Ryou Shirogane (白金 稜, Shirogane Ryō) is a wealthy high school student, the head of the Mew Project, and the owner of Cafe Mew Mew. Ryou is said to be a genius. In the anime it is said that his IQ exceeds 180. After his parents' death when he was ten, he moved to Japan to continue his father's work with his father's assistant Keiichiro. After he finished developing the technique for injecting genes into the future Mew Mews, he first tested it on himself to ensure that the subjects would not be harmed. As he was not a compatible host, it only gave him the ability to change into a cat at will for up to ten minutes at a time. Ryou also built Mew Ichigo's respective robot assistant, R2000. Ryou tends to talk to the girls in an abrupt manner, but displays a strong sense of personal responsibility, particularly with regards to the Mew Mews.