Ichigo 100%

For my first review, I'll be reviewing a personal favourite of mine — Ichigo 100%. Don't be fooled by thinking that this is "Just another harem manga", because it isn't.

No, it’s much, much more than that. Shall I elaborate further and try to convince you all?

Very well, here I go.

Ichigo 100% is a manga written and illustrated by Kawashita Mizuki, a fairly well known mangaka that has a fairly large repertoire that includes titles such as:

Akane-Chan Over Drive

Kaede Typhoon

Lilim Kiss

Hatsukoi Limited (Which has since been adapted into an anime by J.C.Staff in 2009)

Ane Doki

Ichigo 100% was serialised in the Weekly Shounen Jump from February 2002 to August 2005 and has been published in 19 Tankobon volumes. It is licensed in English by Viz Media and its popularity also resulted in an anime adaptation (more on that later).

The manga is fairly famous within manga circles and without a doubt has to be one of the most discussed harem endings of all time.

Plot

The story opens with Manaka Junpei, a Third year Middle Schooler who dreams of one day being a famous film director. While walking up the stairs that lead to the School roof, he opens the door to find a girl that seemingly falls from the sky, but not before revealing her strawberry panties to Junpei. This is the starting point of Junpei’s fascination with the mysterious girl and of course – strawberry panties! Like many other main characters in a harem, the main driving force of the story revolves around Junpei’s interactions and relationship between the four main heroines.

Starting from Middle School and all the way to High School, we are taken on a journey that asks us “Which girl do I choose if it means that picking one will hurt the others?”

The opening of the story reminds me of Cinderella — how Cinderella left behind her glass slippers and the Prince, who was so entranced by her beauty that he sets out on a journey across the entire kingdom in an attempt to find his one true love.

In the case of 100% - you could call it a Neo-Japanese take on the much-loved fairy tale, the mysterious beauty does not leave behind a glass slipper, but instead leaves behind a seemingly ordinary notebook. Junpei finds out that the notebook belongs to a girl named “Toujo Aya” who, to his surprise, is in the same class as him. However, when he meets the owner of the notebook the next day in the hopes of finding the mysterious beauty with the strawberry panties, he realises that Toujo Aya is not the same girl as the one that he met yesterday. The girl in question is actually a plain-looking girl with glasses and a ponytail who comes off as utterly forgettable. Little does he know that in reality, she was the girl who was on the school rooftop from the other day. Taking a peek at Aya’s notebook, Junpei finds a story that she has been writing in secret and is instantly enthralled. The two then strike a friendship together, where Junpei encourages her to embrace her dreams of becoming an author and discusses with her about his dreams of becoming a film director. Convinced that Aya wasn’t the girl he was looking for, Junpei then is lead to believe that Nishino Tsukasa, the most popular girl in school, is the girl whom he is searching for. So how does a guy like Junpei go about confessing to a girl who’s way out of his league like Tsukasa? Naturally, you confess to her while doing a chin-up of course! The most bizarre confession scene you’ll ever set your eyes upon, I guarantee you. Teenagers these days are so unromantic. Confessing while doing a chin-up is supposed to show off Junpei’s manliness or something according to Aya. Well, what can I say, an author has to have imagination after all and surprisingly enough, Tsukasa bought it so I guess it deserves some merit. Just don’t go ahead and try it out in real life, because reality is harsh. Junpei realises not a moment later that he made a mistake when he sees the actual strawberry-panties girl leaving the scene right after he confessed to Tsukasa. Even with a case of mistaken identity, Junpei feels like the luckiest guy in the world right now and forgets about the strawberry-panties girl shortly after.

Of course, like all great secrets, they are bound to be revealed sooner or later.

What will Junpei do when he finds out that the strawberry-panties girl is actually Aya?

Most importantly, which girl will Junpei choose?

The Beautiful Princess or the girl who shares his dreams?

Characters

Manaka Junpei — The main protagonist. Although not academically gifted and having a rather perverted mind during the most inappropriate times, he is shown to be caring of his friends and his thoughtful compassion and selflessness is at times is the reason that makes all the girls fall in love with him. He is constantly plagued with indecisiveness between the girls that he falls in love with and his inability to choose between them.

“Manaka (真中)” means Centre.

Toujo Aya — One of the main heroines, she is first introduced as a bookworm type character without any redeeming qualities except for her kind-heartedness that she shows to everyone. Unbeknownst to everyone, she is actually the beautiful girl that Junpei first meets while on the School Rooftop, but she hides her appearance behind her glasses and unattractive hairstyle.
She dreams of one day being an author. She has a deep crush on Junpei and is the person who shares his dreams.

“Tou ( 東)” means East.

Nishino Tsukasa — The most beautiful and popular girl in school, she becomes Junpei’s first and only official girlfriend in the manga. Straightforward and down-to-earth, she likes to take the lead. She’s idolised by both boys and girls alike and has many admirers even from other schools that tend to wait outside the school gates just for a chance to get a glimpse of her. However, despite being such a flawless character, she treats everyone equally and without bias. One of the most recurring/ most asked questions in the manga is why such a popular girl decided to be Junpei’s girlfriend.

“Nishi (西)” means West.

