Yaya only appears briefly at the beginning but maximum points to Tsubomi for her evilness to Chiyo. Much mirth on my part. Hmmm, she and Yaya don’t look bad together at all.
The Paranoia of Tamao Suzumi. Just because you think that everyone else is out to steal your roommate from you doesn’t mean that they actually aren’t. Extremely funny how her over-reaction is completely justified and her gallant if feeble attempts to guard against Shizuma (with Rokujou in attendance and marking Nagisa with her red ribbon protective charm) actually become plot (I use this word loosely in the context of this series) points and development triggers for this episode. I propose that every time Tamao sees Shizuma leering at Nagisa that the Jaws theme comes on.
The Jealousy of Shizuma Hanazono. She obviously realizes that Tamao is a competitor as seen from her insistence to remove the ribbon. After Amane gets close to Mysterious Nagisa (Erica would say that the only mystery is why no one has murdered Nagisa yet LOL), Shimizu more or less tells her to get her own biatch from Spica and see ya at the Etoile contest. The whole thing about Shimizu’s dark past and trauma was so clichéd that I suspect it was meant to be funny. I certainly laughed when Shizumu used the ole “Let’s study together” trick for the Seduction of Nagisa Aoi.
The Gilded Cage of Astrea. So it seems that Miyuki Rokujou’s off to an arranged marriage after graduation, condemned to a hellish life of unlimted money and leisure time, forced to endure an eternity of flower arrangement, tea making, shopping at luxury shops, playing golf or whatever the ladies who lunch do after lunch and, of course, les liaisons lesbienne while her husband indulges in his mistress or toyboy or goat. Obscenely rich people have hard lives too apparently. LOL
Underwater Kiss. Firstly, HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!! Secondly, took them long enough! Kannazuki really does have the upper hand over this series in terms of In Your Face LFB-orientated Lesbian Desire and Angst.
Aha! Another convert to Yayadeservesbetter-ism. That Yaya/Tsubomi smutfic I mentioned like 3 weeks ago? A certainty, now. Hell, maybe it already happened; they’re standing in the same panel up there, and they ain’t fighting. Plus, I’m totally with you on the awsomeness of Chiyo tormenting. Tsubomi and Yaya aren’t so dissimilar, after all.
Am I the only one that was surprised by the sudden “plot” progression/sudden yuri almost-rape? I was; I thought it’d be like a guy harem anime, and we’d have to wait for the DVD omake to even get a peck on the cheek; then suddenly everyone’s gone all SEX on me. It caught me off guard. And despite how creepy she was in the last episode, I find myself liking Tamao more now. Even if she is a kinky pervert, at least she has Nagisa’s best interests at heart. (Or somewhere in her body, at any rate. ^^) Anyway . . . I actually thought this was a “good” episode. I fear it may have given me higher hopes for this series than it truly deserves (ie. any hope at all.)
Plus? Yaya’s trucker hat 4tw.
> (Erica would say that the only mystery is why no one has murdered Nagisa yet LOL)
Not true. I said that the mystery was why no one had satabbed Nagisa through the heart. That is not murder - in this case it’d be a mercy killing. :-)
AHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHA!
I can’t stop laughing… review… coming… soon… if I can stop laughing long enough to write it…
HAHAHAHA!
Ack, did I say review? I meant speculation. My bad, my bad.
~~~~ ~~~~
Suzumi Tamao wins in Ep12. She may have lost the first kiss to Shizuma, but there are far greater prizes to be won in the long run. In my previous speculation over Ep11, I mentioned how Tamao prefers to make her prey come to her, instead of chasing after the prey herself. This was beautifully demostrated in Ep12 by the contrast of her methods, and Shizuma’s.
Again, I repeat, Tamao does things for a reason. What seems odd to us is in fact, a calculated gamble on her part. Just like how she pushed Nagisa into the arms of Shizuma just before Summer School, Tamao once again pushes Nagisa into Shizuma’s arms for the Summer Break, but for very wicked reasons. After all… does it not seem suspicious how quickly Tamao turnabout in her decision? ;)
Notice how Tamao dramatises her separation from Nagisa? This instilled GUILT into our lovable ditz, Nagisa. This was followed up by instilling DOUBT into Nagisa, by warning her of the possible ill-intentions of Shizuma. Rokujou Miyuki? A diversion. Brillant! By fingering Miyuki as well, Tamao conceals her jealousy of Shizuma and confuses Nagisa enough to prevent Nagisa from drawing the correct conclusion, so that instead of,
“Tamao is jealous of Shizuma!”
it becomes,
“Tamao is concerned for me!”
MASTERFUL! As expected from our deliciously devious Tamao.
Tamao must have read a lot of psychology books from her Literature Club, because now that Nagisa has doubt, Nagisa is open to misinterpretations from Shizuma’s actions. Tamao is WELL-AWARE of Shizuma’s desires for Nagisa since the very beginning, and she knew that she was in an inferior position due to Shizuma’s status, so she started to plot, and PLOT she did!
The ribbon charm? A TRAP! Tamao, bless her dark mind, knew that Shizuma would get all huffed up from jealousy when she finds out about the ribbon charm, whereas Nagisa would see it as nothing more than a protective blessing from her ‘BEST FRIEND’. As Tamao expected, Shizuma pushed too far and ended up pushing Nagisa further away from her… into the waiting arms of Tamao. Oh Tamao… how exquisitely you have executed your cunning trap. Nagisa’s confusion, Nagisa’s guilt, Nagisa seeking the comfort of her BEST FRIEND, etc… it was all there. ALL there.
Oh yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes! Spin your web of manipulation, Tamao. Spin it.
