Oniisama e...

This early 90's anime addresses several controversial issues (especially considering the original manga was published in the 1970's) including drug abuse, homosexuality, bullying, incest and suicide. The story is set in a prestigious girls' highschool where the student body is obsessed with the school's Sorority and its leading members, dubbed "The Magnificent Three". The main character, Nanako, is a new student who became caught up in the affairs of the three most popular girls on campus and, with the help of her best friends, unlocks the secrets of their past as well as that of her own family. The title refers to the letters that ... she writes to her "brother" throughout the series, sharing with him the trials and tribulations of her highschool life.

While this series can be dark and depressing at times, it is not without its comedic moments. I felt the ending was uplifting and very satisfying, and I warmly recommend this series.

Some people see narration as an outdated storytelling tool which shows that the creators were either too lazy or too inexperienced to provide the audience with different clues to the characters' thoughts and feelings. This show, however, is a great example of narration used creatively and to great success. It is prominently provided by Nanako, the main character, in the form of letters written to her titular elder brother, which gives it a unique structure and allows for a set of disjointed questions and thoughts about nearly all significant events. It all feels natural in a young girl's letter.

As you might expect with such ... a storytelling tool, this particular anime is mostly centered on Nanako and her emotions. Thankfully, she is a very appealing character from the start and does evolve throughout the series, which is acknowledged and focused on. Personally, I love seeing characters not only react to events going on around them but also learn from their experience and change through it, and this is one of the show's greatest strengths. Even people you would think are completely stereotypical in the end come out as real people. Misguided, troubled, horrible but still people with believable motivations. All of them are young, most of them are school students, though not all of them are your typical teenage girls exploring life, as you would expect, some are surprisingly and convincingly mature. This allows for a great many of conversations and different relationships, many of which are used to the show's advantage.

There is not much, if any, story here, which I honestly don't mind as long as character development provided feels genuine, which is exactly the case. To be fair, though, things do seem to move forward, which mostly means learning more about character motivations, some of them being built up from the begging till the very end. There are not that many meaningful, by which I mean at the very least named, people here but all of them are given their own arcs and backstories, and at some point I found myself feeling some kind of emotion for each one of them. At no point did I feel ignorant about any of them, even those who are meant to be villains, and pretty generic at that, are able to invoke hatred or at least irritation, they are never boring.

This is mainly thanks to smart writing, which does a great job touching matters which most people can relate to and doing so in quite an intelligent manner, rarely taking the easy way out of the situations presented. Some topics are as typical and timeless as you can get: divorces and other family issues, bullying, suicide, others were surprising to see, like say, rebellion and its effect on both parties. All the dialogues are interesting to listen to, partly because of the superb voice acting, partly because of it using metaphors and allegories in a way that I noticed myself thinking "Yes, that was a good line!" quite a lot of times.

Being a visual media, anime also relays on its art to convey emotions and story elements. "Onii-sama e..." uses a peculiar style I am yet to see in another title. Admittedly, this may be due to me mostly having seen newer ones but still this is pretty far from what people generally t consider anime to be like. It also uses a lot of still-shots but manages to do that just enough for it to pass as an artistic decision rather than an annoyance, mostly used to put additional weight into certain moments. Sometimes the art did feel strange, for example, in the beginning I was unable to tell whether one of the characters was supposed to be male or female; then again, it might be intentional, since she is later often compared to a man.

Music is actually very important for any kind of visual media, since it can dramatically change emotions felt by the audience. I felt it to be more than effective in this show, sometimes being enough to express what the characters feel. Not once did it feel out of place or badly composed, in fact, all of it was recorded using classical musical instruments, none of it electronic, which seems appropriate for the show mostly dealing with timeless experiences of youth.

Overall, I enjoyed every second of it. It was dramatic and intense but also felt quiet when it needed to be. The characters, particularly Nanako, were interesting, fun to watch and felt real. Can't think of anything I thought was bad here.

Oniisama e (Brother, Dear Brother) is about a girl named Nanako who enters high school and be selected as a member of the schools best community The Sorority, which makes other students hate, and try to get her out of there any way they can. Nanako writes letters to her older brother telling him about what is happening with her life. Not only that, but the story revolves around how Nanako gets to know and meet a lot of other people and learns about them and their lives.
This anime is an old anime; there is no CG what so ever, and nothing to be impressed ... by. However; the animation is detailed and colored beautifully. It had a realistic feeling to it, and the backgrounds were done beautifully that you won’t even notice how old it is.

