By Mizuki Kawashita
VIZ, 190 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Growing up can be a tough situation but growing up surrounded by love-struck, beautiful girls is another. Junpei Manaka, an aspiring film director, is living in such a world, caught between his feelings and the feelings of the three women in his life: Aya, a scholarly writer with whom he shares a passion for creating; Satsuki, his athletic actor that has already shared her intense feelings with Junpei; and Tsukasa, the supportive and encouraging on-again, off-again “girlfriend” of Junpei. Volume nine opens with Junpei taking some time off from the three ladies and aiding his childhood friend, Yui (who has grown into something more than Junpei bargained for) as she deals with some family issues. After Yui makes peace with her family, Junpei returns home for the summer, rekindling the fire inside him and ultimately, becoming ready to face the girls. It is a wild ride as he gets mixed up helping Tsukasa bake, Aya write and finally juggling a day with all three including a birthday, a concert and family picnic! Yipes!

In terms of writing, I find Strawberry 100% to be a mixed bag. On one hand, I really am interested in the story and I feel that it is driven by the characters’ feelings and emotions. Tsukasa and Aya are so sincere in their portrayal of confusion and lust as they deal with their intense feelings. Junpei is also very human; I never found any of his accusations or confusion to be unjustifiable. He is a normal teenager who is going through what we all go through. On the other hand, it is an incredibly frustrating ordeal to get through. The book moves quite fast but you never see too much resolution with any of Junpei’s problems, only more frustration to come. When something goes wrong, believe me it does in a big, fan-servicey way. I guess it fuels the idea that the book is true-to-life and how these problems are, but sometime you really just don’t want to deal with all of that again.

I will always love Kawashita’s art style, though. He does a great job at capturing the awkward, heightened emotional response we get from Junpei as he interacts with the girls. It is no surprise for me to say that this is the real driving force of the book. When it’s sad, it’s sad, when it’s happy, it’s happy, etc. Volume nine luckily doesn’t follow the usual ridiculous T&A show that other volumes do, except for the last, Charlie’s Angels-inspired chapter. This adds a nice mature feel to the book, fueling the character development Junpei experiences.

All in all, I have a soft spot for these types of Japanese high school harem manga. I can’t tell you why; maybe it’s the art, maybe it’s the back and forth between the characters. I can say that if you are following this series, it’s a good volume that will have a good reread value and push you to keep reading it. If you haven’t already dismissed this for what it is, give Strawberry 100% a chance. You may be pleasantly surprised with it.

Volume nine of Strawberry 100% is available now.