Notice how Tamao strokes the wrist of Nagisa where the ribbon charm used to be. I bet she was laughing evilly inside celebrating her victory. Now they just need to have Tamao ‘comfort’ Nagisa in bed and the rest of the series can be a crapfest for all I care. :P
Tamao to Shizuma: “Beat ya to it, BITCH.”
Beautiful, just beautiful. This is why I love rooting for the unhinged ones. They breathe so much life into an anime series.
Nagisa, bless her heart, is really clueless about Tamao’s plotting. When Shizuma so much as gazes at her, Nagisa goes all flushy-blushy; but when Tamao physically molests her by rubbing her hands/face/body/whatever against Nagisa’s sensitive parts, Nagisa does not so much as blink. Heck, I am willing to wager that Tamao can lick cream off Nagisa’s body and Nagisa will still giggle and view it as a ‘friends thing’ only. Yes, we need to have this scene! :P Tamao has cultivated Nagisa to be… physically comfortable with her. Tamao has broken through Nagisa’s intimacy barrier, without Nagisa’s knowledge of course.
Nagisa: “Tamao-chan. Why are you biting me there? Heehee.”
Not possible? POSSIBLE! VERY possible.
Tamao FTW!
~~~~ ~~~~
Disclaimer] The above is purely speculation. The author will bear no responsibilities for the broken hearts of Tamao&Nagisa shippers.
~~~~ ~~~~
Other points of interest,
..) Chiyo’s appearance made me want to punch her. I am not sure why…
..) Three years of WHAT? Reveal, Miyuki. Reveal!
..) Nagisa is a raging pheromone machine. Even the normally stoic Amane was helpless before her.
..) Bitchy Shizuma is fun to watch.
..) Dayum, that is one deep pond they fell in…
~~~~ ~~~~
Cheers!
Erica, LOL. I’m just grateful that Nagisa doesn’t refer to herself in the third person like the way she does in the manga.
Excellent and enjoyable dissection of the Tamao plan, Skane! Given that Tamao can’t win in a headon confrontation with Shizuma, her strategy is a perfectly rational one and to her credit and luck, she’s managed to execute it well. The problem with the ‘best friends’ strategy is if it ossifies and then becomes a barrier to the ‘more than friends’ objective. And sad to say, given the OP, it looks like Nagisa x Shimuza is inevitable. So far, Tamao has displayed some psycho behaviour but it’s cute-psycho whereas Yaya shows signs of angsty Chikane psycho (without the denial though).
Hmm… thing is, Nagisa is in a state of confusion now, and that means she is vulnerable at the moment. Ever since the first episode, Tamao has been acting as Nagisa’s protector, and now is the moment she can exploit it.
“Shizuma bad, Tamao good.”
It will be delicate of course, and I realise I am giving the producers a LOT of credit. In all likelihood, everything is just a coincidence, and too much overthinking on my part, but the fun in speculation has always been the overthinking part. :P Well, that and getting the end result right. I would be in seventh Heaven if Tamao really does get to score before Shizuma. Not because of the sex( it may seem hard to believe, but I ain’t watching SPanic for the girl-on-girl loving. Like I said above, this is the first time I am watching a yuri series), but because it would mean a victory for Tamao.
Yes, yes… it is bad to see sex as a prize and such, but that’s for reality, and I don’t really give two hoots about Nagisa’s feelings anyway. It’s all about Tamao and Tamao’s happiness for me. :P
~~~~ ~~~~
Some .gifs I made of Tamao-san. Pardon the crude humour.
“Your Cherry’s MINE!”
“She’s mine! She’s mine! She’s mine! ~ad-infinitum~”
Cheers to SPanic for making me laugh like a lunatic on a weekly basis.
“I can’t believe they’re animating this!”
After reading some of your older entries on this I decided to catch up, suffice to say your words are vemon I can see how Stripey fell to the dark side. I hope I won’t get discharged for this.
Some one must tell Miyuki of USMC hell a Japanese House, Chinese Salary, a British Cook, and an American Spouse. Perhaps Shizuma will come to the rescue… :P
I hope Skane’s assesment of Tamao-chan’s schemeing is dead on. Yaya deserves better and Tamao FTW! I am not a fan of anst but I do like schemes and plans within plans I hope Yaya was taking notes.
Trivia:
Nagisa’s VA is the same VA for Rena Ryuuguu from Higurashi.
Now this YouTube Video makes more sense. If only I can remember which episode of SPanic the video was taken from…
Finally found it. :P Ep05, [06:00+].
In reply to Skane,
Your words are definitely nothing but venom. *rolls eyes* The tamao conspiracy theory? Nothing short of stupidity and idiocracy. I suggest if you dislike strawberry panic this much or simply can’t stand yuri to save yourself time and trouble and stop watching/blogging the show. Your blog on strawberry panic is nothing short of pathetic anyways. Thank you.
*snarf*
Talk about misunderstandings. ;) At which point did I say I dislike Strawberry Panic? Chill man, if I didn’t enjoy watching SPanic, I wouldn’t be writing so much about it in the first place. ;) Learn to read between the lines. :)
Cheers.
LOL, Skane just conducted a hostile take over of Zyl’s blog. How did you do it? ;)
I thought Nagisa sounded vaguely familiar hope the VA is not being typecasted for skinny loli-air heads…
Oh, and the venom comment was aimmed squarely at the Dark Lord in his Dark Tower in the land of Mordor where Shadows lie.
Just wanted to highlight that, woot, Matthew has become a convert to the antics of Strawberry Panic. :)
I suggest if you dislike strawberry panic this much or simply can’t stand yuri to save yourself time and trouble and stop watching/blogging the show.
Err…out of curiosity, how does actively promoting TamaoXNagisa count as hating Yuri?
Oh, and Skane, AWESOME theory.
Found this fanart from the AnimeSuki Forums.
“What really happened…”