Strawberry Marshmallow/Characters
Tropes (and other stuff) about the main girls of Barasui's Slice of Life comedy, Ichigo Mashimaro.
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.
- Adult Child: She's definitely not above playing pranks on the girls...
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Nobue: "Matsuri! it's Miu! She's dead!" |
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- 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.
- Cool Big Sis
- 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
- Meaningful Name: In the dictionary episode, the girls look up the meaning of their own names - Nobue means "increase faith".
- Must Have Nicotine
- Smoking Is Cool
- 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.
- 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
- Straight Man
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: With Miu.
- Team Chef
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.
- Actually Pretty Funny: For Chika.
- A-Cup Angst
- Attention Whore
- Black Comedy Rape: As seen when Ana needs a yukata:
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Nobue: "Miu, take off your clothes." |
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Miu (whilst dressed as a doctor): "I'd describe your condition as "clenchy". |
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- 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.
- Drop in Character
- Fiery Redhead
- The Friend Nobody Likes
- Girlish Pigtails
- Green-Eyed Monster: Especially where Ana and Matsuri are concerned.
- Jerkass
- 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 5th 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.
- Blind Without'Em
- Butt Monkey
- 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....
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Matsuri: "Konnichi-nyah" |
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- Color Coded for Your Convenience: Green is her primary clothing colour of choice.
- Cute Clumsy Girl
- 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
- Shrinking Violet
- 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)
- 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
- Ojou
- 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".
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Nobue: "She's mine!!" * Glomp * |
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- The West Country: Her origin, before the move to Japan.