History Main / StrawberryShorthand

[[quoteright:330:[[Manga/StrawberryOneHundredPercent https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/straw100.png]]]]

# Love, especially passion. Perhaps it's because they're shaped kind of like hearts. In Western examples, strawberries as symbols of love and/or passion tend to come with a side-order of EroticEating -- especially if the strawberry involved is covered in chocolate. (See also describing someone as "Tasting like strawberries.") In Eastern productions, strawberries can mean more innocent love -- and even occasionally GirlsLove.

* ''Manga/StrawberryShakeSweet'' and ''Literature/StrawberryPanic'' are GirlsLove examples.

* The ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake'' franchise is probably one of the [[TropeNamer oldest and most well-known example of the trope]]. On top of her name literally being [[CharacterTitle Strawberry Shortcake]], the main heroine is a compassionate and energetic girl. The opening theme of the 2003 series even contains the lyrics "That girl's so sweet, just like her name".

* The song "Strawberry Wine" by Deana Carter is about a woman's first love.

* In the [[Music/Loona Loonaverse]], Chuu, nicknamed "The Lover" is has strawberries as her symbolic fruit, and her debut poster shows her with a slice of strawberry shortcake.

* The ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake'' franchise has an extreme example of this trope. On top of her name literally being [[CharacterTitle Strawberry Shortcake]], the main heroine is a compassionate and energetic girl. The opening theme of the 2003 series even contains the lyrics "That girl's so sweet, just like her name".

It's not surprising, then, that strawberries have also become one of the more popular symbolic fruit. Not quite as much as [[TemptingApple apples]], but they've earned their own place. They generally show up in order to imply one of two things:

# Love, especially passion. Perhaps it's because they're shaped kind of like hearts. In Western examples, strawberries as symbols of love and/or passion tends to come with a side-order of EroticEating -- especially if the strawberry involved is covered in chocolate. (See also describing someone as "Tasting like strawberries.") In Eastern productions, strawberries can mean more innocent love -- and even occasionally GirlsLove.

* ''Manga/StrawberryOneHundredPercent'' (or also ''Ichigo 100%''). It's started when a guy meets a mysterious cute girl who wears/wore strawberry panties.

* ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' features fruit-themed armors (called Arms), and while Gaim mainly uses Orange Arms he also sometimes uses a Strawberry Arms that's armed with throwing knives. Strawberry's "cuteness" is referenced in the Hyper Battle DVD by Kamen Rider Zangetsu when he's testing alternate Arms for possible use in combat -- he tries out the Strawberry Arms form, but decides it's too cute for him.

* The Roman Catholic devotional concept of the Sacred Heart of Jesus may well be a Christianised survival of the pre-Christian mythos. Iconographic representations show Jesus opening His robes to reveal a stylised heart underneath, floating free of His body; it has been remarked as to how this stylised representation looks less like an actual heart and more like a free-floating strawberry.[[note]]or even a [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail Holy Hand-Grenade of Antioch]][[/note]] This has all the associations of love, comfort, reassurance, family, as the pre-Christian conception.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bugsnax}}'': The first Bugsnak the player encounters is the Strabby, a walking strawberry with googly eyes, and is considered the mascot of the series. The player later gets one as a pet that pilots hamster ball, allowing access to tight spaces.
* ''VideoGame/HuniePop2'' introduces "favourite ice cream flavour" as a character trait you can learn about for the dateable characters. New character Abia prefers strawberry, and is also the most overtly sexual character in the game (to the point where she worries she might be a sex addict). She's also a very sweet and occasionally naïve (though by no means innocent) person, potentially playing this trope both ways.

* Strawberries are Princess Yggdra's TrademarkFavoriteFood in ''VideoGame/YggdraUnion'', though lots of other characters like them too. The ''VideoGame/YggdraUnison'' drama CD has her being bribed into ridiculous things by the promise of one, and [[DisproportionateRetribution attacking her comrades]] when they lose it before they can give it to her. One of the creator's 4koma explains that Yggdra's father set the kingdom's botanists to ''creating an entirely new breed of strawberry just for her.''

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/MakingFiends'' with Charlotte. She's as sweet, cheerful and cute as can be, but strawberries are one of the few things in the world [[DoesNotLikeSpam Charlotte doesn't like]].

* In French, "''aller aux fraises''" (literally "going to the strawberries") is an idiom which has several meanings, one of them being "looking for a remote place to have sex."