I know that I just did one of these posts today. But since I had a little more time this evening, I thought I’d go ahead and do another. So for this post, I thought I’d cover an anime that very quickly became a favorite of mine, Strawberry Panic.
Plot: Due to her parents working overseas, Nagisa Aoi enrolls in the elite St. Miator Academy on Astrea Hill. And on her first day there, Nagisa encounters and is captivated by the mysterious Miator student, Shizuma Hanazono. Before long, Nagisa falls head over heels for Shizuma. But Shizuma’s past hides a tragedy that may lead to their love ending in heartbreak.
Ever since watching Kannazuki no Miko (also known as Destiny of the Shrine Maiden), I’ve usually kept my eye out for any good series in the Yuri genre. While performing such a search, I found out about Strawberry Panic fairly quickly. And in the summer of 2010, I found the series on Youtube. The show really appealed to me. So much so that I ended up making a lot of Strawberry Panic wallpapers not long after. Heck, I ended up making most of the Strawberry Panic wallpapers here on TheO (not that I’m bragging, of course).
Pros: In my opinion, the greatest strength of Strawberry Panic is the love story between Shizuma and Nagisa. This is something of a spoiler, but a good ways into the series we find out that Shizuma had a girlfriend before Nagisa who died in very tragic circumstances. For some reason that aspect of the story really spoke to me. In life, sometimes we fall in love with someone. And then that person is taken from us in the most tragic way, by death. When that happens, we’re devastated and we think that we’ll never fall in love again. But somewhere down the line, we meet someone else and we fall in love with that person. Of course it’s not the same as before with the other person. It can never be the same. But it is love, nonetheless. So I think that’s a good part of what Strawberry Panic is about. It’s about Shizuma learning to let go of her old flame and move on with Nagisa. I’m sure Strawberry Panic isn’t the only series to do this kind of love story, but I thought it did it well.
Cons: I won’t lie. Strawberry Panic probably isn’t the most realistic series out there. I mean a good chunk of the student bodies of all three schools in the series, how shall I put this… consort amongst one another. Also, the series can be a tad mellow dramatic in places. I mean there are two love triangles. And this is probably another spoiler, but in the secondary love story between the characters of Hikari and Amane, Amane ends up with amnesia and loses that past few months. I think when I saw that in the series I rolled my eyes and went, “Really? Really?” One more thing I should mention that some reading out there might not like is that there is currently no dub for this series.
Overall: All in all, to me this is a series that shows us that no one is limited to having one true love in life. So for those out there looking for a good Yuri series and don’t mind that something that may not be completely grounded in reality, I strongly recommend giving Strawberry Panic a try.
Rating: 4.1 out of 5
