Strawberry 100%, Vol. 2

In volume 1, middle school senior Junpei Manaka starts dating Tsukasa Nishino, one of the most attractive girls in his class. But he has chosen her for all the wrong reasons: because his friend Komiyama dared him to ask her out, because she is cute, and because she just might be the beautiful, mysterious girl he saw on the roof of the school building. Tsukasa is Junpei's first girlfriend; he has much to learn. At the same time, Junpei becomes friends with shy, studious Aya Tojo, who wears big nerdy glasses and has her hair in pigtails. While Junpei struggles to relate to Tsukasa, he finds that he shares much in common with Aya. At the end of volume 1, Junpei's friend Okusa tells him the obvious: Aya has a crush on him. In volume 2, Junpei realizes that he is developing feelings for Aya. In many ways, Junpei and Aya are perfect for each other. Both have career aspirations: Aya loves writing; Junpei wants to direct films. Things don't look good for Tsukasa! Why did Tsukasa agree to date Junpei? She can date almost any boy she wants. Unlike Junpei, who is dating for the first time, Tsukasa acts like she has gone out with boys before. Has she learned that beauty is more than skin deep? Before Tsukasa and Junpei start dating, Junpei defends Aya to a classmate, saying: "A person's heart and soul is more important than her looks!" Tsukasa is standing nearby with a thoughtful expression on her face. This girl sees a depth to Junpei that he does not see in her. When Junpei swipes Tsukasa's cell phone and lets Aya unwisely volunteer to return it, what upsets Tsukasa most is not Junpei's foolish conduct. He understands so little about her that he is actually afraid she will slap Aya. "Geez. Do you think I'm that mean?" As Junpei and Aya become attracted to each other, Tsukasa has difficult decisions to make. She chose Junpei for the right reasons; will caring for him leave her with a broken heart? Volume 2 has dramatic moments: the entire school looks on in surprise as an ugly duckling turns into a swan. But it has tender moments, too. Watch for the cherry blossoms. They bloom early, like young love in middle school.

Being relatively new to the 'Harem' manga genre, I'm pretty pleased with my first choice with the Strawberry 100% chronciles. While vol. I introduced us to the main characters and overall plot line of a fumbling protagnist Junpei Manaka and his innocent love triangle between the popular Tsukasa Nishino and shy and plain Aja Tojo, vol. II dies more for character development of both the three main characters and the few supporting characters. While some plotlines may be a tad predictable, they are indeed appreciated in their depth to help understand the motivation for Junpei, Aja and Tsukasa. There are some serious social issues dealt with that all pre-teens and teens can identify with, and as an adult I can appreciate them even more by looking back at them and reliving some of my own past moments as Mr. Kawashita plots them out. Such plot devices as studying for entrance exams, and what to do with a phone number your school crush gave you, and the convoluted advice your friends tend to dole out that make no real logical sense. Mr. Kawashita tackles some of these deep experiences with the appropriate level of humor and straight forwardness that is grounded in reality. As far as the artwork goes, I am amazed at both its simplicity and detail at the same time. The panels are not over crowded at all, and the focus is clearly on the charcters, but I'm truly in awe at times at the amount of background detail that is accomplished and at the same time not 'busy'. My only issue is with Mr. Kawashita's manga art style is there are instances where the characters facials expressions don't always seem to match their thought or emotions. I found that Junpei expression often came across as angry when he was really embarrased, or in a silly moment his face would signal frustration. The overall love triangle seems to move relatively slow in vol. II, but towards the end, Junpei discovers his true feelings, and when everything is coming to a head we are introduced to a new mystery character...a new young girl of course, which will surely complicate Junpei's adolescent hormones even more in Vol. III

You would think that Junpei would be quite satisfied with his life these days because his girlfriend, Tsukasa, is the prettiest girl at school and also the owner of the mythical strawberry panties he glimpsed back in Volume 1....or is she? Even though he really likes Tsukasa and has slightly pervy urges towards her, Junpei is taken aback when she invites him to her house to cook dinner for him and study. Things get even more interesting when he finds out her parents are not going to be home anytime soon! But even in this situation, the poor boy finds himself thinking about Aya Tojo. One of his friends, the studly Okusa, told him that Aya had a thing for Junpei, but he thinks its just because he wants him to break up with Tsukasa so he can hook up with her. While Junpei doesn't know the truth, he does find himself falling for Aya. While all this is going on, he still has to find time to study for high school entrance exams so he can realize his dream of becoming a film director. While the second volume of Strawberry 100% was enjoyable on its own terms, it's starting to slant dangerously close to becoming a harem comedy, especially with the entrance of a new female character in the closing pages of this book. I just don't see how the storyline can sustain itself UNLESS it keeps on adding characters to distract from what is otherwise a very simplistic setup. I really enjoyed the first volume because, for once in this type of book, the main character had no problem getting the pretty girl. Now Junpei realizes that the girl of his dreams is the wrong girl of his dreams. This is what happens when you fall in love based on seeing someone's panties. You have to see the soul and the face to truly judge a person's worth. An aspect of this manga that seems a bit goofy is the fact that Aya can't be recognized by Junpei when she isn't wearing her glasses, a la Clark Kent/Superman. So when he catches a glimpse of Aya without her glasses, he recognizes her as the girl with the strawberry panties, but does not recognize that she and Aya are the same person. It was a bit of a surprise that glasses wearing cute girls are repeatedly categorized as unattractive and plain in Strawberry 100%. I though bespectacled cuties were a common weakness of otaku the whole world over? I still like the characters and the art is quite good so I hope my fears about it becoming some type of Love Hina castoff are wrong.