Strawberry Marshmallow/Characters

Characters from Barasui's Slice of Life comedy Strawberry Marshmallow include:

Nobue Ito

Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame [JP], Carol-Anne Day [EN]

The oldest of the bunch, at 16 years old (20 in the anime). Elder sister to Chika, whom she loves to mess with when in need of money to feed her smoking habit. She is attracted to Ana and Matsuri.

Tropes exhibited by Nobue include:

Adult Child: She's definitely not above playing pranks on the girls...

Nobue: "Matsuri! it's Miu! She's dead!"

Audience Surrogate: Arguably.
Big Sister Instinct: Frequently exhibits a protective attitude towards Matsuri and Ana, hardly ever to her actual sister, however.
Color Coded for Your Convenience: Black or grey are her usual clothing colours of choice. Her hair is also black.
Cool Big Sis Mostly towards Ana and Matsuri. Rarely towards Chika and Miu.
Cuteness Proximity: Her trigger is Ana and Matsuri.
Japanese Pronouns: She frequently refers to Miu using "temé!", a deeply impolite form of "you" literally meaning "you bastard!"
Lolicon Hinted at towards Ana and Matsuri at times.
Meaningful Name: In the dictionary episode, the girls look up the meaning of their own names - Nobue means "increase faith".
Must Have Nicotine Addicted to smoking.
Smoking Is Cool She smokes a lot in the show. In the Encore Chika makes a bet with her to stop smoking and if she loses then she'll have to take them to the beach.
Tomboy: She's deeply embarrassed by the frilly skirt and pinny she has to wear for her part-time job at a family restaurant - the girls can't believe what she's wearing.

Chika Ito

Voiced by: Saeko Chiba [JP], Wendy Morrison [EN]

Nobue's younger sister, a laid-back 6th grader. Described by her as the "normal" one of the group.

Tropes exhibited by Chika include:

Color Coded for Your Convenience: Blue is her primary clothing colour of choice.
The Generic Guy: As described by her sister, although her patience in dealing with Miu's antics may as well be a superpower.
Meaningful Name: Chika implies "thousands of skills" - basically being good at lots of things.
Only Sane Man She sometimes appears more mature than her older sister. She's the one who does the cooking (In episode 5 she told her parents, who were on the phone that Nobue didn't help.)
Straight Man
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: With Miu.
Team Chef Is very good at baking.

Miu Matsuoka

Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa [JP], Caitlynne Medrek [EN]

Nobue and Chika's neighbor, who seems to spend a lot more time at the Ito house than her own. She is in the same grade as Chika, and has been friends with Chika since they were little.

Tropes exhibited by Miu include:

Actually Pretty Funny: For Chika although she tries to hide it.
A-Cup Angst Nobue sometimes insults her for having a small chest which she doesn't take well.
Attention Whore Always doing random things, most of the time her friends are unimpressed.
Black Comedy Rape: As seen when Ana needs a yukata:

Nobue: "Miu, take off your clothes."
Miu: "Oh please no, Lord Magistrate!"
Nobue: "Idiot..."

The Chew Toy She lays on the floor after annoying her friends. Possibly Indicating her getting beaten off screen.
Cloudcuckoolander

Miu (whilst dressed as a doctor): "I'd describe your condition as "clenchy".

Nobue states in the first episode that she doesn't know what goes on in her head.

Color Coded for Your Convenience: Pink/Red is her primary clothing colour of choice.
Deliberately Cute Child: Tries to use this to her advantage, but fails repeatedly. Her friends find her antics more obnoxious than endearing but she does get Chika to laugh sometimes.
Drop-In Character She always crosses the roof from the Matsuoka's and into the Itou's by climbing in Chika's window.
Fiery Redhead Very energetic and enraged easily.
The Friend Nobody Likes Ana and Matsuri put up with her but Nobue and Chika are often enraged. They still include her in their everyday lives so it's only on a shallow level. They do get concerned when she passes out from doing a back flip and Chika's first instinct is to hug Miu.
Girlish Pigtails Along with two ribbons. They indicate her childishness as she is the most wild one out of them.
Green-Eyed Monster: Especially where Ana and Matsuri are concerned.
Jerkass She misbehaves and plays mean pranks on her friends. She gets Nobue fired from her part time job for starting a food fight.
Meaningful Name: Miu means "beautiful wings", and she's very proud of it....
Refuge in Audacity
Straight Man and Wise Guy: With Chika.
Unlimited Wardrobe: To a deranged degree, including a santa costume and 3 matching reindeer outfits, ninja gi's, obscure basket-hats and nurses outfits, as well as an extensive amount of Kawaiiko every-day clothes.

