Strawberry Marshmallow
| Strawberry Marshmallow | |
 Volume 1 of the English version of the manga. | |
| Genre | Comedy, Slice of life |
|---|---|
| Manga | |
| Written by | Barasui |
| Published by |  MediaWorks |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Anime | |
| Directed by | Takuya Sato |
| Studio | Daume |
| Game | |
| Developer | MediaWorks |
| Publisher | MediaWorks |
| Genre | Visual novel |
| Platform | PlayStation 2 |
| Anime | |
| Directed by | Takuya Sato |
| Studio | Daume |
Strawberry Marshmallow (苺ましまろ, Ichigo Mashimaro) is a Japanese manga series by manga creator Barasui about the adventures of four elementary school girls and their older sister-figure.[1] It was created by Barasui for the manga magazine Dengeki Daioh in 2002. In 2005, the series was adapted into an anime series and a PlayStation 2 video game. Three original video animation episodes were later released in 2007; the first episode went on sale on February 23 2007.
The Japanese pronunciation for marshmallow is mashumaro (マシュマロ). The Japanese title of the series is Ichigo Mashimaro (苺ましまろ). Confusingly, there is a completely different manga titled Ichigo Mashumaro (苺ましゅまろ).[2]
Plot
Themes
Seasons play an important role throughout Strawberry Marshmallow as the characters are involved in many normal seasonal activities. The series is speckled with many small, music-related allusions, such as Ana's dog Frusciante being named after John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, while episode eight of the anime sees two goldfish called Richard and James. The title itself was inspired from "Mashimaro", a single by Japanese rock artist Tamio Okuda.[3]
Characters
- Nobue Ito (伊藤 伸恵, Itō Nobue)
- Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (Japanese); Carol-Anne Day (English)
- Nobue is the eldest main character. She is Chika's older sister and usually has final authority on all matters. She often tries to "borrow" money from Chika to buy cigarettes. Nobue is perpetually searching for a part-time job to earn money for more cigarettes to calm her nicotine addiction.
- The story suggests that Nobue derives some kind of sensual pleasure from watching the girls do cute things. In this respect, Nobue appears to appreciate the moe aesthetic.[4] She is mostly referred to as onee-chan ("older sister"; although she is related only to Chika, all the girls call her this) or Nobue-onee-chan. (This is said as "Nobue way" in the English dub of the anime.) It is seen during the anime that Nobue prefers Matsuri and Ana over Chika and Miu.
- The Nobue character changed from the manga to the anime. In the manga, she is a sixteen-year-old high school freshman,[5] while in the anime she is a twenty-year-old junior-college student.[6] Her age is presumably changed because of her smoking and drinking habit, both becoming legal in Japan at age twenty. Although in the first episode of the anime she introduces herself as a sixteen-year-old, this was intended to be a joke as she quickly stated that she was twenty. She tends to act somewhat less mature in her manga incarnation, doing things such as tricking Matsuri into thinking that Miu is dead. Her appearance changes radically in the early stages of the manga, especially her hair, which goes from blond to dark brown (and is black in the anime). Her birthday is on October 17.
- Chika Ito (伊藤 千佳, Itō Chika)
- Voiced by: Saeko Chiba (Japanese); Wendy Morrison (English)
- Chika is one of two twelve-year-olds in the story. Chika is the same age as, and attends the same class as her neighbor Miu. Chika is a cheerful girl who shows more common sense than the other girls, especially Miu. Her special skill is cooking, especially baking cookies. Chika is Nobue's little sister. She is nicknamed Chi-chan or just Chi. Her birthday is on May 11.
- Miu Matsuoka (松岡 美羽, Matsuoka Miu)
- Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (Japanese); Caitlynne Medrek (English)
- Miu is another twelve-year-old girl who is depicted in the story as having a problem-child personality. A childhood friend of Chika, she lives next door to the Ito house and attends the same class as Chika. Miu likes to say random things out of the blue and often plays pranks on Matsuri and Ana, but is most of the time interrupted by Nobue (and sometimes by Chika), ending up lying face-down on the floor. She has the least common sense or manners of the girls, and is rarely taken seriously because of her weird ideas and comments. She seems to harbor some sort of jealousy of Ana and Matsuri, because Nobue finds them cuter. Miu is nicknamed "Micchan". Her birthday is on September 8.
- Matsuri Sakuragi (桜木 茉莉, Sakuragi Matsuri)
- Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese); Kylie Beaven (English)
- Matsuri, nicknamed "Mats" in the manga, is an eleven-year-old glasses-wearing girl with a pet ferret named John, and is depicted as having a very timid personality in the story. She is often the subject of Miu's teasing and can resort to crying and hiding behind Nobue. She is one grade below Chika and Miu, in the same class as Ana, with whom she quickly became friends. Matsuri discovers that Ana can speak Japanese fluently and helps her hide both her Japanese language skills from the rest of their class and her lack of English language skills. While she has gray hair in the anime, her hair is white in the manga.[7] Her birthday is on January 25.
