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scans_dailyStrawberry Marshmallow (Ichigo Mashimaro in the Japanese), by Barasui, is a manga that started in Dengeki Daioh - the same magazine that gave us Azumanga Daioh, and Yotsuba&!. It is, at turns, adorable and demented, occasionally both at once.
The basic premise is 'the daily lives of the main characters' - much like those other two, though the main characters are a very different bunch, leading to a very different comic. The main characters in this case, being:
Nobue Itoh - a heavy drinking, chain smoking, 16 year old high school student (20 year old college student in the anime) with a complete lack of a sense of responsibility and a weakness for cute girls. Although parents are supposedly in the picture, it frequently seems that she's sole caregiver for...
Chika Itoh - Nobue's 12 year old sister...basically the straight man for Nobue and...
Miu Matsuoka - Nobue and Chika's neighbour, in the same class as Chika. She is utterly insane, and has no sense of propriety, frequently just walking into Chika's room (by her window, which faces Miu's house), unannounced...sometimes while Chika's fast asleep. Sometimes Nobue is her co-conspirator, sometimes her victim, sometimes the defender of her victim...specifically when the victim is...
Matsuri Sakuragi - another girl who lives nearby, she's 11, and a year behind Chika and Miu. She's small for her age, shy, immature, clumsy, weak, gullible, with strangely coloured hair (white, darkening to black at the tips). In other words, perfectly designed to trip all protective instincts. Or get Miu to pick on her. That she gets all of Nobue's attention, leaving none for Miu doesn't help. She has a pet ferret named John, who she's almost never without. It makes her even more adorable. (John is named for John Frusciante - Barasui is a big Red Hot Chili Peppers fan.)
There's another, but she's not introduced until the second volume, so I'll leave talking about her until I post from that.
I would post the introductory chapters, but the rules result in them getting too confusing to follow, even with commentary. So I'm going to post a couple representative chapters, instead. (Probably for the best...Nobue and Miu switch hair colours a couple chapters in...until then Miu and Chika are hard to tell apart.)
Scans are from a scanlation, but the series is available in English from Tokyopop.
Our first chapter starts because of Matsuri's hair - she's self-concious about it, and thinks getting a hat to hide it might be a good idea...so she goes to Nobue, who first asks Miu if she has one to give her...but Matsuri thinks Miu's hats all suck...then Chika...who has no fashion sense, in Matsuri's mind. (Or in Nobue's. Hard to tell.)
So, what's a cute little white-hair to do?
They end up leaving Chika at home. Why? I don't know. But it gets her out of the way.
But Matsuri finds the cute kitty hat embarrassing, because people are noticing it, and stopping to look at her. (I think it might be the tail more than the hat, but who knows?)
Sidenote - in the anime, Miu DIDN'T have that hat. Nor did Chika. Nobue is the one who had it on hand. Miu and Chika think this is a tad suspect.
So, Miu suggests that Matsuri-chan 'get into character' and actually pretend to be a nekomimi. She doesn't really understand, but Nobue helps.
Why do I suspect that Nobue had ulterior motives for that suggestion?
And the random shot at Miu is pretty classy.
So...shopping. Nobue and Matsuri go to look for a hat for Matsuri, while Miu goes off on her own to look for clothes. (She's a little clothes-horse...her clothes budget is larger than some small countries' GDPs. >_>) Eventually they find one. See my icon for what it looks like.
I'm not sure if Nobue's calling Miu fat, or if she forgot they left Chika at home. >_>
(OK, more likely the translator forgot...but I wouldn't put either of those PAST Nobue.)
So, Nobue gets Matsuri home safe, while leaving Miu to her own devices.
Ah, privacy, so Matsuri can be adorable without being self-concious.
And...that last panel is...very Miu.
Next...random beach trip!
So, they decide to go to the beach...it's nominally for Matsuri's benefit, but...they just wanted to go to the beach.
Miu goes and plays in the surf for a while before coming back and making fun of everyone else for staying on the beach in the shade.
But, she relents when calling them old men (well...middle-aged men) doesn't shame them into coming out of the shade.
Nobue's apparently more into this beach trip than she let on... Watermelons are expensive, and she's almost always broke - occasionally stealing from Chika to buy her smokes.
... The predatory look on her face in that second to last panel might explain it. ... Nah.
I'm surprised poor Matsuri didn't yark all over Nobue...
So, Miu misdirects Chika, because she's a jerk, but the watermelon gets smashed anyway.
Yummy watermelon for everyone gets followed by everyone deciding to go swimming. And this time that does include everyone, including Matsuri, despite the fact that even changing into her bathing suit is enough to topple her, right now. (Cut for space.) And that...she can't swim.
She lost to her ferret. Only Matsuri.
And Miu's definition of helping is...unique.
Apparently, so is Chika's:
Miu Matsuoka - overestimating her appeal since 2002.
(And jeeze, Nobue...she's 12, give her a break!)
Miu's vengeance is as childish as it is suicidal.
There's no room for Nobue's revenge. Let's just say she doesn't really outdo Miu on the maturity scale.
In lieu thereof, some random illustrations by Barasui:
Miu and Matsuri play Alice in Wonderland:
And Barasui draws someone rather familiar...
I think Barasui's a fan of Azuma - there's also a random Yukari-sensei phone fob in one of the illustrations in v4.
Two chapters from v1, 4 pages from 12 and 5 from 16.
