 If you liked
Shoujo Kakumei Utena
|
 ...then you might like
Oniisama e...
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Both series center around a naive girl adapting to her strange surroundings in a new school -- they involve many characters with deep emotional and psychological scars. In addition, both have elements of yuri.
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.
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Recommended by RenaPsychoKiller
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
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Recommended by Zensational
It's like Ikuhara decided to film the original manga and he still would have made RGU.
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Recommended by anri_alien
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.
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Recommended by crystalcage