The OP and the ED are beautiful, simple yet heartwarming songs. The inserted music was also nice, the right musical piece in the right situation. We even get to hear some of the characters playing on musical instruments, like a piano and a violin. Great voice actors that portrayed their characters in spectacular ways, the background sounds were captivating as well, from the birds’ kippering to the train tracks to the cars’ horns.
Perhaps, the characters are the strongest point of this anime. There is a big cast of characters, but they were all introduced in a way that makes them all unforgettable. Each and every character has some problems going on in her life, be it a life threatening disease, a parents divorce, or being rejected by one’s own family.
This nime has drama, romance, slice of life, and school life. It is an angst anime, there is crying, and there is laughing. There is love and hate. There is family, how one deal with their family situations, be it a divorced parents, a loving parents. There are relationships in this anime, there are close friends, there are lovers, and there are haters.

Oniisama e is a great anime that is suitable for everyone. Not only does it provide a great entertainment, but it also teaches about life, how it is full of hardships and that we have to try to go on, no matter how hard it seems.

Onii-sama e.. is probably the most serious slice of life anime I've seen to date. It is also another major work from the same creator as the well known classic, Rose of Versailles. So people who liked that show should definitely give this one a shot.

This is a spoiler free review.

*Story and Characters*

The story is very simple, it's about a girl going to an all girls' school who ends up joining a sorority, a group for only the elite girls in the school (some girly crap, I don't know)... And that's pretty much all there is to it. How interesting could that be?

Despite the ... simple slice of life set up, there's a lot of conflict in this series and it deals with a lot of heavy subjects, everything from drug abuse to suicide, to misandry. The story is told through the narration of the main character through her letters to her pen pal "Oniisama" who she so admires.

The story is structured in a way that make some interesting chains of events that transpire when one dispute leads to another or one decision a character makes would lead to a dispute with another and so on. It does rely partially on circumstance and convenience, but it's nothing to throw a fit about (I just tend to over think things). It's generally paced in a slow manner, but does fill the episode count fairly well and it ends in a satisfying way. It might be a little hard to get in to though, because of how dead serious it is.

A few significant aspects in the story seem to parallel the French Revolution in a way. You have the sorority that seem to parallel the royalty and a few characters that are against its very existence paralleling the rebels. One character is even named after a French rebel and other characters acknowledge it directly. If you pay attention you'll notice that the conflict between the characters almost always revolves around the sorority, whether directly or indirectly. This is no surprise since Rose of Versailles was an anime that centered on the French revolution. So I'm pretty that was the author's intention.

The main character is a bit of a Mary Sue. She does nothing wrong, always has the best of intentions and yet somehow she's always able to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and many girls in her school end up either hating her or taking advantage of her for seemingly petty reasons.

And before you ask, yes, this show is overly dramatic at first glance and it feels very mean spirited from time to time. Normally I can't stand shows like this but this is an exception to the rule because the show itself is trying to convey that these people are out of their minds (some of them anyway). It doesn't frame these overly dramatic people as normal and that basically what makes the drama unavoidable and separates this show from other melodramas. And when you discover what their life is like and what their backgrounds are, you start to understand why they're all crazy and their behavior starts to add up. You can easily mistake this all girls school for a mental ward.

Another great thing about them is that even the mentally challenged ones develop a great deal over time and keep learning lessons to the point where they become more self aware.
Even many of the girls' parents get fleshed out to the point you get to know exactly what kind of family some characters are coming from. Unlike in many anime, the parents here actually exist (heaven forbid) and do play a significant role in their children's upbringing and behavior at school. In other words, the show goes out of its way to excuse its own melodramatic nature.
Okay, It's not terribly realistic, since there are one too many suicide attempts and the teachers are useless, but hey, it has no magic nonsense either.


*Art and Sound*

Visually, It's fairly minimalistic. Since the manga came out in the 70s it has the same artstyle from that time period that was updated quite well to the 90s, particularly the skinny looking character designs with big eyelashes. But the production values are quite low and the animation itself is pretty stiff and contains somewhere between 3-7 static images in nearly every episode. Granted, some of those are well placed, but it does get a bit distracting at points. On the plus side, the backgrounds look very nice and there is a greater attention to detail in that area even if there isn't as much variety and the artwork in general is great. It's just filled stunning imagery and great cinematography.

The entirety of the ost is rather quiet and might be boring for some people, but it never felt like it was out of place. Even some of the tracks are the exact same ones that were used in Rose of Versailles which is pretty cool. The sound effects are kinda lacking though and sometimes there isn't a sound effect at all where there should be one. The voice acting is a little over the top, but it blends very well with the dramatic nature of the series.

