Strawberry Panic - Reviews

Story

Drawn in by one of the ubiquitous "I Kissed a Girl" AMVs, I came to Strawberry Panic! wondering why all those girls were making out with each other. I can't say that I left the series entirely sure of the characters' motivations, but I can say that I've come to love the silly, racy, melodramatic, and heartbreaking world of shoujo-ai anime. Despite its mediocre looks, occasionally vapid storytelling, and frustrating characters, I fell in love with this show. And then Hikari and Amane ruined everything.

Strawberry Panic! tells the interwoven story of two transfer students at a collection of three all-girls schools with mixed results. While the absurd frequency of lesbian relationships initially makes little sense, the cloistered feel of the campus and the purposeful omission of anything that could conclusively tie the story to a specific time eventually draw the viewer--and the protagonist, Nagisa--into this charming world.

Nagisa's story centers around her bizarre and tumultuous relationship with the upperclasswoman Shizuma, which reads more like a coy romance novel than a steamy bodice-ripper. Nagisa's uncertainty combines with her roommate's creepy infatuation (and steadfast friendship) to provide plenty of twists and turns from the younger girls' side of the plot; throw in the sempai's "tragic past" and the will-they-won't-they tension carries much of the series. While this narrative suffers a little from its younger lead's amorphous characterization, Shizuma turns out to be interesting enough to support the drama all by herself.

Sadly, the show also tells Hikari's story. Having transferred into St. Spica in the previous year, the blonde waif sings in the choir team with her roommate and best buddy, Yaya, and a younger girl Tsubomi. For some unfathomable reason these two girls dote on the oblivious and meek singer, who falls instead for St. Spica's "Prince" Amane. The juicier events playing out in this academy include school political intrigue, attempted rape, unrequited love, a tennis match, and amnesia. While all of these twists and turns should have made this drama more compelling, the lackluster protagonists hamstring much of the emotional content. Skittish and cowardly, the flaxen-haired lead allows all of this interesting plot to happen to her until the show's very end. Because Hikari refuses to seize her own destiny until the final moment, her ultimate resolution feels more like an intrusion on Nagisa's unresolved drama than the emotional culmination of a standalone love story.

Animation

Strawberry Panic!'s visuals suffer heavily from being only passing fair. Adding a touch of much needed believability, Nagisa, Tamao, Hikari and Yaya all look clearly younger than their sempais and obviously older than the featured kouhai characters, which sets the art design apart from many high school series. Of the characters, the main romantic leads deserve special attention. Amane's design emphasizes her "Prince" status. Tall and strong, she looks equally at home in the feminine St. Spica jacket and skirt or astride her white horse in full hero mode. Shizuma, on the other hand, left much to be desired. While the silver hair, gold eyes, and full figure communicate "beauty" adequately, I had trouble reading her bizarre magnetism from her character design. Given that she enthralls Nagisa on sight in their first encounter, the fact that I can't see a glimmer of what the younger girl sees makes it hard for me to buy into their plot line until Shizuma's character traits overcome her inadequate design.

Many of the scenes and characters also lack significant detail. The rich environments and charming school uniforms should provide ample opportunity for beautiful stills at least, but the line work doesn't rise to the occasion. The backgrounds similarly lack definition without achieving the impressionistic aesthetic that makes the static backdrops in series like Nodame Cantabile so attractive. While it's possible that the art design represents a deliberate choice to communicate "ephemeral", the accomplished effect reads more like "cheap".

Sound

Aside from one gratuitous moment of English, the voice acting is competent and emotive. Nakahara Mai manages the chipper Nagisa ably, but her usual partner (Mai-HiME, Mai-Otome) Shimizu Ai delivers the better performance as Tamao, owing mostly to her character's rich complexity, which offers more opportunities for subtlety. Yaya and Hikari's voice actors tackle the awkward challenge of pretending to be high school choir singers, each one delivering a solo song in a convincingly amateur manner without offending the ears.