Tags: genre: manga, title: Ichigo Mashimaro
The basic premise is 'the daily lives of the main characters' - much like those other two, though the main characters are a very different bunch, leading to a very different comic. The main characters in this case, being:
Nobue Itoh - a heavy drinking, chain smoking, 16 year old high school student (20 year old college student in the anime) with a complete lack of a sense of responsibility and a weakness for cute girls. Although parents are supposedly in the picture, it frequently seems that she's sole caregiver for...
Chika Itoh - Nobue's 12 year old sister...basically the straight man for Nobue and...
Miu Matsuoka - Nobue and Chika's neighbour, in the same class as Chika. She is utterly insane, and has no sense of propriety, frequently just walking into Chika's room (by her window, which faces Miu's house), unannounced...sometimes while Chika's fast asleep. Sometimes Nobue is her co-conspirator, sometimes her victim, sometimes the defender of her victim...specifically when the victim is...
Matsuri Sakuragi - another girl who lives nearby, she's 11, and a year behind Chika and Miu. She's small for her age, shy, immature, clumsy, weak, gullible, with strangely coloured hair (white, darkening to black at the tips). In other words, perfectly designed to trip all protective instincts. Or get Miu to pick on her. That she gets all of Nobue's attention, leaving none for Miu doesn't help. She has a pet ferret named John, who she's almost never without. It makes her even more adorable. (John is named for John Frusciante - Barasui is a big Red Hot Chili Peppers fan.)
There's another, but she's not introduced until the second volume, so I'll leave talking about her until I post from that.
I would post the introductory chapters, but the rules result in them getting too confusing to follow, even with commentary. So I'm going to post a couple representative chapters, instead. (Probably for the best...Nobue and Miu switch hair colours a couple chapters in...until then Miu and Chika are hard to tell apart.)
Scans are from a scanlation, but the series is available in English from Tokyopop.
Our first chapter starts because of Matsuri's hair - she's self-concious about it, and thinks getting a hat to hide it might be a good idea...so she goes to Nobue, who first asks Miu if she has one to give her...but Matsuri thinks Miu's hats all suck...then Chika...who has no fashion sense, in Matsuri's mind. (Or in Nobue's. Hard to tell.)
So, what's a cute little white-hair to do?
They end up leaving Chika at home. Why? I don't know. But it gets her out of the way.
But Matsuri finds the cute kitty hat embarrassing, because people are noticing it, and stopping to look at her. (I think it might be the tail more than the hat, but who knows?)
Sidenote - in the anime, Miu DIDN'T have that hat. Nor did Chika. Nobue is the one who had it on hand. Miu and Chika think this is a tad suspect.
So, Miu suggests that Matsuri-chan 'get into character' and actually pretend to be a nekomimi. She doesn't really understand, but Nobue helps.
Why do I suspect that Nobue had ulterior motives for that suggestion?
And the random shot at Miu is pretty classy.
So...shopping. Nobue and Matsuri go to look for a hat for Matsuri, while Miu goes off on her own to look for clothes. (She's a little clothes-horse...her clothes budget is larger than some small countries' GDPs. >_>) Eventually they find one. See my icon for what it looks like.
I'm not sure if Nobue's calling Miu fat, or if she forgot they left Chika at home. >_>
(OK, more likely the translator forgot...but I wouldn't put either of those PAST Nobue.)
So, Nobue gets Matsuri home safe, while leaving Miu to her own devices.
Ah, privacy, so Matsuri can be adorable without being self-concious.
And...that last panel is...very Miu.
Next...random beach trip!
So, they decide to go to the beach...it's nominally for Matsuri's benefit, but...they just wanted to go to the beach.
Miu goes and plays in the surf for a while before coming back and making fun of everyone else for staying on the beach in the shade.
But, she relents when calling them old men (well...middle-aged men) doesn't shame them into coming out of the shade.
Nobue's apparently more into this beach trip than she let on... Watermelons are expensive, and she's almost always broke - occasionally stealing from Chika to buy her smokes.
... The predatory look on her face in that second to last panel might explain it. ... Nah.
I'm surprised poor Matsuri didn't yark all over Nobue...
So, Miu misdirects Chika, because she's a jerk, but the watermelon gets smashed anyway.
Yummy watermelon for everyone gets followed by everyone deciding to go swimming. And this time that does include everyone, including Matsuri, despite the fact that even changing into her bathing suit is enough to topple her, right now. (Cut for space.) And that...she can't swim.
She lost to her ferret. Only Matsuri.
And Miu's definition of helping is...unique.
Apparently, so is Chika's:
Miu Matsuoka - overestimating her appeal since 2002.
(And jeeze, Nobue...she's 12, give her a break!)
Miu's vengeance is as childish as it is suicidal.
There's no room for Nobue's revenge. Let's just say she doesn't really outdo Miu on the maturity scale.
In lieu thereof, some random illustrations by Barasui:
Miu and Matsuri play Alice in Wonderland:
And Barasui draws someone rather familiar...
I think Barasui's a fan of Azuma - there's also a random Yukari-sensei phone fob in one of the illustrations in v4.
Two chapters from v1, 4 pages from 12 and 5 from 16.
Tags: genre: manga, title: Ichigo Mashimaro
no subject
Date: 2010-06-03 11:02 am (UTC)x3 Omg, Matsuri is teh cute! <3
no subject
Date: 2010-06-03 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-03 06:39 pm (UTC)Now that I think about it, do we have any Azumanga on the com? If not, someone should at least upload Osaka and the knife. And Chiyo-Chan in the penguin outfit.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-03 08:39 pm (UTC)