Archive

A Guide to “Strawberry Panic!”

In 2007, I was asked to write a Guide to the world of Yuri (or Girls Love) anime and manga for AfterEllen.com. Two years later, many new anime and manga titles have already made it to Western shores, with even more on the way, and several series have lodged themselves firmly in the collective consciousness of Yuri fandoms.

I have been asked to once again open the garden doors to the world of lilies – this time, to introduce you to the popular Yuri series Strawberry Panic!

Strawberry Panic! is the story of Aoi Nagisa, a transfer student who comes to Astrea Hill, a campus that houses three elite girls’ schools: St. Miator; St. Spica and St. LuLim.

Amid spring sunshine and the cherry blossoms swirling in the wind, Nagisa meets and is seduced by charismatic playgirl Hanazono Shizuma. Shizuma is the current Etoile (“star”) – the elected figurehead of the three schools.

Meanwhile, another transfer student, the angelic Kotohana Hikari, has managed to do what no one else has ever done, by capturing the heart of Ohtori Amane, known as the “Prince” of St. Spica. In the grand tradition of Japanese Girls Love literature, the students of all three schools are caught up in a dance around these two transfer students as the election for the campus’s new Etoile approaches.

The story follows Nagisa as she is captivated, teased by, and ultimately falls in love with Shizuma, who has a reputation for loving and leaving her women. Nagisa struggles with the difficulty of being a transfer student who has gained the attention of the Etoile, trying to avoid becoming the most recent in a long line of hearts that Shizuma has wooed and broken.

At St. Spica, Hikari finds herself the victim of schemes concocted by the Evil Psycho Lesbian duo Kaname and her lover Momomi, as they plot to destroy Amane and gain the Etoile crown for themselves.

The Presidents of the three Student Councils watch helplessly as Shizuma and Nagisa, and Amane and Hikari, fall ever deeper in love, and plans for the glory of their schools collapse under the pressure.

Strawberry Panic! was born as a series of short vignettes in Dengeki G’s, a magazine that caters primarily to guys that play dating sims. Though not well-known in the U.S., the dating sim, a game featuring simulations of young women in romantic – or sexual – relationships, is a popular game genre in Japan.

It migrated from there into an anime (cartoon), a manga (comic book), and a light (illustrated) novel series.

All three are available for the English-language audience with the exception of the final light novel in the series. The most interesting thing about Strawberry Panic! is that it can be watched (or read) in two entirely different, yet equally valid ways.

Viewed one way, Strawberry Panic! is a melodramatic romance about love affairs at a private girls’ school. But with a little bit of background information, Strawberry Panic! becomes a parody of many other (well-known to a Japanese audience, less so to a Western one) earlier Yuri series.

Either interpretation will do, but the latter will make Strawberry Panic! more of a comedy and less of a drama, while the former keeps it strongly in daytime TV drama world.

In fact, many of the most theatrical moments in the first half of the Strawberry Panic! anime are derived directly from these earlier series. The symbolism of the statue of the Virgin Mary who does not watch over her lambs; the hydrangeas; the shell necklace Hikari gives her roommate Yaya; the midnight tea parties and several of the characters are all relics from series such as Maria Watches Over Us, Kannazuki no Miko, Card Captor Sakura and The Secret Staircase.

When, about halfway through the anime, these memes are left behind, the story takes a radical turn for the dramatic. Nagisa learns that Shizuma’s past holds a significant tragedy, but learning the truth does not bridge the distance between them. Despite Kaname and Momomi’s plots, Hikari and Amane become even closer. As Amane grows more aware of her feelings, and is compelled to enter the race for Etoile, the web of deceit between Kaname and Momomi becomes too fragile to maintain.

While Miyuki, President of the Miator Student Council, is forced to confront her own feelings for Shizuma, Nagisa turns away from her and finds a kind of comfort in the welcoming arms of her roommate, Tamao.

Hikari and her roommate Yaya have to heal a significant breach between them before Hikari and Amane can find happiness with each other.

The second half of the series draws plot complications not from Japanese Yuri series, but from classic Western stories, such as Wuthering Heights, Carmen and The Graduate.

And, frankly, the second half of the series is far superior to the first. The drama is larger, better integrated into the storyline and, in the end we are more than satisfied to see that not only does the girl get the girl, but that the other girl gets the girl, too.

There is a lot of fun to be had in Strawberry Panic! regardless of the way one watches it.

If you are familiar with the series being parodied, it’s amusing to note the various concepts, symbols and whole characters that have been “borrowed.” If you come to it with no previous knowledge of the Yuri past, there’s still drama, comedy, surrealism and, of course, romance to be enjoyed. Because of the unsubtle endings for our main couples, Strawberry Panic! remains a popular Yuri series here in the west long after it has been forgotten in Japan.

There’s something eminently satisfying as the credits roll on Shizuma and Nagisa in a good, old-fashioned, arms-around-the-neck kiss. What happens between Hikari and Amane is even more satisfying, both for them and us.

The two-volume manga set and the first two of the three light novels were translated by and are available from Seven Seas. You can find this series out on DVD from AnimeWorks; a new season box set is about to be released, in fact. Each version of the story is slightly different, but the main couples remain the same, so if you find the travails of Nagisa and Hikari entertaining, you can easily spend a pleasurable few hours with each retelling.

An intense drama, a stellar comedy, a classic tale of love and loss, a story of the politics and pressures at a girls’ school, and a timeless romance. A comic, a cartoon, a novel. Strawberry Panic! is all this and more.

Join Nagisa and Shizuma on Astrea Hill and enjoy the drama, the romance and the race for the Etoile crown.

Erica Friedman is the President of Yuricon and ALC Publishing, and reviews Yuri anime and manga at Okazu

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button