There’s a fine line between cute and annoying. Depending on your tolerance for annoying crap, that line might be thinner for one person than it is for someone else. Therefore, my thin line between cute and annoying is very thin indeed. Now, I DO love cute things, let me make that very clear. However, I don’t like tired gags, annoying characters, and squealing, whining little girls who are presented as cute. That shite f’n annoys the hell outta me. Strawberry Marshmallow was all these things and was excruciating. I had to force myself to watch all 13 drawn out, boring, and repetitive episodes.
The story is that there is no story. Strawberry Marshmallow was shot and written as a journal, a la’ Azumanga Daioh, of three young Japanese school girls, one English exchange student living in Japan, and a borderline pedophilia older sister who “takes care†of the little girls. This series was purposely written and drawn to be uber-cute and kawaii. They went overboard with the same gags and the “cute†came across as tired and pushy.
Chika is a 12-year-old Japanese schoolgirl with a nicotine-addicted 20-year-old deadbeat sister (and a totally obnoxious next door neighbor/friend Miu). She tries her best at school but Miu undermines her efforts and continuously copies Chika’s homework. Chika and Miu have another annoying friend, Matsuri, who helps them in their quest to piss off viewing audiences that actually want substance in their anime viewing diet and not all fluff and sugar.
The three friends meet Ana, a British foreign exchange student who’s been in Japan so long she’s forgotten how to speak English. Ana is so ashamed of the fact that she no longer remembers her native tongue, that she vows to pretend to not understand Japanese even though she’s fluent in it. Ana lets slip to Matsuri that she really understands Japanese better than English and the two become good friends. Ana also gets chummy with Chika and Miu.
Nobue, Chika’s college aged sister gets all starry eyed when she meets Ana. At first I thought it was because Ana has blonde hair, white skin, and blue eyes, and that as a foreigner, she’s cuter (kitten cute) to Nobue than Japanese school girls. But a scene later in the anime, a really creepy scene actually, dispels the theory of Nobue’s cute fixation.
The story is basically the girls’ day-to-day interactions with each other through the seasons. The animation is top notch and the colors are really bright and cheerful. The character designs are good as well and the cute outfits the girls wear are a treat to see. But that’s all the positive that I have to say about this series. After the visuals, there’s nothing that I can say that’s complimentary about Strawberry Marshmallow. The opening theme song was just as annoying as the series so I can honestly say that they scored this series beautifully.
The gag with Miu being an absolute snot and then being knocked face down to the ground for it got old the second time it happened and it happened at least three times per episode. Miu’s antics got progressively more aggressive and hurtful and pissed me off with how anyone would ever tolerate, let alone befriend someone so destructive and mean. I’m guessing that since she’s a “cute†lil’ girl her behavior was overlooked. I had to take a break from the series after her shenanigans resulted in Nobue losing her job. *sigh* I guess I just don’t understand cute like I thought I did.
Matsuri was another annoying character that put me on edge. Her whining and cringing would put the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz to shame. I can’t stand weak female characters and I know she’s just a small girl, but I’m not fond of those either and she was both.
Nobue’s creepy attraction to Ana and sometimes Matsuri disturbed me. At first I thought that she liked cute things; i.e. puppy dogs, Hello Kitty, fluffy animal babies, etcetera. The shower scene changed that. I don’t see much wrong with young kids bathing together. Hell, my mom would throw me, my sis, and whatever girl cousins were around in the tub together to save a dime. We were 9-11 and didn’t much care about bathing together, but we never had anyone older than we were in the tub with us, least of all a 20 year old sibling.
When Ana asked that Nobue not look while she was washing and Nobue responded that she just wanted to make sure she got every place clean, I realized that she liked Ana with her clothes off. Yark! Nobue’s a 20-year old-college student with no friends her own age who takes a decidedly keen interest in her sisters friends. She buys them food and takes them places, just like a big sister would, but with that creepy tone right on the fringe of normality to make her interest seem not so big sisterly.
Strawberry Marshmallow really wanted to be the junior high equivalent of Azumanga Daioh. You can tell that they tried their damnedest to be cute and funny and that was actually what damned this series, besides the creepy sister. Too much cute, too many gags and too little thought and depth were the formula for SM. I would like to think that all production companies think plots and character development through, but that was obviously not the case here. The character development here was shallow at best and sometimes would have been better off not being developed in the first place.
