Strawberry Panic! - Production

Production

Since the first issue of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine was published, the editors of the magazine have hosted reader participation games whose outcome is directly influenced by the people who read the magazine. Strawberry Panic!'s origin was in the October 2003 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine where it was announced after the ending of Sakurako Kimino's previous work Sister Princess that a new reader participation project would start the following month. In the November 2003 issue, the first batch of characters from St. Miator were introduced (Nagisa, Shizuma, Tamao, and Chiyo) and it was revealed how readers could participate in the project. The initial system had the three main girls of Nagisa, Hikari, and Kizuna (given without surnames) who were sisters and at the same time younger sisters of the readers of the magazine, effectively putting the reader in the position of the elder brother. Each girl entered her respective school and became the main character of that school. It was explained that the coupling of the main characters could be to an upperclassman, a classmate, or an underclassman, but had to stay within the school they attended. For example, Nagisa, who attended Miator could not be coupled with another character from either Spica or Lulim at first. Playing the role of the elder brother, the reader gave advice to the younger sisters who were bewildered by their new lives at each of the schools. Thus, the readers had the ability to influence the coupling formations which would later be written by Kimino as short stories serialized in Dengeki G's Magazine.

In December 2003, the characters from Spica (Hikari, Amane, Yaya, and Tsubomi) and Lulim (Kizuna, Chikaru, Remon, and Kagome) were introduced and in the January 2004 issue the first illustrations of the three schools and the Strawberry Dorms were published, drawn by Chitose Maki; the reader participation game began in this issue. Polls were posted in the January 2004 issue where the readers could vote on how the story would start and progress in the following months. Before the votes were counted, the first three short stories were written and published in the February 2004 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine. Each story featured an illustration of the two girls who were the couple paired in each respective story.

When the results of the polls were printed in the March 2004 issue, the rules of the game had been changed from the original concept, showing that readers wanted to focus on the relationships between the girls, and in this respect, the readers could vote on who they wanted to be coupled together. The number of votes for this first round were less than 2000. Noting this, the editorial staff lifted the restriction on only coupling within the same school, along with the restriction of only allowing the three main girls of Nagisa, Hikari, and Kizuna to couple. This resulted in a total of 66 different possibilities between the twelve characters in the series. In this issue, it was explained that four events were planned for the stories that followed: Easter, Athletic Carnival, Cultural Festival, and Christmas Bazaar. The "Etoile" title was born in this issue, which was initially used to crown the best couple voted first by the readers in each of the four events to follow. These events were going to be carried out by the three schools in cooperation. It became such that the planning of the schools resulted in them in a triangle position, having the dormitories at the center. The reader's position as the elder brother was canceled in this issue, and the game became a simple popularity vote for coupling. Due to this new system, Nagisa, Hikari, and Kizuna ceased to be sisters; surnames were later added to clarify this. After the first story arc of the short stories concluded, it was shown that the number of votes had increased sharply due to the new voting mechanisms. The Etoile voting was announced in the July 2004 issue to take place every month as opposed to every two months which had been the case beforehand. The deadline for voting was shifted to the middle of every month, and online voting was introduced. In September 2004, the voting for the next Etoile was shifted to be online-only; the voting for the Dormitory Panic arc became mail voting only.

The reader participation game ended after ten rounds of voting in the February 2005 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine where it was announced that the series would be continued in other forms, such as the light novels and manga that followed. The original short stories and the poll results of the reader participation game were used as a basis for subsequent releases of Strawberry Panic!.