Ranked #783

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

I really should not have enjoyed this series nearly as much as I did. As a bit of a technical story snob, I usually find that well-animated and voiced series with somewhat weak storylines tend to rate quite poorly with me. I find myself dropping them, or rating them well below a seven, but this series just has that something compelling about it that makes you enjoy it thoroughly-- despite some glaring problems with the plot. If I had to sum this series up in two words, it would quite easily be: Guilty pleasure.

It is one of a very small number of series that I can watch repeatedly and still enjoy quite a bit, despite my somewhat low 'overall' score. As you can see, I found this series ridiculously entertaining which--for me--is sometimes more important than a good technical overall score.

Possibly the weakest part of this series was the plot. It was, at times, ridiculous, superficial, far-fetched, full of cheese and melodrama, but still oddly compelling. If it were a novel, the story would most likely be in a two-dollar bin in your local book store, yet there is somehow still enough substance buried in there to keep it afloat. Despite all I may say about the plot there are some truly touching moments buried in there -- and those are the little gems that keep you wanting more, despite yourself.

Essentially the plot is separated into two mini-stories: The main following bumbling transfer-student Aoi Nagisa from Miator, and the secondary following Konohana Hikari, a timid choir-girl from Spica. While the majority of the plot centres around Nagisa, there is enough material from Hikari's story to keep you entertained if you find yourself uninterested by the protagonist's antics.

With healthy doses of fluff and comedy, hefty smearings of romance and the odd tragic moment or two, there is certainly enough going on to keep the plot from idling. It was just a slight pity that they couldn't inject just a little more substance to enable me to rate it a little higher.

Visually this series is quite beautiful. While not on par with KyotoAni's breath-taking animation, gorgeous scenery, dynamic colours and interesting character designs, it makes for quite the pleasant viewing experience. That said-- there are times when the artwork looks a little awkward, though fortunately they are few and far between. And if you can quickly adjust to the stick-thin legs and arms that are common in this series, the character designs are quite striking, of special note are Hanazono Shizuma and Minamoto Chikaru, though with an ensemble cast of well over twelve there is bound to be at least one design to find pleasing.

Musically, Strawberry Panic is neither ground-breaking nor particularly breath-taking, yet there is a simplicity in the classical tracks that fit with the setting and overall tone of the series. Seiyuu performances are rather exquisite, with a cast consisting of: Nabatame Hitomi, Nakahara Mai, Shimizu Ai, Noda Junko and Kuwatani Natsuko there is more than enough skill to inject feeling into sometimes two-dimensional characters. Certainly there are some emotional scenes that are simply made by the skill of these masterful seiyuu.

As I mentioned earlier, this series is made of an ensemble cast, but unfortunately they tend to be rather two-dimensional or stereotypical characters. That said, there is a wonderfully subtle build-up in a few of the characters that really does surprise, and you can't help but empathise with your favourites as they are put through an emotional blender.

Despite it all I found myself strangely addicted to this series. Yes, the plot is weak, uses cliche plot progressions, makes no sense at times and is borderline ridiculous, yet I found it to be one of the most entertaining series in my collection. The chemistry between the characters, some brilliant work by the cast and some truly spectacular scenes mean that I enjoyed this series for what it was-- mindless fun. By episode twenty-six, I was more than disappointed that this series was over, and I would have to go elsewhere to find my fix of cheesy-goodness.

If you want a deep and sophisticated plot in a similar vein, watch Maria-sama ga Miteru; if you want hours of cheesy, light-hearted goodness: Sit down, buckle in and prepare to turn off your brain and watch something that will have you going through severe withdrawal when it is all over. read more

Upon writing this review, technically this is the first "Yuri" I have seen. While watching the first episode to the anime, and its story, it can seem re-hashed and to be targeted to a fanboy/schoolgirl fetish, however one must truly not jump to such conclusions. If you let go a little bit and try not to judge, its really a beautiful experience.

Story: As with any 26 episode anime, they have some time to fool around with the main story and obviously don't stick to having every episode be a pure advancement towards the ending. However, I felt that there were no filler or "go to the beach" episodes in the sense of simply wasting time with fanservice. Every episode helps the viewer get into the characters and the atmosphere of the three schools. Many of the episodes leave you in a state of such sadness or drama or even excitement. I felt that even though the ending was a happily resolved one, the went about achieving so whilst still having some unexpected twists. The story, while having its stereotypical moments, is definitely touching.

