Strawberry Panic

Overall this is a remarkably good romance anime. Although initially I was a bit skeptical at the whole show being rather "overexpressive" in the girls' relationships, after thinking for a bit I thought that this may actually be rather appropriate. This is because that I have heard (not truly read or watched) that romance novels women usually read, as well as various shonenai shows that girls would be a fan of, are typically quite lucid in themselves; however, the fans typically back these perversed stories up by saying the story is remarkably better than anything perverse that, say, a guy would go after. I think Strawberry Panic is definately around that sort of area. It's very likely still aimed at men (and maybe a small population of homosexual women), but the format of it is smooth and "romantic", not like other romance comedies or whatnot that bluntly puts a girl in an uncomfortable position just to satisfy the watcher's needs. So, in spite of this quirk I had against the show at first, I could somewhat see why it would be like that.
In other regards of the anime, many of the characters and their relationship stories are quite deep and flushed out. I think that since there are absolutely no guys in this anime, relationships are more free-flowing since there is no gender barrier that these characters must go through, so anyone can have a relationship, so to speak, with anyone else in the school. Many of the characters portrayed in the show are typical stereotypes of different girls, ranging from the cool "I'm almost a guy" type character to the cute first-year lolis. Overall, I liked all the characters. I also like how the show presented some characters as mischievous and distasteful in the beginning, but as they begin to close the series, showed that they're nice people too. Every character, even though they represent typical stereotypes, has their own personality and depth to them, and that's what I like about character variation anime like Strawberry Panic.
I also liked the music from this show. Not just the opening and endings (the ending music videos were kind of weird though), but the background music for most of the show is rather light hearted and simple, something resembling that of the Baroque era in music... simple, classical, uncomplicated. Regardless, its nice enough to listen to it, different from various OSTs that usually have fast paced songs followed by ominous "the devil is coming" music (well, ones that I have anyway). I'll have to look into the OSTs.
How do I think of the characters? Well, I think that in terms of character design, Aoi Nagisa's hairstyle is just horrible. I really didn't like how she looked when she first came to the school in that old-school uniform outfit... I thought the other characters such as Tamao-chan and that little girl (I forgot her name) that helps them out... I like that little girl the best and all her other 1st year friends are awesome too :3 (or are they second year? I forgot by now).
I think that, for many of the characters, the friend vs. lover conflict is pretty powerful (in many cases, there is the friend who is actually in love with her friend but her friend loves someone else). They make the thematic conflict rather dramatic, especially at the end of the episode which just bursts out with such romantic drama; appropriate, though in my personal opinion, something I would never ever want to do nor have it be done to me...
In all conclusion, Strawberry Panic is just romance, romance and romance. A bit of comedy, a lot of drama, but overall the odd romances of girls stuck in an all girls school. I'm thinking this wouldn't really happen in real life since there ARE guys that exist in the world but perhaps I am wrong and the girls, mostly isolated from the rest of the world and whatever male population it may have, can only turn their romantic expessions to themselves. I liked the show though, for its strong emphasis on romance, character, and plot, rather than other-like series which focuses more on blatant fanservice.
Speaking of such a series, I believe I need to look into Mariamite or that other christian-girl-school anime that seemed to develop popularity over the last two years or so. I think the series is quite similar to this one.