(L) Ichigo 100%

[BetoJR]

Oh God, please no. Do. Not. Want.

[DragoZERO]

Originally Posted by Fran~

One of the biggest mistery is what happen to Aya's bra...

Glad to know I'm not the only one bugged by it, lol.

Originally Posted by kayote

just finished the whole thing. and i do think he chose the right girl. as i said when i was reading it along the way for him Aya was a thought, but, Nishino was the only one for him. he loved the idea of Aya but, in the end he always felt more comfertable with Nishino.

liked the last couple of pages a lot. loved the last page where he drops the camera and lifts Nishino like crossing the threshold sort of image. in the end it was very good and i enjoyed it a lot.

felt very bad for satsuki who's feelings could never be answerd.

in the end he went with the right girl. Nishino was the right girl.

Spoiler for Ending:

The final few frames were great, how he picked her up was even better. And its a shame with Satsuki, but I'm sure she'd have no trouble getting any other guy (by the end they made her seem too much like a whore).

Originally Posted by BetoJR

I felt differently. Ever since the middle of the story, ever since Manaka started working at that theater, I just had a clear impression that he favored Nishino heavily. Maybe that's just me.

My money was on Nishino from that time too. Although the deal with Higure-san at first had my confused.

[Vexx]

In Canvas 2, over the years I've watched it a few times and decided the information *was* there that foreshadowed the ending -- I simply failed to notice it because I had not sufficiently made the connection between his choices and his career options. So the progress and evolution is there (its just quite glacial given the length of the series and sidestories).

Here in Ichigo-land, it appears that his first confession was, however it came about, his long term connection. <shrug> whatever... about the only thing I take from the series (manga or anime) is a small collection of Hinoi Team CDs (from the anime ED). Happy silly euro-disco-japanstyle.

[taelrak]

Originally Posted by Vexx

In Canvas 2, over the years I've watched it a few times and decided the information *was* there that foreshadowed the ending -- I simply failed to notice it because I had not sufficiently made the connection between his choices and his career options. So the progress and evolution is there (its just quite glacial given the length of the series and sidestories).

Oh I completely agree, especially towards the last few episodes...but there are quite a few diehard Kiri fans who don't

Anyway back on topic...You'd think that if he had the money to sail the world, he should've at least bought a professional camera since that was his future career

[DragoZERO]

Originally Posted by taelrak

Anyway back on topic...You'd think that if he had the money to sail the world, he should've at least bought a professional camera since that was his future career

And visit Nishino. I gotta say though, I'm impressed she remained single that whole time. A girl like her.. she didn't have herds of men following her in high school for nothing.

[Fran~]

About the camera: Junpei was a sentimental... he uses things to the end... i'm the same, i still have my loyalty Canon 35mm... i dont have digital camera If you read Ai Kora, i'm the same than Tenmaku

About Nishino, there you have how much they love each other... as my granda said, there is no love without respect.

[MINAMI KOTARO]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Just so you know, reputation can only be given from a specific person once in a long cycle -- so if you've gotten two reps, they were given by different people. Also you should be aware that complaining about reputation in public violates the forum rules. Be sure and read the forum rules...
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Hmmm, when I look at your posts - I think the problem people may be having is that you're saying that all the girls "are equal" and you can't compare them. But then you contradict yourself and say the protagonist chose based on his taste. The very definition of "taste" implies comparison. A particular viewer may *like* a specific girl based on their own preferences/taste (which means they've compared the girls) that doesn't correspond to our "hero's" taste. I've noticed a fair number of harem genre fans don't seem to notice how the story plays out, they just 'ship for their girl with no regard for the storyliine.
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The real question is - did the author convey Junpei's taste clearly enough that it finally became *clear* that choosing Nishino was right for HIM? My assessment is the author did not make her case. My recollection of the manga was that the hero was totally indecisive all the way to the end; every few chapters it was just musical chairs, there was no plot progression or real evolution in the relationship chain --- the epilog solution was just the result of a few coin flips (or survey polls or whatever). An epilog ending with any of the girls would have made just as much sense.

The only rationale I can see was that Nishino was his first real confession and girlfriend and at the end - that's how the author made her choice when having to write the epilog. When the publisher says "shut it down, sales are dropping and your story isn't making any progress" - an epilog is all you've got.

A minor counter-example: Love Hina. It was rambling but as it progressed to the end, you understood why Keitaro made the choices he did (even if you thought he was an idiot for making them).

