is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese yuri manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 written and illustrated by Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 manga author

Mangaka

is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

 Shizuru Hayashiya

Shizuru Hayashiya

is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known for her Hayate X Blade series which is licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment, and the manga adaptation of the anime Please Teacher!....

. It was originally titled Strawberry Shake while it was serialized in the manga magazine Yuri Shimai

Yuri Shimai

was a manga anthology magazine published quarterly by Japanese publisher Sun Magazine. It was part of what still is a small niche market, with only a few manga magazines in Japan that specializes in the yuri genre. The magazine also contained one-shots and light novels. The anthology was...

, though the title was changed when the manga began serialization in Yuri Hime

Yuri Hime

is a quarterly manga anthology magazine published in Japan by Ichijinsha. The first volume was published in July 2005. It is the successor to Yuri Shimai and features manga with the same yuri themes. Comic Yuri Hime was financially dependent upon Monthly Comic Zero Sum, but from 2008 on the...

. The first bound volume

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

 was published on January 18, 2006 in Japan, and the second on January 17, 2009. Strawberry Shake Sweets story involves two young talents named Julia and Ran, and their inability to express their romantic feelings for each other. Portions of this manga are presented in yonkoma

Yonkoma

thumb|right|150px|Traditional Yonkoma layout, a comic-strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom...

 (4-panel) format, but it only makes up a small portion of the overall story.

Characters

The sixteen-year-old main character of the manga. She is one of the top talents in the company "Shanghai Talent Limited". Because of that, she was initially jealous of Ran's potential, but eventually she falls in love with Ran. She can be very stubborn and difficult, much to the annoyance of her manager. She is sometimes prone to nosebleeds when Ran is nearby and offering kind yet unknowingly double-toned words. Because of her romantic ineptitude, her manager often refers to her as an idiot and incompetent.

Another member of Shanghai Talent Limited. She is also sixteen years old but much taller (towering at least 15 inches from Julia's own height). She is oblivious to Julia's feelings at the start as well as her own. She is very laid-back, sometimes to the point of appearing "out of it". Because of her inability to recognize her own feelings, as well as Julia's obvious infatuation with her, her manager often refers to her as an airhead.

Julia's manager. She knows about Julia's romantic feelings toward Ran, and is often less than pleased with the awkward situations that those feelings often cause. She is normally calm, but Julia's outgoing attitude frustrates her to no end. Kaoru is in love with her, but Saeki sees those feelings as a nuisance. She is twenty-seven years old.

Another member of Shanghai Talent Limited. She is a year younger than Julia and Ran. She is in love with Kaoru, but Kaoru prefers just teasing her endlessly. Haruna is easily embarrassed and occasionally becomes jealous of anyone who receives attention from Kaoru.

Julia's hairdresser. She is very easy-going and enjoys teasing people, especially Saeki and Haruna. She knows about Haruna's feelings for her, but her eyes are focused on Saeki. She takes great pride in her work. She once did the hair and make-up for the female band Zlay (a parody of Japanese band Glay

Glay

Glay is a rock/pop band from Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan formed by guitarist Takuro and vocalist Teru in high school in 1988. Glay primarily composes songs in the rock and pop genres, but they have also composed songs using elements of different styles such as reggae and gospel...

).

The lead singer of Zlay. She is a proud yuri lover, and she instantly knew who was the object of Julia's affections. To the other characters, her love for girls can be a bit overbearing. She appears randomly throughout the manga, catching the characters off guard. She offers random bits of advice and can identify emotions of people by their "aura".

Another member of Zlay and Ryo's girlfriend. She is much calmer than Ryo and is sometimes annoyed by her girlfriend's flamboyant attitude. She is very straightforward with her opinions, sometimes to the point of brutal honesty.

She is twenty-five years old. She is also Saeki's Kouhai and a Saeki-wannabe. According to Zlay. she is someone who is in love with a senpai two levels above her, indirectly making a reference to Sudou's feelings for Saeki. Sudou denies it but Julia commented that "she's totally like that!!", as Sudou admits that her heart starts racing while she's thinking of Saeki.

External links

• Okazu review
• Review of volume one by Anime News Network
  Anime News Network
  Anime News Network is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, Japanese popular music and other otaku-related culture within North America, Australia and Japan. Additionally, it sometimes features similar happenings throughout the Anglosphere and elsewhere in the...