~~~A simple reminder: any anime that was released before 2007 does not exist...


Jokes aside, Strawberry Panic! is a yuri anime about relationships, moving on and being true to yourself.

The main Protagonist Nagisa transfers to St. Miator's girls' academy and on her way to Miator, she strays from the path and met Shizuma in the forest. The two have met and Nagisa is immediately charmed by Shizuma. Since Nagisa didn't understand what is happening to her, she collapsed and at the time she woke up, she is in the infirmary to where her roommate Tamao is patiently waiting for her to wake up. A lot of things happened and in the end, Nagisa and Shizuma confirm each other's feelings and they became lovers at the end of the series.

This series itself has quite an issue in terms of art, but likewise, since it felt that the show didn't have any budget to begin with; It's understandable that the quality of the show itself is on average, sometimes there are few dips but we can say that the art is pretty average.

While the show mainly frames the relationship between Nagisa and Shizuma, there are a lot of people also involved in this story that moved the whole narrative together. There's also the couple from Spica name Hikari and Amane who were at first just the usual senpai-kouhai couple, and as they get to know one another, they developed feelings for one another and in the end, they ended up becoming partners.

The first half of the series is basically the usual 'getting to know' phase to which everyone gets to know one another and develop friendship along the way. It's usually your story of the day format and any progress made during that episode does carry over to the next episode.

The second half of the series is where the serious stuff happens. As Nagisa slowly falling for Shizuma's rather forceful advances, Shizuma slowly opens herself to Nagisa as she understood that what she feels for Nagisa is more than just infatuation. Just as the main couple slowly gets closer; the secondary couple Amane and Hikari have undergone trials as the lackeys (Kenjyo-san and Nonomi) of the Student council of Spica tries to separate them apart as it might affect Amane's image as the election for becoming an Etoile is drawing near.

Also on the second half of the series, the cultural festival begins and I thought the whole festivities might linger for at least 3 episodes, the show fully used 2 episodes to my surprise and importantly, The play that they feature was teased to be somehow related to Shizuma's past.

The main bulk of the second half of the series is all about the Etoile election, As Nagisa has finally learned that there were once two Etoiles and also have learned that Shizuma still hasn't moved on. Nagisawas caught between a rock and a hard place when Miator's student council preisdent Rokujyo forced her to join the Etoile election by partnering up with Tamao Suzumi who is Nagisal's roommate. Shizuma who has finally retired from her position as Etoile was forced by Rokujyo to accept her proposal as Shizuma expresses no interest to the elections in the first place.

Feeling betrayed Nagisa runs away and tries to find support from Shizuma which in turn betrayed her expectations as she supports her candidacy. Nagisa blurted out her feelings to her and she ran away with a heavy heart and accepted the recommendation.

To not bore you with this BS, Amane and Hikari also were recommended to run to be Etoile and Amane had amnesia and lasted 2 episodes before remembering Hikari because ~~there were no more episodes left~~ Amane sees Hikari in her dreams as she recall Hikari's voice which in turn remembering everything between the two. Also, they have won the elections because Shizuma took away Nagisa on the day of elections (I suppose that they did not disqualify Suzumi or nobody told me that the Etoile candidates has to be together during the elections to be considered valid, not that it matters since Amane is really popular in the three schools inside Astrea Hill.)

Shizuma and Nagisa who have accepted each other's feelings had played together in the forest and did more than just kissing.

-end of summary-~~~

To be honest, there is so much to content to unload but likewise, this review will become a few pages of novel altogether...

The Characters themselves aren't just your stereotypical archetypes but they are quite similar to it. I find Nagisa and Tamao's relationship pretty cute while Nagisa is always looking up to Shizuma, she does recognize Tamao's feelings as the two remained as friends in the end of the series (Which made Tamao the biggest loser in this series.) Yaya and Hikari's interaction is quite nice too as Hikari being a 'damsel in distress' but with Amane in the picture, Yaya grew desperate and forces herself to Hikari which in turn destroyed their friendship. Even after they have reconciled, Hikari and Yaya didn't returned to their old relationship as Hikari distanced herself to Yaya physically.

The two lackeys from Spica is also an interesting watch, while at first you would feel like you want to strangle them because they keep getting in the way, It is revealed that Kenjyo-san does sees Amane as her rival and wants to prove that she is always better than her as she tries to win Hikari's heart and in the end, she had a complete 180 and helped out Amane in making her decision.

The student council from Miator is quite interesting too as she has history with both Shizuma and the other Etoile (sorry, I forgot her name.). Rokujyo and Shizuma grew further apart as the previous Etoile dies due to a declining health. When Shizuma finally retired from being an Etoile, Rokujyo found a letter addressed to Shizuma and in the end, the two made up and slightly grew closer to one another.

I wished that Miyuki (Rokujyo's name) didn't become a character I hated since during the election arc, she was really the person I find her too unreasonable.

With the show being too wordy to describe on how each relationship works... let's cut the content here already and focus on the strengths and weaknesses of this show.

I have to admit that the music in this series is pretty good. The second opening theme is definitely the best (and also my favorite Anisong.), the first ending theme song too is quite good. The art is pretty fine, there are drops along the way but the show itself runs on almost no budget so I guess this is acceptable. Can the story be slashed down? I think it is possible but there wasn't much episodes to slash down without affecting the character relationships in general so I'll leave that to any directors who actually want to do a redo of this show...

There are few elements in this show that is quite bad. Likewise to say, the last 4 episodes of this show has been a slog and I thought I won't be able to finish the whole show because of that.

First, I didn't like how Nagisa didn't have any clear reason why she loves Shizuma, we can say that it was partly due to Shizuma's charm but she is the only one who have exhibited that defenselessness whenever she is with Shizuma. I guess Nagisa is a sheltered lady altogether or she never had any resistance to begin with.

Second, I hated the Amnesia plot twist. It just unnecessary drama and a waste of time. It's something that writers shouldn't be using unless that is the plot of the story itself. If you just want to use the Amnesia card as a drama extender, we have a lot of that in Philippine Telenovelas already and most of them are used for drama factor, and not the main story itself. (And yes, I live in the Philippines)

Third, Miyuki Rokujyo is a weird character to rate, most of the time; you will not like her... and when you thought she has become slightly likable; the tables have turned and you hate her even more. On Tamao's case, she has a rather uneventful character until Second half of the series, And in the end; she was just pushed aside as a secondary character altogether. Likewise, the main issue here is that some characters weren't treated well and there are more characters who were treated poorly in writing.

In the end, I did enjoy the series; you can see how much effort they have made to make sure that each character is believable to a degree and while it's just your typical yuri anime and it doesn't revolutionize the genre itself, it's a nice watch given that when someone is down; you can see that everyone really worked their best to make sure that they will be alright at the end of the episode and that is already a good thing to watch. There might be a few hiccups along the way, you might feel bogged down at the last 4 episodes of the series and in the end; the show is good. I kinda wished it was better but I had my share of complaints too so it's understandable.

While we are at it, I wish St. Lulim's (Le Lim) Girls' school had their own spin-off series... but the genre is CGDCT (cute girls doing cute things) given how the student council president creates clubs out of the blue.

My personal grade on this show is 7.5/10... I have a bit of bias in this show and it could have been an 8 if it wasn't for that last 4 episode slog at the end.

The only reason I managed to convince myself to watch this is because someone is trying to create a dub for this series in Youtube.

My Score: 7.5/10 (If you want something better, this show is not for you.)