*Enjoyment/Overall* 8/10

It might feel a little tedious at times, but compared to other slice of life and melodramas, it's a great hidden gem for its characterization and themes.

reminds me of christmas 2021 cuz thats when i watched it. the best way i can describe it is just a dark melodramatic lesbian soap opera. if this is rlly how lesbians act then i guess the domestic abuse statistics really are true, these bitches r INSANE !!! almost all of them belong in a mental asylum, but thats what makes it so based. i think their craziness has more to do w being in an all girls school than anything tho. you cant go an episode without someone flinging a knife at someone else or contsant screaming and crying. id recommend watching an episode ... every time u need stupid drama but i wouldnt recommend binging it all at once because then the drama gets overwhelming and ur like wtf is this . i binged it so i know

the characters are good and the soundtrack is VERY good, the art is really good apart from the faces being ugly which is forgivable cause its old. the storylines and writing started off strong but mostly ended up not going where youd hope they would, they ended up being somewhat disappointing for the most part at least to me. specificaly the storyline of the crazy black haired hoe w the red lips (mariko or something), i thought it would go super dramatic but it didnt in the end. i guess thats more realistic, not everything ends with a bang. but the show was otherwise Unrealisticaly Dramatic with 10 billion twists and turns and uhoh moments so yea. that ended up being my main problem with it, instead of slow buildup there had to be a heart-thudding surprise moment every episode and they payoff usually didnt end up being worth it. but, i still feel like the characters were handled well psychologically

"Oniisama E" is classic shoujo and often described as a yuri, although there is not really that much lesbian content and mostly it is a story of friendship and conflict between teenaged girls. It is the story of Nanako, a classic shoujo heroine who has the best of intentions but keeps getting in situations where people are plotting her social downfall or even just slapping her dramatically. She enrolls in a prestigious all-girls school where she is curiously chosen to join an elite sorority and is drawn into a complicated and mysterious relationship between the sorority's beautiful president and other girls in the school's social ... hierarchy. The framing device is that Nanako is writing letters to her "dear brother", a cram school teacher she is fond of, describing her new and exciting school life.

I found the series to be delightful because of the strong story, both over the span of the 39 episodes, and each episode is a self-contained and enjoyable presentation. It is undeniable that there is a lot of melodrama here, but there is also more mature drama which overshadows the moments of silliness. We're also dealing with teenagers here, depicting them all as super-cool sarcastic types is actually not realistic either, teenagers are known to be a bit melodramatic after all.

The story deals with darker themes than you typically find in a high school anime, such as drug addiction, mental illness, suicide and divorce. The strong characters help here as the mature themes never come off as "after school special" kind of stuff.

I found the music to be excellent. There isn't a ton of it, but the opening and closing themes are elegant and fit nicely with the mood of the series. The background music is sparse and repetitive, but well-executed and I found the familiar "dramatic" music to add to the scenes. The instrumental reworkings of the opening and closing music that play at key moments are quite lovely.

Overall the animation is not anything special but at key moments it cuts to stylized, high-quality still drawings which, far from seeming like a cost-cutting measure, show detail and emotion quite well and are a distinctive part of the series.

This is one of my favorite animes because of the strong story and how mature and different it is from most every other anime I've seen. I wish they made more like this.

Before I get into my review let me just say that I intend to make a review which tells my thoughts and feelings about this anime and my experience overall. What I felt and why I felt it. Stuff like that. I think that might be more helpful than just telling you what you can know from the description.

First of all, I'd like to say that the show has plenty of artistic merits in the audio/visual presentation department. The writing is well done for the most part. The characters are interesting. The pacing is good. It is just an overall well crafted piece of ... work. And even though it is a show that made me sad in a lot of ways, it did make me think about a lot of things and write this review. That's something. That's what I love about 'Oniisama e'. I definitely recommend this to anyone who's in search of good classic slice of life drama.

Oh and this review is really intended for anyone who's reading reviews to check out what everyone's thoughts are about this series.I'm not gonna spoil anything that should not be spoiled but if you don't want to know anything about a series prior to watching it, the time to stop reading this review would be now. Okay ? Let's go.

Oniisama e is an anime that I came across as part of my search for good yuri anime. But what made me want to watch it was the art style I saw on the cover art and the fact that it is based on a manga published in the 70's and the fact that it aired in the early 90's. Prior to watching the show, I did know that it is not exactly a yuri anime. But as I kept watching it, I felt like it might be more yuri than I expected it to be. Because the characters do really develop and express romantic interest in other characters of the same sex. And the show initially seemed to heavily hint that some of the characters are lesbians. Having finished reading the manga 'Girlfriends', I know how interesting things could get in a lesbian romance between best friends. So automatically I was curious and interested in some of the overlapping romantic links between various characters in 'Oniisama e'.

