Zakuro Fujiwara

''"Mew Mew Zakuro, Metamorphose!" - Zakuro's transformation call.''

Zakuro Fujiwara (藤原 ざくろ, Fujiwara Zakuro) is a main character and protagonist from the manga series Tokyo Mew Mew and its anime adaptation. She is the fifth Mew Mew to be introduced and her D.N.A is merged with a gray wolf.

She works as a professional model and actress and is the first Mew to refuse to join the team. She also works at Café Mew Mew as a waitress, a cover-up of her real duty as a Mew Mew.

Tokyo Mew Mew
Zakuro is the fifth Mew Mew to be introduced. Having transformed without having come in contact with anyone from Café Mew Mew, she acted as a lone vigilante. After the four other mews meet Zakuro for the first time, she declines their invitation to join the team.

During one of Quiche's mischievous interventions, Mew Ichigo saves Zakuro and calls her a friend. After that, even though she "doesn't like friends", Zakuro joins the group. As with the others, she first appears at the endangered animal exhibit without being named. (Manga only)

Civilian
Zakuro is a tall, thin, pale-skinned girl with long, amethyst-colored hair and mysterious sapphire-blue eyes. She always wears a silver necklace with a cross on it, to cement her religious background. She also has a necklace that says her name on it that she sometimes wears.

Zakuro's dressing style is like that of a model, fancy and fashionable. She is also the tallest of the Mew Mews.

Mew Form (2002)
When changing into Mew Zakuro, her hair becomes a brighter shade of purple and her eyes, a brighter shade of blue (though they appear purple in some illustrations).

Zakuro's Mewfit uniform consists of a magenta crop top with light pink lace lining, magenta flared shorts, magenta thigh-high boots, and magenta wristbands. She sports a choker, arm garters, and a garter located on her left thigh. She obtains large grey-brown lupine ears and a tail. Her Mew Pendant is attached to her choker.

Her Mew Mark is two wolf tails around her navel.

Mew Form (2022)
Her outfit remains the same aside from a few upgrades and a different color palette. Her Mew Pendant no longer exists and in its place is a purple ribbon with a purple heart gem in the middle. Her purple garter now has a ribbon attached, and her fingerless gloves have a white band with a small purple heart gem. Her hair reaches ankle-length and is tied up in a high ponytail.

Personality
Zakuro is an independent, self-confident, and mature woman who has a lone-wolf persona. She is calm, collected, and mysterious while serving as an older sister to the other Mews. She tends to mask her knowledge and feelings and is the one who talks to Ryou about issues in the group.

Although Zakuro is a part of the Mew Mews, most members view her differently: Ichigo views her as the big sister of the group, that stands out at parties, as well as being calm and cool in dire situations. Minto sees Zakuro as an idol that she adores, while Bu-Ling and Retasu find Zakuro to be a normal person who doesn't really stand out from the crowd.

As a Civilian
Zakuro is a talented dancer, singer, and model. Because of dancing, she has developed her flexibility, reflexes, and agility, including developing a dance-based hand-to-hand skill combined with agility, flexibility, and reflexes that provide a good combat advantage. She knows how to swim and is very intelligent and multilingual. She seems to be adept at using a whip, as evidenced by the one she uses as a Mew.

In Tokyo Mew Mew New, Zakuro shows she knows how to fish in Episode 8.

As a Mew Mew
Similar to how Ichigo can communicate with cats, it is implied at the end of episode 21 that Zakuro can communicate with canines. It is later revealed that she got, Mickey (Minto's dog) to go along with her plan to get Minto to rejoin the team.

Weapons and Attacks
Mew Zakuro's weapon is a whip, which is shaped like a cross, referencing her religious connection. In the dub, the cross is removed due to religious referencing. In the manga, her weapon goes unnamed but was called ZaCross Whip in episode 26 of the anime.

Her attack is called Ribbon ZaCross Pure. This has been mistranslated as "Ribbon Zakuro Spear" in fansubs.

To perform Ribbon ZaCross Pure, Mew Zakuro waves the cross around menacingly, leaving streams of purple energy in its wake. She then raises the cross into the air as the golden center piece changes to a horizontal position, activating the attack. A series of energy rings surround Mew Zakuro as she stares her enemy down. She then declares her attack and slashes at the air with the cross, unleashing a long, whip-shaped ray of purple energy toward the opponent.

It has been proven that she is just as strong as Ichigo, as she is able to defeat Chimera Animas independently without the assistance of the other Mews. During her first transformation sequence, the mere presence of her power was enough to obliterate the Chimera Animas in one fell swoop.

In 2020 Re-Turn, Mew Zakuro appears to still use her ZaCross Whip. Hew new attack is "ZaCross Pure Entanglement".

In the Tokyo Mew Mew New, it is seen in episode 8 that she can use it as a fishing rod in order to fish Chimera Anima fish out of the ocean with great ease and strength.

Name Changes (Manga)
Unlike the other Mew Mews, Zakuro doesn't say the English equivalent of her name when transforming. So she is the only Mew Mew to have the same name, whether transformed or not, in all English manga translations. However, the Kodansha English translation spells her name as "Zacro" which is an official, alternate romanized spelling of her name.

Name Changes (Anime)
Tokyo Mew Mew was dubbed and localized in many different languages. The names of the characters were also subject to change. Many of the dubs that didn't use Zakuro or Renée often translated their words for "Pomegranate" as her first name; for example, Shí-Liú, and Romã mean 'pomegranate' in their respective languages.

Etymology

 * The name Zakuro is written in hiragana (ざくろ), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (石榴), it could possibly mean "Pomegranate".
 * Zakuro's surname Fujiwara means "wisteria" (藤) (fuji) and "field, plain" (原) (hara/wara).

Trivia

 * In Mew Mew Power, Zakuro's weapon was censored due to its religious reference. In some episodes of Mew Mew Power, the cross pendant on Zakuro's necklace was censored as well. (Crosses found on top of churches were also censored)
 * Zakuro's background is more developed in the anime adaptation (no back story is verified within the manga).
 * Zakuro is said to be estranged from her family since leaving home two years prior.
 * The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is no longer a threatened species; it is currently listed as "least concern" on the IUCN Red List. However, there are several subspecies [i.e. the Mexican wolf (C. l. baileyi)] that are still endangered, and the two Japanese subspecies - the Hokkaido (C. l. hattai) and Japanese (C. l. hodophilax) - are extinct.
 * In episode 44, it is revealed that Zakuro has a phobia of bugs.
 * The voice actress for Zakuro, Junko Noda, also voices Masha.
 * Unlike Ichigo -who transforms with the words, "Mew Mew Strawberry"- it is unknown why Zakuro does not say "Mew Mew Pomegranate" when transforming.
 * In Tokyo Mew Mew, Zakuro can speak English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Japanese.
 * In Mew Mew Power, Renée can speak English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Japanese.
 * Zakuro's favorite foods are watermelon and cheesecake and her favorite drink is milk.
 * Zakuro's least favorite food is natto (Japanese fermented soybeans).
 * In both her human and transformed forms, her calm yet hardhearted demeanor is similar to Rei Hino/Sailor Mars the Sailor Guardian of War and Fire.

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