@ 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^/.

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 ^_^

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

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.

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!

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.

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?

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….

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 ^^