Characters: If you get attached to the characters of an anime, this one will be tough. Its really sad to see some of the characters be so upset and how they have to cope with in some cases simply watching from afar as they cannot attain their love. Theres some comic relief characters, as well as characters that grow throughout the anime and really change. Overall the relationship with Nagisa and Shizuma is the most interesting, while theres still a good balance that rounds out the cast in all the other characters.

Sound and Art: Sound and Art for me are one of the most important elements to a drama. It really needs to set the tone and make you feel like you were there watching these events go down and seeing the characters feelings. Classical and Orchestral hits always doing the trick for me. Also its nice to have a sort of tune that is the main embodiment of a characters relationship, such as the piano sonata nagisa and shizuma share. The art while some may call plain doesnt go for the shiny and sparkly, it simply is there to neither attract nor repulse viewers. It does its job. Both aspects blend well with the way the story is told.

Enjoyment: When it comes down to it, this is the most important part really. You can nit pick the story and characters and call it whatever you want, however whats the point. If you don't wanna spend the time watching it, just don't. I really don't understand when people flame this anime, or any others. If you devote the time to really "getting into" this anime, in my opinion, it pays off. For some this is just another yuri anime, but labels aside its a really touching story that can really get you suprisingly emotional. I still cannot rate it a 10 in this review (although for me it was a masterpiece). It has its flaws and stereotypical moments just like any other anime, but for me I believe that watching this anime was quite the experience, and I hope to find others that will leave me in the state I was while watching and finishing this show. read more

For my first yuri, it wasn’t as shocking or surprising as I thought it would be. I guess it’s because of the look and feel of the anime – the girls didn’t really look like they would engage in such “activities” – they all looked very innocent and sweet. It’s a good thing the anime focused more on the dramatic side than sex scenes. There weren’t a lot of sex scenes too, which is a huge sigh of relief for me.

Poor Nagisa. She’s obviously straight when she first came in and Shizuma had to corrupt her mind. I don’t get how Shizuma would fall for someone like Nagisa though. Nagisa is one ditzy girl and Shizuma’s elegant and classy (with stone cold glances and stares too). I felt like Nagisa would have been better off with Tamao, and Shizuma with Rokujou. Hikari and Amane were a more convincing couple – mostly because Amane actually looks like a guy and Hikari’s very ladylike.

There’s a part of me that still can’t believe there were no male characters throughout the entire series. It reminded me even more of the 11 years I went to an all girls school wherein males are a rare commodity. I’m a bit disappointed with the characters, because they didn’t have much depth in them, so I’m thought how interesting it would be if at least one guy showed up. They all had similar personalities too – with the exception of the older students such as Shizuma, Rokujou and Amane. Chikaru was a joy to watch though. She could very much be Haruhi Suzumiya’s long lost sister. I bet if they ever meet they’ll have a blast with each other.

Animation and art were actually pretty good, as expected of Madhouse. Everything was drawn and designed well, from the meticulous, colorful backgrounds to the characters. The only problem I have is that the characters faces were almost too similar – the only thing that kept them distinct from each other (appearance – wise) were their hair color. Speaking of hair color, I noticed that only the main characters had different hair colors. The main characters had pink, blue, orange, etc. colored hair, while the background characters (extras) only had black or brown hair. Because of that the main characters really popped up when in a scene with many people. The character’s eyes were very well drawn too.

I’m actually not familiar with most of the cast, but I do know Mai Nakahara. I loved her as Midori in Midori days – I really thought she made Midori 2-3 times cuter. She sounded a lot different as Nagisa though, which is why I didn’t recognize her at first. I also know Shizuma’s VA, Hitomi Nabatame, but sadly Shizuma didn’t have a lot of lines for me to notice her either. Most of the scenes with Shizuma has her staring off into space or crying, etc.

Strawberry Panic’s music was very interesting. I love the very poppy and catchy themes of the show. It was a good contrast from the dramatic and moody BGM heard throughout the series. The BGM was classically-influenced, consisting of piano tracks, which fit the sophisticated atmosphere of Astraea hill. I also like the Ai Shimizu and Mai Nakahara’s contribution to the soundtrack. They were a joy to watch and they brought something different to the table. I rarely see live action videos as ending/opening theme sequences.

