Line #108 Manga/StrawberryMarshmallow


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ichigo_mashimaro_encore2_small.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:Chika, Miu, Ana, Nobue & Matsuri]]
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4	Depicting the [[SliceOfLife everyday life]] of four pre-adolescent girls and their older sister figure, ''Strawberry Marshmallow'' (''Ichigo Mashimaro'' in the original Japanese) doesn't have excessive drama, or supernatural events, or giant robots. Just the antics of four girls, two 12 year olds, two 11 year olds, acting somewhat cuter and more childlike than perhaps is entirely realistic.
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6	Originally a {{shonen\|Demographic}} manga series by Barasui which began serialization in ''Dengeki Daioh'' in 2002, it was later adapted to a video game and an 12-episode anime series in 2005. An OAV adaptation was released in early 2007 and another one, entitled ''Encore'' in early 2009.
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8	----
9	!!This show provides examples of:
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11	%%* ACupAngst: Oh Miu, poor deluded Miu.
12	* AllJustADream: The first episode of ''Encore'', after Miu gets knocked out while attempting to do a backflip.
13	* AnimeAccentAbsence: [[{{AvertedTrope}} Averted]]. Ana Coppola is notably a Japanophile who knows more about Japanese culture than her native friends. Plus she forgot how to speak English despite being from England.
14	* ArtEvolution: ''Very'' noticeable if one reads the series from the first few issues.
15	* AsleepInClass: At one point Ana falls asleep, and when the teacher goes to wake her, Matsuri protests that they should let her sleep. In another classroom, {{Jerkass}} [[BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine boke]] {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Miu falls asleep, and the ''teacher'' asks ''Chika'' not to wake her. Given how she acts in class, this is more the teacher knowing she can't change Miu's behavior, and rather than pointlessly waking her and having to deal with it during class, taking advantage of her falling asleep to teach properly.
16	%%* AttentionWhore: Miu.
17	%%* AudienceSurrogate: Nobue.
18	* BeachBury: Done to Miu (buried in the sand standing up so only the head is sticking out, just like Sayid in Film/WhiteSunOfTheDesert, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kDABLl5Lzc&t=0m31s just have a look]]), after she exposed Nobue's really nice boobs to the public by stealing her bikini. After calling them "no-chest sisters", they play SmashingWatermelons, with Miu's head replacing the melon, although they stop before hitting her head.
19	* BeachEpisode: Episode 10, "Beach Challenge".
20	%%* BigSisterInstinct
21	%%* BigFancyHouse: Ana's.
22	* BigFriendlyDog: Frusciante, who is friendly to anyone but Miu.
23	%%* BirdRun
24	* BlandNameProduct: Nobue's Mild Even cigarettes. And the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haagen_Dazs M(a)ild Dazs]]. And Chika's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTT_DoCoMo DoWoMu]] cellphone.
25	* BlankWhiteEyes: Episode 5.
26	* BlindWithoutEm: Matsuri, which leads to some very dangerous situations in the public bath.
27	* BlushSticker: The girls have them often.
28	* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: Every scene involving Miu doing something stupid and Chika commenting on it.
29	** Taken up to eleven in chapter 61 with many repeated cuts of Miu giving a dumb excuse for her mistakes and Chika giving a different comment each time.
30	---> '''Miu:''' "I'm worried about the future of Japan."
31	---> '''Chika:''' "How does that make you late?!"
32	* BoobBasedGag: In "Miu's News", Miu [[FakeBoobs shoves stuffed toys under Chika's shirt]] while she's sleeping.
33	--> '''Miu:''' It's you! With bazooka boobs!
34	* BrokeEpisode: An ongoing theme is Nobue's lack of funds.
35	* ButNotTooForeign: Ana is a pure-blooded British girl (specifically from Cornwall) who lived in Japan for long enough to be considered a native Japanese. Ironically, she is the worst in English out of the four girls.
36	* ButtMonkey: Whenever the younger-younger girls' rarely-seen male classmate Sasazuka does appear, he's usually being told by the teacher to [[StandingInTheHall stand in the hall]].
37	** Miu seems to think that Ana and Matsuri are this. Everyone else ''knows'' Miu is.
38	* ChristmasEpisode: The finale of the anime. Nobue pretends to be Santa Claus in order to preserve Matsuri's innocence.
39	* ClingyJealousGirl: Likely non-romantic, although with Miu all bets are off.
40	* ConversationCut: Hiroki Matsui, cosmetics salesman, is punched in the eye, breaking his glasses and causing them to hang under his nose by one ear, thanks to Nobue becoming convinced that he's a pedophile. A few panels later, he's in front of the company president, resigning. For whatever reason, he has not removed his glasses.