Spoiler for Discussion of Love Hina progress and ending spoiler:

By some accounts he should have ended up with Motoko (even Naru thought so) but Keitaro was fixed on his notion of "the promise girl" and even if he had trouble getting along with Naru he was determined to make it work.

man...i got enough of this thing. even sick of it.
okay let me clarify things up, for the last time.
don't get me wrong...
i didn't say i don't agree with junpei x tsukasa ending.
man, i told u before, nothing wrong with it.
i didn't complain about something like that.
junpei's decision is junpei's decision, so its pointless for us to compare.
if u want to look objectively,
all the girls have their own plus/minus
so, junpei picked tsukasa wasn't because she was the best of all, (its a very subjective matter)
but she was the best of all from his point of view and she has the strongest bond with him than the others. it was his choice not ours
what i complained was only that 'weak-willed' thing.
i think weak-willed is more like lazy.
i don't see aya as a lazy person
but if u said she didn't have enough courage to show his feeling to junpei, i agree with it.
she has the will but she didn't have enough courage to show it properly, and when she had the courage, it was already too late.
i just didn't say why i don't agree with weak-willed word before, and some ppl already said that i deny the fact.
i just didn't want to argue more by doing that.
hope this will clear the misunderstanding.

[Vexx]

yeah, I believe I somewhat agreed with you that it was Junpei's decision in the end (ignoring the commercial realities of ending the series). But you keep saying it is "pointless to compare" which is nonsense. EVERYONE compares (especially Junpei) but each person has a different weight on attributes that are important to them.

If they explain their weighting system - then you can understand why they like a particular girl best even if your own weighting system leads you to liking another.

But that is the crux of the problem with this story: we never got a handle or any insight into Junpei's weighting system. He just seemed stuck in a never-ending spin of "omg 4 girls!!!! I can't decide!" that repeated itself. That problem I consider a failure by the author and why the series was finally forced to end suddenly (poor sales of the japanese edition).

Personally, I, myself, got the most entertainment out of Satsuki. Nishino is a straight-ahead girl with goals and places to go, nothing wrong with her either. But which girl I like best is irrelevant. There are other series I have read that did a much better job at conveying the process and evolution that I see missing in this tale.

What I did not get out of the story was any sense of evolution or converging of Junpei's feelings. He just spun around like a roulette wheel til the wheel had its brakes applied. In the end, that's why I consider Ichigo 100% fairly mediocre as a 'harem manga'.

[MINAMI KOTARO]

Originally Posted by Vexx

yeah, I believe I somewhat agreed with you that it was Junpei's decision in the end (ignoring the commercial realities of ending the series). But you keep saying it is "pointless to compare" which is nonsense. EVERYONE compares (especially Junpei) but each person has a different weight on attributes that is important to them.

If they explain their weighting system - then you can understand why they like a particular girl best even if your weighting system leads you to liking another.

But that is the crux of the problem with this story: we never got a handle or any insight into Junpei's weighting system. He just seemed stuck in a never-ending spin of "omg 4 girls!!!! I can't decide!" that repeated itself. That problem I consider a failure by the author and why the series was finally forced to end suddenly (poor sales of the japanese edition).

Personally, I, myself, got the most entertainment out of Satsuki. Nishino is a straight-ahead girl with goals and places to go, nothing wrong with her either. But which girl I like best is irrelevant.

What I did not get out of the story was any sense of evolution or converging of Junpei's feelings. He just spun around like a roulette wheel til the wheel had its brakes applied. In the end, that's why I consider Ichigo 100% fairly mediocre as a 'harem manga'.

thats what i mean...its pointless to compare which girl is the best for junpei, because he already made his choice. and it was tsukasa.
so, if we want to compare which girl is the best for ourself, we can put it as a 'subjective opinion'.

yes, i agree, junpei is the worst harem male lead that i ever seen.
in I"s we can see how hard seto tried to chase iori. but in ichigo 100%, junpei only waited to be picked by the girls without any significant effort to chase the girl of his choice. that makes me think amachi is more suitable as the male lead.

[Nosauz]

I dun think you get Vexx's point, Keitaro really develops, he comes up against many obstacles but at the end his reason for choosing his "girl" makes sense from his actions. Junpei on the other hand never reveals his reasons about the girls that surround him, other than being alone is not what he wants. We never get to see him weigh the options, so we never get to clearly see why he choose tsukasa, but then again I feel like if the author were to tell her story she may have planned for that development for later, but thats probably giving her too much credit. Akamatsu on the other hand always gave keitaro a direction, and he always alluded to that direction so even though his manga was really long it felt like keitaro was always moving towards the final answer, unlike junpei who just seemed to stand at the center only to turn and face the girl of the week when it came time to switch. Without any really insight on junpei's feelings and actions toward the girls he liked, when we ship him off with other characters, all we are doing is projecting which female character we liked the best. which is why this is so heavily debated.

[Vexx]

errrr, okay o.O (but we end up having no idea WHY he chose Nishino - mostly speculation since none of his actions ever really moved in a particular compass direction)

But yeah, I'd call I"s a better effort of storytelling in that the protagonist seems to be moving forward and not just running in circles.


edit: in case anyone didn't get it... the 4 girls explicitly represent compass points and Junpei is the "spinning pointer". The manga and the anime used that symbolism frequently.

