Ichigo Mashimaro (Strawberry Marshmallow) is one of the new (original work isn't so new) anime being pushed by Geneon, so I heard a lot about it on this and that radio shows. Seeing as how it has an all-star cast, I felt obliged to check it out. The safest (==cheapest) method was to get the manga. At the same time, I pre-ordered the first CD drama. After reading the first chapter of the manga, I promptly canceled the CD pre-order.
According to all the advertisements and reviews, this is supposed to be the latest super cute craze. You know what? It's far more dysfunctional than it is cute. What's so cute about 16-year old who smokes, and generally acts like she rules the little world she's in?
Art can be cute at times, but it's not enough to distract me away from the ugly nature of the story. To put it bluntly, I'll take Yotsuba&! over this stuff any day of the year.
The only intriguing thing I found was Nobue's fondness for Matsuri-chan. For the most part, Nobue doesn't seem to care about anything but herself, yet for some reason, she actually cares about Matsuri-chan. I found that to be intriguing somehow.
Oh, and Matsuri-chan's ferret is cute, although its behavior is highly unrealistic.
