When a girl says to come get her, you damn well better go and get her.
What They Say
Junpei comes home as usual. He opens his mailbox to find one letter. The letter is from Yui, and it says, "Please, come and get me!"
The Review!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Yui's nature is one that definitely has come back to bite her in the ass. After spending some time making Manaka's room a mess before she leaves to go back home for a bit, she's now stuck in a place that won't let her go. The events get underway when Manaka gets a letter from her asking for him to come get her which is swiftly followed by his mother wondering what happened as she had a phone call with Yui's father and he was furious about her living there and insisting it would never happen again. So with little in the way of options, Manaka makes his way out there to learn the truth.
The truth comes easily, though Yui isn't at her home as she's run away to a friends for the time being as well. As it turns out, Yui had a fight with her father about something and she let it slip that when she's at Manaka's, she sleeps in his room. Though the actual reason and the how of it doesn't come up, that alone is enough to panic and infuriate an overprotective father. What makes it worse is that when she was back home this time, he saw her after she had just woken up and walked out of her room stark naked. That was all he needed to ensure that she'd pretty much never leave the house again, never mind live at Manaka's or go to school at Omi. So Manaka has to go racing off to where they think she's run off to and bring her back to her own house.
The second half of the episode is a bit less interesting as it has the two of them making their way back late at night. Yui's still insisting she doesn't want to go back to her house and just to his, but he's making sure she gets back home. Which is why she jumps to the wrong train and the two end up elsewhere where they have to spend the night together in a rather romantic and cozy little place where they talk a bit about things. There's a bit of a push to get them back to her house through somewhat underhanded means but the second half largely focuses on the two kids and the way they seem to come across as a couple. What I do like is that even through all of it, with Yui making her half-joking come on's to him, Manaka really doesn't see her that way and doesn't truly try to take advantage of the situation. Having at least one girl that is just a friend, an awkward friend, is what's needed to help balance things.
In Summary:
Strawberry 100% formally settles some of the minor lingering issues with Yui's character when it comes to her home situation and how they let her come down to Manaka's place to live. There are some definite nice moments here throughout as Manaka tries to find out what happens and there's a certain parental understanding that comes when we see Yui's father seeing her walking around naked. The episode does feel a bit drawn out in the second half and I would have preferred seeing them go through this realization period in a different way, but when all is said and done we get an episode where Yui gets to grow up a bit after a temper tantrum and is hopefully on a better road. And less in Manaka's hair, though I think he likes it to some degree.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Review Equipment
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70" LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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