Apr 13, 2022
Strawberry Panic is a hard one for me to review.
I always trying to be more or less objective on everything that I rate. And despite being my favorite anime, I aware of severe problems that it's have. But I'm still closing my eyes on them, ignoring the fact of how bad in some aspects this anime is.
If you're not a huge fan of shoujo-ai, its objective score is 7/10. Story is fine, but have some dumb moments. Art is great, it's really good looking anime. Characters overall good. It's average anime with severe plot problems. It's not like, you should or shouldn't watch it, but
...
if you looking for good shoujo-ai anime, like Citrus or Bloom Into You, it's definitely cost your attention and worth to be watched.
That's it for objective summary, now if you're into a shoujo-ai genre, like myself, welcome to my review for Strawberry Panic. With spoilers, of course.
Let's start from problems.
First not large issue with Strawberry Panic is some details, that later will be forgotten. For example, Shizuma in first 2 episodes were kissing some random girl, and Aoi have seen them. Oh you thought it will end up in some drama? Nah, let's just forget it was. Or a strict rules of academy, about which we were told in the first episodes. Bruh, later girls will do whatever they want, like rules weren't there in a first place. And that not all, there will be more some of the familiar issues later on.
Second huge problem is Aoi behavior in 18-20 episodes. Honestly, I'll never understand, why Aoi did what she did. It was so unreasonable that later the authors didn't even try to explain what hurt Nagisa so much in Shizuma's truth later.
And last vast problem is the finale. From a standard, but solemn elections of Etoiles, they made a fu**ing lesbian wedding, where gay couples compete in whos the biggest gay of the academy. Remember the strict rules and teachers, which are, surprise, actually exist, because IT IS A SCHOOL, and this show become laughable in bad way. I'm truly hate the finale of Strawberry Panic because of that and because they took from my BEST GIRL Tamao her uncorrupted Aoi.
From bad to good, why I still love this stupid anime.
First of all objective good things like art and sound, I was saying about it previously.
Secondary, The Characters. Characters are really good. Aoi before 18 episodes is a great protagonist, kind and soft, cute and nice, slightly dumb but it's OK. Tamao is a perfect best friend, that truly love and care about her friends. Shizuma despite being a b*tch is a good charismatic character. Secondary characters like Chikaru, Yaya, Hikari and Amane are still great. And even sort of antagonists of anime Kaname and Momomi are reasonably good. I don't know whos is saying that they don't believe in characters feelings, for me, here is no problem. I believe why one character loves another, IMHO, the authors did a great job in explaining feeling between each girl. I can easily explain why and for what I love every of the these characters, but I won't do it here and because the review will be too long.
And my favorite thing about this anime is story telling. Don't get me wrong, last 6 episodes are trash and don't count. This anime is one of the best slice of life with linear narrative. It's like in Persona, but without supernatural staff. That's why I called Aoi FeMC. and also because her hairstyle is quite familiar with Kotone's. The protagonist is making friends, helps them out and just attending school, like in normal slice of life anime. Later, when Nagisa becomes severely depressed, her friends, whom she made during this time, will help her get back on her feet. That's all so nice and cute, I love it. Also I like how they did parallel ark with Yaya, Hikari and Amane. We're not fixated on the same arc with the main characters, the authors diluted it well with a secondary arc. And there also some small arcs in some episodes, that are going parallel these two. Anime is not boring to watch, there is quite enough interesting and in some way unique characters.
Overall, I love nearly everything about this anime until episode 18, when the finale starts. The finale ruining my beloved Nagisa and turn down my lovely Tamao. I'm really trying to hate this anime for this, but I can't. Too much good things I can say about it.
My personal score is 10/10. If don't count finale 12/10. It's the best drama based shoujo-ai anime for now, in my opinion.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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