Strawberry Panic! | Review | Pinnedupink.com

STRAWBERRY PANIC!

Strawberry Panic has been the diva of the Yuri fan community for a long time. It's important to know that there were not many Yuri anime adaptations (not that we have many now, but we get one or two per year if we are lucky recently).

The best of the material was and is still primarily found in un-adapted manga or manhwa. And Strawberry Panic was part of the short-list of adaptations available at that time, which is considered one of those well-known “old school” Yuri anime, as people say (and then I came to know I was considered an old-school yuri fan).

Although the reception of the Manga by fans of the work and the general public has been satisfactory in every way (both in its great drawing and in the design of its characters and the story’s development), the anime, on the other hand, despite its great popularity, has caused the occasional controversy among fans, both technically and artistically, and even established the inevitable comparisons between both formats. The usual result is the anime adaptation losing against its manga format. And I'm telling you, I’m having a lot of flashbacks from when I first watched it as I write this, a lot of mixed emotions mainly, so let’s begin.

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The main story of Strawberry Panic! places us in an idyllic place called Astraea Hill. According to phonetic translation, it is an extensive campus where three elite female secondary schools converge: the Saint Miatre Academy, the Saint Spica Academy, and the Saint Le Rim Academy (or Saint Lulim, according to phonetic translation).

All of them share standard accommodations: the residence called Ichigo-Sha. "Ichigo" means "strawberry" in Japanese, hence the title Strawberry Panic!, which would come to be translated as something like "Madness in the residence of the strawberries" (thus, the Yuri intentions of the work cannot be more apparent from the beginning).

The reference to this delicious wild fruit can come both from the simple shape of the buildings (which, due to its triangular design and the color of its roof seen from above, can remind us of the shape of a strawberry) as well as in a more metaphorical referring to the young, sweet and beautiful maidens who stay there. Symbolized as "strawberries" on this occasion, on other occasions, we have seen that they are represented as roses or other beautiful flowers.

Among the many characters we will meet in this anime are the idolized Hanazono Shizuma and the recently transferred student Aoi Nagisa. We will see a whole series of characters of different ages and personalities belonging to the three Astraea Hill schools around this pair. That will complement the central duo, both in their direct relationships and secondary subplots; we will also see them developed throughout the series.

The animation is one of the most annoying issues of the anime, with a certain simplicity and even abruptness in some moments that undoubtedly required further elaboration. There are moments where better animation would have been suitable for the scenes, such as the ones of Amane on horseback or her decisive tennis match with Kenjou (which with better animation would undoubtedly have been more impressive, something that the scene required precisely), not to mention the dance scenes that could also have been more striking for the viewer if it had more elaborate animation. In that way, such memorable scenes would have been better recorded in our memory, making us want to relive them later in future viewings.

We must indeed bear in mind that it is a TV series of an intermediate length within the industry standards. Twenty-six episodes obviously cannot have the same quality as a short series of 13.

Still, it should logically present higher quality than a series of 50 or more. It must be recognized that in terms of animation Strawberry Panic! lags far behind much longer works in comparison (needless to say next to other works also of 26 episodes, or other large series works signed by Madhouse Studios).

If the animation section had been more polished in this work (logically giving it a bigger budget), without a doubt, the final result on screen would have been much more satisfactory for the most demanding viewer. A positive outcome for the limited amount of Yuri adaptations on-hand.

Character development is acceptable overall. Indeed, the work does not lend itself too much to moments of great display in this sense. Still, when some theatrical moments present in the work require it, we can enjoy very well-constructed descriptions, dialogues, and monologues, and a certain literary quality, as in the scene of the special letter from Kaori left to Shizuma. Indeed impressive no matter how you look at it.

Its writing is wholly removed from any "corny" and effortless style in which it could have fallen prey (because this type of scene is usually the most prone to it). That would undoubtedly have ruined the intensity and emotional force of that scene entirely.

The relationships were transparent and "crystallized" (and others simply tender and innocent, like the one that Kizuna and Remon have). The series also offers us a handful of unrequited loves, many of which were as exciting as those that do manage to reach "a success" by consensus on both sides (and yes, all my favorite ships were part of the unrequited ones that failed and it still hurts me even today). Characters such as Yaya, Miyuki, or Tamao, great characters by themselves, acquire even greater interest by being an active part of the romantic stories. Each one of them ends up involved.

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Strawberry Panic! is undoubtedly one of the essential works in the world of Yuri. Its television adaptation by Madhouse is most satisfactory, even though we are all aware that it has some room for improvement. In general, it makes a great impression worthy to stand close to its magnificent manga (one or two steps below, but close).

The environments that select Catholic schools recreate with their gardens, greenhouses, or their peculiar school councils (with their always picturesque names) are strongly present in the work, and let’s remember that none of this is the “property” of any particular work we can think of, but rather the tradition of these schools and the works that Inspired by them to reproduce their settings, they have been created since the archaic times of the "Class S" of the early 20th century.

Still, it seems evident that Strawberry Panic! could have been equally as good (or even more so) if it had discarded a good part of all these familiar elements mentioned above. And that, on occasion, has been criticized as a sign of lack of originality.

But in short, if Strawberry Panic stands out for something! It is because it displays its own marked style, immediately recognizable as soon as we see any image of the work (either from its Manga or from the Anime), becoming a well-deserved reference in the world of Yuri.