I My Me! Strawberry Eggs

::QUICK REVIEW:: Story: 5 (Typical funny trap situations) Art: 3 (I cant forgive uneven fingers and ugly ears) Sound: 6 (voice actors are pretty good but nothing else) Character: 6 (cute as hell but still drawn poorly) Enjoyment: 4 (Traps and perverted old men running gags) Overall: 24/50 = 4.8 = ~5.0 (A really mediocre SoL comedy) This is quite a confusing anime since it almost feels like it's trying to pull both male and female audiences using unorthodox means. First off, its a typical ecchi-harem anime and i use the word harem pretty loosely. Because after episode one the main character will be a trap. YES a trap (man dressing upas a woman). If you don't feel comfortable watching that sort of thing please feel free to drop it. Because you're not missing much. Don't worry, everything will set itself out in episode one. Including the perverted old men trying to sneak ecchi pics of school girls as a running gag. All this stuff is all fine and dandy, but I thought traps usually gear toward a more female or FYG-type audience. Once the story layout is exposed, it's all downhill from here. Every episode has been done in other school SoL (slice of life) anime. And they're not even done very well in this show. But for what it's worth the girls are pretty cute and moe and it does a fairly decent chemistry between Hibiki and his/her students. You'll also pretty much guess how the ending will be from the start as well. But the path from start to finish, despite it being very cliche with a trap twist, isn't all THAT bad but it fairly decent at best. Another thing that's lacking in this show is the art quality. Which is kind of important in an ecchi/comedy/SoL/school/drama/romance show. You can tell it has a mediocre style artwork to it with over accentuating character outlines and very VERY simplistic school outfits. Its one of the worst school outfits i have ever seen in ANY show, period. It's a weird tank top/skirt compilation with this HUGE white sailor collar covering their shoulders. I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to be that huge. One thing this show does have going for itself is definitely the school girl characters. They're all cute and moe in their own way. And you actually feel sorry for some of their slice of life situations. It still doesn't help the fact that this show is very mediocre and and a lot of times just wrong (in 'funny' ways of course). Its obvious this show is drawing a male audience with all the ecchi, but at the same time its pulling a female audience by how a man has to adjust himself to a women's lifestyle. If that sounds like something you want to see give it a shot. But if you don't like mediocrity in your story or art work stay far away from this one. There are a lot of better ones out there.

Okay I hate to admit this and I really hate to admit this because I'm a guy but this was a damn good series story wise, if it was redrawn and remade I sure as hell would enjoy it about a thousand times more as I'm sure most people will think as well. So without any further ado let us review. Story- Like I said the story in this was great, the ending was a real heart jerker, and the laughs I enjoyed were pretty genuine. The only thing that prevented it from getting a ten was some lack of substance and how short the serieswas. Art- Okay yeah this series definitely lost points with me here mostly because everything was not well drawn. I understand that this series is kind of old but I have to draw a line somewhere. Sound- Okay I liked the voice actors in japanese and the voices really did match the characters; in terms of sound effects they did a decent job there too so yay good job. Character- Well for the important characters yes there was some development but there were sometimes where I just felt uneasy as to what a character was like...what I mean to say is either the character was as easy to read as a book or about as readable as Latin is speakable Enjoyment- I liked this series a lot it wasn't my first experience watching an anime that was at least roughly based around school life but it was definitely one of my more enjoyable experiences; it actually makes me expect great things from school life based animes unlike some series which will remain un-named cough cough super gals cough cough. Overall- If you like a heart warming kind of story and enjoy a little bit of drama here and there I suggest this series if not I'm not sure why else you would pick it up unless the aspect of a man cross dressing to get a job as a teacher is just your thing...

