YMMV / Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City

• Abandon Shipping: Fans who shipped Purple Pieman with Johnnycake Cobbler quickly ditched the pairing when it was revealed they were brothers.
• Awesome Art: The CGI specials are absolutely fantastic in appearance, with the 2D character designs translating perfectly to a 3D medium. Especially when compared to the franchise's previous attempts at CG animation, which were... certainly a product of their time, to put it mildly.
• Critical Backlash: Upon its reveal, many fans of the franchise decried the series for the different direction it took compared to prior series, with the modern day setting, drastically changed personalities and designs, and the short length of the episodes. However, some fans who checked the show out feel the outrage is overblown and ignores the good qualities of the series, such as the diverse cast, greater focus on character interaction and growth, lack of Padding in episodes to extend conflicts, and allowing Strawberry to have flaws rather than just being the Only Sane Woman/Team Mom like her prior incarnations.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Banoffee garnered a lot of attention upon her debut, due to her being the first canonically transgender character in the franchise.
  • Bread Pudding has proven to be incredibly popular among the viewership, being a prominent male character with feminine interests that aren't played for laughs, and his entertaining dynamics with Strawberry, Lime, and Huckleberry. Many online posts about Berry in the Big City will likely feature him to some capacity.
  • Kiki Key Lime, for being one of the few celebrities Strawberry idolized who’s genuinely nice to her, and for becoming the first canonical sapphic couple with Aunt Praline.
  • Aunt Praline herself is likewise popular for being a Cool Aunt to Strawberry and her entertainingly boisterous personality.
  • Fluffy Chiffon and Lime Pops are the most popular out of the Berry Besties’ parents, primarily because of them being the most prominent and for their status as being the first confirmed canonically gay characters in the series, and the franchise in general.
• Fanon:
  • Lemon Meringue is thought by many fans to be either aromantic, asexual, or both. This is in large part due to her overall discomfort to verbal and physical acts of affection.
  • It’s almost unanimously agreed upon that Bread Pudding is gay or at the very least bisexual (for the few who ship him with Lime Chiffon). This is in large part due to his campy and flamboyant mannerisms, and since he and Huck are the only boys in the main cast, they tend to spend a lot of time together.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Some fans have taken to referring to the Strawberry Shortcake lookalike seen in the background of many episodes as “Strawberry Beefcake”.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Strawberry Shortcake and Raspberry Tart has become a fairly popular pairing in the fanbase due to their rivalry turned friendship, with some fans even drawing comparisons to Luz and Amity.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Many decrators decry Berry in the Big City for the characters bearing little resemblance to past incarnations in design and personality. This is despite the fact the franchise rarely keeps characters consistent from series to series to begin with, with every generation sharing little in common with the last.
    • Likewise, a common criticism regarding the character designs is that their designs barely evoke the fruits/pastries they're named after, with either no visible fruit theming or simply having a single picture of the fruit on their clothes, but it should be noted that this isn't exclusive to Berry in the Big City, with many past characters barely evoking their namesake dish, such as T.N. Honey and 2003 Huckleberry Pie, who have no visible theming at all, or Ginger Snap, who only has a gingerbread man on her hat to indicate her theme.
• Friendly Fandoms: In contrast to the previous incarnation, Berry in the Big City has attracted some fans of Generation 4 of My Little Pony, as well as Generation 5. G4 fans have noted the heavy voice cast overlap (Andrea Libman, Tabitha St. Germain, Diana Kaarina, Vincent Tong, Shannon Chan-Kent, and more) between the series, the involvement of Daniel Ingram in the music, and, particularly for fans of Equestria Girls, the blending of dynamic cartoon-y styles and slice-of-life situations. G5 fans similarly having enjoy two shared voice actors in key roles — Ana Sani (Strawberry/Izzy) and Bahia Watson (Orange/Misty) — and a shortform format that's very similar to My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: Some viewers are put off by the breakneck pacing of the story, due to each episode being only given a runtime of 4 minutes—8 minutes if it's a two-parter—to resolve its conflict.