Strawberry Marshmallow is a shojo anime based-off a shojo manga and is probably aimed at younger audiences. I’m not too fond of shojo manga/anime, but if something’s really good, it reaches across genre lines and slaps preconceptions outta yer head. It’s a pity this series was just a sharp blow to the head and nothing else.
outta a possible 4 Kasugai
Heh IM was published in a seinen magazine, so it’s really aimed at adult males. Which explains the lolicon aspects.
*blogger ninja rolls 45 degrees to avoid punch and comes up behind Ravage all stealthy like.
It sucked! That’s my personal opinion on the series. Strawberry Marshmallow made me uncomfortable and pissy with it’s annoying antics.
I thought Azumanga Daioh rocked and would recommend AD to anyone who likes a good laugh. Strawberry Marshmallow, on the other hand, was a pale and skewed shadow of AD. Once again IMO, but it’s still MO and I would NOT recommend this series to anybody.
I appreciate that other people liked and will like this series but I didn’t. HOWEVER, David really liked SM. I loathed it but he really liked the humor and the jokes. It’s always a crap shoot with us whether we’ll be on the same page with anime. Once again, we’re not on the same page but at least no shouting this time (>_-)b.
*Punches blogger
Ichigo Mashimaro is one of the funniest shows I have ever seen and one of the few shows I can watch over and over again (opposed to AzuDai, which was just passable, but nothing more).
Animation is good, characters are great (but yeah, Matsuri is annoying), almost every gag is spot-on and it’s always incredibly fun to watch.
Voice acting in the show is very good and it doesn’t matter at all there is no overshadowing plot, as IchiMashi is a slice of life anime and not some shounen/mecha/romane series, you watch it for the cuteness and humor, and those both ROCK!
Grade: 9.1 out of 10
-uraku, did you pick up the lolicon vibe if/when you watched this? Cuz I did and it freaked me right the hell out.
One might suggest that “audiences that actually want substance in their anime viewing diet and not all fluff and sugar” would be ill served to pick up a series entitled Strawberry Marshmallow in the first place
And lolicon creepiness is all relative to the characters involved imo. Nobue = fun. Dude with the turtleneck and pedo smile in Chocotto Sister = eww.
Miu will not lose to this, btw.
Rachel, if you’ve picked up a lolicon vibe when you watched this, I take you haven’t read the Kodomo no Jikan manga yet…
And I didn’t shout, and I know it’s just your opinion, but I feel stongly about the series as well, Ichigo Mashimaro, together with Kanon and Gakuen Alice would be the 3 shows I could be considered a kind of fanboy of,
*watches from the sidelines and cheers on fight*
LOL, I know you’d have to try pretty hard to convince me to watch an anime with a title like that. I like my cute in small doses.
Besides, it seems like the boys like this one a lot. That right there tells me I should probably stay away ^^
-Crayotic Rockwell, I know I shouldn’t have expected hard core action and drama with a title like Strawberry Marshmallow but I was trying to broaden my horizons and Dave really wanted to see it.
And yes, lolicon vibe IS in the eye of the beholder, fo’ sure. Dave seems to think that I feel this way about SM because I’m a woman and once upon a time I was also a little girl like the characters in the series. Well, not EXACTLY like the characters but I WAS 12 once.
He suggests that perhaps the reason I feel so negatively about this series is that I couldn’t connect it with my own childhood experiences…Welllll, OKkkk but how does that explain why so many MEN dig this series? I can’t imagine that so many guys were brought up as Japanese school girls and therefore can identify so strongly with SM.
OR maybe it’s because guys have NO clue (as Dave has also suggested) what it’s like to be a young girl and therefore have no point of reference to be disappointed at missing. OR many men have a secret fetish for small girls either as objects of fuzzy cute goodness or in a lolicon aspect….
No one’s shouting Ravage (^^)/, we’re just having a discourse of the validity of one’s feelings on the subject of Ichigo Mashimaro, yes?
I respect other people’s opinions and choices as long as those choices don’t hurt anyone. I’m doubting being a fanboy/fangirl of Strawberry Marshmallow represents a threat to society. So, please BE a fanboy of this series, I’m just putting down my thoughts on the subject.
Are there any female fans of Ichigo Mashimaro lurking out there who have something to add to this discussion? Am I the only gal who feels this way?
*steps outta da ring and pulls Robin into the fight
Ha! Now YOU’RE involved! No, there’s really no fight. I just didn’t like this series and I KNEW that my opinion would be IMMENSELY unpopular since this series seems to be much beloved by a mainly male audience.