41	%%* CoolBigSis: Nobue.
42	%%* CuteClumsyGirl: Matsuri.
43	%%* TheCutie: Miu.
44	* DiggingYourselfDeeper: Happens to Ana whenever she shows that she can actually speak very good Japanese (and next to no English).
45	* DropInCharacter: Miu, even in the middle of the night.
46	* FauxPaw: In episode 51, Matsuri and Miu each don kitty ears. Matsuri does the FauxPaw maneuver (just batting, no licking), to Nobue's delight. Miu behaves more like a cat that's lashing out. Nobue doesn't think so highly of this.
47	%%* FestivalEpisode: "The Matsuri".
48	* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Miu.
49	** To a point. Occasionally [[{{AvertedTrope}} Averted]] in some parts of the anime and manga where the girls still invite her to places and include her in their general daily life despite what a pain she is. Nobue outright states in the manga "You and Chika are our best friends too." and goes to effort to console Miu when she has her breakdown. Chika is arguably Miu's toughest critic and she still gets the most visibly and tearfully upset if Miu is seriously hurt. It's more that she's just a loopy sister to these girls instead of being someone they resent on any level.
50	* FriendlyTickleTorture: Nobue and Miu are pretending that Miu's dead. One of Nobue's "proofs" is that Miu, despite "having been" very ticklish, doesn't react to the most severe tickling. Except that she does, of course.
51	* TheGenericGuy: Chika.
52	%% Before adding an example for Getting Crap Past the Radar, make sure it fits the current description.
53	%%* GirlishPigtails: Miu.
54	* GoldfishScoopingGame: Miu happens to be very good at this.
55	* HeadbuttThermometer: Nobue to Chika and Miu in episode 19, "Sick Jokes".
56	* HotSpringsEpisode: Episode 17, "Into Hot Water".
57	* ImTakingHerHomeWithMe: Nobue's first interaction with the character Ana is to examine her, note things about her that make her cute, and then suddenly grab her proclaiming, "She's MINE!!" In her defense, she was really drunk when this happened.
58	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Miu is mostly jerkass material, but she really does think the world of Chika and Nobue and want them to like her back. Has her blink-and-you-miss-it moments of genuine consideration for Matsuri and Ana as well.
59	** And Nobue back to Miu. As the series goes on, their relationship gets more antagonistic and outright violent, with Nobue doing things to Miu that are pretty unacceptable for a 16-year-old to do a 12-year-old such as kicking her in the stomach and throwing her into hard furniture (one panel in a Christmas chapter even implies she was thrown from a ''second-story bedroom'' to the ground below, which should've caused major injury). All the same, you'll still find Nobue demonstrating some care for Miu here and there, and she drops the jerkass thing entirely on the times Miu gets seriously hurt by something or sick. The times she started running a major fever and knocked herself out doing a backflip, Nobue immediately went for medical help. She was so concerned for Miu that she even dragged a sicker Chika out of bed just to go to the hospital!
60	* LimitedWardrobe: Averted, there's quite a variety of clothes worn throughout the series.
61	* LookBehindYou: Subverted and played straight in one scene.
62	* MagicalGirl: Shinohara the angel, from Miu's dream sequence.
63	* ManChild: Nobue, to an extent; on more than one occasion, she acts less mature than her 12 year old sister.
64	** Nobue isn't really a 20 year old, [[NoSmoking she just plays one on TV]], so some childish behaviour is to be expected.
65	* MustHaveNicotine: Nobue. Big time.
66	* NoFourthWall
67	* NoSmoking: Nobue is 16 in the manga, but is depicted as 20 in the anime, giving her an excuse to freely smoke and drink.
68	** Though she first claims to be 20 while wearing what is clearly a high school uniform.
69	** There is a chapter in the manga in which Nobue tries to stop smoking, [[MustHaveNicotine with funny results]]. At the beginning she actually addresses the reader that 16 year old girl's aren't allowed to smoke in Japan.
70	* ObliviousYoungerSibling: Subverted.
71	* TheOjou: Ana.
72	* OtakuSurrogate: Downplayed. The girls sometimes read manga and play video games but this is not treated as a major character trait.
73	* PaperFanOfDoom: Used in Episode 1 to keep the girls awake when they're making the ashtray. Miu is the recipient of the most hits according to the score board.
74	** Miu also uses one in "Proverbs".
75	* ParentalAbandonment
76	* PhenotypeStereotype: Nobue fawns over Ana's "typically British" blond hair & blue eyes, while Miu is jealous of Ana's breasts developing before hers.