The highlights of Strawberry Panic!'s aural component come from the music, however. The series sports two emotionally epic OPs (my favorite being the first opener, "Shoujo Miero Tsukamaete") paired with two playful ending themes sung by Tamao and Nagisa's seiyuus. While there is some dissonance between the EDs and the dramatic content of the series in the second half, I found that the closing songs added a needed air of levity--the situations are somewhat ridiculous and the series seems to know it. During the episodes, classical themes abound, with piano music punctuating the more important emotional moments, and not without reason. Shizuma and Nagisa share more than one moment at a piano and its mournful strains reflect back into the text of the story itself.

Characters

While unimaginative and underdeveloped, the cast's verve and humor carry the show. Supporting the mewling Hikari and princely Amane, the student cast of St. Spica reads like it has been plucked from any standard boarding-school teen novella. Momo and Kaname provide buckets of intrigue and racy fan-service while the St. Spica student council president plots to win the upcoming Etoile election for her school. Their scheming combines with the more delicate machinations and desires of the sexy and outgoing Yaya and her tsundere sidekick, Tsubomi, to round out the complex love polygon that dominates Hikari's storyline.

However, even the strong side characters can't compensate for the weakness of the romantic leads. Amane's regal manner comes across more as wooden than anything else and her infatuation with the doe-eyed singer seems to appear out of nowhere. Hikari, for her part, doesn't offer the viewer any justification for her sempai's affection. The younger girl spends the majority of her time on screen praying, apologizing, or running away from people. While pretty, the younger lead has none of her roommate's sex appeal and looks uncomfortable nearly the entire time. In the end, the viewer has to wonder why the perfectly well-adjusted and attractive Yaya and Tsubomi find her appealing.

In St. Miatre, Shizuma smolders with pent up sexual energy and exudes a kind of imperious grace that hides her vulnerabilities until the series' second half. Likewise, the cheery and gung-ho Nagisa perfectly balances optimism and mischief, complimenting her interaction with the mercurial Shizuma and wily Tamao. The most delightful character in the show, Nagisa's blue-haired best friend swings wildly from supportive companion to chillingly possessive guardian, all while maintaining the same demeanor. Instead of hampering her believability, the moments where she airs out her creepy obsession with the new transfer student give Tamao an endearing emotional honesty that sets her apart from the gaggle of self-denying ladies that comprise the rest of the cast. Unfortunately, this more complex group sees precious little development and the characters end--save for the two leads--in either much the same place they entered or with their own personal issues unresolved.

Despite their tangential relationship to the main plot lines, the cast from St. Le Rim contains the series' dark horse, Chikaru, who acts like a big sister to all of the younger students with whom she interacts. Cute, insightful, and fun, Chikaru provides answers, shoulders to cry on, and costumes (costumes!) on demand, but never upstages the important on-screen action. The remaining girls fill their important comic relief and plot-related roles without trying the viewers' patience. The fact that all of these characters seem to have little history or life outside of school actually plays to the show's benefit; focusing on the events within the school almost exclusively heightens the slightly fantastic air that pervades the series and goes a long way toward casting Astrea Hill as another world. In this context, the casual treatment of lesbian relationships starts to seem less preposterous as the show moves forward.

Overall

While not a masterpiece, Strawberry Panic! provides a good deal of humor, drama, and delectable girl-on-girl fan service. As a first foray into the world of shoujo-ai, this show gives the viewer a balanced overview of themes available in the genre and uses its fairly breathless pacing to keep things interesting. The experienced fan will likely find that this series feels a little shorter than other yuri offerings because the story covers a fair amount of ground during its run instead of lingering on each small interpersonal incident. Hikari and Amane nearly ruin Nagisa and Shizuma's interesting little romance, the weak animation makes it hard sometimes to appreciate all of the melodrama on display, and the anime ends in only partial resolution, but overall it manages to rise above its considerable shortcomings. You might want to kill Hikari by the end, but if you enjoy watching girls break other girls' hearts, then you will find this show a pleasant diversion.