But this is a blog where I review series and such and like I said before, I’m trying to watch different genres. That’s why I watched this series and I won’t just watch series that I KNOW I’ll like. That’s no fun to do and it’s unfair as well. I’m just being honest and that can attract some flak. No whoop. Go to the lolita article on ACen 2006 for some smack down fun; this was nothing.
Rachel – I think you wrote a fine, honest review. Now that some dust has cleared, here’s my brief take on Ichigo Mashimaro, otherwise known as Strawberry Marshmallow:
I thought it was a light-hearted, funny and sometimes charming anime series. The kids interacted with each other well (except Miu). I admit that Miu did some very stupid, hurtful things. I guess you could say that Miu was the ‘villian’ of this anime series!
I thought there were quite a few laugh-out-loud moments that were pretty funny – especially the diner scene with Nobue in the maid costume. This was a great example of Nobue vs. Miu. If you think of Miu as the villain, then I guess she did her job well and she becomes a little less annoying. Yes, it was unfortunate that the girls (mostly Miu) got her fired from her job. But it wasn’t like Nobue had her spirit crushed or anything, so as a villain Miu didn’t really do her job well! Nobue was able to shake it off and the series was able to continue without drifting off into some kinda of dark territory.
I agree that the way Nobue looked at Ana may be perceived as gross, but as I mentioned while we watched it I thought it was only because she was fascinated with Ana’s ‘English-ness’. I thought the fact that Ana was kinda ‘alien’ (i.e. pretending to not know Japanese) set her up to be kinda like a fascinating ‘freak show’ to Nobue.
While not my favorite anime of all time, this was only the second or third ’slice of life’ anime series I’ve seen. Perhaps that’s what made it more intriguing to me.
MIU = VILLAIN. Who else would try to ruin Christmas for poor Matsuri?
P.S. – Maybe it’s just me, but did anyone else get the ‘Peanuts’ vibe from the series? Nobue and Chika’s parents are rarely seen and neither are many other adults. Just like Charlie Brown, Sally, Lucie and Linus. Weird.
P.P.S – Oh, and special thanks to Geneon Entertainment USA, Inc. for hooking us up with the 3 volume Strawberry Marshmallow DVD set to review!
Actually, she’s 16 years old in the manga – the 20 year old thing was originally a joke, given that she’s smoking and drinking underage; the ‘college girl pretending to be a high school girl’ part was the joke in the manga, before she admitted she wasn’t really that old. Here, in an effort to avoid showing underage drinking and smoking, she’s merely an underdeveloped 20 year old. Not that it makes her oyaji-type fetishes (nekomimi, helpless moe-emitting girls) any less creepy; the joke with her is that she represents the target audience (aka: the viewer) as she has similar tastes to them. Which explains her fascination with Matsuri (helpless type) and Ana (the pale foreigner).
But the thrust of the series is to basically show ‘cute girls doing cute things’ – which the show and the manga do manage to carry off. The jokes are in the cliches, as well as the simplicity of the plot and the way things go between all of them; it, at least to me, catches a sense of childhood where even the worst fights lost meaning quickly, when life problems consisted mostly of your friends… problems which fell to the wayside soon enough, and each day was an adventure. And there was always one friend who was a attention-seeking bastard who did things to keep it (Miu), who you wanted to knock their block off… but didn’t.
But yes, it is quite subjective. Especially given the target audience is males looking for moe (Ana and Matsuri), and maybe a hint of lolicon (Nobue’s the one who seems to represent the audience in this). Remember that this show didn’t air in the daytime, but rather late at night… when the kids are in bed.
…Hmmm, that would explain why the manga was listed as comedy/romance.
BTW, I’m female and I quite enjoy the manga. I do think it’s really cute, and maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t think the whole Nobue/Matsuri/Ana thing was all that creepy.
^__^;;;
I’m not into girls, but I could kind of understand Noby-chan’s fascination with the little ones.
And the age thing in the manga…crud, I was _14_ when I was a frosh in high school (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth…I mean, 15 years ago…), I think they inflated the girls’ ages in the English version…
(/digression)
Gomen ne, that was my $.02
Yeah well I’m not much of a talker and I just started visiting this site, but I’m gonna put in my 2円 anyway:
I’m a 16 year old girl and as a huge fan of Azumanga Daioh, I did enjoy this series. What’s really interesting was that I picked the SM manga up at random one day in a bookstore and I ended up buying it cuz it was so funny. While I have to admit Nobue’s tendencies towards the girls was kind of creepy, I could actually kind of connect with her (NO I’M NOT A LOLI), it’s just that those girls were so damn cute, not to mention she’s a loner so she tends to hang out with the people closest to her ie: her sister, and thus her sister’s friends. Heck, they even call her Nobue Onee-chan/san/sama because they see her as a big sis. They look up to her. Besides, what’s seinen anime without one screwed-up character? After all, doesn’t AD have Kaorin?
