| Title: | Ichigo 100% TV |
| Episode: | 1: Visions of Strawberry Panties |
| Synopsis | |
| Manaka Junpei races to the rooftop of his middle school one day, only to be surprised by a falling angel, a beautiful girl wearing strawberry (ichigo) panties. Against the backdrop of a setting sun, she runs away, dropping a notebook. Junpei returns the notebook to the student whose name is listed in it, to Toujou Aya, but he is disappointed to find out that she is not the girl that he met on the rooftop. On a dare from his friends, he decides to confess (while doing pullups) to most beautiful girl in 3rd year class, Nishino Tsukasa. While her hairstyle is different from the girl of his dreams, she is both very beautiful and she was wearing strawberry panties, so she must have been the girl that he met on the rooftop, or was she? | |
| Comments | |
| [2005-09-01, Devil Doll:]
Despite lots of nonsense (where should Nishino have gotten the notebook? Her hair couldn't be more different from this girl's; and why doesn't he ever check from where the girl might have fallen down?) the episode has certain strong scenes. At least Manaka is honest about wanting to make camera takes of her pantsu - he's not in love with this "angel", and he only confesses because of the dare. Note who gave Manaka the advice how to confess! And actually Manaka never fulfills the dare - didn't he promise to take the pantsu shot as well? I like Manaka's first conversation with Aya on the rooftop. He doesn't exactly tell her that he believes Nishino was the ichigo girl; it might have been even more interesting to see her reaction to the misconception. Manaka ansolutely connects to Aya on a professional layer (and manages to really cheer her on) while at the same time completely ignoring her feelings, leaving room for a lot of development (look how he ignores her high school preference first but then reconsiders). Aya starts with the confidante position, almost like Maehara Shinobu, suppressing her own dreams and supporting her boy. And making a girlfriend whom he never spent a thought about seems to be an interesting start position as well - there must be trouble ahead. Their very first way home together asks too much of Manaka already. Right from the beginning, Nishino is the most interesting of Manaka's girls: She has the most complex, least one-dimensional character of them, thus providing lots of surprises. She's similarly capricious as Ayukawa Madoka, for example; but she instantly drops her own high school preference when she feels Manaka has something important in mind (even though he can't tell his new girlfriend, despite revealing it to Aya before!). | |