77	** And of course Ana's mother is blond too.
78	** Light hair is fairly common in Britain (compared to the more southerly European nations), so arguably it is "typical" that Ana and her mum are fair-haired.
79	* PlayingSick: In an episode of the manga of ''Strawberry Marshmallow'', Chika really ''is'' sick, and is being cared for by her big sister. Miu pretends to be sick, as well, to gain attention. (Though by the end of the episode, Miu actually gets sick, probably due to prolonged exposure to an airborne illness, and is taken to the doctor.)
80	* PokeThePoodle: ''Encore'' introduces the cutest, most pathetic attempts at a demon facilitating hell.
81	* PottyDance: Miu does it while lying on the bed because holding it in is temporarily preferable to entering the bathroom without a [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Varia Suit]].
82	* PuniPlush: Rather evident, but throttled to new heights in the ''Encore'' {{OVA}}.
83	* RealPlaceBackground: The girls apparently live in the town of Hamamatsu in Japan's Shizuoka prefecture, and the author sometimes sneaks in local landmarks.
84	* RubberFace: Nobue does that to Miu, after she starts making fun of her for wearing a girly dress on a part-time job as waitress.
85	* RunningGag: Miu lying face-down on the floor after skipping some off-screen violence.
86	** This is played with one time in the manga where in the following panel Nobue says she hasn't hit her yet, and Miu says she thought she could skip that part if she lay down in advance. Cue Miu lying down again, this time with a bump on her head.
87	* SadistTeacher: The teacher in Ana's class is constantly punishing one particular student at any opportunity and for no reason.
88	--> ''Ana is sleeping in class. The teacher walks over to her desk''
89	--> '''Teacher:''' "My my, what a magnificent nap we're having."
90	--> '''Matsuri:''' "Shhhhh! Shhhhh! Please don't wake her up!"
91	--> ''Teacher stares at Matsuri for a moment''
92	--> '''Teacher:''' "Wouldn't Sasazuka like to have a nap too?"
93	--> '''Sasazuka:''' "Huh?"
94	--> ''cut to teacher starting his lesson with Sasazuka absent''
95	** In the last episode of the the main amime, the Teacher tells Saszuka to go stand in the hall, to which he replies "I don't want to." Cuts to Teacher standing out in the hall.
96	* SceneryPorn
97	* {{Seinen}}
98	* ShoutOut:
99	** Matsuri's ferret is named John, and Ana's dog is called Frusciante, leading one to believe that Barasui is a Music/RedHotChiliPeppers fan.
100	** Barasui references a lot of western music in various ways throughout - for example, Nobue is a big fan of Music/AphexTwin and µ-Ziq.
101	** Ana has the cat Sakamoto from ''Manga/{{Nichijou}}'' on her pajama.
102	* StandingInTheHall: Poor, poor Sasazuka.
103	** Happens to Miu in "Miu's News".
104	** And Ana and Matsuri's Teacher in "Present."
105	* StraightMan: Chika.
106	* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: Both Miu and Nobue's friend, when independently asked, think of Nobue like a boss.
107	* StrawberryShorthand
108	* SurpriseSantaEncounter
109	* SynchronizedMorningRoutine: A flashback shows 6-year-old Miu popping over to the Ito house to leave her wet undies and bedsheets and comes in on 10-year-old Nobue and her 6-or-7-year-old sister Chika brushing their teeth. It is cute, but that's not surprising.
110	* TalkingWithSigns: Manga chapter 24, "Speak No Evil".
111	* ToiletHumour: Miu farts in the hot tub during "Into Hot Water". The other girls are not amused.
112	** A bigger deal is made out of it in the anime. This is somewhat of a [[RunningGag running gag]] seeing how she not only does this again in the 3rd OVA as well, but also in the video game depending on the scenario.
113	* TwelveEpisodeAnime
114	* VoodooShark: A [[NoSmoking censorship example]]. Nobue claims to be twenty while wearing a high school uniform.
115	* WeaselMascot: John, a normal, if mischievous, ferret.
116	* WeNeedADistraction
117	* WholePlotReference: Miu retells Cinderella in one chapter of the manga, with Matsuri as Cinderella, Chika and Ana as the stepsisters, Nobue as the prince, and herself as the fairy godmother who [[spoiler: marries the prince at the end]].
118	* WikiWalk
119	* WilliamTelling: On [[SideStoryBonusArt a picture after the chapter]], Miu wants to let Nobue shoot an apple off her head with an arrow and Chika tries to talk her out of [[TooDumbToLive this insanity]].

Context Manga / StrawberryMarshmallow