Comics / Manga

Strawberry 100% Volume 4

By Leroy Douresseaux
May 24, 2008 - 11:43

Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

Junior high school student Junpei Manaka spots a beautiful girl lying on the roof of his school when suddenly he also catches a glimpse of her strawberry-patterned underwear.  Just as suddenly, this vision that is every boy’s fantasy is gone.  Junpei assumes the mystery female is Tsukasa Nishino, the most popular girl in school, but the strawberry panties actually belong to nerdy Aya Tojo.  Junpei is torn between the two girls, but this is just the start of his girl troubles in the shounen manga (boys’ comic), Strawberry 100%, from creator Mizuki Kawashita.

In Strawberry 100%, Vol. 4, Junpei, now a student at Izumizaka High School, is at his wits end trying to decide what girl of three he loves the most:  Aya, Tsukasa (who attends a different high school), and the pushy and way-too-sexy-for-her-age, Satsuki Kitaoji.  Now, combining his desire to be a director and her desire to be a writer, Junpei and Aya are working on a student film for their high school festival, but Tsukasa will be the star.  When the trio heads to a beachside resort with Junpei’s horny friends Komiyama and Sotomura in tow, a love triangle comes to a head.

THE LOWDOWN:  As much as I enjoyed Strawberry 100% the first time that I read it, I liked it even more this time.  The nine chapters that make up this volume form a comic symphony of randy fun, as Vol. 4 flows and moves with surprising elegance for a teen sex comedy.  Like the films, The 40-Year Old Virgin and Superbad, Mizuki Kawashita puts character drama at the center of a maelstrom of fan service and comic raunch.  The misunderstandings, the accidental flashes of undies, the inadvertent touches, and innuendo: Strawberry 100% is a comic romp through the life a teenage boy who has a problem most boys his age would sell their souls to have.  And maybe I shouldn’t like this as much as I do.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  As part of VIZ Media’s “Shonen Jump Advanced” line of manga, Strawberry 100% is aimed at older teens, but its cheesy spirit of T&A will attract male readers of all ages.

A-

 

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12