Strawberry 100% Vol. 6

Rating T+ Genre manga Author Mizuki Kawashita Publisher Viz Media

Strawberry 100% is for those of us who love some good, old-fashioned sexual tension mixed in with our manga. I should have counted how many sneak peeks we get at girls’ undies when their skirts fly up… but I didn’t. It’s probably around twenty, twenty-two.

This manga is all about teens and their raging hormones, and it’s actually really well done. It’s one of the most addicting stories I’ve read so far in a manga. The plot revolves around Junpei, a film-loving high schooler with too many girls on his mind to function. For some reason, all the girls fawn over him. I personally don’t see the appeal, but hey—I’m a three-dimensional human with commitment issues.

In this volume, four girls are involved with Junpei in some way. Aya is the main focus—she’s a beautiful, soft-spoken, fellow film club member whom Junpei is trying to win over. In one of the underwear-revealing moments, he saw her wearing strawberry-patterned panties (hence: Strawberry 100%) on the rooftop of their school one day. They had been friends before, and he was shocked to find out later that this adorable panty-clad mystery girl was indeed Aya. But there is a snag in the road: Satsuki is, like, CRAZY in love with Junpei. Crazy. So crazy, in fact, that at one point, she attempts to seduce him by essentially trapping him in a classroom, stripping off all of her clothes and shoving her boobs in his face while holding him down on the floor. Will he give in?! Only one way to find out…

The third girl is Tsukasa, Junpei’s former girlfriend. He assumed that the girl on the rooftop was her before he found out it was actually Aya. He asked her out, and they dated for a while. But after seeing his interest in the other girls that surrounded him, Tsukasa ended the relationship. She appears in this volume as a reminder of what Junpei lost as a result of his indecisiveness. The fourth lady involved is young Yui, a childhood friend of Junpei. The only romantic involvement between them that we see is towards the beginning, when a game of hide-and-go-seek gets a little intimate. Other than that, Yui remains a platonic constant in Junpei’s life. But she’s cute and we love her.

All the real drama began with the arrival of a gorgeous newcomer, Amachi. He immediately picks Aya as his most important conquest, bringing Junpei close to heart failure, which in turn leads Satsuki to nearly rape Junpei. Confused yet? Don’t be. It’s actually pretty easy to understand, considering that we all go down similarly twisted paths when it comes to our love lives sometimes. And what I love about this manga is that is brings this fact to light, and makes it honest. And beyond that, the sexual tension in this manga really, really works. I am the epitome of a hopeless romantic, and my heart swoons everytime I see a boy get close to a girl or take her in his arms. And the illustrations in this book are done exceedingly well in that regard. The scene where Satsuki attempts to seduce Junpei is RIDICULOUS! She really puts herself out there in every sense of the matter, and we feel the uncomfortable, immediate heat just as intensely as Junpei does.

If you’re as big of a sucker as I am when it comes to budding romance, this series is a must. You’ll be captivated by the life in the eyes of these lustful teens as they get closer and closer to one another. It seems like the precursor to their development into swingers when they reach their adult years. Weird thought… but it makes for great stories! Look for the cover featuring three curvy girls in short skirts with the lanky Junpei in the background, tortured over which one to pick! Poor guy.