I My Me, Strawberry Eggs

Onideus_Mad_Hatter · Post by **Onideus_Mad_Hatter** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 2:01 am

I just got through watching the whole series today for the first time. And I just gotta say, WOW! I mean, on the one hand you've got like uber weird/depressing/brain bending animes like NGE, but then you got anime series that just...make ya feel good. ^_^

The only sad thing is that it's over, I watched all the episodes and there's no more. It's like when you finish a REALLY good book and you almost wish you could just forget it all and watch it again for the first time. *sigh* ...I do wonder if they ever plan to make a continuation of the series, I thought it'd be neat if they did, if they made the setting when they're all in high school. Think mayhaps I'll do some research, maybe see if there's a manga for it (probably there is).

El Banana · Post by **El Banana** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 2:21 am

Is that the one with the cross-dresser?

Onideus_Mad_Hatter · Post by **Onideus_Mad_Hatter** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 2:32 am

El Banana wrote:Is that the one with the cross-dresser?

spoilers wrote:Yup, that's the one. It does have it's fair share of fan service, about on par with Kiddy Grade, but the themes of love, endearment, etc are REALLY touching. The relationships are also done VERY realistically, at times it seems very much not like anime and more like a true story. Especially in the parts where like Fujio confesses her love to Fukai who tells her she's in love with another and later he confesses his love to Fuko who like Fukai is in love with another, which then puts Fukai in the same sort of emotional position that he put Fujio and theres quite a bit of interesting self reflection amongst the characters.

El Banana · Post by **El Banana** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 2:35 am

Haven't seen it, so I can't read your post.

... actually you didn't spoil anything with the first two sentences. Yatta.

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 11:16 am

El Banana wrote:Is that the one with the cross-dresser?

Yup, it's the one with the cross-dressing teacher who wants to teach gym class, but the principal is being a feminist and didn't hire him.

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 11:20 am

angelx03 wrote:but the principal is being a feminist and didn't hire him.

Feminist to the point of spelling 'women' with a Y. (Womyn)

Well... if she was an ENGLISH teacher she would, being Japanese... they don't have... Y's... Oh bugger off.

I found the show sorta unrealistic in terms, kinda like an anime high school version of Mrs. Doubtfire.

Onideus_Mad_Hatter · Post by **Onideus_Mad_Hatter** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 1:52 pm

DJ_Izumi wrote: I found the show sorta unrealistic in terms, kinda like an anime high school version of Mrs. Doubtfire.

There were parts of it that were a bit of a stretch, as with pretty much any anime series, but on the whole the themes were very real. And much more so than Mrs. Doubtfire, which was sorta linear in terms of it's theme. In either case I suppose most people will either just see it as crossdressing hijinks, or they'll see it for the underlying themes of love, endearment, stereotypes, misunderstanding, etc.

Strawberry Eggs covers it all, from teacher/student relationships to same sex relationships, to gender identification, to just ordinary junior high (boys vs girls, boys and girls starting to find each other attractive, growing up, etc, etc).

The very fact that an anime like Strawberry Eggs can be produced in the first place is truly a monument to how advanced the Japanese culture is. Where as if they were to ever come out with a show like it in the US to be marketed mainstream, it'd probably result in mass protest and comparisons to Marylin Manson, Eminem, and other convienent targets to misdirect blame on to.

Further, the dubbed version is quite good...in fact to be perfectly honest I enjoyed the dubbed version better than the subtitled version...of course I think that's cause Pioneer dubbed it...hrmmm...

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 2:10 pm

I'd disagree with 'Gender Identity' thing, it's more like an elaborate method of disguise in this case.

lilgumba · Post by **lilgumba** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 2:15 pm

I liked the show. I don't know if I would by the dvds anytime soon but it was entertaining. I wish it did last a bit longer because I would like to know what happens in the future with some of the characters. That's wishful thinking though.

Onideus_Mad_Hatter · Post by **Onideus_Mad_Hatter** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 3:01 pm

DJ_Izumi wrote:I'd disagree with 'Gender Identity' thing, it's more like an elaborate method of disguise in this case.

SPOILERS wrote:But what about in the episode where he goes shopping, really enjoys it, winds up buying a new bra and then ponders about it for most of the episode about the meaning of it, whether he's kinda turning into a woman. There's LOTS of other examples of it too. Especially in the second to last episode when the vice principal takes the photos of him, the reason he takes off his disguise is because he's reflecting about Hibiki the man vs Hibiki the woman.

*shrugs*

Seems pretty apparent to me.