Ranked #546

Onii-sama e...

In a lot of ways, Oniisama e feels like a spiritual predecessor to Utena. You have a classy private school setting, a large cast of primary, secondary, and tertiary characters, dark secrets, complex motivations, twisted relationships, and a unique atmosphere created by combining lush shoujo imagery and visual symbolism with music. Oh yeah, and lesbians.

reportRecommended by andrael - Add to favorites

Chiho Saito was probably inspired from Ryoko Ikeda's works, as these authors' styles are very alike.
Utena is especially similar to Onii-sama, as both series involve a school setting, a transferred student (Utena/Nanako) and her lively best friend (Wakaba/Tomoko), an elitist group of students (Student Council/Sorority), the beautiful and tormented school idol who wears man clothes (Juri/Rei), the rich, spoiled, blonde girl (Nanami/Aya), some shoujo-ai subtext, drama, romance, and incest.
Overall, the story, characters relationships, and feeling are the same.

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The creators of Utena drew ideas from the original manga written by Riyoko Ikeda as well as the anime based on the manga. The setting in an upper class school and the new student going against the established traditions of her senior classmates, classmates which externally seem to have their lives completely togehter. Nanako has to overcome many external obstacles for her as well as her friends but most of the story revolves around the bitter internal struggles for all the characters which leads to a lot of self reflection to finally find out what she really wants as well her attempts to shatters the distorted world views of her seemingly more 'together' classmates. All extremely similar to the structure of 'Revolutionary Girl Utena' as Utena changes many of the characters outlooks on life.

'Revolutionary Girl Utena' seems to have a stronger tone than the more subtle style of 'Brother, Dear Brother' One example of this can be seen in the lesbian overtones of both shows, while Utena uses more blunt hints that can come across as comical, the tone of 'Brother, Dear Brother' is seemingly more complex and real. Also unlike Utena, Nanako (the main character) comes across initially as weak and naive, but she sticks to her principles although they are tested many times. The strength of Utena's character (I believe) comes more from the anime Rose of Versailles which is another anime I recommend if you liked Utena.

reportRecommended by Zensational - Add to favorites

While Oniisama e undoubtedly tops Maria-sama ga Miteru in both storytelling and art, both are great series and they have a lot in common. Both are set in exclusive, extremely idealized all-girls schools in Tokyo. Both feature childish, naive protagonists who, completely unexpectedly, become involved with elite groups in their schools. Both groups are populated by ridiculously beautiful, wealthy, talented, etc. girls who often carry heavy burdens. Both protagonists are ambivalent about whether they belong in the group and both experience some amount of ostracization by the rest of the school because they clearly don't (although Yumi is definitely better off than Nanako here). And, of course, both are centered around pure love between girls.

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both stories are Yuri and they both are about a girl who is new in girls high school and in a different society .. but personally I prefer Oniisama because the story holds a deeper meaning .. the heroine's indulgence within the lives of the girls around her..
Nanako the heroine will be ingulfed inside the lives of the 3 adored girls in school : Fukiko (Miya-sama) the rich and powerful girl who's the head of a society called sorority and every girl is seeking her attention in school wanting to get in that sorority, Kaoru the head of the basketball team who has left school for a year because of a mystery disease, and finally the dreamy and troubled Rei (Saint Juste-sama) who's always wears a black suit (like men) and using drugs as her salvation from her sorrowful life .. Rei and Fukiko have a deep secret and only Rei's best friend kaoru knows about..

why does Rei love Fukiko so much ? and why does Fukiko resent Rei so much? and what is the mystery that kept Kaoru away from school for a whole year ? and why did Fukiko choose the plain looking, not so rich Nanako to become a member in the sorority even though she knew that Nanako will be bullied for it ?

these are some of the questions U will ask while watching this masterpiece .. and the answers are very shocking .. you won't be able to stop watching this anime ..

reportRecommended by J-sama - Add to favorites