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Now in Japan
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Written by maehara
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Monday, 23 May 2005 13:44 |
 Hmm. Ecchi harem comedy. Where have I seen these
before? Answer: just about every other show this season, it
seems. Ichigo 100% has some things that the rest
of the competition don't, though, which makes it come out ahead of the
rest of the pack. Read on to find out what...
1a - Vision of Strawberry Panties
When Junpei Manaka heads up to the roof of his school for a great view
of the sunset, he's greeted with another great view - the
strawberry-print panties of one of his fellow students - and he's
immediately in love. After she runs off, Junpei finds a notebook
belonging to Aya Toujou - could this be her book? Has he been
able to track down his new love? No such luck - Aya turns out to
be a rather plain classmate of his. Maybe Tsukasa Nishino?
The hair's not quite right, but she is wearing strawberry
panties. Either way, there's about to be a few more women in
Junpei's life than there were before...
1b - Misunderstanding and then a Wrong Assumption?
Junpei's stunned when Tsukasa agrees to go out with him - he's in a
complete daze when he walks home with her that afternoon, and his
nerves mean he's a complete basket-case as far as conversation is
concerned. When Tsukasa asks him to go to the park with her, his
imagination begins to run wild with thoughts of what might happen, but
it seems this isn't going to be his lucky day. Meanwhile, the
school is full of rumours about the new love-birds, and they're not all
good ones...
2a - Study Session of the Shaking Love
Junpei & Aya have been studying together for a while now, working
towards Junpei's aim of passing his Izumizaka entrance exam, and he's
beginning to fall for her - although visions of what Tsukasa will do to
him if she finds out are stopping him from doing anything about
it. She does eventually find out they've been studying together,
though, she decides to tag along - purely for her own education, of
course. Meanwhile, Komiyama falls hard for Aya when she changes
her image a bit, but Aya's already fallen for Junpei...
2b - The Illusionary Beautiful Girl Again!
It's the day of Junpei's & Tsukasa's entrace exams for Izumizaka
High School. There are two surprises for Junpei at the test,
though - first, Aya's taking it - he'd expected her to go for a much
higher-ranked school than Izumizaka - and second, with her hair down
& glasses off, she looks exactly like the girl he saw on the school
roof. Realising that the girl he's falled for was really Aya
leaves the poor guy totally unable to concentrate on his test...
What's to like about Ichigo 100%: the lead male
actually has a personality, which beats just about every h-game
conversion out there; the two girls that have been introduced so far
are both very likeable, and don't seem inclined to inflict excess
violence on Junpei, just for the comic value; the production quality so
far is excellent - this series looks good; and the ED theme
(Hanoi Team: Ike Ike) is one of the catchiest Eurodance-style songs
I've heard in a while. And don't forget the strawberry
pantsu. There's lots of them. Put it all together and you
get a show that's great fun to watch & where, just for change, none
of the characters are begging to be thumped. As for as my memory
of recent harem shows goes, that's unique.
Aya being the 'mystery girl' was pretty well telegraphed - it wasn't
rocket science to figure that out - but the way that it slowly dawned
on Junpei was really well done. The next fun bit will be to see
how he breaks the news to Tsukasa, as I can't see him being the
two-timing type. There are also another two girls to be added to
the mix - if they're as likeable as Aya and Tsukasa (and based on the Ichigo 100% OVA episode, they are) then we're on to a real winner.
So far, so good - definitely on of the best recent harem shows, and well worth checking out.
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