Sorry to be away so long. Life exploded again.

In a desperate attempt to find some balm for my harried soul, I watched the third and final volume of the Strawberry Marshmallow series. For the time it lasted, it was just the thing. ^_^ (And somewhat belatedly, and sheepishly for forgetting initially, my deepest thanks to Ted for once again making a review possible. Thank you Ted!)

In this volume, we continue to watch Itou Nobue, her sister Chika, Chika’s sociopath friend Miu and two younger girls, Matsuri and Ana do basically nothing. But they do nothing very amusingly. They sit around watching a hypnotist, play soccer, go to a public bath and talk about Santa Claus. Amusingly.

Miu is, as always, the highlight of the show. Having decided to “hypnotize” Chika, Miu says that she will turn Chika into her dog, Satake. When Chika leaves the room, Miu runs off, and returns accompanied by the pup. Matsuri, always the perfect straight man, believes that Miu has succeeded until Chika shows up in person. Miu comments that she’s a little worried about Matsuri’s future to which Chika rebuts, “I’m worried about yours.”

There is less Yuri tension in this volume than in the others. Miu continues to vie for Nobue’s attention, but that’s about it. What this volume does have is Miu actively seeking out situations to screw the rest of them up, and even better, signs that despite her protests, Miu absolutely cracks Chika up. Chika is also not above some retaliation. I approve. ^_^

The extras with this volume are nice. There’s a reversible DVD case cover that has more than one picture.  (See my review of Shinobuden for context.) Also a pencil board of the girls, with Miu featured on the other side. There’s a really nice video feature, as well – music videos of the characters accompanied by their image songs sung, of course, by their voice actresses. That was awfully pleasant.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 2
Service – 4 (bath, cosplay….)

Overall – 8

In fact, for her efforts in this volume, I think I’ll bump Miu up from Evil Psycho Lesbian-in-training to full EPL status. ^_^ For the gag at the bathhouse as they all drink milk, she deserves the promotion.