Minamito Yui — A former neighbour and childhood friend of Junpei’s, she moved to the countryside when they were kids. She suddenly comes back into his life after moving back to his town to attend High School. She begins to start living in Junpei’s house and even shares the same room as him. She has a habit of taking her clothes off at night when she sleeps, which leads to some embarrassing situations for Junpei. Yui is one year younger than Junpei and although she’s considered one of the main heroines, her relationship between Junpei never progresses any further than being a friend/ sibling type relationship. Yui has a fondness for sweet things and looks up to Tsukasa as a role model after she got lost and Tsukasa helped her find her way back home.

“Minami (南)” means South. 

Kitaoji Satsuki — The last and final heroine, she’s introduced to us after Junpei enters into Izumizaka High School. With a flirtatious and teasing personality, she isn’t afraid to flaunt her perfect body in order to seduce Junpei and is very aggressive when it comes to love. Satsuki becomes very popular among the boys in school and shares many of the same interests with Manaka and the two are able to get along very well. 

“Kita (北)” means North.

I really like Kawashita’s naming convention. In the manga, it is regularly referenced that the relationship between Junpei and the four main heroines are similar to a compass. Junpei is the “Centre”, with Aya is “East”, Tsukasa is “West”, Yui is “South” and Satsuki is “North”. The compass within Junpei’s heart does not point North; instead it is akin to Captain Jack Sparrow’s compass in that it points in the direction the user most desires. In other words, it points to whomever Junpei has the strongest bond with. Although, like most main characters in the harem genre (or maybe it’s just teenage boys in general), his inner compass seems to be a little bit faulty as it points to whomever it is that he accidentally gets into a perverted situation with.

Well, all I can say is this: It can't be helped. ┐(￣ー￣)┌

Each character is multi-faceted and is not your usual bland and clichéd heroine. They have their own unique personalities and most importantly, they have their own unique reasons for falling in love with Junpei. Throughout the series, it is a joy to see the characters grow and develop from a bud in the beginning into a beautiful flower in the end. The feeling is hard to describe, but it’s akin to how a father feels when he sees his little girl grow up into a fine young woman – they just grow on you. No doubt, some of you might think some of the heroines fall into their own archetypes, but watch and be amazed as each character transcends the clichés and restrictions placed upon them and become someone who has infinitely more depth and uniqueness in both character and dimension. For all the character development in this manga, I’m proud to say that the one who has changed the most is Junpei himself. Some of you might disagree with my statement, but Junpei without a doubt surpasses the clichéd protagonist archetype of being indecisive and is totally one-dimensional.
His character growth spans the entire growth of the manga and in the end, he becomes almost like a completely different person (in a good way though).
All good romance/harem mangas must eventually come to an end. In life, we make choices. These choices will influence our future choices and the paths that we will take. There is, however no turning back, we can only move forward while wondering what would have been the result if we have chosen differently. Undoubtedly, some of you might end up thinking: "What would have happened if X chose Y instead of Z?" But the nature of the decision is such that there is no right or wrong path — just the chosen path and the other path. I myself am sometimes faced with this dilemma after reading many romance mangas and there really is no solution to this problem. Sometimes you just have to accept the fact that the heroine you were rooting for did not end up victorious.

Art

The artwork is just simply amazing in this manga. Mind you, this was drawn nearly ten years ago, but I still regard it to be one of the best I’ve ever seen. Of course, being a romance/harem manga, the art’s main focal point is the characters (especially the females) themselves. At times, the art can convey more emotion than any dialogue ever can. The emotions and personalities of the characters are wonderfully expressed by the author. There is just absolutely so much attention to detail and no little speck is forgotten when it comes to the heroine’ faces. Whether it be shy, pouting, jealous, embarrassed, angry, smiling, laughing, sad and crying, all their emotions are just conveyed to us so beautifully that it transcends the fourth wall and will touch and will remain in our hearts forever.

Another focus of the art is the eyes, the eyes are long known to be the window to the soul and a character’s true feelings are expressed to us through the eyes.

Excuse the spoilers, but check this picture out:

Beautiful isn’t it? The author is amazingly talented in that she can reproduce human emotions so well in the characters’ faces that they add a new dimension of depth and reality to her work, just marvelous.

Conclusion

All in all, this manga really sets an all new height of storytelling and character interaction/relationship/development in the harem and romance genre that has since be imitated and expanded, but has never truly been surpassed.
And you know what? I don’t think anyone can and/or will be able to make a manga quite like this.
Another reason I like this manga is because it doesn’t have any “Tragic Heroines”.
What are they, you might ask? Well I’m not sure who first created them (I’m leaning towards Shakespeare though) but it has since been heavily promoted by a certain person called Maeda Jun.
If you haven’t heard of the guy, then you might have heard of his works which include:

• Kanon
• Air
• Clannad
• Angel Beats

All of his works have these “Tragic Heroines” by the handful. Sure, they might have sad pasts that are no doubt effective in making the readers sympathise with the characters, but I think he goes overboard sometimes since nearly every other person now employs the “Tragic Heroine” cliché after the astounding success that Maeda Jun found with his works.
What I’m trying to say is that you don’t need tragic heroines nor tragic protagonist in order to come up with an enjoyable story and truly unique ensemble of characters.

That's why; this manga will forever and always be one of my favourites of all time.

Oh, and one more thing. FYI this manga was created by a girl.
*Mind explodes*