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Description
Show: Strawberry Marshmallow(Ichigo Mashimaro)
Episode: Ana
Number In Show: 2

This episode introduces the final girl in the Strawberry gang. Her name is Ana, a blond-haired blue-eyed girl from Cornwall England. This episode introduces one of the show's running gags. Ana's been in Japan so long she's actually forgotten English and is fluent in Japanese. This obviously causes her some embarrassment, so she tries to avoid interactions in class to fool everybody into thinking that she's still a full-blooded English foreigner. This gimmick provides a clever fourth wall break where Japanese in the English dub sound like regular English and attempts at English sounds like "Engrish". When the other kids notice Ana speaking fluently, sometimes they'll give a response of "You were speaking Japanese?"

Reviewing this episode was kind of tricky for me. Strawberry Marshmallow is only 12 episodes long so there should be no filler episodes, but that's exactly what this one feels like. As this episode focuses exclusively on Ana, there really isn't so much of the Miu-centric humor that makes this show such a blast to watch. On the other hand, this episode illustrates the point that this show can also be viewed as not being straight comedy all the time but as a series of life events of its adorable stars. The budding friendship between Ana and Matsuri is particularly sweet, and Matsuri is especially cute in this episode. We're also introduced to the fascination around Ana's last name. Apparently "Coppola" sounds like a weird phrase in Japanese. The running joke about classmate Sasazuke always being picked on by the teacher isn't particularly funny but isn't particularly annoying either.

Episode Breakdown
Number of Faceplants: 3
Miu-centric Humor: 2
Overall Humor: 3
Sexual Deviancy Level: 2 (Nobue gets perversely grabby when Ana is introduced)
Overall Episode Grade: 3 out of 5

Description
Show: Strawberry Marshmallow(Ichigo Mashimaro)
Episode: Ana
Number In Show: 2

This episode introduces the final girl in the Strawberry gang. Her name is Ana, a blond-haired blue-eyed girl from Cornwall England. This episode introduces one of the show's running gags. Ana's been in Japan so long she's actually forgotten English and is fluent in Japanese. This obviously causes her some embarrassment, so she tries to avoid interactions in class to fool everybody into thinking that she's still a full-blooded English foreigner. This gimmick provides a clever fourth wall break where Japanese in the English dub sound like regular English and attempts at English sounds like "Engrish". When the other kids notice Ana speaking fluently, sometimes they'll give a response of "You were speaking Japanese?"

Reviewing this episode was kind of tricky for me. Strawberry Marshmallow is only 12 episodes long so there should be no filler episodes, but that's exactly what this one feels like. As this episode focuses exclusively on Ana, there really isn't so much of the Miu-centric humor that makes this show such a blast to watch. On the other hand, this episode illustrates the point that this show can also be viewed as not being straight comedy all the time but as a series of life events of its adorable stars. The budding friendship between Ana and Matsuri is particularly sweet, and Matsuri is especially cute in this episode. We're also introduced to the fascination around Ana's last name. Apparently "Coppola" sounds like a weird phrase in Japanese. The running joke about classmate Sasazuke always being picked on by the teacher isn't particularly funny but isn't particularly annoying either.

Episode Breakdown
Number of Faceplants: 3
Miu-centric Humor: 2
Overall Humor: 3
Sexual Deviancy Level: 2 (Nobue gets perversely grabby when Ana is introduced)
Overall Episode Grade: 3 out of 5