Ichigo mashimaro
=== Themes ===
According to the manga, Strawberry Marshmallow is set in Hamamatsu, Japan. Seasons play an important role throughout Strawberry Marshmallow as the characters are involved in many normal seasonal activities. The series is speckled with many small, music-related allusions, such as Ana's dog Frusciante being named after John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, while episode eight of the anime sees two goldfish called Richard and James. The title itself was inspired from "Mashimaro", a single by Japanese rock artist Tamio Okuda.
=== Characters ===
Nobue Ito (伊藤 伸恵, Itō Nobue)
Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (Japanese); Carol-Anne Day (English)
Nobue is the eldest main character. She is Chika's older sister and usually has final authority on all matters. She often tries to "borrow" money from Chika to buy cigarettes. Nobue is perpetually searching for a part-time job to earn money for more cigarettes to calm her nicotine addiction.
The story suggests that Nobue derives some kind of sensual pleasure from watching the girls do cute things. In this respect, Nobue appears to appreciate the moe aesthetic. It is seen during the anime that Nobue prefers Matsuri and Ana over Chika and Miu.
The Nobue character changed from the manga to the anime. In the manga, she is a sixteen-year-old high school freshman, while in the anime she is a twenty-year-old junior-college student. Her age is presumably changed because of her smoking and drinking habit, both becoming legal in Japan at age twenty. In the first episode of the anime, she initially introduces herself as a sixteen-year-old, intended to be a joke as she quickly states that she is really twenty. She tends to act somewhat less mature in her manga incarnation, doing things such as tricking Matsuri into thinking that Miu is dead. Her appearance changes radically in the early stages of the manga, especially her hair, which goes from blond to dark brown (and is black in the anime).
Chika Ito (伊藤 千佳, Itō Chika)
Voiced by: Saeko Chiba (Japanese); Wendy Morrison (English)
Chika is one of two twelve-year-olds in the story. Chika is the same age as Miu, and attends the same class as her neighbor Miu. Chika is a cheerful girl who shows more common sense than the other girls, especially Miu. Her main role in the series is that of an average, twelve-year-old girl, which is emphasized in the first manga volume, where Nobue describes Chika as specializing 'in being totally generic'. Her special skill is cooking, especially baking cookies. Chika is Nobue's little sister. She is nicknamed Chi-chan or just Chi.
Miu Matsuoka (松岡 美羽, Matsuoka Miu)
Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (Japanese); Caitlynne Medrek (English)
Miu is another twelve-year-old girl who is depicted in the story as having a problem-child personality. A childhood friend of Chika, she lives next door to the Ito house and attends the same class as Chika. Miu likes to say random things out of the blue and often plays pranks on Matsuri and Ana, but is most of the time interrupted by Nobue (and sometimes by Chika), ending up lying face-down on the floor. She has the least common sense or manners of the girls, and is rarely taken seriously because of her weird ideas and comments. She seems to harbor some sort of jealousy of Ana and Matsuri, because Nobue finds them cuter. She does not have any delicacy and tends to do things that bother people around her. Miu is nicknamed "Mi-chan". Miu has been described as "Yotsuba Koiwai with fangs".
While she is often causing trouble for the other girls, an interview with the cast that was published in volume 4 of the manga series reveals that Miu is extremely fond of Chika, whom she dubs as her 'one and only'. The interview also goes on to claim that Miu derives satisfaction from amusing Chika, and that she will never go to bed before making sure that Chika's room light is turned off. There are also scenes within the manga which hint at signs of lesbianism from Miu towards Chika; when Miu reveals that the both of them have kissed and rubbed each other's breasts, Chika makes no attempt to deny the claims or defend herself.
Matsuri Sakuragi (桜木 茉莉, Sakuragi Matsuri)
Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese); Kylie Beaven (English)
Matsuri, nicknamed "Mats" in the manga, is an eleven-year-old glasses-wearing girl with a pet ferret named John, and is depicted as having a very timid personality in the story. She is often the subject of Miu's teasing and can resort to crying and hiding behind Nobue. She is one grade below Chika and Miu, in the same class as Ana, with whom she quickly became friends. Matsuri discovers that Ana can speak Japanese fluently and helps her hide both her Japanese language skills and her lack of English language skills from the rest of their class. While she has gray hair in the anime, her hair is white in the manga.
Ana Coppola (アナ・コッポラ, Ana Koppora)
Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese); Katie Rowan (English)
Ana is an eleven-year-old girl who originally came from Cornwall, England, five years before the series, but seems to have forgotten how to speak English. She first pretends that she speaks only English, but it is not long before she is discovered by Matsuri while speaking very polite Japanese. Matsuri tries to help her re-learn English. Ana is often teased by Miu because of her name, Ana Coppola, which in Japanese sounds like a typical psychomime (a form of onomatopoeic sound). Ana really dislikes her last name for that and becomes angry every time Miu calls her "Coppola-chan". Miu also makes things worse by spelling her name in kanji to mean "hole", "bone", and "cave" (穴骨洞). Ana's "proper Japanese" personality is reflected by her very traditionally feminine and polite speaking style. And her impressive knowledge of Japanese words, kanji, customs and traditions makes her more "Japanese" than most Japanese people (which she also tries to hide). Later in the series, her ability to speak Japanese is discovered by the other students in her class. Ana owns a pet dog.
psychedelic