Last week, on a shocking Strawberry Panic…
Shizuma and the other Etoile! Her secret revealed! Nagisa learns the horrific details of her lover’s tragic past! Love blossoms as the tempest rages!
Or so we thought. Instead, we learn that…
1. The foreshadowing in Strawberry Panic is as subtle as a hyper-dimensional mallet to the noggin’.
2. Nagisa’s still reluctant to set sail on the S.S. Yuri (”LOVE… exciting and new…”).
3. Thunder follows lightning only at the Director’s convenience.
There were a lot of pretty trees, though.
Haven’t watched Ep18 yet, but from what I understand, Nagisa is reluctant to hook it up with Shizuma because she gets the feeling that Shizuma is viewing Nagisa as a Kaori replacement, and not as Nagisa herself.
Some of the foreshadowing in SPanic is brutally blatant, but there has been touches of subtlety, such as the showing of the ‘Prosper Merimee’ book that Tamao was reading in Ep12, before it was revealed that Tamao submitted a script of ‘Carmen’ in Ep15.
Then there was the ‘mystery’ episode during Ep09, where you had to piece the clues along before revealing all the answers.
SPanic ain’t a poster girl for subtlety, but it has its’ moments.
Cheers.
Interesting. I’ll need to grab and watch that, post-haste.
SPanic is definitely falling under the heading of “not great but better than expected,” and is one of the very few shows I’m bothering to stay on top of. As it were.
Episode 18 was hands down the worst episode of the series thus far, and thats saying something.
What an utter waste of 22 minutes. Nagisa should have stayed home and let Tamao try to rape her, she would have felt less violated.
Episode 18 was hands down the worst episode of the series thus far…
Basically, yeah. It promised a lot of answers, but in reality, we learned nothing new. I suppose we “met” Kaori for the first time, but that’s it.
It was just a weird episode. The show has been riding high lately, building up to this point, but it did squat once it got there. I still like the show, but it seems this episode sets the stage for a long period of Nagisa angst in which absolutely nothing of consequence happens. Hopefully, I’m wrong.
This episode was definitely not to my liking. Not only was it like waiting on a rock to move, but the score was terrible. How many variations of that one song do they have and why do they have to play them all ad nauseum?
I didn’t even know this was about episode 18 when I read it this morning before watching it, since I seem to remember all of the above happening in 17 (except maybe the trees?). I guess that’s a hint that I should’ve just skipped this week’s episode.
Okay, I bite. Contrary to the obvious majority of you yurilicious horndogs, I’d rate episode 18 with a solid :-P
It was a slow episode, but a fairly atmospheric one in my opinion. To the “nothing happened” faction, I’ll try to pick out those parts which episode 18 was all about:
Shizuma:
- Confesses openly that her relationship with Kaori was indeed a romantic one
- Knows herself that she’s still not “sane” yet
- Believes that Kaori wouldn’t want her in her current state
- Semi-confessed to Nagisa
- Feels powerless regret after seeing Nagisa’s reaction
Nagisa:
- Completely reversed her unease against Shizuma’s touch
- Realizes her own feelings for Shizuma (bluntly confirmed for the first time)
- Demonstrates a severe case of lacking self-confidence
- Feels infinitely inferior to Kaori
- Flees when the pressure gets too much for her to handle
I realize that medium melodrama with alot of subtle undertones isn’t for everyone, but I can say for myself that this was the episode I liked most so far… from a romantic standpoint it certainly outshone the others. Even though (not to say “also because”) nobody jumped each others’ bones this time.
If you seriously consider this the “worst episode of the show”, you’re definitely watching the wrong anime. Sorry :)
From the point of view of the viewer, however, any revelation in the episode was more “well, duh” worthy than anything else. The idea that Nagisa was a replacement for the “other Etoile” became pretty obvious once the existence of another Etoile was revealed. I was expecting to actually learn more about Kaori from this episode… not watch Shizuma and Nagisa do the same dance they’ve been doing from the very beginning (with an extra dose of DRAMA). We still don’t know anything about Kaori. Why does Shizuma see Kaori in Nagisa? What exactly was the nature of Shizuma and Kaori’s relationship? How did Kaori die?
