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Strawberry Marshmallow

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Strawberry Marshmallow

Strawberry Marshmallow (Japanese: 苺ましまろ, Hepburn: Ichigo Mashimaro) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Barasui about the adventures of four elementary school girls and their older sister-figure. It began serialization in ASCII Media Works' manga magazine Dengeki Daioh in 2002. In 2005, the manga was adapted into an anime television series and a PlayStation 2 video game. Three original video animation (OVA) episodes were later released from February to April 2007. Another two-episode OVA project titled Ichigo Mashimaro Encore was released in 2009. The manga's tagline is "Cute is justice."

There is an unrelated manga by Touko Mizuno with the similar title of Ichigo Mashumaro (苺ましゅまろ).

According to the manga, Strawberry Marshmallow is set in Hamamatsu, Japan. Seasons play an important role throughout Strawberry Marshmallow as the characters are involved in many normal seasonal activities.

The series is speckled with numerous small, music-related allusions, such as Ana's dog Frusciante being named after John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, while episode eight of the anime sees two goldfish called Richard and James (with Aphex Twin appearing in other comics by Barasui as well). Other referenced musicians include Radiohead, Sigur Rós, the Bee Gees, Oasis, Moby, Outkast, The Police, Arctic Monkeys, The Black Eyed Peas, and Squarepusher. The title itself was inspired by "Mashimaro", a single by Japanese rock artist Tamio Okuda.

The Ichigo Mashimaro manga, written and illustrated by Barasui, began serialization in ASCII Media Works's Dengeki Daioh magazine on February 15, 2002. The first tankōbon was released on January 27, 2003, and nine volumes have been released as of February 2023. The French company Kurokawa has an ongoing license of the manga under the title Les petites fraises, while Siam Inter Comics publishes the series in Thai. Tokyopop previously licensed the series for publication in the United States (in English, as Strawberry Marshmallow) and in Germany (in German, as Erdbeeren & Marshmallows), but the series was canceled in 2008 after five English volumes and four German ones due to low sales, and is now out of print.

Early chapters of the manga break the fourth wall, especially in the first volume, where Chika often turns to face the readers when describing her plight. The manga currently publishes on an irregular basis with an inconsistent number of pages per issue.

A 12-episode Strawberry Marshmallow anime series produced by Daume and directed by Takuya Satō aired in Japan between July 14 and October 13, 2005, on the TBS Japanese television network. A 4-minute special was also broadcast prior to the start of the series. The anime series was licensed for English language distribution by Geneon. Three original video animation (OVA) episodes were later released between February 23 and April 25, 2007. A two-episode OVA series titled Ichigo Mashimaro Encore was released between January 23 and March 25, 2009. After going out of print due to the shutdown of Geneon's anime division, the series (including both OVAs) was later re-licensed by Sentai Filmworks.

Five Ichigo Mashimaro drama CDs were released between July 22, 2005, and August 25, 2006, on the Frontier Works record label. They use the same voice actresses as the anime. There have also been four character song singles (one for each girl except Nobue), two soundtrack albums for the original anime, multiple "Toy CDs," and two soundtrack albums for the OVA.

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