While the show did have it’s problems, It was nowhere near as bad as you made it out to be. Since it’s a slice of life anime it’s not supposed to have much of a plot. i mean c’mon, whose life has a plot? Also, if you haven’t noticed, the anime is largely based on the 4 seasons and the activities that correspond with them. The Opening and Main Theme were IMHO actually well done. They were so catchy, both songs got stuck in my head the first time I heard it.
As for the shower scene, maybe it’s just me but I honestly didn’t see anything wrong with it. You also have to remember that Japan’s cultural and ethical values differ from America’s so what’s strange to us might not be so strange to them. The bath scene: In a sento (public bath), it’s okay for children to be supervised in the same bath by a male or female guardian. Although I have to admit the age limit is usually 10, but that’s only because of the rule applying to the guardian whose of the opposite sex to the children. Since Nobue’s obviously the same sex as the others, there really isn’t a problem.
As for Miu, you’ve definitely got a point there. Why on earth would u keep hanging out with someone who’s soo mean and annoying? Well, when I was younger there was a ‘Miu’ in my life who used to annoy the hell outta me. Now that I look back on the times we spent to together, I wonder why I didn’t just ignore her or ditch her. I guess the simple reason is although she was incredible annoying, she was still my friend and I couldn’t just leave her. We spent good and bad times together and if I ditched her, who else would she have to annoy? Now that she’s gone, I honestly do miss her. I guess it’s just something u had to go through to really understand, but I guess that’s why they tolerate her. Not to mention the series would really suck if they left her out, seeing as how she’s practically the entire show.
So yeah, that’s my 2円 (more like 150円 XD) on your review. The point I’m trying to make is just because you’re reviewing a genre u don’t personally like doesn’t mean u have to make your review bias. People take reviews seriously and one person’s view on a particular anime might not be the same view as someone else’s who personally likes that kind of thing. In fact, they might end up turning it down upon reading your review even though they might’ve enjoyed it if they had checked it out for themselves.
If it were up to me, I’d give it a 8.5 out of 10.
Aw shoot, I ended up typing another paragraph. Yeah, I’m just gonna stop typing now.
Happy Trails!
Punkgrl ^_^
@Haesslich, I like the points you make. Especially about childhood friends. But I did ditch that annoying friend, lol.
@ Diinya, I’m glad you enjoyed the series. Perhaps my take on cute is different than others ^^.
@ punkgrl326, welcome! Ah, once again this a matter of perspective and individual notions of funny. We all get different meanings from things and our point of views are solely dependent on where we’re standing, so to speak.
Which is why when I write reviews, I’m writing them from my point of view. If someone likes some of the same things I do, they’ll probably benefit from my reviews. I read a reviewer who hates the anime I love and vice versa. Do I say this guy is biased? No, just different from me. If he or I discount an anime wholesale because of one deficiency, in our opinions, than yes, that’s biased.
I didn’t like SM for many reasons. I listed each reason why I didn’t like this series. Yes, I’m not fond of slice of life, but if something is good, it’s good in spite of its genre.
I knew I’d catch hell from this review but I wrote it the way I did anyway in the hopes that my honesty would at least shine through as the one positive.
Thanks for sharing your opinion, punkgrl326, and perhaps folks who have similar tastes as you will get something different about SM from your comment ^o^/.
Hey, thanx. Btw, even though I didn’t agree with your review, I still found it hilariously funny and in some ways true XD
Hey I just found this from a web search and I wanted to say that I am a girl and I thought Strawberry Marshmallow was okay (not bad). It was cute and somewhat funny. Yes it was inane fluff, but I expected that from the summary on Netflix.
Nobue was a little bit creepy but it seemed she was mostly just obsessed with cuteness. I was not shocked by her behavior since it seems fairly common for anime to have characters like that (see Azumanga for some examples). As far as the bathing thing, I guess I figured it was not abnormal in Japan– like the scene in My Neighbor Totoro when the two girls get in the bath with their father.