When it comes to finally watching an anime that I’ve been anticipating for some time, it could either result in great satisfaction or a big disappointed. “Ichigo 100%” is such a title. I’ve been reading the manga for some time now and I’ve been on top of all the scanlations. So I’ve been looking this anime adaptation for a couple of months now, and now the 13-episode long TV has finally started to aired. However, here were a couple of things I was afraid of before hand that would make or break the series for me:
1) The art work. One of the reasons why I liked the manga was because the artist had a very unique style that was still very cute while looking nothing like the “moe” style that’s out there right now. Looking at early scans of the anime implied that the style was going to be lost with the digital animation.
2) The raunchiness. Usually when a series is animated for television, it’s “toned down” when it comes to raunchy moments. This allows the show to air at a earlier timeslot and reach a wider audience. However, when a series is a sex comedy like “Love Hina” or “Negima”, this has a very negative impact on show. “Ichigo 100%” centers around a boy looking for a girl with strawberry panties. Cutting out the raunch in this title would drastically change the storyline, and probably not for the better.
So how did this series turn out? See for yourself-
OP:
Episode:
EP:
Yes, I am one happy fanboy. ^_^ Let’s begin…
First of all, the storyline follows the series perfectly. From the very first frame I saw that familiar opening scene animated just the way I imagined it would be. The rest of the episode also follows the comic panel by panel. The only problem is that it seems very rushed, but considering all the storyline that they have to cram into 13 episodes, that’s understandable.
The art works great with the animation and does the manga justice. I like the fact that they gave my favorite girl blue hair. As Strong Bad say, “You gotta have the blue hair!” And my second favorite girl, Tsukasa (the blond), has a wonderful character design that captures all the cuteness of the original manga.
The OP is a disco-like song that didn’t really catch my attention, but features great poses of the four main girls while keeping with Junpei’s (the protagonist) filmmaking theme. The music through out the series is female vocal harmonies. Some of it is good, and some of it is bad. And the EP wins my heart over with chibi versions of the Ichigo girls. However, the ending theme song breaks into a para-para version of “We Like to Party” by the Venga Boys. If you don’t what song I’m talking about, you’ll recognize the tune the moment you hear it. There’s something just… wrong about that.
And the vocal cast is great so far. At first Toujo’s (the nerdish girl) scream was so fake that it made me cringe, but then I started to get used to her. Tsukasa is just as cute but forceful as she should be. And Junpei, oh god, the VA is great with him! The way that he delivers the “I really like you, will you go out with me?!?” line as he’s doing the chin up is comedicly well done. It had me cracking up.
And finally, all the raunch of the original manga has been retained in this adaptation. True, the farthest they get is just panty shots, but that’s the way the manga started off too. I’m interested to see how much of the envelope they’re going to push when Satsuki’s character is introduced.
So the final word from this fanboy:
GREAT JOB!
)