Generally, the anime is a lot like Maria-sama ga miteru. The two series have a lot of elements in common, such as the All girls’ catholic school, the French undertones and of course the girl-girl love. There was even a hint of a soeur system during the series. I have to say I still like Marimite more, it is my favorite series, but Strawberry Panic! wasn’t that bad. It did get over dramatic sometimes, making me want to take a nap almost every time I watch it, but I still think it’s worth watching. read more

This is one of my favorite Yuri based anime's I have come to find. Once I began watching it, I couldn't stop. If you really want an anime that you can get into whole heartedly it is this one. The in depth analysis on all the variety of characters makes it so you can relate to at least one of them. The play on suspense, romance, and other relationships is so perfect for anyone who is into anything that may make your eyes tear up.

I'm fair, and yet I have to give Strawberry Panic an overall 8, not only because it's shojo ai and we get to see the goddess character almost get it on with the cute and often clueless main character, but it's also because the painful feelings that the characters have for each other.

Strawberry Panic is a shojo-ai show thorough and thorough. While all the elements in this show would suggest a old-time shojo show - classical music, beautiful senpai with classic shojo drawings of big hair and an elegant aura, a (not so secret) garden, Catholic school complete with a cathedral, a fountain and classrooms, sports that Japanese girls admire, and other classic shojo things, it's clearly a show aimed at male Otakus because of all the yuri scenes going on, with some fanservice for males.

It's kind of odd because in the early days of shojo anime, shows with only women or almost only women and very few men in there would never be aimed at males. Boys/young men/men had always watched shows with men fighting in mechas, with swords, on a sports field, fighting and beating each other bloody, and so on. But with the obsessiveness of the Otaku, whom are often terrible when dealing with women - wanting to be with women but severely uncomfortable in women's presence, shows that discover what women do around each other and alone (real and imaginary) are created.

In any case, conflicts of love go on in this show, as various characters fall in love with different women (heehee), some of their love interests respond in kind, others fail to recipicate. A lot of conflicts and a dark past is revealed when love is being sparked. We follow Nagisa, our protagonist's steps as she slowly discovers this campus, herself, her relationships with her roommate, who's deep in love with her, her friends and surroundings, and her real love - the seemingly distant and playful Shizuma - the top of the top of the 3 campuses. Other characters also get developed.

It's hard to definite this as a shojo show or not. I call it the "shori" show - shonen fan service with Yuri elements in it. I simply cannot classify it as a shojo show because too many lesbian love in there, I mean, sometimes there are almost no normal female relationships in this show.

Love the design of the characters, they're all beautiful, or cute, and all distinctive enough. The music is OK for me. Mostly classical and light music with nothing standing out. The characters are nicely fleshed out, with some shojo and imaginary lesbian stereotypes - this is made for shy male otakus after all. The plots are shojoesque with infighting and competition over the top title of the 3 campuses but it isn't terribly boring. Maybe it's because I love seeing shojo-ai and I appreciate the seiyuu for their work in this show.

Recommended for all who love shojo-ai/yuri. This is a shining example of yuri done right. read more

Warning:
"Strawberry Panic!" is a Yuri anime. It follows the story of lesbian
couples and if you have an aversion to homosexuality, or things of
that nature, I would not recommend this anime to you.

Anime: Strawberry Panic!

Format: DVD Video, Region Code 2 (Middle East,Iceland,Western Europe,Central Europe,Egypt,French overseas territories,Greenland,Japan,Lesotho,South Africa, and Swaziland only) Subtitles: None, Audio Track: Japanese: Dolby Digital
Stereo

Creator: Sakurako KIMINO

Publisher: Madhouse Studios/IMAGIN (Japan)

Release Date: 2006 (Japan)

Rating: TV-14-SD (May be inappropriate for childern under 14)

Genre: Romance, Drama, Yuri


Format:
Story:
Strawberry Panic revolves around three all-girls schools: St.
Miator's Girls' Academy, St. Spica's Girls' Institute, and St. Lulim's
Girls' School. In Miator, Nagisa Aoi is the main love interest of
three of the girls in that school and they are Tamao Suzumi, Shizuma
Hanazono and Chiyo Tsukidate. In Spica, Hikari Konohana is the main
love interest of three of the girls in that school and they are Yaya
Nanto, Amane Ohtori, and Tsubomi Okuwaka. In the third school, the
characters play a very small role in the anime, except for one named
Chikaru Minamoto. The other characters there are important to the
story, but not main characters.
The story that "Strawberry Panic" weaves is like being on a
emotional roller-coaster. There will be times you feel happy, then
sad, then angry. You will almost certainly laugh and cry throughout
the episodes.
The Strawberry Dorms (Proper Name is Astrea Dormitory) is where the
characters interact the most. The dormitorys are on the campus of a
very large catholic church near a lake, which are all located on
Astrea Hill.

