Strawberry Panic! - Reception

Reception

During the reader participation game running in Dengeki G's Magazine, voting polls were first posted in the January 2004 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, which were to determine who would be the subjects in the couplings between the characters of each respective school. The results were printed in the March 2004 issue, after about 1,979 votes had been cast. The three couples with the highest number of votes were Nagisa/Tamao at 481 votes, Hikari/Amane at 343 votes, and Kizuna/Chikaru at 260 votes. The results from the second round of voting were published in the May 2004 issue of the magazine which included the figures for the sixty-four different combinations between the twelve girls. The three couples with the highest number of votes this time were Nagisa/Tamao again at 150 votes, Nagisa/Amane at 114 votes, and Hikari/Amane for a second time at 102 votes. In the third round of voting in the July 2004 issue, the number of votes increased dramatically; the number one voted couple for the third time in a row was Nagisa/Tamao at 1,215 votes.

The Strawberry Panic! short stories were initially panned by Erica Friedman as being "distinctly derivative of Maria-sama ga Miteru". Friedman is the president of Yuricon, an anime convention geared towards fans of yuri anime and manga, and ALC Publishing, a publishing house dedicated to yuri. Friedman described the stories as, "candy apples without the apples - all sugary, and gooey and sweet, with not much of anything else to support it". After initially having this stance for the entire series, including an early opinion on the anime version, Friedman later changed her opinion slightly, writing that " turned out pretty good". She went on to say, "There's no denying that Strawberry Panic! wasn't brilliant, but considering that it was meant to be trashy, it pulled out a few moments of dignity and elegance out of the trash heap." Jason Thompson regarded the Strawberry Panic! manga as "a nearly plotless cascade everything seems rushed, and it is difficult to keep track of the characters and plot."

The five subtitled DVDs released by Media Blasters were reviewed by Anime News Network (ANN). The first DVD was declared rental-worthy by ANN, citing the characters as being "a lot of fun" and the series as being a "very laid-back show" that would work well as a relaxing watch over a weekend. The content, however, was described as getting the series off to a "slow start", with limitations of the first six episodes being the lack in fan service, humor, and that it "struggles to find any other reason to be compelling". The second DVD, containing episodes seven through eleven, was reviewed as failing to "materialize much real plot" and content of the episodes was described as existing "only to appeal to otaku who can get excited about moe content". The third DVD, compiling episodes twelve through sixteen, shows "signs of an actual plot" and contains a "sudden explosion of fan service", which are noted as "noteworthy developments" in the review. In the fourth DVD, containing episodes seventeen through twenty-one, "the series' romantic side does finally pay off with a romantic arc that actually engages". In the fifth and final DVD containing the last five episodes, the Hikari and Amane relationship is described as lacking chemistry, although the Nagisa and Shizuma pairing is regarded as satisfying.

Strawberry Panic! was one of the premier titles in the Light Novel and Strawberry (for yuri manga) production lines when it was licensed for English language distribution by Seven Seas Entertainment. In an interview with Seven Seas Entertainment founder Jason DeAngelis, he was posed the question, "How do you attract a fan base for a novel before its release in English?" His response was, "We try to choose titles that are already well-known, like Pita-Ten, Shinigami no Ballad or Strawberry Panic!....In terms of attracting a fan base, though, in the end it's all about word-of-mouth. If the material is great, it will stand out on its own and find its audience. The small format that we're publishing these books in is frankly stunning, and it will definitely attract fans who may not have heard of the property otherwise."

Strawberry Panic! Girls' School in Fullbloom received a total review score of 26/40 (out of the four individual review scores of 6, 7, 7, and 6) from the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. The game is listed by MediaWorks as one of their most-popular game titles.