Strawberry Panic is a shoujo romance anime. And a rather serious, sensible take on romance at that. Not exactly an amazing anime, but it wasn't terrible either. It's definitely not an anime for every individual, primarily aimed at young Japanese girls (hence shoujo genre). But it isn't exactly a normal romance either, the anime features no male characters, thus the romance blooms between girls, making this a shoujo-ai anime at that. And if any guys think there's hot girl-on-girl action, you won't find it here, thankfully. Nope, this is a rather mature take on such relationships. It does have aspects of comedy and maybe a few annoying things here or there, but by golly it's better than supposed 'romance' anime (yeah right) aimed at adolecent boys. This anime actually had me bored for a good deal of it, a lot of filler and eventually it got to some surprisingly serious story. As such, I wasn't paying attention to a good deal of the earlier episodes.

Animation

The animation isn't anything special. A bad thing in my book. I was unable to find it in HD quality, but given the 2006 release, I'm sure it's around somewhere. Looking closely, animation seems to be smooth and it does suggest that I just got a non-HD quality version of it. The character and background designs seem a bit generic, especially given the time it aired. Some parts have a particular 'flowery/girly' asthetic, not necessarily a bad thing. There is no nudity or fan-service of any kind, makes sense given the primary audience. Occasionally things do get a bit 'heated,' but such sections are very limited in length and are mainly just girls passionately holding or kissing each other. Further things are only implied. Nothing wrong with that. The outros are an interesting topic, they use live-action music videos with lip-syncing that seems a bit off to me.

Sound

The soundtrack to this anime is very orchestral and instrumental. The exception is the intro and outro sequences, which are very j-pop, a genre of music I don't like. Personal tastes aside, the main soundtrack is rather nice and soothing.  It suites the atmosphere of the scenes very well and music is used to good effect in this anime. Given the direction of this ainme, it also has a lot of choir and singing too, especially as a few characters in the story are involved. Being such a niche anime, the audio is Japanese only, but also contains a bit of French her and there, for all of that extra elegance. A few interesting voices. Nagisa's voice actress Mai Nakahara did the voice of Hatsune in Angel Beats, Nagisa in Clannad and Mai from My Hime. Hitome Nabatame, who does Shizuma's voice, also did Yukiji from Hayate no Gotoku, Arcueid from Lunar Legend Tsukihime and Margery Daw from Shakugan no Shana. The voice of Hikari, Miyu Matsuki also did Misaki/Yoriko in Da Capo, Isumi in Hayate no Gotoku and Kaoru in Tsuokomi: Moon Phase. Many good anime roles between them it seems.

Characters

The main character is the redhaired Nagisa Aoi, a new transfer student to St. Miatre's girls academy. Just a heads up, there are no other characters other than those at the women at the academies in this anime, including parents. I'm very tired of this trope of no parents/family for all characters, so I can't be bothered to complain about it once more. Nagisa is a difficult character to describe, perhaps because I wasn't always paying attention to this anime or that I'm writing this section of the review after a break of over a week after watching the anime so far. Nagisa often gets into trouble running around, being late, being easily scared of things. One thing I did notice was that she cared a lot for the plants in the greenhouse, which are not hers to take care of.

None of the other characters are particularly terrible, some may seem a bit generic, like the cutesy junior with her teddy bear and others seem interesting and a unique addition to this sort of anime like the evil couple of girls who want to 'win the popularity contest.' As I haven't been able to say much on characters, I will leave characters unrated.

*** - Please go to the end

Story

Initially not much happens in the story, besides each character being introduced. But little events do take place. We learn of a few one sided crushes/affections and occasionally friends try to push the boundaries of their relationships. Later on Shizune's story progresses and we learn of a big 'hidden truth.' I wouldn't say twist is the right word, this aspect of the story wasn't done too well as there wasn't enough foreshadowing and build-up to the reveal. Characters just happen to not mention it before a certain point in the plot. Things gets serious as we learn of the past and the story suggests that certain characters have trouble dealing with relationships. One particular discontinued relationship appears to come to the conclusion that some things should be forgotten. It's difficult to explain without spoiling things, but I disagree. Love is (or at least should be) everlasting and loved ones shouldn't be forgotten, no matter how much pain it brings. That's my opinion on the matter, but the anime wants to say otherwise. There's also a parallel plot of living up to other's expectations and rising to the occasion. A certain character isn't feeling very ambitious, when perhaps they should be. It's just a matter of filling a role and the character is perfect for it. An individual's happiness is important and is something the plot appears to explore. Overall the story is about the relationships of girls with girls. I can't really discuss it in much depth, since it isn't something I've experienced. Otherwise, there isn't much to it. Even if I wasn't paying too much attention to it, the rest of the plot is rather bare and contains the day-to-day events these characters go through. While I'm not a fan of slice-of-life, there have been a few that I've enjoyed in the past.

