Ichigo 100% Special

Information of Anime

Ichigo 100% Speical is a TV special that mainly focuses on Yui Minamoto & Manaka Junpei.  The episode is not a continuation of the TV series.  It's more of an episode that "fills" in the storyline to enchance it.  Think of it as a unaired or missing episode.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a short summary of the storyline.  This section does contain spoilers.  If you haven't seen the anime yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

This special occurs before Yui enters into Oumi Academy & is currently moving into Junpei's room.  Just before she finishes moving in, Yui's father phones Junpei's mother & tells her that Yui will not be moving into their house.  At the same time, Junpei received a letter from Yui about picking her up.  Thinking about what happened, Junpei goes to meet Yui's father.

Junpei learns from Yui's mother the reason why Yui can't move into Junpei's house.  One morning Yui's father saw Yui waking up naked & walking around the house in that dazed state.  Junpei understands why Yui's father disapproves the move in & goes out in search for Yui.  After finding Yui, Junpei tries to take her back home to talk to her father.  Yui refuses to go back as she tries to get him to feel bad about his decision.  After listening to Junpei's help in convincing her father, Yui agrees to go back but ditches out at the last moment by taking a train going to the opposite direction.

Because there was no trains left to go back, Junpei & Yui spend the night together at a hotel.  Junpei phones Yui's mother about what happened & takes her that he'll take Yui back tomorrow.  Later on, Yui's mother phones the hotel & tells Yui that her father has lost consciousness.  This concerns Yui & Junpei helps take her back house by calling a taxi.

It turns out that Yui's father was in good health & lied about the situation.  He hits Junpei across the face for lying to him about taking Yui home immediately.  Angry, Junpei throws himself on his knees & tells Yui's father how hard Yui was hard in getting into Oumi Academy.  He tells him that if Yui decides to stay at his place, he'll move out.  As he talks to Yui's father, Junpei starts to lose consciousness due to fatigue.

Junpei wakes up & learns from Yui's mother how Yui was crying for her.  Just then, Yui's father comes in & apologizes to Junpei about hitting & misunderstanding him.  Yui's father realizes that Junpei & Yui are more like brothers & sisters since they knew each other since childhood, so their behavouir to each other isn't something unusual.  So, he allows Yui to go to Oumi Academy & stay at Junpei's house.  However, Yui walks in & proposes that she'll live in a dorm instead.  The TV special ends with Junpei going back home first as Yui will be coming the next day.

My Personal Review

Ichigo 100% Special is more of a add-in to the plot.  It basically show the viewers what happened in between the time when Yui started to move out of her home & the time she first attend Oumi Academy.  Of course, watching the TV series beforehand would be the best way in understand what the special is about. 

Animation

The animation has improved a bit from the TV series.  The character designs & the animation flow is about the same or even better.  It's almost like watching an OVA.  However, there are still some minor animation flaws, but it's not a really eye catcher.  For example, we see a close up of Yui's firework sparkler & zoom back out, it's in 2 different colours.  Although the sprakler changes colour over time, it was a bit too quick.

Sound

The same sound & music, opening & ending themes as well, are still here.  Nothing to really new to comment about.

Story

Ichigo 100% Special is an extra bit thrown into the storyline that some viewers any question or know about Yui's moving out of her home situation.  It doesn't really add anything new to the existing storyline.  In other words, it's more of a side story.

Overall Conclusion

Ichigo 100% Special gives the viewers some more information about Yui's moving out situation.  It's recommended that you should watch this special between episodes three & four if you haven't watched it yet.  But if you have read the Storyline section of this review, you most likely have seen the TV series.  Eitherway, you need to watch the first couple of episodes of the TV series to understand where this TV special lies.

Ichigo 100% Speical gets a 7.5/10.  Watching this, this was mainly to show the viewers more of Yui.  In other words, it's fanservice for the Yui fans that didn't get enough of her from the TV series.  However, it does give a bit of information about Yui's family & her home.

I won't say this is a must watch episode for Ichigo 100% fans since this is probably to hype up the name more.  Since there is only one special, it won't hurt to watch it.