Oniisama 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. 

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. 

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. read more 

It's like Ikuhara decided to film the original manga and he still would have made RGU.  

All I can think about while watching Onii-sama is "utena". Gives me alot of Utena vibes, especially the opening, I feel like the opening is about to play the utena opening. 

Oniisama e... and Utena share the same themes and the same setting: Upper class high school, the social elite circle, an outsider MC, love drama and its consequences, broken characters. Out of the two Oniisama e... is the more realistic version, while Utena goes fully metaphoric. 

Utena has many influences, of which with Oniisama e... it shares the wealthy elite school setting, the tragic melodrama of many cast members, psychology, and symbolism. It has a similar feeling of mystery and voyage to the darkness inside the human heart. 

Oniisama E is like if Utena kept going the way the first three episodes seem- a melodramatic, somewhat crazy (though much more straightforward) school life at an elite academy. Both have gay highschoolers ruining eachother's lives and pretty dark themes. Oniisama E is also stunningly gorgeous, which is a huge bonus. 

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. read more 

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 .. read more 

Premise and overarching story are very similar: Elite all girls school, yuri relations and overtones, elite group within the elite (sorority/council), first world rich girl problems are key plot elements. In both stories a rather normal girl is selected into the elite group for mysterious reasons, and the overarching plot deals with the "why". The character archetypes found have similarities as well. Both are ensemble cast with one elevated main couple, who have a yuri relation. The main difference is that Oniisama picks much darker themes (suicide, drugs, terminal disease) and creates over the top melodrama with them. Maria-sama picks trivial themes more common in school comedy (first kiss, sleep over, group trip) and creates calm narrative with only sprinkles of melodrama of it - to the point it becomes almost iyashikei. read more 

Vintage shojo about girls in a private school with yuri sprinkled on. 

These series are very dramatic. 

Prepare for lots of melodrama and strong princely women! After watching Rose of Versailles I was trying to find another good classic shoujo series, I was recommended to watch Oniisama e... and it was the perfect follow up show. Both question gender roles in a way beyond their time and have inspired many other shows in a good way. After watching both of these shows you can see their influence all over the place in modern anime. (Especially in yuri and shoujo type shows) 

Similarities: - Same creator and same director - Composed of well-written and pulchritudinous female characters - Both stories are about challenging and overthrowing status quo - Beautiful backgrounds and meticulous character designs Difference: - In Oniisama e, it focuses on the damaging experiences and negative traits of the characters while in Rose of Versailles, it celebrates the good nature of the characters while acknowledging their bad traits at the same time.  

A girl who sends letters to an older guy telling him about here life events. Differences : * Onii-sama e deals with darker topics * The guy's role in the series is different  

Naïve protagonist is out of her depth when she starts high school at an upper-class girls’ school. She narrates the show through letters which she writes to an older man who she addresses as a nickname because she doesn’t really know him. Oniisama e.. is darker and set closer to the present day, while Ashinaga Ojisan is a bit more light-hearted and set in a more historical period. 

If you haven't seen that masterpiece yet - it's time to do this! Oniisama e is darker and gloomy version of Ace wo Nerae. You can find very similar charachters here, especially the main heroine, they both is ordinary girl and sometimes the battle Oka vs Ryuuzaki remindes Nanako vs Fukiko. And there is also the strong girls friendship. Moreover, both have especial retro atmosphere, good music and style. 

A kind, pure-hearted high school girl is surprisingly chosen as a member for an elite society within the school during her first year. She then faces discrimination from other students who are jealous of her position and consider her to be unworthy, despite it being against her will anyway. The series are both narrated by the main character in the form of monologues in letters being written or discussions with her pet cat. 

Both anime were created by the same team: written an directed by Satoshi Dezaki with art and character designs by Akio Sugino. Their style is immediately recognizable and created many classics such as Ashita no Joe, Ace wo Nerae!, Golgo 13, Versailles no Bara and many more. Both Onii-sama and Kasei apply this to mature anime for women, both of them with dark tones and over the top melodrama. Kasei is basically the movie-in-a-movie the cast of Oniisama watches in episode 25. It's even darker, and has more adult scenes (sex and violence) - it takes over where Oniisama had to end due to PG-13. The stories both involve upper class women, school aged in Onisama and early 20s in Kasei. read more