "dark, intelligent, yet sensitive eyes" and "long, strong and thin legs". During an audition, she is shown being helpful to the new models – the other Mew Mews working undercover – and its stated that she is well-traveled with the ability to speak five languages.
In the anime adaptation, Zakuro's background is more developed, and she is shown to be estranged from her family, having left home two years before. She is depicted as being a Christian, wearing a cross and attending a Christian church. Junko Noda provides her voice in the anime. In the Mew Mew Power English adaptation, her name is changed to Renée Roberts and the references to her Christian faith are edited out of the series. Her voice in the English dub is supplied by Mollie Weaver.
==Trivia==
*In the Mew Mew Power dub, the name Renée Roberts may refer to the late English actress Renée Roberts (1908-1996), best remembered for her role as Miss Ursula Gatsby in Fawlty Towers.
*In the Mew Mew Power dub, Renée's cross weapon was censored due to religious references. Also, in some episodes, the necklace she wears was censored since it is a shape of a cross (the cross on top of churches was censored as well).
*It remains unknown if she ever has any love interests at all; she completely ignores all the men crushing on her after seeing her in a bikini in the beach episode. However, despite her being an actress, she shows no interest in guys and she has never spoken of going on any dates whatsoever.
*She is the only Mew Mew whose uniform is seen in a two-piece rather than a one-piece like the other girls.
*Due to her personality and childhood, Zakuro may be considered to be a tragic character.
*Despite her cold and antisocial personality, so to speak, she shows signs of emotions as she maintains her good side as well as her humanity as a whole.
*She is one of the few characters within the series with a much darker personality (the others being Pie and Deep Blue).
*Zakuro's background is more developed in the anime adaptation (no back story is verified within the manga adaptation) and she is said to be estranged from her family since leaving home two years earlier.
*Her dub name Renée Roberts was the name of a (now deceased) British actress. So that she would not be mistaken for her, this was most likely the reason the French dub of Mew Mew Power changed Renée's name to Estelle.
*The Grey Wolf is currently not endangered.
*Zakuro's dub name Renée means 'reborn'. Coincidentally or not, some translators made the mistake of translating the first word in the Mew Mew's attacks to Reborn instead of Ribbon.
*Zakuro's Japanese name in the Kodansha translation of the manga is spelled Zacro (which is an official alternate spelling to the Japanese writing that spells her name) so that the pun in her attack name, "Ribbon Zacros Pure", make more sense. They also imply that she is not fully Japanese.
*In episode 44 it is revealed that Zakuro is extremely terrified of bugs, when her wolf-tail is all fluffed up, after being chased by huge insects, in Tokyo's streets.
==External Link==
*Zakuro Fujiwara on the Tokyo Mew Mew Wiki
Category:Female
Category:Anime Heroes
Category:Elementals
Category:Magical Girls
Category:Teenagers
Category:Animals
Category:Manga Heroes
Category:Video Game Heroes
Category:Cartoon Heroes
Category:Tragic
Category:Legendary
Category:Famous
Category:Twins/Clones
Category:Brutes
Category:Loyal
Category:Honest
Category:Selfless
Category:Damsels
Category:Tricksters
Category:Arrogant
Category:Reluctant Heroes
Category:Mutated
Category:Fighters
Category:Anti-Heroes
Category:TV Show Heroes
Category:Servant of a Villain
Category:Villain's Lover
Category:Redeemed Villains
Category:Book Heroes