I started watching I My Me! Strawberry Eggs four years ago. It was one of my first forays into anime tinged with yuri and crossdressing, both elements that have become more popular in the years since. Now revisiting and finishing it, I feel a very strong appreciation for a show that tackles rarely handled topics such as reverse sexism and above all, what really matters when you fall in love with someone. Admittedly, Strawberry Eggs fails spectacularly as a comedy. The jokes are stale, the timing is terrible, and the visual gags are just lame. Its only existence in comedy seems to be to keep theseries light-hearted, because when it dives into drama, it tends to dive deep. No surprise given the premise involves a man who crossdresses to teach at a school that only allows women to teach falling in love with one of his female students. Barriers invoking melodrama include age, gender, and sexual orientation, as well as the negative stereotypes that men typically have to bear. These issues are handled quite delicately while both the teacher and his students, both operating under entirely wholesome premises, attempt to understand each other in an environment that breeds discrimination on unwholesome assumptions. The way these issues are tackled and resolved are Strawberry Eggs's true strength and with great fortune, is what it blossoms toward, especially in its incredibly impressive final stretch. The characters are also a mixed breed. No one really stands out besides Hibiki and Kuzuha, but everyone is a well-rounded character and no one is entirely a cliche. The characters, despite their lack of discernible personalities, never come across as fake... well, except the apartment patrons. They're a joke and have no real puprose or need for existence within the series. The art is decent, not necessarily pretty but certainly not ugly. I suppose "tolerable" would be the right word which is coincidentally (or not) appropriate for this series given its message. The voice work is impressive and passionate, especially Yuki Masuda as the female voice of Hibiki. However, the BGM and OP/ED accompaniments are beyond bland. In short, though looking rather uninspired and bland, Strawberry Eggs ultimately blossoms into something strong, thoughtful, and sincere. A real treat for series of this nature that proves in many ways that looks are not only deceiving, but also not what really matters. Overall, I give I My Me! Strawberry Eggs a 7 out of 10.

"Aiii Maiii Miiii Strawberry Egg" is undoubtably, unashamedly aimed at those otakus that spend a lot of their time fantasising about unlikely, perverted romances. It doesn't bother trying to disguise this fact. The premises is a total farce: a newly qualified school teacher Hibiki Amawa wants to work at Seito Santomiya school, but there's just one problem: the school only hire female teachers because of the principal's dislike for men... and Hibiki is a man. So, in order to prove a point, Hibiki dresses up as a woman and is successfully recruited into the school. One of the female students Fuko Kuzuha soon falls inlove with him despite Hibiki's appearance as a female teacher... and yeah, things gets messy from there on. With more fan service and hackneyed breaking of taboos to shake a stick at, I really ought to have loathed this show with a passion. But I don't. Despite all its shortcomings, "Strawberry Egg" actually exhibits a charm that is typified by the warm, sunshine opening theme (something that reminds me a little of "Fruits Basket"). But with the exception of a couple of episodes, this series is mostly predictable trash. And even in the episodes that are not pure trash, only a few moments truly shines out amidst the absurdity. The best example is probably the parents visit episode, when Hibiki, being a PE teacher, gets the parents to go on a run with their kids. The whole activity is hilariously bad - PE seemed like the only lesson of the day, as though there was nothing else to do; the runners were not told the route; people could just quit and go back whenever they felt like it; not to mention the idea that someone who's incredibly unathletic could just go and outlast the rest of the class through determination alone is totally unbelievable. It was clear that the whole thing is just a contrived set up for the scene at the end of the run. But when that scene came, I couldn't help but feel moved by it, even though everything leading up to it was so poorly thought through. There was another scene in the last episode, where Fuka gives a speech. Though the speech itself is terrible and the reactions predictable, again, I was touched by it. Perhaps the secret is in the two characters, Hibiki and Fuka, that the anime revolves around. Being the anime that it is, there is no shortage of thinly veiled excuse for fanservice moments and lecherous characters and their dubious activities, but through it all, Hibiki and Fuka both managed to pull off their roles rather well. It feels as if Hibiki genuinely has the welfare of the students in mind (unlike his lecherous flatmates), and Fuka also comes off as the sweet, caring individual that she's meant to be, perhaps due to some rather skillful voice acting. The only facet of her character that feels too cliched is the whole clumsy, constantly tripping routine, which is way too exaggerated and has been done far, far too many times already. Even though "Strawberry Egg" does have some subtle redeemable qualities, I really hesitate to recommend this as a genuinely good watch because, let's face it, it's not. It's a mostly manipulative show with a story progression that, more often than not, feels forced and shallow (something that's exemplified by the big "twist" at the end that made no sense). But it must have done something right, otherwise I would be treating it with a lot more distain that I am now. It may not offer anything intelligent to chew on, but it does provide some aesthetic pleasures.