Art:
The animation is amazing, crisp, and clean in my opinion. One of the
things I have always loved about anime, is the characters eyes. The
eyes are used to convey such emotion that you might not normally see
in an animation. When there are close ups, it is even better.
It is refreshing to see an anime using the older style of animation.
Not making it flashy with bright colors, and CG animation. The colors
and the animation are some what dulled compared to what we are
accustomed to with newer anime. I'm not at all pointing this out as a
flaw in the anime, or saying it is a bad thing at all. It is really
well done in Strawberry Panic, and it gives almost a feeling of
nostalgia for old school anime. I have been watching anime all of my
life, and the art in this specific one brought back memories of animes
like Vampire Hunter D, Iria - Zeiram The Animation, The Fantastic
Adventures of Unico, Sailor Moon, and Speed Racer. All of these animes
are less flashy, don't use bright colors, and don't use CG Animation
but are still just amazing, great animes, and watching them makes me
feel great too.

Sound:
The Opening Theme Songs are
#1: "Shoujo Meiro de Tsukamaete" by Aki Misato (EP's 1-13)
#2: "Kuchibiru Daydream" by Aki Misato (EP's 14-26)
both opening songs really really good

The Ending Theme Songs are
#1: "Himitsu Dolls" by Mai Nakahara and Ai Shimizu (EP's 1-13)
#2: "Ichigo Tsumi Monogatari" by Mai Nakahara and Ai Shimizu (EP's 14-25)
#3: "Shoujo Meiro de Tsukamaete" by Aki Misato (EP 26)
now #1 and #3 are really good songs but #2 is not all that good, the
Soundscore is done by Composer Yoshihisa Hirano, (Hirano Yoshihisa ,
born December 7. 1971 in Wakayama Prefecture) he studied composing at
Juilliard School in 1992, and later at Eastman School of Music, he has
composed music for concert,dance,film,radio and anime soundtracks. The
sound score for Strawberry Panic is mostly classical style and it is
really good. Much like the anime itself, the sound score can be
happy,lively, sad, mysterious, haunting, and overall is just very
beautiful and really good music.

Other:
The Etoile System is a system in place to govern the Internal Politics
and operations of all three school , Etoile is a French word meaning
Star. The Etoile is a figurehead of Astrea Hill and the Etoile has
specific duties like greeting new students to Astrea Hill,
participating in important school events, and acting as a mediator
between disputes in student council meetings of the three schools, and
other duties. They have a private greenhouse to grow flowers for using
in school events. The Etoile is a very important and respected person.
Etoile system is a big part of the story. There is a lot more to the
Etoile System but you will find this out when you watch the anime, I
did not want to give away any more then I had to because this
something you have to find out on your own.

Pros:
-Great story and well done characters.
-Amazing animation and great art work.
-Really good sound score and great songs.

Cons:
None

Final Thoughts:
Now I might go on too much about this so please bear with me. I have
read a few forum's and reviews that suggest that Strawberry Panic is
a ripoff of an anime called Maria-sama ga Miteru. This is something I
completely disagree with. I have watched all of Strawberry Panic and
Maria-sama ga Miteru they are nothing alike.
Now as I said to start, if you are uncomfortable with homosexuality,
this might not be the anime for you. However it was an amazing anime,
basically in my eyes about romance, no matter who it occurs between.
Its about the ups and downs of love, and I thought it was great.
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Its been a while since I've written a review on this site so bear with me just a little bit..

Strawberry Panic is a yuri anime~basically its a girl to girl love type story with a hint of lesbianism mixed together. Not that i have any complaints against that, since its my first time watching a yuri anime i was like WTF at first, but the anime was actually better than i thought it would turn out to be. Now on with the reviews:

Story: The story was honestly not the best factor of the series, but it is an interesting one. It revolves around the main protagonist Nagisa Aoi, her transfer into Astraea Hill Girl's Academy, and the relationship she forges with her schoolmates inside the academy. There are 3 schools total: the Spica Academy, Le Rim, and finally Miator(the school Nagisa is in). Over the course of her time inside the school, Nagisa encounters many fellow students who she eventually develops good relationships with along with her fellow dorm roommate and friend Tamao. Because the story is not very solid, and doesn't really have a centralized plot it tends to waver and confuse the audience which explains why i won't give it higher than a 7.

