CONSUMER ADVICE

Parents, though not really graphic this series IS about sex! Young teenage boys who can't think of anything but women and what they look like underneath their clothes. That said there is some class that normally isn't found in series like these.

I admit that as I get older in my age I look less and less fondly on these high school romances that come from Japan. Aside from the few classics like “Kimirue Orange Road” and “Kare Kano” that get the experience of young love completely right, most of them are delusional at best and downright phoney at worst. With the male romances the fantasy involves lots of panties. With the female fantasies the delusion is that a shy girl has lots of lovely men fawning over her. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why manga is primarily geared towards kids. An adult is likely to find themselves uninterested in this stuff. You likely to find more realism by watching those eHarmony commercials. With that said while I can’t quite recommend a series like “Strawberry 100%” to a sophisticated adult, I CAN say that it’s not as bad as most series of this nature.

The story revolves around Junpei Manaka, a high school student who is unlucky with love. Then one day, while sitting on the roof of his school, a girl lands on him who he falls in love with. The problem is, the only thing he knows about her is that she wears strawberry panties. Cinderella’s prince had a glass slipper. Junpei has a pair of panties. That’s how far the love story has fallen from credibility folks. Though he can not find his “love at first sight,” he DOES end up becoming friends with the unattractive Aya, who has pigtails and wears big glasses! What attracts him to her is that he accidently reads a story she is writing in her notepad, and is very impressed with her writing talent. Somehow this girl that everyone ignores is the most intelligent and creative person in the school. It’s this twist that saves the story from being an idiot plot.

See, I don’t care about panty shots and cheap illusions. It’s more interesting to see people fall in love. Discover things about other people they didn’t know. Become friends with someone and have them not realize they are falling in love. THAT’S interesting! And when focusing on that relationship “Strawberry 100%” works beautifully. That said, the series does throw one too many stupid obstacles at our protagonists before they can get together. In this case other women come into Junpei’s life to make him confused about his feelings. These women are worrisome, but not annoying. They are not dumb people, and when Junpei dates one of these girls, a girl he’s had a crush on for years, he spends the date bored and confused about why he isn’t having any fun.

This scene is important to the integrity of the series. Way too many times have I seen high school men go out with girls he doesn’t love, and start questioning their love for the stranger based on body attractive rather then intellect attraction. Most of the time the male will even love the attractive girl for long periods of time despite her lack of intelligence. This series has a number of money shot scenes, but at least the main character doesn’t seem to fawn over them so much. He’s much more interested in the personality of the girls he dates and that makes him extremely likable in my opinion. And while “Strawberry 100%” may not be a great series I can recommend it because it’s a good example of what this genre should at least aspire to be. Yeah, if you have to choose a great romance to read then go with one of the examples listed above. But if you’ve got money to burn and like this sort of thing I think you’ll be pleased.