Ichigo Mashimaro
Strawberry Marshmallow

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Strawberry Marshmallow (Ichigo Mashimaro) is something I came across and bought because the art appealed to me, so I bought volume 1 without knowing exactly what the storyline was. I was very pleased, though, to find it as a "slice-of-life" type of manga, for those are the manga I enjoy most of all.

It's story isn't complicated, but it certainly isn't boring. Strawberry Marshmallow has the certain charm Azumanga Daioh does (another favorite of mine, I own all four volumes), with it's witty humor and sense of sarcasm.

The art is something I enjoy most, and Barasui certainly renders the characters as adorable. Their faces ... come off as round and the cheeks are often pink. All in all the artwork is pleasing to look at, as it's anatomy and perspective is usually correct. The only problem is that early on in the series the art is inconsistent at first because the author hadn't realized it would be a series until later on. It also improves greatly throughout the series, and the style changes a bit from early chapters, as it happens often.

The characters in Strawberry Marshmallow are all unique and have interesting qualities. Chika is generally a typical young girl, she doesn'tstand out in many way, Nobue is the somewhat easygoing delinquent older sister of Chika, Miu is the girl who doesn't have much sense and is always saying random and odd things out of the blue, Matsuri is the timid crybaby, and Ana is the English girl who is quite self-conscious about her last name.

The one certainly questionable part of Strawberry Marshmallow is the prospect that the author is, indeed, male. And the idea of an adult man drawing these young female children in situations that would seem revealing (panty shots, bath scenes, you get the idea).If you can get past that, though, and ignore the obvious "loli factor" of this manga (if you don't know what loli factor is, or lolita- I'd advise you to get a little more educated) then you're in for an enjoyable ride.

Ichigo Mashimaro is utterly amazing. The art is so unique, the story is one of the funniest I've seen in a slice-of-life series, it's scarily realistic to everyday life without being boring, the characters are so well-developed and adorable.
Each girl has her very own personality and appearance, unlike a lot of anime/manga nowadays. Each characters has very defining traits that rip them away from other characters from other series. They're expressive and colorful, and fun to watch.
The story doesn't get tiring, unlike most slice-of-life stories. It keeps you on your toes with laughs and twists, and lots of confusion.
I've shown this series to many friends ... and people I know, and I've never seen it let someone down. It may appear to be girly, but many boys find it hilarious. It appeals to anyone willing to give it a look-over.
All in all, this series is a full 10.

Ichigo Mashimaro follows the daily lives of Itou sisters Nobue and Chika and their friends, Miu, Matsuri and Ana. The stories are mostly self-contained and have a SOL bent to them, but with a rather chaotic twist in the shape of 12 years old Miu. She must be the most explosive comedy release character I've ever seen in a Slice of Life, feel good manga like this. You know the type from many other titles, the very active child that pushes the other characters to do things or force them into situations they would never get by themselves. Well, Miu is that element but she ... is… special. Judging by the things I've read about this work, she's a polarizing character, too. Half the readers seem to love her, the other half hates her. The reason for this, I'm assuming, is because she doesn't allow Ichigo Mashimaro to be a cozy, feel good manga all the way through. She's always scheming something and even when it's a small thing, it turns out to be bigger than expected.

But why would so many people like this to be a pure feel good SOL manga? To get why, you have to look at the art. Ichigo is just gorgeous to look at. Barasui has a very soothing, "round and cute" style. He's able to draw very delicate lines that capture a lot with very little. His sense of fashion is varied and fun to look out for and he is pretty much one of the best artists I've seen when it comes to capturing character's facial expressions and body language, especially from children. He's able to add a lot of subtlety to the way his characters exist, particularly with the way he draws hands and feet, and I have to mention again, he loves to draw clothing and that adds a lot to his panels. So when you have a very strong and chaotic comedic element that disrupts things, yeah, some people might have a problem with that.

It seems even Barasui himself sees the work as an odd mix of over the top comedy and Slice of Life. There are many stories where he compares the friendship between Miu and Chika (chaotic, comedic) and Matsuri and Ana (endearing, soothing). In fact he seems to love that sort of contrast and applies them a lot in several ways during all sorts of situations. Before we go into those however, it's better if I introduce all the characters first.

