First Impressions / Strawberry Panic

OP Sequence

OP: 「少女迷路でつかまえて」 (Shoujo Meiro de Tsukamaete) by 美郷あき (Misato Aki)

Summary:
On her first day, Aoi Nagisa climbs up Astrea Hill to reach her new school, St. Miatre Academy. On the path leading up, she admires all of the different uniforms (there are actually three schools on Astrea Hill). However, in her rush she accidentally runs down a small hill and into the surrounding woods. She gets lost, but encounters a beautiful girl. This girl hands her the keychain that she dropped, and then leans and kisses Nagisa on the forehead. Nagisa faints and wakes up in the school’s infirmary with a girl named Suzumi Tamao watching over her. She seems to have an interest in Nagisa, and is the one who takes Nagisa’s measurements for her uniform. Tamao, who is in Nagisa’s class, explains that they are fourth-year students here because the school integrates middle and high school. The two other schools are St. Spica Academy to the west and St. Le Rim Academy to the east. St. Spica has the white uniforms while St. Le Rim has the red ones with checkered shirts. Tamao also warns Nagisa that the school locks up after six o’clock at night.
Tamao gets called away, so Nagisa has to return to the dormitory alone. However, she spots the same girl who kissed her earlier and follows this girl into the woods. Unfortunately, she loses sight of her and realizes that it’s almost six o’clock. Nagisa rushes back, but makes it just as the gate closes. One of the sisters (the matrons of the school) has to let her in. She gets disciplined, but is then saved by the student council president of St. Miatre, Rokujou Miyuki. Miyuki mentions the Étoile, who is the leader of the students of all three schools. The three girls head to the dining hall where the buzz is all about the new student. All eyes are thus on Nagisa when she enters. However, Nagisa mistakes one of the upper-classmen as the Étoile, when in fact the real one is standing right behind her. It’s the same girl who kissed her forehead from before – Hanazono Shizuma. Shizuma leans in to kiss Nagisa, but gets interrupted by Miyuki because it’s time to lead the prayer before dinner. After she finishes, Shizuma opens her eyes and winks at Nagisa.

ED Sequence

ED: 「秘密ドールズ」 by 中原麻衣 and 清水愛 (Nakahara Mai and Shimizu Ai)
I wasn’t that impressed with either the OP or the ED. The ED sequence, however, is quite unconventional in the sense that it’s not animated; it instead features Nakahara Mai and Shimizu Ai singing and feels more like a PV. It’s something I’d be interested in seeing more of.

Well the first episode of Strawberry Panic! wasn’t quite as yuri as I thought it’d be (ie. no kiss, at least not yet), which is probably a good thing. The theme of girls love is still there, though I found myself laughing more than anything else towards the end of it. Hopefully the large number of characters and voice talent in this show will be able to keep it interesting and make the show something more than just Maria-sama ga Miteru with yuri. The character designs are going to take some getting used to, but overall I liked this episode.

19 Comments

  1. Well, what can I say? I’m a huge fan of the MariMite original. I think I’ve watched both seasons at least 4 times. I love the characters to pieces, and I admire the detailed and nuanced storytelling. Now what we have with SP is a blatant ripoff of the setting and characters, mixed with blatant yuri. Right? And by going this way, the originality and what makes MariMite so special will be lost. Right?

    Then, there was a scanlation of the first chapter of the SP manga which was very underwhelming. The story’s Yumi is called Nagisa, and she’s got the annoying habit to refer to herself in a very annoying third-person way (which implies a very childish and naive character). Many of the shots in the manga were strangely fanservice-centrical. I mean, could you imagine MariMite making an issue out of pantsu?

    In other words, I feverishly awaited this episode, and I fully expected it to disappoint. Let’s be real, shall we? It only CAN tank.

    *loads the Rrrrraw*

    Alright, this OP is quite easy on my ears. Not bad, not bad. And the character designs work too. Initially I was a bit worried that it would be too difficult to keep the girls apart, but I don’t think so anymore.

    O_O

    Now THAT’S fairly blatant. My my my… they sure wanna make sure everybody knows right away what the show is all about.

    Okay, so it begins. Shizuma looks like someone dying of thirst in the desert. Poor Yumi. I mean, Nagisa.

    “Walking slowly is preferred”? Not here, that’s for sure.

    I certainly prefer the character designs of the anime over the manga. That’s a good thing. Also, Nagisa comes over as normally intelligent, thank god.