Those are all questions that deserve to be answered - questions that could have been and, in my opinion, should have been answered with this episode. Shizuma invited Nagisa to her villa for that very reason, after all. Instead, all we got was Shizuma and Nagisa staring at each other and running around in the rain. It was drama for drama’s sake.
>>Instead, all we got was Shizuma and Nagisa staring at each other and running around in the rain. It was drama for drama’s sake.
it was melodrama, pure and simple. all that running around, the heightened emotions of the characters, the use of music (and weather) to reinforce those emotions - it was pure melodrama.
StoPani isn’t a thriller, or an action series, or a mystery - it’s a gothic meldrama (and one that has been getting better recently - ep 18 was a winner). expecting questions of plot to be resolved or answered misses the point: in melodrama, plot is subservient to character, and in particular to the emotional narrative of the characters. to quote from Screen: melodrama focusses on “taboo, ritual, rage and desire - all expressed without restraint ” - if this isn’t a definition of StoPani, i don’t know what is.
i started watching StoPani for some yuri fanservice - but it’s developing into the anime Black Narcissus; in fact i feel about it now the same way i felt about SHUFFLE before and after the Kaede turn: StoPani’s art might be woeful, but it can aspire to SHUFFLE’s drama.
It was BAD melodrama.
Its trying to be Onii-sama E and failing miserably.
(now THAT was melodrama! Oh man, those girls were nuts)
Strange, this was one of the best drama/melodrama episodes I’ve ever seen…at least for me. About Fencedude’s opinion I can’t really compare them, just because haven’t watched Onii-sama E(goning to do it in the nearby future), but Can’t agree about SP being bad melodrama. Personally I loved the intense though almost everything in that episode was built up from stereotypes, seen numerous times in other media. And still, it manages to pull out a heartbreaking drama, leaving you speechless… That’s how it was for me, I’m really glad that I watched SP during night… noone can bug you and you can truly enjoy it, the way it is meant to be enjoed :) About ‘Episode 18 was the worst episode of the series thus far’ - what an utter waste of 42 words. Agree with Mentar on this one…
‘It promised a lot of answers, but in reality, we learned nothing new. I suppose we “met” Kaori for the first time, but that’s it.’ That’s it? What exactly were you expecting, to jam her story and the sudden twist in 22mins? If they did this, we wouldn’t probably felt her character and wouldn’t sympathy her at all, not to speak about all the questions about her personality would left unanswered, because of the little time. So, in the end we’ve got 2 options - follow someone’s ‘grand’ idea for a twist or f**k the drama, move on with the story. Really happy they made the right choice, and about moving on with the plot- that’s what the next episode is for :) More episodes=more DVD sets=more money - simple but effective.
I loved the music, but that’s a matter of taste, not going to argue on this one.
The truth is this anime got me unprepared - I was expecting something wicked(the very first yuri/shoujo ai I’ve ever watched and in a naive way I was sure it was going to be the last), but in the end Strawberry Panic got on top of my anime list absolutely deservedly.
Sorry for double posting but promised a quick comparison between SP and Oniisama E… to keep the “discussion” alive in a way and to keep my promise.
So, Fencedude, I agree on two things you said: First, damn it, these girls were nuts; Second, a comparison between the two shows isn’t possible at all - SP is just way too good. What I mean is yeah, there was a nice drama in Brother, Dear Brother, but it cannot reach the level of drama in SP (and we’re talking about only one episode here…). Only Mariko’s story (the daughter of the pornography writer) was a little touching, everything else was just plain obvious and simple. *SPOILER* Not to mention the silly death of one of the main characters - laughed there… If you want to kill someone for the drama’s sake that’s not the way you do it. And you are saying SP is trying to be something like… that??? Simply ludicrous, did you really watch it at all? It is good to actually know what exactly is happening before posting comments. Take that as a … friendly advise.
I’m not saying the drama in Oniisama was bad, it was weak, even repetitious - whenever there was a culmination in the drama (actually nowhere for me :| ) it was connected with suicide. Yeah, that’s truly tragic, but to use that almost everytime… dunno, isn’t all the repetition a little boring? Even keeping my expectations low didn’t help, though I don’t really expect something amazing from any anime (Note: SP does not fall in that category). I have many other things in mind I can add, but promised a quick “comparison”.
To finish - go watch Oniisama E.
It wasn’t something special, but definitely is worth watching, instead of the overrated nonsense nowadays.