Strawberry 100% Volume 9 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

Junpei Manaka once caught a glimpse of strawberry-patterned panties, and that sent him on an odyssey to find the beautiful owner of those delicate undies.  Now, a high school student and aspiring filmmaker, Junpei’s search for the mystery girl led him to Aya Tojo and a pack of girl troubles.

As Strawberry 100%, Vol. 9 (entitled Bikini Tutoring) opens, Junpei is in the middle of a family feud involving his sexy cousin Yui Minamito, who has been living with Junpei’s family while she attends school, and her father, who has just learned that Junpei and Yui share a room.  Determined not to return home, Yui runs away and ends up sharing a hotel room with Junpei!  Junpei is inadvertently destroying his cousin’s school career, so how will he fix this?

Junpei’s biggest disaster, however, is setting up dates with three different girls – on the same day – the 15th!  Aya wants Junpei to attend her father’s barbeque, where he can enjoy great food and read her novel.  Satsuki Kitaoji has scored nearly-impossible-to-get tickets to a highly-anticipated “Black Conch” rock concert scheduled for the same day as the barbeque, and Junpei just can’t miss the show because this is his favorite band.  Finally, his ex-girlfriend, Tsukasa Nishino, wants to celebrate her birthday, which is on the 16th , one day early, and Junpei, who wants to rekindle his relationship with her (or thinks he does), is determined to spend the 15th with Tsukasa.  But these three dates might turn out to be the least of his problems.

THE LOWDOWN:  As usual, the cover copy for the ninth volume of the raunchy Strawberry 100% promises plenty of fanservice, but the series is also a well-written romantic comedy with a lovable fool as the romantic male lead.  Guys can recognize Junpei’s many dilemmas, and they’ll wish to have his girl troubles.  Women may like that the female characters come across as the strongest.  They’re more interesting, and their personalities and motivations are certainly clear – compared to Junpei and the other male characters.  These may be a stealth shojo manga disguised as comics for teen boys.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  A “Shonen Jump Advanced” title, Strawberry 100% will appeal to readers of both Shojo Beat and Shonen Jump.

B+