Conclusion

Again, this isn't a terrible anime. It isn't amazing, but that may be because the audience for this anime is rather niche. I personally would say it's okay but my time would have been better spent on an anime I'd enjoy more and want to pay attention to. I didn't hate it like I do with some anime and it isn't a bad try at romance. There are better romance anime like 'Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien' but I can't put a finger on many same-gender romances. Or serious ones, there have been a few abysmal ones involving gender-swap. Try it, see if you like and if you do, that's great. Perhaps someone who is able to relate or enjoy this would be able to better explain why this anime isn't terrible.

Family-friendliness Rating: 2/5 There is quite a bit of lip-locking, 'safe' shower scenes and further implications (lower is better)

Overall Rating: 6.5/10 (higher is better)

*** - And CUT! The review for this anime is going to conclude differently. Unfortunately, when I left home last week I was unable to continue watching this anime, simply because I was unable to review it due to no internet connection on my little break. Picking up over a week since I last watched it proved rather difficult. I feel terrible for leaving an incomplete review, which could easily be amended by watching the anime again a second time, but I don't have the time to spare rewatching anime like this. The only missing section is the character section which was kinda difficult to talk about anyway.

This will hopefully be short and sweet, I mean, the cover says it all. Although it is so predictable that it isn't even funny, a bunch of it (I felt) were side adventures. Despite that it actually has a pretty good story line told really well with great characters, some I grew to really love (wish they got more air time, lol). However, the mysterious/rouge romantic lead (typicaly I love them, because I'm one of them!) I could not fully get behind, it's like "our" relationship was hot-n-cold, lol; I know they explained everthing, etc. and even when you put into account that it's high school, I still couldn't do it. I did learn one thing though and it's super important, every girl that goes to a all girl school is appartently a lesbian, lmao!

strawberry panic is a very heartwarming drama that even after the last episode it made me want to watch the entire series again and write my own ending. not that i don't like the ending, but since my favorite character is tamao-chan, i felt like her character wasn't really given a justice. sure, it seemed like everyone got what they wanted in the end but it really broke my heart that it had to end that way--especially with tamao-chan :(

the character development was also a bit disappointing--i wanted to know more about the silent-type miator president, or yes, tamao-chan. i wanted so bad to feel the connection with each of the character i was interested in--only to get slammed by side stories who only added a bit of contribution and/or personality to the whole story. i wanted so bad to see nagisa and shizuma spend more time together. i wanted so bad to see what happened to miyuki, to yaya and to... everyone!

don't get me wrong though, i love those little side stories, if only the whole season was longer or if another season would bring justice to each of those characters whom i think deserves their own focus on the story. it's just too... short. still, i love the whole series. i highly recommend it to those who are looking for a heartwarming and light drama :)

This is one of those series that makes you wonder just how much the creators were taking it seriously. The answer to that question can probably completely reverse your opinion, if you're like me.

STORY: 5.5/10
The plot is quite basic, and for the synopsis I'll just point you to the main Anime-planet page. Around the main story of Shizuma and Nagisa, unravel the ones of a very large cast of diverse characters. It could be summarised as a convoluted dodecahedron of senpai-kohai/best friend-best friend relationships which more often than not gain (lesbian) romantic tones. A romantic slice of life, if you wish. It starts off as quite comedic and light, but as the plot progresses and backstories unveil it can get also quite sad, angsty, and also pretty moving. What bugs me is that, expecially in the first part, they play so many tropes so unbelievably straight (even with yuri characters) that many times you'll ask yourself whether they were doing this with a straight face (or rather, a lesbian fac... yeah, there's gonna be more of these horrible puns) or with the intent of doing a stealth parody. Because, if you accept they weren't taking themselves seriously, then you'll be able to enjoy this series as you'll be moved by the most well-done moments (be they sweet, funny or sad) but you'll also manage to have fun watching the most absurdly overdramatic and cheesy events; but if you don't... well, it'll seem just lame, if not downright stupid. But yet, if you don't take it too straight (however straight could a yuri get) the plot can get quite involving. If some gratuitous shots of Shizuma's gargantuan mammary apparatus wouldn't at times break the mood, it would be even better. It could have been more also if, for example, any single reference to the lesbian nature of these loves was made; there is no confusion, no hesitation, no self-questioning, not a single mention of the fact that the person they're taking a romantic interest in happens to be of their same gender.