- Ana Coppola (アナ・コッポラ, Ana Koppora)
- Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese); Katie Rowan (English)
- Ana is an eleven-year-old girl who originally came from Cornwall, England, five years before the series, but seems to have forgotten how to speak English. She first pretends that she speaks only English, but it is not long before she is discovered by Matsuri while speaking very polite Japanese. Matsuri tries to help her re-learn English. Ana is often teased by Miu because of her name, Ana Coppola, which can be written in kanji to mean "hole", "bone", and "cave" (穴骨洞). Miu nicknamed her "Coppola-chan", much to her grief. Ana's "proper Japanese" personality is reflected by her very traditionally feminine and polite speaking style. Later in the series, her ability to speak Japanese is discovered by the other students in her class. Her birthday is on June 18.
Media
Manga
The Strawberry Marshmallow manga, written and illustrated by Barasui, was first serialized in the Japanese shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Daioh published by MediaWorks on February 15 2002. The manga has been licensed and is published by Tokyopop in both the United States and Germany;[8] the French company Kurokawa also have licensed the manga. As of August 2007, five bound volumes have been published, and the manga is unfinished.
Anime
The Strawberry Marshmallow anime series aired in Japan between July 14 2005 and October 13 2005 on the TBS Japanese television network, concluding with twelve episodes. The anime series has since been licensed for English language distribution by Geneon. Three Original Video Animation episodes were later released in 2007 between February 23 2007 and April 25 2007, each with a runtime of twenty-five minutes.
Audio CDs
Five Strawberry Marshmallow drama CDs were released between July 22, 2005 and August 25, 2006 on the Frontier Works record label. They use the same voice actresses as the anime.[9]
There have also been four character albums (one for each girl except Nobue), two "Toy-CDs", two soundtrack albums for the original anime and two soundtrack albums for the OVA.
Visual novel
The visual novel, under the original title of Ichigo Mashimaro, was developed by MediaWorks for the PlayStation 2 based on the series under an all-ages CERO rating. The game was first released on August 11 2005, and was re-released on March 8 2007 under a 'The Best' budget price.
Differences between media
There are several, large differences between the manga and anime versions of the series such as the much earlier introduction of Ana in the anime than the manga. In the manga, Ana does not appear until the second volume, while she makes her debut in the second episode of the anime. Events that take place in the manga never appeared in the anime, and chapters that were adapted were mixed together or were altered. For example: episode seven of the anime, "Going to the Sea", mixes elements of episode nine, "Critical Investigation", and ten, "Beach Challenge" of the first volume of the manga. While Ana is present in the anime episode, she was not in the manga versions at all. Character designs were extremely inconsistent in the early stages of the manga, before Barasui knew that Strawberry Marshmallow would become a series.
Character designs are even more inconsistent with the visual novel, which uses a mix between the manga and anime's styles while throwing in some new departures of its own. For example: Matsuri has blonde hair in the visual novel, whereas she has white or gray hair in other mediums.
Reception
Strawberry Marshmallow has received positive reviews in English. Carlo Santos from Anime News Network has described Strawberry Marshmallow as "a clever little comedy that delivers laughs via its straight-faced approach" and has mentioned that "There is something uniquely appealing about Marshmallow's deadpan delivery".[10][11] Dirk Deppey from The Comics Journal stated that "Barasui sets up his comic situations with little if any extraneous padding and plays out the resulting gags with the skill and grace of a master craftsman".[12] Erica Friedman of Yuricon has called the series "too-cute-to-hate".[13] Friedman has also criticised the English-language adaptation for not providing any translations for sound effects and not giving any explanations for some puns.[14]
References
- ^ "Strawberry Marshmallow (manga)". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
- ^ "Ichigo Mashumaro at 7andy.jp" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2007-07-14.
- ^ "Barasui Interview" (in Japanese). Manga no Mori. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
- ^ Friedman, Erica (October 13 2005). "Yuri Anime: Ichigo Mashimaro". Retrieved 2007-04-03.
Nobue's affection for Matsuri and Ana has all the qualities of moe. She clearly has a need to protect, and desire to snuggle, them like a kid with stuffed animals.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Nobue: "By the way, my name is Nobue Ito. I'm 16. Just your average, every-day high school freshman."
Strawberry Marshmallow (in English) vol.1 p.5 - ^ "Official home page for the anime edition - Characters" (in Japanese). MediaWorks. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
- ^ Matsuri: "It's just...I don't like you teasing me about my white hair..."
Strawberry Marshmallow (in English) vol.1 p.57 - ^ "Strawberry Marshmallow manga volume 1". Tokyopop. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
- ^ "Animephile - Ichigo Mashimaro". Retrieved 2007-09-29.
- ^ Santos, Carlo (June 15 2006). "Strawberry Marshmallow Cute is as Cute does". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Santos, Carlo (October 10 2006). "Strawberry Marshmallow Winter Adventures". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Deppey, Dirk (November 29 2006). "Strawberry Marshmallow". The Comic Journal. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Friedman, Erica (May 10 2005). "Yuri Manga: Ichigo Mashimaro, Volume 1". Retrieved 2007-04-03.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Friedman, Erica (December 20 2006). "Okazu: Yuri Manga: Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 2". Retrieved 2007-07-14.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)