But the sad thing is that even though the show at first seemed to imply that some of the characters are lesbians, it later revealed it to be not the case. Firstly and particularly,a character Orihara Kaoru, was shown to be very affectionate of her best friend Asaka Rei. And our main character Nanako,who is also the narrator of the show,had this to say about their friendship upon coming to know about it :

"This thing that connects them both so closely, is this what true friendship is ? If that is how real friendship works, it is so different from me and Tomoko. We are much more selfish about our friendship. We think of friendship as something that entitles, not as something that obligates. They are only an year older than us, yet they are so much more kind to each other, so much more patient . It's hard to understand why and how that could be. Unless it is something more special than mere friendship."


As we hear her narrate what she thinks of their strong friendship we are given a glimpse of the aforementioned character lying naked in bed with her said best friend. Not for sexual reasons but the scene is complimenting what Nanako was narrating.

In a later episode we see into the thoughts of Orihara through a surrealistic scene where she thinks to herself ;


" I can forget, because I love.
I can forget, because I've loved.
And I'll even forget that I've forgotten.
I loved you that much. "

Now, considering how the show already hinted at a homosexual relationship between her and her best friend, wouldn't this scene imply that the person she's in love with is Rei ? I can tell you, it would. And it was easy to see why she thinks she can't be with the Rei and why she's willing to forget about her feelings for her. You'll get it if you see it.

But towards the end of the show, it is revealed that the love she was referring to is actually some other guy. I won't spoil who that is but, it felt like a major wtf revelation. She's not in love with Rei. They're just close friends. She's in love with this other guy and she's not even a lesbian or a bisexual. That really bugged me. And it left a sad feeling in my heart when the show ended.

Another example of a character initially implied to be homosexual and later revealed to be heterosexual, is Ichinomiya Fukiko. But in her case, it didn't feel like an out of left field revelation. It actually made a lot of sense to me.
That was a well written revelation unlike the one I mentioned before. However her case is a bit different from Orihara's as she did struggle with the idea of it. She did have a tough time deciding between the man she loved and the woman who loved her.

And finally there is our main character herself who was clearly shown to be in love with Asaka Rei. Not just a hint like in Orihara's case. It was pretty solid. But in her case, homosexuality is portrayed as a silly phase that she went through during her immature teenage. Her love for Rei didn't progress much due to reasons I won't spoil. But in the end she did find a university student, who's a guy, that she has liking a towards. So she wasn't really a lesbian either.....

However , two of the lesbian characters did remain lesbian. Till the end of the show at least. They are Mariko and Rei. But neither of their love was fulfilled by the end.

I can't be the only one who interpreted this particular aspect of the show as a deliberate avoidance of portraying homosexuality in a positive light. ( To avoid controversy perhaps. I don't know. It was the 90's and it was in Japan. ) Almost as if the show is suggesting that true love can only exist between a man and a woman.

But then again, it can also be interpreted in another way too. Maybe the show just wanted the revelations to be a surprise and nothing else. Also, even if Orihara 's true love ,who is a man, was replaced by a woman in the story, it still wouldn't make the revelation of her true love any less ridiculous.

Everything about Orihara saddens me even though she's a likable character and she's happy by the end. It's just that ,throughout the show, women are portrayed as weak willed and needy housewives. Not the highschool girls. Women, like the mother characters. So when I see Orihara, a very strong and charismatic female character, being wed to some guy and finding happiness in being his wife and mothering his child, I can't help but think she too will be confined to the boundaries of a housewife. Not to mention she was only 18 when she got married. I think the show wants to me to be sad about it.

But that aside, the show has plenty of good messages which delighted me. And a lot of instances where the show avoided cliches and surprised me. Overall, Oniisama e is still a 10/10 experience. That's all of my thoughts on it.

I'm interested in the spacious area between the audience and the art itself, I do believe both contribute to one another more than we'd assume. Few intelligent artists do that consciously. This series is special to me for several reasons, along the high quality that stands by itself. I watched this anime at a period when I was starting to be aware of life's darker hues for the first time, as an adolescent facing and reasoning the hardships and questions of life, just like the main characters here. That's why it resonated with me and was tinted by my own perception to an extent.

There are ... a lot of things that makes it worth watching, but the first that come to my mind is how natural elements were involved in the shaping and driving of the plot! Notice what's happening when the sun is coming down, or the cherry blossoms are scattered, or the rain is falling or the birds and their shadows are reflected. It was done consciously and that's why it's so effective, I doubt we'll ever come across any anime that does so on this level, you'll never see any sunsets in anime like the ones here, the colour punctuation is to die for. (This is a hint, as sunsets will play a central role in the narrative the viewer will experience around the last ten episodes).