Matsuri Sakuragi

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi [JP], Kylie Beaven [EN]

A fifth-grader who is friends with Chika and Miu. She is timid and tends to scare (and fall down) easily. Nevertheless, Nobue seems to be attracted to her particular brand of cuteness for some reason.

Tropes exhibited by Matsuri include:

Blind Without'Em After Miu steals her glasses she needs them back.
Butt Monkey Miu's Target for messing around with.
Catgirl: Ashamed of her odd hair, she invests in a cute hat with cat-ears attached. Bizarrely, she spontaneously sprouts a cat tail as well. Nobue, quite taken with her new look, insists she add a little "Nyah" (meow!) to the end of every sentence....

Matsuri: "Konnichi-nyah"

Color Coded for Your Convenience: Green is her primary clothing colour of choice.
Cute Clumsy Girl The reason Nobue finds her so cute. She also lets Miu get away with her pranks.
Fragile Flower: Miu often makes fun of her weak constitution.
Loyal Animal Companion: Her ferret, Jon.
Meaningful Name: Matsuri means "festival", and it's also a type of flower.
Meganekko They only add to her cute factor.
Shrinking Violet Very timid and is the most innocent out of all of them.
Skunk Stripe: A very curious example, Matsuri's hair grows out greyish white from the roots, leaving only about half her hair length a natural brown colour.

Ana Coppola

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto [JP], Katie Rowan [EN]

Originally from Cornwall, England, Ana is one of Matsuri's classmates. She loves Japanese culture, but tries to disguise this fact in front of her peers even though her family has lived in Japan for a while and, as a result, don't speak English as much anymore.

Ana first appears in Episode 2 (anime; chapter 11 in the manga)

Tropes exhibited by Ana include:

Big Fancy House: Ana's house is huge by Japanese comparison, and actually has a proper lawn (as well as a fancy gate-buzzer), which is a rarity reserved for only the very wealthy.
Big Friendly Dog: Her dog, Frusciante (dubbed "Fu-chan" by Miu).
British Stuffiness / Japanese Politeness: She presents a curious blend of both, and is often seen to be very flustered and confounded by the mayhem surrounding her.
Color Coded for Your Convenience: Lavender or White are her primary clothing colours of choice.
Gratuitous English: Having lived in Japan for so long has impaired her ability to speak her native tongue, so when she actually does try to speak English, it comes out like this.
Keigo: Ironically, Ana speaks in a much more formal tone of Japanese than the rest of the girls, especially Nobue....
Meaningful Name: In the dictionary episode, Ana is furious when Miu spells her name in kanji to mean "hole", "bone", and "cave", which becomes a Running Gag.
New Transfer Student In episode 2. She pretends not to know how to speak Japanese until she remembers all her English.
Ojou Very ladylike.
Phenotype Stereotype: Blue Eyes? Check. Hair of Gold? Check. Originally from an English-speaking country? Check.
- It's fairly justified where Ana is concerned, as England (being in Northern Europe) is a nation with a relatively high occurance of fair-hair, especially amongst children.
Token Minority
- Foreign Fanservice: In universe example - when Nobue meets Ana for the first time (whilst a little tipsy), she's instantly smitten with her "golden hair, long shapely legs and eyes like deep pools".

Nobue: "She's mine!!" * Glomp *

The West Country: Her origin, before the move to Japan.

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