Art: As expected of Madhouse, the art was actually very well-designed and developed. Although it wasn't the greatest artwork ever, its still really good for a yuri anime. The background sceneries, the characters, the Strawberry dorms, and the school itself were drawn well and had good use of coloring to top it off. For some reason the art reminds me of some classic paintings from the past with vibrant and rich textures to blend in altogether.

Sound: The music i thought was pretty decent. I only liked the OP theme from episodes 1-13 and it was very catchy, i even have it on my Ipod. The ending themes were not very good and were just a turnoff for me. Although
some of the piano music played by Nagisa and Shizuma were really good. Nothing too much to say here..

Character: I do love the characters in this anime quite a bit, however i was somewhat disappointed by the fact that they didn't quite explain each of the characters in detail, so it was kinda vague in that sense. The only characters that had stories to them were Nagisa (our heroine) and Shizuma Hanazono. Shizuma I thought had the most emotional story out of all the characters, and i thought she was the most developed character in the series.. when you watch episodes 17-19 the real reason behind her emotional facade shows in detail and its really quite compelling. As for the other characters, like Tamao, Rokujou, etc..the characters weren't explained well and it left things hanging at times. Nevertheless, the characters expressed various emotions, feelings for each other, and might i add very kawaii in a good sense. Here you will see where the yuri fits in:

Nagisa and Shizuma

Amano and Hikari (Great couple I might add!)

Enjoyment: I really enjoyed the series it was definitely a good series to watch. At first i was a bit skeptical about watching this but after reading the light novel, I just felt that i had to watch the anime and it didnt disappoint. I've enjoyed it maybe you might too. I'm actually not a big fan of yuri, but there wasn't that many sex scenes in the series which was actually good.

Overall: an 8/10 i give it. Strawberry Panic isn't for everyone..you will either like it or not like it that's all i can say, but my recommendation is read the light novel first to get an idea wut the story is like, then watch the anime or vice versa. But for me i've enjoyed it to the point where i might watch it again in a future date.

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I don't remember how I found out about Strawberry Panic, but I'm glad I did, because it was quite an enjoyable show. But enjoyable does not translate into genius.

Story: The story is interesting, especially if you're into lesbians. And as a yuri genre anime, what else would you expect? The show is not episodic, but the episodes don't segue well to each other. The story is about a girl that's new to the school, and her first day there she meets the Etoile, kinda like the Queen (sorta) of the school and there is an immediate attraction between the two. One of the faults of this anime is that it was extremely predictable (at least i thought so). One of the guidelines to write a review is try not to reveal spoilers, and I won't have to, you'll probably figure it out as you watch.

Art: The girls were drawn in a typical shoujo type of art, tall looking thin girls with large breasts, and huge eyes (but not too big...the eyes). The animation is consistent throughout, though not amazing. Even though the art was fine, one of the things that i noticed was that almost all of the girls' faces look alike, the only difference being the difference in eye shape (some of them). The only other way to really tell them apart without listening to them is by their hairstyle and uniform.

Sound: The soundtrack of the anime was fine, but nothing impressed me. One of the biggest deciding factors for a good grade on sound for me is a good OP/ED, but neither caught my attention enough for me to look for the OST. The background music is okay, but i think they use the same one for many "dramatic" situations, making it old (unless i can't tell the difference, and they weren't the same)

Character: Pretty much what you see is what you get with your characters. They don't really progress, personality wise, but there are lots of changes in relationships. Again predictability plays a factor here, and what you expect the character to do, they'll most likely do. The characters are unique and don't have overlapping counterparts, but there are lots of the same character relationships, and example being... love triangle with one unrequited lover that loves the lower level characer, one upper level character that loves a lower level character, and that lower level character admires/loves the upper level character

Enjoyment: I enjoyed this show, not a lot, because i noticed some of its faults, but enough for me that i could watch it again and not consider it a waste of time. This is far from a masterpiece, but it might be good fun to watch, especially if you're in a "i don't want to watch yaoi/shonen-ai anime dangit, let's watch some yuri/shojo-ai" mood

Overall: It was a good anime, and it could've done better in my opinion if the story had been a bit more compelling, and not so predictable. And though this is personal opinion, i was kind of disappointed at the ending (though i expected it), with none of my characters matching up with who i wanted. :( read more