There's particularly a scene I will never forget its composition, it's when Mariko attacked Aya with the paper cutter, and the way the emotions escalated while Fukiko-sama was playing the piano at the same time. The whole thing is created by the "capricious fairy" of fate through inanimate objects, metaphorically by the piano (Fukiko-sama) and the clocktower (Rei), whom their mystery is the center of the whole story. All the sub-characters are shaped in one way or another by that relationship. It's almost devastating to analyse these two characters, I've never came across such stark depiction of loneliness in anime as done here. The way two lonely people were trying to heal each other despite their damages and wounds, let alone the fact they're siblings. Those obsessing over it being merely incestuous and homosexual prove they didn't get it.

Finally, we have the role of Nanako. Just like the poupée given by Fukiko-sama to Rei; she's a transparent vessel with almost no character though she's the one knotting the fates of everyone else. We actually live with her and witness how she grow, just to be blown away again by the end as she intensify the mystery of her being, even then we barely know her, which makes her more powerful. I can't applaud enough for such character development and writing.

Technically, it has its low moments, like the annoyingly fast and repeatedly moving still images and zooms at heightened drama, the laughingly large and foamy tears, etc. It baffles me how the Japanese would fall for that trap as they're masters of minimalism on many levels, why would they do that? Just ignore it and you'll have a masterpiece of a fading artform we'll probably not see anytime soon.

Finally finished this series as i am a fan of older anime(ie anything from early 2000s and older) and i have to say this was very very enjoyable. The show pretty much revolves around these characters(in which i thought they all had very interesting character developments and other traits):

Nanako Misonoo: The main character of the story who in all honesty was probably my least favorite(though its not really a bad thing when the cast is overall amazing). She has the typical timid/naivete mindset. Pretty much purely innocent.

Rei Asaka- One of the "Magnificent three" and also known as Saint Just. Without spoiling she was probably my ... favorite character hands down. Probably one of the few complex characters ive seen in an anime. Her story is actually HAM

Kaoru Orihara- Aka Prince Kaoru is Another member of the "Magnificent three". Her character goes through alot. Essentially she is like the protector of everyone while in a sense she struggles to help herself. Has the nobility characteristic and looks after the MC alot.

Fukiko Ichinomiya- Aka Miya-sama Last of the "Magnificent three" in a way the antagonist for the majority of the story. She appears cool calm and collective but freaks out in private when things dont go her way. She def has selfish vibes though and is really consumed by hatred and jealousy while trying to mask herself as elegant. I also did dub her as sorority aizen(from bleach lol)

Takehiko Henmi- This is the person the MC writes letters to all the time, he plays a significant part in the story, without going to details but nanako and henmi share a interesting relationship.

These are the characters imo that make up the bulk of the story, didnt included MC best friend Tomoko cause she plays a small role(pretty much the only normal themed character) and there are a bunch of other side characters that help make up the main story.

A character im sure people disagree with my opinion is Mariko Shinobu. While many would debate shes also an important character, i honestly didnt see it as such. The story would have gone fine without her, in fact i honestly think she was filler material. Cause there was a point where they strayed away from the main story with the characters i listed above and focused on mariko for some episodes going into her backstory. After that the episodes continue on as if her detailing episodes didnt happen, its my only complaint in the show. They eventually go back on to it in later episodes, and kind of gave her an ending resolution as such so that the viewers can go back to the bulk of the story. The pacing seemed really off when it came to Mariko. She also has awkward moments with the Nanako and tomoko, she honestly didnt fit the with the group at times. As much as she is seen in the anime she was not a vital part of the story as many would think. It was like watching another main character but it wasnt her story lol. But like everyone else she also has issues and traumas she goes through which by itself is pretty interesting but sperate from everyone else. She has a tsundere type attitude and hates men lol.

All in all the show deals with depression, some LGBT stuff, family issues, dark thoughts etc. Def an enjoyable watch

// Personal review //
This anime changed the meaning of the word Drama for me. Honestly, I don't think I ever seen a serie which have so much drama..
So many social/psychological topics were presented: suicide, bullying, betrayal, death, drugs, violence.... And I must admit, putting all these elements in one story is not an easy thing.

The story is quit unique.. and weird at the same time. Almost every character is kind of disturbed and has deep psychological issues. Sometimes you will miss normal people.
It was a very sad, dark, emotionally exhausting story, but have many life lessons to it.. that you will learn with Nanako ... (the main character).

The art was very beautiful and classic, and the backgrounds and surroundings were very symbolic and you could feel the harmony with the story.

Overall, it was a really good drama, definitely worth watching. The only reason I gave it a 9 not a 10 was due to some Yuri elements which I personally don't appreciate and I don't think they added anything to the story.