    *grins* Okay, Sachiko helped to fix Yumi’s scarf. Shizuma… haha. Well, see for yourself.

    Looks like our Yoshino version is likable. Alright, I’m pleased.

    Oooo, something new for a change. A character who is colored in a decidedly negative way. Nothing like that ever existed in MariMite, come to think of it. The honor goes to the uber-strict sister…

    Aaah, Rosa Chinesis to the rescue. She talks like Youko, she’s the rrrrespect and responsibility person like Youko, she even looks like Youko. Do you notice that I liked Youko? ^_^ … well, I like her new incarnation aswelm.

    Wooo, many many girls for dinner. I wonder how many of them will be assigned roles of relevance. I think I’ve already spotted a few, buuut!let’s see how they turn out.

    Nagisa knows how to embarrass herself just the way Yumi did. They are vdry alike in demeanor. Which is no bad thing, actually.

    Haha! Eeevil fingerpointing. Yup, MariMite it ain’t. Still, that’s looking fun.

    Er… that’s nothing Sachiko would do. Not really. Or more exactly, not in the least. HOLD ON A SECOND. She wouldn’t????

    O_O;;

    D’oh! What the…

    Okay. That’s not Sachiko. That’s Sei – she only inherited a bit of Sachiko’s ojousama appearance. Ooookay, this is gonna be fun for sure Smile … to be honest, I never managed to fully warm up to Sachiko, because her character was kinda limited due to her past. A bit tooo rigid and serious for my taste. Shizuma seems nothing alike, and her tease meter is going through the roof.

    Wonderful. I’m gonna enjoy this ^_^ … poor Nagisa.

    Whoa whoa … what kind of ED is this? Tatu on Japanese? I think we got the message already, the show is not going to pull any punches.

    So there it ends. In case you didn’t notice,!I’ve just bookee the full season. It will be something different, but I suspect that it’s gonna be enjoyable. And MariMite fans will have to watch anyway, to see their beloved original defiled in a most respectless way. Hehe.

    ^_^b

    Mentar
    Reply

  5. Marimite is good and all, but it’s not so original as far as yuri goes… Anyway, while SP is clearly a Marimite ripoff, I liked it. The art is okay (it could’ve been worse), not many lolis around, and for a decidedly male-oriented anime, the yuri aspect is treated tastefully (I appreciate the lack of fanservice, I hope it’ll stay this way).

    The ED made me go “wtf”, though… Nakahara Mai is cute and all, but still, why? o_o Ah well.

    kuromitsu
    Reply

  6. I don’t think a “season of yuri”. Sure, there’s a few series with a shoujo-ai theme but there’s also a few with a shounen-ai theme, so rather it being a “season of yuri”, it’s more like a “season of queers” 😛

    The PV-like ED sequence seems interesting and this is a series I was interested in checking out, but there’s just so many new series, will have to see what gets fansubbed and what doesn’t I guess. XD

    kinb
    Reply

  7. +_+kwaaaah!!!! no kinb!! season of yuri sounds a lot better than season of queers!!!
    I just finished watching it. I don’t really like the drawing style, but everything else was fine. Animation was fluent, music was fitting. Sigh… so many anime…so little time….

    muhootsaver
    Reply

  8. man..this shows airs late at night doesn’t it..cuz i waited till like 5am for the raw. I like shizu she’s quite bold when it comes to showing off, she’s not as um i guess refined as Chikane-chan in Kannaduki no miko. No she just shoves the girl she wants up against something and takes full possesion of them. lol
    Who can really blame her and everyone else nagisa is quite cute, she just can’t help but attract unwanted attention from the whole school. But again with the cliffhanger of the popular/cool character till the next couple of episodes..

    onna-chan
    Reply

  13. well if i had to choose between Stramberry Panic and Simoun i will go with Stramberry Panic why? because i think it has a good start they didn’t jump to the advance yuri stuff such as Simoun did and well i did like much more the art 😛

    bakaro
    Reply

  14. I like to see this anime since the girls look cute. The story i believe will be light but i’ll see how it goes. I don’t watch very much yuri shows after Utena but i’m starting to again. ^^

    sento
    Reply

  19. I agree with cris. I honestly don’t get what’s so great about the girl. If there had been some other episodes showing how her relationship with each girl developed, then it would have made more sense. Then again, that would have been totally cliche, ne? ^_^;; Maybe I’m just looking at the negative side of this because I’m really more of a yaoi fan… -‘.’- But that doesn’t really matter, now, does it? :3

    sayonara~

    haruka
    Reply

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