Strawberry Panic - Rin's Anime Column epi 1
As I’m sitting here writing the first column for Lily Colored Lenses, I keep wondering what I should talk about. Do I start off explaining what ‘yuri’ is or what’s the difference between ‘yuri’ and ‘shoujo-ai’? But a lot of that is covered in many other websites. So I suppose we can just do a quick overview.
Yuri – the Japanese word for “lily.” Gay men were coined as “roses” and lesbians as “lilies.” (Hence the title, “Lily Colored Lenses.”) Though originally used to describe primarily hentai, ‘yuri’ now covers many different genres that are non-sexual.
Shoujo-Ai – a purely American term. Shoujo is the adjective for girl and ai is the word for a deep love. Hence, Shoujo-ai would be girl’s love. This was coined to counter Shonen-ai for boy’s love. Or popularly referred to as Yaoi.
Okay, enough of the basics. Time for the first title review
Strawberry Panic
Now available in paperback are two volumes of the light novel and three volumes of the manga. A television series was released in 2006, but it has yet to be licensed on US soil.
Not terribly original. Those of you who’ve already seen Maria-sama Ga Miteru will find a lot of similarities (ie, All-girls Catholic School, “sister-system”). While Strawberry Panic seems a little be rehashed, as long as you stick to the light novels and manga, it has a cute refreshing story with happy moments. We all like those once in awhile, right? Not everything should be like the L Word where there’s drama at every turn.
First you have Aoi Nagisa, your sweet little transfer student, excited about coming to this prestigious yet complicated school. The school is on a hilltop known as Astrea Hill and has 3 campuses: St. Miator, what used to be a convent, is now the foundation campus which focuses on traditions. St. Spica, a campus which focuses on things like sports and debate teams, politics and what not. Then St. Lilium, the ‘goof-off’ campus that will make a club for anything. Oh woe is little Nagisa, who is just overwhelmed by the intenseness of the pretty school. She attends St. Miator and plays the role of the air headed, yet some how very cute object of desire.
Now, enter Hanazono Shizuma. Older, beautiful, rich, composed, lady-like……and a lady-killer. She’s the one that everyone wants to date, but her relationships don’t last longer than a month for some god awful reason. How stereotypically lesbian of her, right? In the novels and manga, Shizuma is seductive, playful and rather spoiled. In the anime, she tends to be rather standoffish, you begin to wonder why anyone would be after this woman. But she’s got that ‘woman on a high horse’ attitude that girls like myself would fall head over heels for. Shizuma also attends St. Miator, but is two years Nagisa’s senior.
Nagisa meets Shizuma, Shizuma becomes interested, Nagisa is infatuated. It can’t end there, can it?? Of course not! Here we add in Suzumi Tamao, Nagisa’s roommate at at the dorms. Tamao dotes on Nagisa, a little overbearingly and can be rather possessive. Like Shizuma, she comes off as cool, composed, well educated and a bit devious at times. She’s got her eye on the prize and the prize is Nagisa in this case. Tamao is attached to Nagisa like a tumor, attending the same classes, sharing a room, hanging out with the same friends. Neither Shizuma nor Tamao will give way to the other when Nagisa is involved.
If this little love triangle wasn’t enough, let’s hop over to St. Spica. Here we have Konohana Hikari. Quiet, sweet, demure… the perfect little angel. She was the cute little transfer student the year before. But she doesn’t have the school’s idol after her, so she fades into the background for a year before anyone starts to notice her.
Except for her roommate, Nanto Yaya. A ‘true’ lesbian, Yaya’s after the good stuff that sweet little Hikari would blush all sorts of red if she gave it up. In the manga, we get a nice little peek at Yaya going after the goods up Hikari’s skirt in the library. =X But Hikari’s got her eye on someone else, who seems to be far out of her reach. Her own Prince of the school, Otori Amane.
Amane is known as the Prince of Spica. Short hair, boyish image, yet delightfully feminine. She’s a star equestrian and like Shizuma, the girls all want her. But Amane is relatively quiet and withdrawn. She’s got a thing for a sweet little underclassman (Hikari), but doesn’t quite know who she is. She’ll find out at some point and Hikari will have the entire school against her in jealousy. Yaya included.
So two love triangles. You’d think that’d be enough for a couple volumes of manga and a few light novels, right? Of COURSE not! We have to throw in a competition. Where the winning couple becomes the representatives of all three schools by winning contests and popular votes. Shizuma, while she was a previous winner, is itching to give it another go, with Nagisa as her partner as representatives of St. Miator. St. Spica can’t bear to lose out to St. Miator, so they pick Amane as their representative and another student, Kenjo Kaname, as Amane’s partner. Amane refuses, pissing off Kaname, and selects Hikari as her partner.
Volume 1 of the light novel leaves off after the first competition and an intense face-off between Shizuma and Amane to win. If you watch the anime, the competitors for St. Miator are Nagisa and Tamao while Shizuma is off being mopey somewhere. Not as much fun, read the novels.
Next week: Strawberry Shake Sweet: Stupidly Cute
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