Based on a 1970s shoujo manga series, Dear Brother focuses on our female lead Nanako getting caught up in the complicated and tragic lives faced by several members of the student body at the prestigious Seiran all-girl's private high school, starting from when she becomes a part of the school's elite and sophisticated club known as the Sorority. She narrates on the struggles and ordeals she faces at Seiran when composing letters for a tutor pen-pal she met while at a cram school and said ordeals involve a number of touchy issues that made the series a bit controversial during the time it was made ... such as suicide, bullying, divorce, drug addiction and lesbianism.

Dear Brother's storytelling was a bit mixed in its quality for me, the negative aspects I'll cover a little later in my review. For the most part, the storytelling of the series was solid as it explored the problems faced by many of the major characters in the series and depicted just how flawed the Sorority's influence on the school can be, particularly in regards to how freshmen openly haze and bully one another to get into it and some among the club being opportunists who abuse their influence for their own personal gain. The series drops enough hints of certain key characters having more going on with them than what it seems on the surface, particularly the interest that Sorority chairman Fukiko has in Nanako and her abusive relationship with half-sister Rei, that gets slowly fleshed out throughout the show's run. The mentioned controversial issues explored are mostly depicted believably in how they negatively effect the major characters throughout the show such as Rei's drug addiction being a coping mechanism to deal with her abusive relationship with Fukiko and the messy family life of Mariko.

What will make or break your enjoyment of Dear Brother though will be the title's heavy offering of melodrama, and this is where my thoughts on the series get a bit mixed. The series loves to go overboard in depicting the dramatic problems facing the characters within the series and there are occasions where the exaggeration of emotions during these moments can get a bit too overboard as such where it can be hard to take them seriously. Because of the melodrama, it makes some of the major events that transpire throughout the series and the reasoning behind character motives getting rather ridiculous as it pushes believability to its breaking point with how characters respond to these situations. Particularly, the one storyline in the series to be the most absurd in its developments and rationale for me were the events that take place with Fukiko's interest in Nanako as some of the former's actions and the reason why Fukiko was entered into the Sorority by her in the first place are rather ridiculous, and even get life-threatening at a few points.

Visually, the series drawing styles resembles what you would see out of an 80s anime. The style gives character designs and settings a beautiful and lifelike feel in terms of facial features and details, though animation shortcuts are a regular sight in this series with still shots, speed lines and limited onscreen movements. The soundtrack of the series is a mixture of enka (Japanese ballads) and classical tracks that are fitting for the dramatic mood seen regularly throughout the series, though they usually can get just as exaggerated in the feel they give off as the melodramatic trappings that Dear Brother gets itself into regularly.

Overall, I suppose your mileage may vary with how well you enjoy Dear Brother. The series does a good job with fleshing out its characters and showing just how messy the lives of some of the major players are, though the show's penchant for melodrama can cause the drama of key events to feel ridiculous at points and I was not really a fan of the storyline involving Fukiko's interest in Nanako. Fans of older shoujo titles may be willing to give this series a shot, especially with how old its source material is.

ok, a disclaimer: sadly im only like, 7 episodes in due to lack of time to watch anime in general, but i really like the anime and it's very good!! the music is really pretty, the story is nice (but a bit melodromatic so if you don't like melodrama it might not be with you), the art (ESPECIALLY THE PASTEL ENDING CARD THINGIES!!) is so pretty, i ADORE the characters, and the themes that they cover are very important and still relevant in today's society (such as homophobia, self harm, parental abuse, neglect, and other things).

the story is about a girl named nanako misonoo, who ... gets accepted into an all girls school (i believe? i havent seen all of it yet) called seiran academy with her friend tomoko. there, she meets mariko shinobu, a troubled girl with a bad family background, rei asaka, another troubled girl with a melancholy personality (that nanako falls in love with on the bus when she picked her up rather sweetly), kaoru orihara, who is loved by the girls at her school for her suave and rather gently teasing (i dont know how to describe it but she sometimes teases/jokes with the characters but does it in a very kind way) young woman who came back to the school after a long illness, and fukiko ichinomiya, a manipulative young lady who is rather cruel to rei (and a lot of people from what i remember).


i like how the show discusses a lot of themes, such as being lgbt, with a lot of tact! theres some drama with how the show discusses certain topics (as it IS a dramatic shoujo anime), but its respectfully done. the characters are well written, too, and i look forward to seeing more about them! i also enjoy the art of this anime; the pretty, pastel colors are pleasing to the eye, the character designs are cute and pretty, and osamu dezaki's little pastel thingy at the end is a nice touch.

all in all, this is a really lovely anime, and if i have enough time to review it in full, i will tell you all about how great this show is!

This can be considered one of the most complicated anime that are there. Being a complicated and long story, this asks for a long review... Sorry.

