The Gorgeous Life of Strawberry Chan
Posted on | June 13, 2008 | 1 Comment
The Gorgeous Life of Strawberry Chan by Ai Morinaga (amazon)
The Gorgeous Life of Strawberry Chan is one of the most hilarious and perverse manga I’ve read. I thought Morinaga’s other titles My Heavenly Hockey Club and Your & My Secret were fun and quirky, but Strawberry Chan provides epic doses of warped humor. Strawberry Chan is a cute neurotic frog who lives with his master Akiyoshi. Akiyoshi enjoys tormenting Strawbery Chan by blowing him up with a straw. Akiyoshi’s new roommate Fujikake falls in love with Strawberry Chan at first sight, which causes plenty of tension. The manga is structured in short episodes detailing the depths of the frog’s torture, what would happen if Strawberry suddenly became human, a trip to the beach, and an episode of amphibian bodybuilding that is one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen committed to paper.
There are two volumes of Strawberry Chan out in Japan, and that seems like the right length for this series. While it is incredibly funny I could see how someone might get tired of seeing all the various ways a frog could be made to cry if everything was stretched out over several volumes. This might be a book for Morinaga fans only. It probably isn’t the best introduction to her work, but it is notable for bringing pure craziness in manga form. There were a couple glaring typos but overall the production from Media Blasters was fine.
Cathy has some scans of the first few pages up at It Can’t All Be About Manga
Slightly Biased Manga has a longer review
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June 16th, 2008 @ 6:03 am
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