• Les Yay:
  • Strawberry Shortcake shares a smoothie with Orange Blossom by sipping them together with two straws in the intro.
  • "Will You Be My Lemontine" features Strawberry racing up to Lemon Meringue in slow-motion, surrounded by heart shapes and her eyes featuring gigantic hearts for pupils. It serves to symbolize Lemon's fear of Sweetie Pie's Day and the displays of affection it entails, but Strawberry ends up being the first to bring her around to finding something to appreciate in the holiday and express her feelings in a unique way. In general, Strawberry and Lemon's interactions are of a more intimate nature than those with Strawberry's other friends, due to Lemon's less-outgoing nature and preference for quieter, one-on-one interactions.
  • In “Let the Good Times Roll”, Lime Chiffon and Crepe Suzette are briefly shown dancing together, the latter proceeding to dip Lime.
• Portmanteau Ship Name:
  • Orangecakes (Strawberry Shortcake x Orange Blossom)
  • Tartcake (Strawberry Shortcake x Raspberry Tart)
  • Muffinchiffon (Blueberry Muffin x Lime Chiffon)
  • Bluesour (Blueberry Muffin x Sour Grapes)
  • Buckleberry (Huckleberry Pie x Blueberry Muffin)
  • Hucklebread (Huckleberry Pie x Bread Pudding)
  • Huckleclair (Huckleberry Pie x Caramela Éclair)
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • Despite their low number of interactions, Huckleberry Pie and Caramela Éclair has a decently-sized following.
  • Pumpkin Spice x Cherry Crisp has cropped up as a ship, despite neither ever appearing in the same episodes.
• Signature Scene: Banoffee showing off her Mint Gala dress and expressing pride in her identity as a transberry is quite possibly the most talked-about scene in the show, with clips of it being one of the most viewed Berry in the Big City related videos on the official TikTok account.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • The main theme song of this show is reminiscent of the theme for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.
  • "A Splash of Fun" is somewhat similar to "Cerebrawl" from Plants vs. Zombies.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The series being set in a realistic modern day has turned away those who believe Strawberry Shortcake should stay solely in the small-town fantastical settings of prior series.
  • The character designs in general were met with distain from older fans upon their reveal, for being too “modern”, with many saying it didn’t even feel like a Strawberry Shortcake series.
  • Some people aren't fans of Lemon Meringue becoming a tomboy with short hair after being a Girly Girl in previous incarnations. Some even criticized her being a mechanic, believing that Ginger Snap should’ve taken her place.
  • Other fans are not happy over the fact that Raspberry Tart, who was one of Strawberry's good friends, is now her Sitcom Arch-Nemesis. She does become friends with her in Season 2 though.
  • There has been some complaints about Plum Pudding being a boy after consistently being portrayed as a girl for most of the franchise.
• Toy Ship: Huckleberry Pie and Bread Pudding has become a decently popular pairing among the online viewership, due to their contrasting personalities providing a great dynamic with each other.
• Watched It for the Representation:
  • Despite it being for kids, a few older viewers, such as teens and young adults, have caught wind of the show's casual representation of queer characters. Lime Chiffon has two dads and a "trans berry" model named Banoffee wears a trans flag themed ballgown in an episode centered around the Mint Gala (the show's version of the Met Gala, itself a popular event for LGBT people).
  • In general, the series has been praised for having a much more diverse cast in body types and ethnicity, especially when compared to Berry Bitty Adventures, which was seen as a downgrade for featuring a primarily white cast with near-identical appearances while also lightening Orange Blossom’s skin.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • There has been positive reception to Orange Blossom's new design, which gave her curly hair back and darkened her skin again.
  • The reintroduction of several characters from previous incarnations, including Peppermint Fizz, Lime Chiffon, and Crepe Suzette, was well received after many were Adapted Out of the 2009 series.

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