The story of the anime and the manga are virtually the same, though the anime gives, what I think, a better ending for some characters. But watch the anime and some months later read a few chapters of the manga gave me a mood whiplash. While I like the things that Dezaki used to do, it's abysmal how the anime takes itself too seriously and the manga takes itself too lightly. The anime could also have been shorter and have ... less melodrama, and the manga could be longer and could have taken itself a little more seriously.

Regardless of these things, I think that that was the perfect timing to adapt this kind of story. It's impossible to imagine a serious anime like this in the 1970s, and even if it had a better atmosphere for it, I don't know if the 1980s were a good time to adapt it. But the early 1990s were simply perfect. It had the perfect atmosphere, and the fact that this decade had a 1960s and 1970s revival only helped it, even though the revivals happened some years later.

This anime have a paradox. Because of the amount of melodrama it have, it's almost tortuous to watch it until the end because of its high number of episodes. But on the other side, it is aesthetically so beautiful that I could watch it forever, it's easily one of the prettiest anime ever made. Only to begin with, the opening is 2-minutes long. Every scene in every episode is so detailed that I ask myself how many time it took to be made, and how they got permission and sponsorship to do it... Even more being the adaptation of a complicated manga released friggin 17 years earlier. It makes everything complicated because while you're probably going to feel like skipping some episodes, literally every single one is so beautiful that it also feels like a crime to skip even a single one of them.

Talking about the story... It's a shoujo, and worse, a 1970s shoujo ai. Expect literally every kind of tragedy possible. I can't even list them because it would be spoiler, ranging from light to heavy spoilers. So, really, almost every thing you can imagine happens in this anime, sometimes more than once. What is strange is, like in a lot of melodramas, while it is tiring and sometimes almost funny to watch so many tragedies happening, sometimes you think that everything (or almost everything) you're watching could happen in real life.

The voice acting is good, which means something coming from an anime where 4/5 of its cast is composed by girls. But one voice that caught my attention was Rei's voice, because it's not the kind of voice you would expect from a character like her and this is perfect, making her believable.

The soundtrack is beautiful, the opening being one of the most incredible and melancholics that I've ever watched, and the ending, while of course still melancholic, gives a lighter feeling.

Without any sarcasm or irony, this anime is for the strong ones. I've had started to watch it because when I'm feeling depressed I watch, read or listen to sad things to try to get ridden of these feelings. But I try to stop going after these things once the feelings are gone, so it made it almost impossible to finish this anime. So, I tried to binge watch the remaining episodes and honestly, after finishing it I think it was with no joke one of the worst ideas I've had in my 26 years of life (even though I've watched it when I was 24).

For the strong ones, even though this is an awfully slow series, I recommend it, because virtually everything else is well executed. For the not-so-strong ones, I would recommend listen to the soundtrack and go after some screencaps, gifs or anything among these lines.

Update 2022: So... I've finished reading the manga and if you're really interested in this story, please just watch the anime. Yes, it changes some elements of the story, but to make up for it the anime actually explains(!) or develops a lot of events that in the manga are just remarked by the characters or happens in a flash. The anime being so slow is a favour to this story that is so good but so rushed in its original form.

I'm currently at 31 episodes of 39, but I need to talk about it.

What's it about?:
Elitism, whether it be by merit, preference or intellectual capability, exists in all facets of modern society. Some are detrimental just like in the case of Oniisama e in which 'social class superiority' is prevalent. This series is about the toxicity of hierarchy present in a venerated society that is hard to overthrow because everyone seems to bow down to it. This is one of the few experiences where I felt the pain of the characters to the point that it's really hard to celebrate the high quality of the ... work because of the subject matter.

Characters:
Oniisama e is brimming with highly sophisticated characters. We, the audience, see everything through the lens of Nanako, the protagonist, who is kindhearted but very naive at the start. The other major characters have at least one of these characteristics: prestigious, daunting and mysterious. The characters have beauty within them, but at the same time, each of them had a tragic past which continues to haunt them for a very long time.

Story:
The story begins when Nanako, along with her friend Tomoko, transferred as freshmen high school students at the renowned exclusive girls high school Seiran Academy known for its Sorority. On her first day, she notices that all students have a strong fascination towards the Sorority members and some of them go to great lengths to be a candidate member of it just like Mariko Shinobu, a very strange resident freshman who immediately approaches her and ask to be friends. She learns from her about the three notable personalities in their school namely: Saint-Juste-sama, Kaoru-no-Kimi and Miya-sama who each will have an influence in her high school life. The story focuses on one character at a time and by doing this maximizes their development.

