Ichigo Mashimaro

Information of Anime

Ichigo Mashimaro follows the everyday lives of five girls named Nobue Itoh, Chika Itoh, Matsuri Sakuragi, Miu Matsuoka, & Ana Coppola.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series 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.

There's no plot line really.  It's just about the lives of Nobue Itoh, a college student, & the four other girls who are in elementary school.  The show focuses on their everyday daily activities such as going to the beach or playing the park.  It is set for around an one year period with some of the holiday occasions occurring like Christmas, which is pretty much where the show ends with the cast going back to school for the next semester.

My Personal Review

Ichigo Mashimaro is simply an anime show where you get to laugh at life's simple pleasures.  With unique characters, it quite a entertaining show to watch.

Animation

The drawings are okay & unique.  Round faces & large eyes.  Really mashimaro faces.  It's something you don't see a lot in anime shows today.  In fact, it's quite simple.

The colours are quite soft & dull, which is quite easy on the eyes.  In fact, it gives the backgrounds somewhat of an artistic touch.  And the backgrounds are very simple & contain very little details.

Animation flow seem to be unnatural at times.  It looks slow & has some sort of floating effect.  When the girls walk, it does look like they are floating as they aren't firmly touching the ground.

Sound

The sound effects are ok.  They look like the things were are & it's quite natural.  The volume is set at a reasonable level & doesn't create any fuzz.

There is hardly background music in the show.  In fact, the ballads are so soft you can hardly recognize them.  It's very calm & sets the mood quite well.

The voices are not bad to some extent.  Ana's voice really sounds much older than her age.  In terms of role playing their characters, it's done well.  They really give off the impression of elementary school girls.

Story

No story here.  Basically watching the lives of these fice girls in the entire series.  It's mainly to see the simple things in life.  However, it's more focused on the elementary school girls & they steal the show.

Overall Conclusion

Ichigo Mashimaro is a delightful show to watch.  Although it doesn't have a storyline, the 12 episodes of this show is more than enough really.  Anymore than that will make it boring.  Since the show focuses more on the elementary school girls, some people may not watch it since it may look like a kid's show.  However, it's got some adult references such as breast size.  So, it should be watch by a young teenage audience at the least.  Personally, I recommend this if you want something to relax with.

Ichigo Mashimaro gets an eight out of ten from me.  The show is lighthearted & quite entertaining to watch.  However, its lack of a storyline can be a weakness to the show.  Because of this, it's an open end ending.  Another season of this show is possible, but chances are it will not happen.  The continuation will occur mainly in the manga.