Zakuro Fujiwara (藤原ざくろ, Fujiwara Zakuro), known as Zacro Fujiwara in the Kodansha printing of the manga and Renee Roberts in Mew Mew Power, 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 D.N.A is merged with a Grey Wolf.
Zakuro went to a prestigious school and was fully educated (she speaks English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Japanese in Tokyo Mew Mew). In Mew Mew Power, Renee can speak French, Spanish, Japanese (the anime and manga is from Tokyo, Japan), and Portuguese. Much of her past isn't mentioned in the manga, but is shown more in the anime, and it was mentioned in one episode, that she used to live in America, as she left 'home' two years before the series actually started. In Tokyo Mew Mew, someone close to Zakuro died shown in a flashback. She had to do everything for herself when her parents were busy. This could also hint the reason she has an anti-social type of personality.
Zakuro Fujiwara is the fifth Mew Mew to be introduced. She is the most solitary of the group and declines their invitation to join when they first meet her. Thanks to Kisshu's mischievous interventions, though, 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.
Zakuro is the mature, older-sister-like figure of the group, offering advice when required and often appearing to save the younger girls just in the nick of time. She forces Mint to realize that she has something to protect at one point. However, Zakuro is not perfect. At one point, when it was rumored that she was
leaving Japan. Zakuro grew angry with the others for believing the rumor and acted as if she were leaving. She and Mew Mint ended up getting into a fight over it, but it came to a halt when Mew Ichigo yelled at Mew Zakuro for taking the ruse too far.
In her normal life, Zakuro is a famous model and actress. She can speak many languages and is idolized by many young girls, including Mint. Zakuro was left alone a lot as a child, and she lost someone very close to her at a young age. She visits the church at times when she is confused or anxious.
Zakuro tends to be a loner and initially refuses to join the other Mew Mews, but changes her mind after they come to her aid. She is presented as a mature character. She likes the Internet. Her favourite food is watermelon and her favourite drink is milk. However, she dislikes the Japanese food natto, which is fermented soybeans. To Mint she is an idol, Ichigo finds her as a big sister figure and thinks she stands out at parties and acts calm and cool in dire situations. To Pudding she's just normal and doesn't stand out in the crowd.
Zakuro is a professional model and, as her biggest fan Mint effuses, Zakuro has "long, glossy, raven hair" with "dark, intelligent, yet sensitive,sapphire-colored eyes" and "long, strong and thin legs".
Zakuro's Mew uniform consists of a short, purple cropped top with dark pink lacing, purple flared shorts, and matching boots that extend past her knees. She possesses garters on her arms and left thigh, and matching wristbands, to boot. She obtains large lupine ears and a tail, and her Mew pendant is attached to her choker.
Zakuro initiates her transformation by kissing her pendant and shouting out her rank. As the transformation begins, she cradles the Mew pendant in her hands, gazing at it while her DNA begins to morph. Zakuro then lifts her hands into the air and a large sphere of flame appears. She twirls herself upward into the fire and her Mew uniform fades onto her body, animal appendages and all. Zakuro's body remains idle in the air with her arms still lifted and her body gracefully arched until the fire lashes out and explodes with a rose-shaped flame left behind her. The rose extinguishes as Zakuro leaps out of her position and lunges forward with a piercing glare. The transformation sequence is concluded with a final somersault into the night sky. She descends upon the ground with a crescent moon and a purple rosebush surrounding her as she strikes her final pose.
In her Mew Form, Zakuro's weapon is a whip, which is shaped like a cross in the original Japanese version. In the dub, the cross is removed due to religious references. Her weapon in the original manga was 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, 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 position, activating the attack. A series of energy rings surround 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 towards the opponent.
It has been proven that she is just as strong as Ichigo, as she is able to defeat Chimera Animals independently without the assistance of the other Mews or Ichigo's Strawberry Bell. During her first transformation sequence, the mere presence of her power was enough to obliterate the Chimera Animals in one fell swoop.
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 revealed that she got Mint's dog, Miki to go along with her plan to get Mint to rejoin the team.
In Mew Mew Power, Zakuro'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.
Due to her personality and childhood, Zakuro may be considered to be a tragic character.
Despite her cold and anti-social 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.
Renée Roberts was the name of a (now deceased) British actress. So that she wouldn't be mistaken for her, this was most likely the reason the French dub of Mew Mew Power changed Renée's name to Estelle.
The Gray 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 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.
Edit
Added by Zakuro291424
Added by MomoiroSakura
