I My Me! Strawberry Eggs!
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I My Me! Strawberry Eggs! is a 13 episode anime about a man who disguises himself as a woman with the help of his crankily eccentric but resourceful landlady to work at a school with a man-hating faculty. The show is a typical "bait and switch" anime, in that it begins as a light and immature comedy but then suddenly, about midway through, becomes a very moving drama. This has the effect of making the dramatic moments more intense, and allowing it to return to the comedic voice when issues get too heavy. This is especially true when the series starts to address such topics as homosexuality and the potential for sex with teenaged minors.
Especially notable about the series is that it makes no judgements. The entire series is simply shown from the points of view of the various characters, and the audience is left to come up with their own judgements. This is tempered slightly by very sympathetic characters, but still leaves room for varied outlooks.
The series has, not unexpectedly, produced a range of critical perspectives. For example, some critics cite the fifth episode as exemplary of the series as a whole, consisting as it does almost entirely of young girls comparing their breast sizes. Proponents of the series, however, are quick to point out that the rest of the show does not follow this format. While these appraisals (both positive and negative) have their place within the dialogue regarding the series, they tend to skirt the more important issue of the way I My Me! Strawberry Eggs! negotiates the already mentioned issues of homosexuality and the desire for sex with teenaged minors. As with many anime products from Japan, the series seems perfectly comfortable openly representing what other cultures (with a different or more conservative cultural history) might broach less candidly. Here it is important to note that I My Me! Strawberry Eggs! does not denegrate the former (homosexuality) as abhorant and does not clearly endorse the latter (sex with teenage minors). In fact, the series can be said to almost embrace with a comedic abandon the erotic possibilities of cross-dressing. It's handling of underage sex is more complicatedly situated within Japan's history and social norms and the potential critic or analyst of this aspect of the series' story-line is well served by contextualizing it within, first, Japan's history and social norms, and, second, within similar representations in other anime as well as other media in the world at large prior to coming to any final judgments.
The North American version of this series was released in August 2002 by Pioneer.
The opening soundtrack is "Dearest(OP)" by Hitomi Mieno(瞳).
External link
- Review at DigitallyObsessed.com (http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showreview.php3?ID=3840)