CHARACTERS: 7/10
The anime has got loads and loads of characters, and once again, they all incarnate so perfectly all the various stereotypes that you'll ask yourself if they had a bloody checklist or something. Again, though, they are such straight examples (well, not completely straight...) of such common tropes, that if you accept the postulate that it's not meant to take itself seriously you are sure to like and grow attached to at least SOME of them. Be it the cute innocent angelic girl Hikari, the masculine athletic Amane, the cute stalker with a crush/best friend Tamao, the evil lesbian duo Kaname/Momomi, the energetic and smart Chikaru, and so on and on. Being so standard, they can be easily identifiable and likeble, and thus their romances, and there's A LOT of shipping possibilities here, will keep you involved and interested... expecially if you're a boy, for obvious reasons (you know, this one's kinda explicit for a yuri... they actually kiss and such). It's a triumph of moe. A handful of characters will also go through some development and backstory exploration as the romances go on, adding some spice and depth you probably wouldn't have expected judging from the first part alone.

ANIMATION: 7/10
Even if the character design is clean and charming, the art and animation are nothing worth taking particular notice of. It's decent, with some low points like most series have, even if a bit stiff and sloppy at times in some movements. It gains points for some beautiful landscapes and rainstorms, though.

MUSIC: 9/10
Throughout the series, the soundtrack is really solid and beautifully baroque-sounding, punctuating effectively many of the most intense moments. Actually, some famous classical pieces (like, for example, Beethoven's Piano Sonata N°14) are used. Both the first, extremely catchy opening (Shoujo meiro de tsukamaete, spoilers in video), and the second, neoclassical-sounding opening (Kuchibiru hakuchuumu) are very good and have that bittersweet feeling I find fitting with the story, while the endings (sung by two of the voice actresses) are terribly out of place in my opinion... because when an episode ends with a character crying after a very depressing flashback, a light hearted and happy moe ending really, REALLY breaks the mood.

CAST: 6.5/10
The voice acting here is a bit generic, even if generally solid. There are a couple of exceptions though, in both ways: while Yuko KAIDA's Amane Ootori doesn't fully convince and Mai NAKAHARA's Nagisa Aoi can even be annoying at times in her lack of depth, Ai SHIMIZU's performance as Tamao Suzumi is convincing in her wide range of expressions (in some scenes, I was surprised by how much and how easily I could understand that the character's feelings were the opposite of what she was actually saying and trying to make believe!), Hitomi NABATAME's (Kanade in Candy Boy among many others) performance of Shizuma Hanazono becomes really deep later on, and particularly convincing is also Natsuko KUWATANI (Ryoko Asakura in "Suzumiya Haruhi no yuutsu", Suiseiseki in "Rozen Maiden") as Yaya Nanto.

OVERALL: 6.8/10
Overall, I'd say this is a perfect anime for a first try at the world of yuri: being more light-hearted and less angsty and tragic than most yuri, full of (hopefully) not-so-seriously-taken clichés, more explicit than most yuri in regard of kisses and such, it's a nice first dive. Those who are already yuri fans, too, will probably enjoy it. It's not particularly deep or complex, but if taken with a bit of "genre savvyness" and humour it can be enjoyable and involving. I heard some people complaining about this show attacking the pairings that get "officialised", but while I too was annoyed by the main two couples (I was rooting for the other possibility of the triangles, so to speak), I think that if an anime manages to create different possible relationships and then make you upset (or happy) because you were (or weren't) rooting for another one... well, then there MUST be something they're doing right with the characters, isn't there?