This hasn’t happened in a while, but there won’t be any stupid gimmicks in any of my Ichigo Mashimaro entries. I won’t bore you with Q&A sessions or 10 word entries. I’m confident enough in my skills that I can come up with something entertaining just by the merits of this anime and my brain.

The premise of this series is a simple one and can be summarized in two glorious words…

Little Girls

That’s all I need in any TV show. There isn’t much that this anime can do to make me hate it, but that doesn’t mean that it can escape from the clutches of my scrutiny.

Of course, there are always the haters. They always need that “something else” to enjoy their anime. You know, stuff like… a plot and coherency. Yeah, whatever, they can tune into The Price is Right for all that shit.

The biggest flaw thus far

So we have Nobue, the residential Youth Appreciation Enthusiast (get used to this term, I’ll be using it quite frequently) of the series. Apparently, she has mastered the art of time travel and came back from 4 years in the future to star in her very own anime and legally smoke cigarettes. I can see why the anime decided to age Nobue 4 years from her manga counterpart, but there are the hidden implications which, I think, send an even worse message.

Let’s break this down.

(one 16 year old girl with no friends her own age) + (four 11 and 12 year old girls) + (no parental supervision) = harmless fun

(one 20 year old girl with no friends her own age) + (four 11 and 12 year old girls) + (no parental supervision) = Uhm… yeah…

There might be a slight exaggeration here, but 20 years old? Just so that she can smoke cigarettes on TV? Oh well, Nobue is just there to smack Miu around anyway. I’m hoping that her age won’t cause any more problems.

Other minor gripes

- I was promised a widescreen anime, instead I get shafted with a 4:3 aspect ratio. They’re rebroadcasting it on satellite TV starting in August, though. 16:9 makes me very happy.

- The cast is subpar. I’m not feeling Nobue and Chika very much. I usually like Nabatame Hitomi’s roles (Rosa Foetida from Marimite, Mikoto from School Rumble) but something’s not right here.

Personal anecdote

I went to a 6 year high school (7th - 12th grade) and every year, I’d say that the some of the new 7th grade girls were hawt. It was a subjective opinion and I was entitled to believe what I wanted, but as the years went by the agreement and the giggles from my peers started dwindling. At a certain point, the laughter stopped altogether and the conversation-killing silences started becoming more prominent.

For my own sake, I won’t disclose how old I was when I last made those comments but I will say one thing: If 20 year old Nobue existed in the real world, she couldn’t get away with half the stuff she did in the manga as a 16 year old.

Oh, but that’s just my silly (and biased) Western views talking again. Nobue lives in a crazy batshit world where a pack of cigarettes costs 270 yen, while I had to fork over $5.50 back in 2003. If I want cigarettes that cheap, I’d probably have to move to a place where Klansmen outnumber the amount of books in the local library.

Youth Appreciation Enthusiast

It’s an euphemism that I created. I think you can figure out what it’s supposed to represent. Feel free to use the term liberally. It makes you look more dignified, especially in front of a jury.

I promise the next entry won’t be as long. I also didn’t talk about what happens in this episode on purpose because nothing ever happens in Ichigo Mashimaro, ever. Go read someone else’s blog for “plot analysis.”