Miu is 12 and I'm not sure if she's crazy or a comedy genius. She's very energetic and seems to be constantly dying for attention. She's also incredibly flexible, athletic and cute. Basically she's born to become a movie star, there's no other place in this world for her other than the stage and I think she knows it. In one story she mentions she wants to be an idol but no, she's wrong, she wants to be a movie star. She'll figure it out, eventually.

Then you have Chika. She's in the same class as Miu and not nearly as crazy. In fact, she's a very responsible and sweet kid, unfortunately caught between a slacker sister and oddball Miu. She loves to cook and is always reading about new types of sweets she can prepare at home. Her pacifying and calm nature is essential for the wellbeing of the people around her and she's an all-round restorative force to her friends and family. Chi-chan and Miu form a sort of unity within this group of characters.

The other one is composed by Ana and Matsuri. They're a year younger than Miu and Chi and have a very different relationship. They're also friends of course, but Matsuri is a very shy, fragile, introspective girl and so Ana ends up acting as a sort of guardian and protector. Matsuri is one of those types of people that look very precious and possess the gentlest of souls, so everybody around her tries their best to make sure Matsuri is happy and safe. Ana is also a very interesting character in her own right. She's a foreigner, an English girl, and moved to Japan with her family when she was four or so. She would love to be more of a foreigner, actually, but she doesn't know any English, which is a source of never ending frustration to her. In fact, Matsuri is very focused on helping her learn English and takes it so seriously that she actually knows way more English than Ana, which is a source of funny moments in itself. Ana is very mature, beautiful, extremely polite, refined and trustworthy. Basically it's impossible not to love her, as Matsuri and Nobue know very well. She's adored by Nobue, which makes Miu extremely jealous from time to time.

Transiting around those kids is Nobue, Chi's older sister. She's 16 and kinda what binds everything together. She's also the character the reader will sort of stand side by side the most. Like her, we're also watching as these kids interact and grow together so it feels like she's the closest character to the reader, or at least that's how I felt. It's hard to say much about her because hanging around with her younger sister and the other girls is pretty much all she does and apparently cares about. She doesn't seem to want or have a life beyond that. She dislikes school, doesn't have any friends her age and she must be at least a little socially inept because even though she's very cute, all the boys are afraid of her (according to her sister). She also kicked a stranger in the stomach once because he made a comment about her being single, not exactly a healthy reaction, but there you go, Nobue justice was served that day.

And with these five characters we mostly will be hanging around Chi's bedroom as they play with dolls, talk about their dreams, eat candy, play games and generally have a very nice day. Sometimes they go out to try a restaurant or to the park, but that's not as common. Lots of antics, lots of funny moments, lots of heartwarming moments. This is probably on my top10 favorite list. The art and the characters did it, more than the comedy and plot.

To conclude this I would like to talk a little bit about the situation with releases and what to expect of it. The first and second volume came out in 2003, about six months apart. Then volume 3 came out 2004, a year later. In 2005, again a year later, volume 4 came out and from there the release began to take longer and longer. Volume 5 came out 2 years later, in 2007. Volume 6 came out in 2009. Volume 7 came out 4 years later, in 2013 and again 4 years later, 2017, volume 8 came out. As I'm writing this, it's april 2022, so 5 years after volume 8 and there's no volume 9 yet.

I don't know if there are any chapters released after the stories contained in volume 8 because I could not track any Dengenki Daioh magazines prior to 2020 but the last chapter available on their website is from 2015. I didn't see anything about Barasui giving up on publication, so it's probably an active project, albeit a very slow pace one. Now, I've been following Barasui on Twitter and all he talks about is his 5 yo son. He's having a blast by being a dad and apparently it's his full time job for the past few years. I would not be surprised if Ichigo is the last thing on his mind right now. I guess we'll see.

As a last note to this, if you happen to be learning Japanese and are intermediate or around that, this work is very easy to read. Dialogue is short and the words used are very basic indeed. I mean, the main characters are children, so that's to be expected. I checked the fan translation is actually mostly decent, probably because the dialogue is so straightforward and simple.