Ranked #770

Strawberry Panic

If you are in anyway a fan of yuri anime, then Strawberry Panic is a bit of a rite of passage for entry into the genre. It probably garners the highest amount of fanaticism and emotionalism from its supporters and detractors. Though I wouldn’t call it a love or hate it kind of show as you might expect from that. I think of myself as a reasonably objective person and found that my opinion of it split almost right down the middle between absolute love and complete contempt.

Strawberry Panic's story centers on a new student to a prestigious all girls’ school, Nagisa Aoi. The school is divided into three separate campuses which operate separately, have different uniforms, but are functionally really the same institution. Oh, and basically the entire student body are lesbians... hey this is yuri after all! There isn’t any amazing drama or nefarious villains as the story almost totally revolves around relationship angst. The story walks the line on being a light hearted romantic comedy to having some pretty deep drama but for the most part it is a lot of fun. I would imagine most people are going to enjoy it a lot, until you get to the last five to six episodes. Here is where there is likely to be disagreement amongst viewers as pairings finalize and plot twists emerge. This is where my enjoyment also suffered, because I intensely disliked almost every final pairing and the ending to the final story arc itself left me quite angry and disappointed.

The characters have some magnificent highs but also some annoying lows. As far as Nagisa goes, whom just about every important plotline flows through, she is a sweet and likable character. Immediately people are going to gravitate to her much as characters do in the story and find something to like about her. However as the story unfolds, I found her becoming increasingly unlikable and idiotic. The decisions she makes, her inability to see the obvious right in front of her face, and her ditzy nature (while extremely endearing at the beginning of the series) becomes annoying and tired. You want to feel for her angst and conflict but in the end you're just so over with her.

Shizuma, next to Nagisa, is the most important character in the story and probably the most interesting. Though that doesn’t mean she is particularly likable. A friend once referred to her as the "Mac-Daddy" of the school. She seems willing to go after any girl in the school while seemingly not really caring about them or the consequences of her actions. Her past is tragic and explains the reasons why she is the way she is. But she is a psychologically damaged person and hurts a lot of people along the way, though probably not intentionally. She simply just can’t help it. While she does make a lot of progress and matures some over the story I still couldn’t help but think that in the end in her heart of hearts she really hadn’t changed.

Tamao is the last of the main cast. She will be instantly likable by all though will not come across as a terribly unique character in the annals of anime history. As the other love interest for Nagisa, this is where viewers of the show are going to start to separate themselves. You’re going to be a Tamao fan or a Shizuma one. Depending on which character you find yourself rooting for is likely to affect the way you view the anime in the end. I did like her, though she has a lot of Nagisa's personality traits and her ditzy nature does get annoying towards the end

Now for the bad and it pretty much starts and ends for me with Amane and Hikari. Amane is the stereotypical character we seem to always have forced on us in anime. The emotionless robot who happens to be admired by all despite having no personality and looking and dressing like a man. Yes, this is YURI; I am watching it for the girls! So what is this mannish toad-face doing in my show! I found absolutely nothing redeeming about her and the only reason I could even think of that all these girls revered her so much was that at an all girls school she was the most likely to have a sausage in her pants. This all being said, it seems fitting that she is linked with the second worst character in the show, Hikari. Hikari is basically a functional retard. She has no personality attributes besides being moe to the extreme that would make anyone care about her. She spends all of her time in constant angst over what Amane thinks of her and ignores the people who truly care about her (though heaven only knows why they do). Honestly I think if nobody guided her along and told her when to wake up and eat she would just stand in the corner and starve to death.

The rest of the supporting cast is actually pretty good. Yaya and Chikaru stand out above all the others. I would liked to have seen both of those characters get better endings and felt they were ignored a bit too much. Almost everyone would be considered likable and friendly, the kind of people you would want to be friends with. The only exception would be Kaname and Momomi. I really found them to be despicable characters and their actions and motivations were pretty hard for me to stomach.

Art and animation is exceptional. I really enjoyed the beautiful settings and costumes and with the exception of Amane, all of the girls were quite stunning to look at. The voice acting and music was also very good. A few of the character voices grated on me, but mostly because they were characters I didn’t like. (Hikari, Amane) The OP and EN songs were performed by Nagisa's and Tamao's voice actress and I thought fit the theme and feel of the show wonderfully.

Your enjoyment of Strawberry Panic is going to greatly depend on how you felt about the final pairings. Some people are really going to like this a lot and others are going to feel very disappointed as I was. In addition I very much disliked how the final arc played out and that several key characters basically got the shaft in terms of their own romances. It’s a fun show for the most part, required viewing for yuri fans and probably one of the better shows of the genre out there. That in itself is an indictment of yuri anime.
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Kinda slow, but overall a very touching story.
The plot was substantial enough to keep it interesting and on your toes, it was difficult to find a location to stop watching for the day since each episode kinda left it open to the next one, but that was okay. theres more than just one plot line going on at once too, with multiple characters acting out different situations at the same time.

The art was good, not KyoAni standards but it was better than some others. the colors were duller and details were not as prevalent (at least in the sub i watched). however, it didn't take away from the story and development, if anything the lack of sharp colors added some depth to the main storyline.

The character and plot development was pretty good as well. the plot was a little slow to develop, and a few things were easy to point out. but then again i was surprised at the way a few things turned out and just at how everything was played. as for the characters, theres a very good variety of them, each holding some form of an archtype, but not blatantly so. the differences were subtle, and not cookie-cutter. unlike the plot development, the character development was a lot faster; you can tell what kind of person the characters were usually within the first few episodes after they were introduced. it didn't delve into the back story often, mostly concentrating on the present and the situations occurring now. so the development as a whole was a little lacking, but the delivery was well enough to make it enjoyable and easy to understand.

the music was repetitive. though the opening and ending changed halfway into it, the music within the series was static, much like Madlax. (if you have ever seen it. if not, then its basically one lyric song played about 5-6 times through the series.) the regular BMG was nothing new either. but the impression wasn't a bad one, and it didn't take away from the series at all.

overall, i'd give the show a solid 8/10. it didn't have the real attention grabbing ability of a true masterpiece, and i felt that a few characters were neglected too much. but other than that it was well worth watching! read more