I was gonna write one of these every couple of months as an easy way to keep the blog going in between higher effort posts. It's been 7 months since the first one. Whoops! Part of the problem is I keep waiting to write one of these until I have three or four things to talk about, and by the time I get there, I don't really feel like writing about the ones I found first. So this time around, I'm just going to talk about one thing I've been liking lately in depth. I've still tried to keep spoilers to a minimum, so you should be able to read this without ruining your own experience. Yippee!!!
It's December and my seasonal depression is in full swing, baby!!! If there's ever been a time to binge a mid-2000s tragic romance anime, it's now! Well, Strawberry Panic isn't really a tragedy, but being produced in 2006 means that it's absolutely dripping with darkness and angst for no real reason apart from that being the style at the time. Adapted from a 2003 light novel series, Strawberry Panic follows Nagisa Aoi transferring into the Strawberry House, a triangular dorm situated atop Astraea Hill in between three vaguely Catholic all-girls schools. The dorm is a triangle because there are three schools, probably. While adapting to this new life, Nagisa is swept off her feet by her mysterious, brooding, silver-haired senpai Shizuma Hanazono. Does drama ensue? You better fucking believe it, bitch!!!
At first glance, it's easy to dismiss Strawberry Panic as one of the many Maria-sama ga Miteru derivatives that came out of the early 2000s. In fact, even I did so for the good 10 years between my first attempt at watching the series and now. I wasn't particularly hooked the first time around and dropped it about halfway through, and I've grown wary of the mainstream yuri output of that period since. Indeed, Strawberry Panic heavily borrows from concepts introduced in that series, but it's got something Maria-sama doesn't: swag (It's 2006, so I'm allowed to say that). Watch the opening above. It's a total banger. And do girls have sex in Maria-sama ga Miteru? That is a genuine question. I don't think they do? Well, what matters is they are fucking in Strawberry Panic. And even more importantly, the show never attempts to paint the lesbian relationships as pure and innocent idlings between girls who are Really Good Friends. In fact, Shizuma, the primary love interest, is explicitly depicted as unchaste. My word! It's certainly no Asumi-chan is Interested in Lesbian Brothels, but Strawberry Panic is surprisingly forward for a series produced in the early days of yuri.
Where else to keep the key to your heart but on your bestie's breasts?
Strawberry Panic came at the tail end of the anime bubble, meaning we got a ripe (heh) 26 episodes out of the three novel series. This generous padding allows for a meandering pace, letting the first half focus more on developing the personalities at Strawberry Hall instead of rushing into the plot. The cast is pretty large for a series like this, so I'm glad they each had room to be fleshed out instead of being combined together or written out entirely in the adaptation. The slice of life format episodes of the beginning half can be hit or miss, skating the line of what may be considered boring by many. I find the show has enough charm to carry itself during this period, and these lighthearted stories do a nice job slowly establishing aspects of the school that are important later on. There are dashes of romance sprinkled in as well, just enough to keep a gay like me hooked on the line.
The second half is straight drama. Well, it's gay drama, but you know what I mean. It's a constant torrent of melodrama, every conversation befitting of a life or death situation. This would be way too much if the show wasn't such a fucking vibe. The production, despite being low budget, melds together with the absurdities of the story to create something that truly captivated me, getting me to watch the last 16 episodes in just over two days. The completely ridiculous aspects of Astraea Hill actually start to make some sense when viewed as a metaphorical aid to the story, and the seasons flow freely as manifestations of the characters' hearts without much thought put towards how wide of gaps they add between to the episodes. The latter half is where Strawberry Panic really shines, so long as you're a lesbian with seasonal affective disorder.
The seasons play an important role in expressing the emotions of the characters
Interestingly, just about everything I like about this series seems to have come out of the anime adaptation rather than the original work. Skimming the light novel and manga, both the story and general vibes differ significantly from the anime. The light novel skews in the direction of the early yuri works that are a bit painful to read and are often parodied today, with Shizuma referring to girls as her "sweet little flowers" and acting more like a pick up artist than a pained soul seeking shallow comfort. The heavy melancholic air hanging over Astraea Hill is nowhere to be found, either. Strawberry Panic was in a shonen demographic magazine, so perhaps that's why the tension that hangs around typical shoujo works isn't found. I don't want to deride the original work too much without having read it in its entirety, but I'm pretty shocked at how necessary the anime's reimagining was to make something worthwhile.
Now, I don't mean to paint the Strawberry Panic anime as a masterpiece. It's an incredibly stupid show and they know it. The traditions surrounding the school are completely nonsensical, cartoon villains pop up only to become reformed after a single conversation, and seemingly the only driving force behind the romance is "Girl... Tall AND Mysterious...?" That's enough for me as someone deeply vulnerable to the concept of a girl who is tall and mysterious, but it will probably fall flat for many. But the anime at least recognizes its own strengths and plays to them in a way that I find incredibly entertaining and captivating. This series is a 100% vibes based experience that will either work for you or it won't, but I found it to be an absolute fucking bop.