[MINAMI KOTARO]

Originally Posted by Nosauz

I dun think you get Vexx's point, Keitaro really develops, he comes up against many obstacles but at the end his reason for choosing his "girl" makes sense from his actions. Junpei on the other hand never reveals his reasons about the girls that surround him, other than being alone is not what he wants. We never get to see him weigh the options, so we never get to clearly see why he choose tsukasa, but then again I feel like if the author were to tell her story she may have planned for that development for later, but thats probably giving her too much credit. Akamatsu on the other hand always gave keitaro a direction, and he always alluded to that direction so even though his manga was really long it felt like keitaro was always moving towards the final answer, unlike junpei who just seemed to stand at the center only to turn and face the girl of the week when it came time to switch. Without any really insight on junpei's feelings and actions toward the girls he liked, when we ship him off with other characters, all we are doing is projecting which female character we liked the best. which is why this is so heavily debated.

no, i agree with him...why do u think i didn't get it?

[Nosauz]

your wording made it seem like junpei chose tsukasa, when in actuality the compass just pointed in her direction at the moment the manga ended.

[taelrak]

Originally Posted by Nosauz

your wording made it seem like junpei chose tsukasa, when in actuality the compass just pointed in her direction at the moment the manga ended.

I sort of agree with this statement.

Junpei bounces back and forth depending on which girl seems to need him the most at any particular moment. It just so happened when the manga ended, he was closest to Nishino.

I don't think the problem really was that he picked Nishino - because at the point where the manga ended, she was ahead, and there were real concrete events to support his choice.

The real problem was that the manga ended when it did. A lot of people, myself included, expected the manga go to on another 2 volumes or so for Aya to catch up and then overtake Nishino.

Still, I'm happy with his choice, even if not with how it ended.

[DragoZERO]

I think he saw Toujo as a more of a friend and Nishino had found a place first in his heart. If Toujo had confessed earlier, things might have been different. I thought the way he broke up with Nishino before she left for France was a little weird, but I guess it worked out in the end. She never stopped loving him I would say.

[MINAMI KOTARO]

Originally Posted by Nosauz

your wording made it seem like junpei chose tsukasa, when in actuality the compass just pointed in her direction at the moment the manga ended.

did u mean...if the manga wasn't ended yet, it would be a possibility for junpei to end up with another girl?

[DragoZERO]

Originally Posted by MINAMI KOTARO

did u mean...if the manga wasn't ended yet, it would be a possibility for junpei to end up with another girl?

The whole nature of the manga was him going in circles with the girls, lol.

[kakakka]

I don't think the problem really was that he picked Nishino - because at the point where the manga ended, she was ahead, and there were real concrete events to support his choice.

It was that he just choose that what irk me. I didn't even saw him work for her. It was only her that work to him. There's no...how can I word it...mutual working(?) to get each other that happened. It felt just like either he chooses her because she's more willing or he chooses her because he doesn't want her hard work go to waste. The story felt like he's the ultimate end goal for the girls instead of him working hard (eventually) to solidify/enhance his position to the girl's heart.

And what I mean is direct, not some flashbacks on how she got attracted to him, or something he did made her all go blushy. All people could do that. Every woman can get attracted by niceness. But to start a relationship and maintain is not all about being nice. It's about how he proved that he is worthy of her.

And maybe that is the whole point of what I hate about the manga. It feels like he is just window shopping for products (girls) that could work for him. Not to show how he worked to earned the money to buy, but how he buys one of the products.

[Fran~]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

The whole nature of the manga was him going in circles with the girls, lol.

i dont think so... i mean, yes, but there is different circumstances from one girl to another. Come one, i think everybody here knows the mechanics of Harem like Ichigo 100%, it could be a lot of women each one fulfilling one fetish, in this case we have:
- The shy: Aya
- The Idol: Tsukasa
- The childhood friend: Yui
- The bold sexy woman: Satsuki
- The klutz: Kozue

But, from the start always the harem has only two rivals and basically is the classic triangle... in love hina were Motoko and Naru, here were Aya and Tsukasa.

So, Junpei could go in circles with a lot of girls, but in the end (and by the law of chief editor) there are only 2 that have the chance to keep the boy. From that point is difficult to follow a rule, sometime wins the shy, sometime the idol, sometime the childhood friend. In this case won the Idol.

[khryoleoz]

I haven't participated in any Aya vs Tsukasa debates. I'm not sure if I'd want to. But let me express at least that it's Nishino Tsukasa all the way!

I loved the airport scene! Junpei is such a goofball, and Tsukawa is a perfect fit for him. They're one of my favorite anime/manga pairings, ranking amongst all time faves Aoi and Kaoru, Sawako and Shouta, and Motoko and Keitaro (the pairing in Motoko's head at least).