As a Psychological-Drama:
This is definitely one of the most suspenseful series I've seen in this genre. As the story progresses, it gets heavier and more interesting. The atmosphere is somewhat dreadful and unstable. Episode 8 is when it transitioned from good to great.

As a Slice-of-Life:
The setting is surrounded by tension, but sometimes, there are memorable light-hearted moments. This includes going to a university festival, preparing invitations, playing sports, baking, and even simple decorating. We get a glimpse of the lifestyle of this affluent society. Most of these activities occur outside of the campus.

Presentation:
I would go as far to say that this is possibly a candidate for my favorite art style; this is a thing of beauty. The drawings of landscapes are pleasing to look at. The character designs are superb especially their eyes and facial expressions when a character gets angry. The music is sullen and clear; it drives the mood of a scene, but it is at its best when an unexpected and hostile event happens.

Overall experience:
This is an excellent series, but it's hard to watch at times. I did took long breaks before watching the next episode. This is a rare thing because I empathized more than I enjoyed it. Oniisama e is two things: a great story and an effective social commentary.

An important part of story-telling is the promises the creator makes to the audience. When it comes to TV shows, the first episode is usually enough for the audience to at least get a rough idea of the type of story they're watching, or maybe a few episodes if there's an early game-changing twist. Yet, throughout its 39 episodes, Dear Brother repeatedly confounded my attempts to solidly grasp what kind of story it was trying to tell me. This isn't to say that it's confusing or muddled, as it was never difficult to follow what was happening, but it kept shifting focus.

It ... starts simply enough. Nanako enters a high school renowned for its sorority, a prestigious inner circle composed of the school's elite students. Though not an exceptional student, Nanako is granted entry into the sorority, and becomes a target of bullying from others who suspect she used underhanded means to get in. How Nanako copes with the bullying is the main focus of the early episodes, and I expected the show to mainly be about her struggles within and against the sorority, but soon it becomes more of an ensemble piece with several other intertwining plotlines. This would have been fine, except that Nanako becomes overshadowed by the other characters, turning into more of a passive observer, puppet, or narrator for their stories. There are times when she starts to return to the centre of the story, but she always drifts back to the fringes again after a few episodes.

So what kind of story is this in the end? Is it about high school bullying, an allegory for the excesses of the French aristocracy (which the author explored more directly in Rose of Versailles), an old-school yuri romance, a classical tragedy, or a bittersweet family drama? It's a bit of all of them. All of these elements are established early, so there's nothing that comes out of left field or feels particularly jarring, it's just the repeatedly shifting focus that can become frustrating.

That said, both writer Riyoko Ikeda and director Osamu Dezaki handle each of these elements expertly. I've seen anime that were heavily influenced by both this show and Rose of Versailles, but there's an assured sense of mastery at work here on an episode-by-episode basis that makes this feel like the definitive version. When it's firing on all thrusters, Dear Brother is riveting, tackling intense emotions head-on with a sincerity that few can pull off as well as Dezaki. While I would have preferred to see Nanako take centre stage throughout, as the early episodes implied she would, this is an unforgettable story. Or rather, an unforgettable web of stories.

Tell me you've heard this premise before: Normal girl gets accepted into a prestigious school, gets into a clique, but is bullied by both other members of the clique and people outside of it, including a stereotypical alpha bitch who rules the school, and experiences both romance and hardship. A fairly common story that's the focal point of a lot of movies, shows, and books about teenagers aimed at teenagers, and depending on the execution of said story, it can turn out well, or it can turn out really bad and cliche. Thankfully, Dear Brother, or Oniisama e, is the former. Basically, take the premise ... of Mean Girls, change the setting to an all-girls school in 1970s Japan, amp up the melodrama by making half the characters either kinda psycho, suicidal, or giving them mountains of sad backstories, complete with stuff like divorce, suicide, affairs, and so on, have it be directed by Osamu Dezaki, and have the entire story written by Rose of Versailles creator Riyoko Ikeda, complete with 70s shoujo flair, grace, and style, and you've got Dear Brother in a nutshell. Of course, the premise I mentioned above is really an oversimplification of things.

The story centers on high school girl Nanako Misono, who frequently writes letters to her pen pal, former cram school teacher Takehiko Henmi, who she refers to as her brother. She gets accepted into the prestigious Seiran Girl's Academy and is looking forward to life in high school...but for some reason, she gets recruited into the school's sorority, an elite clique consisting of the school's richest and most talented students, which angers most of Nanako's classmates, who think she somehow must have gotten in through cheating. As a result, bullies try to make Nanako's life a living hell through every cruel deed possible, whether it be rumors, slander, violence, or so on. Her friends do help whenever they can, though even some of Nanako's friends may not have her best interests at heart. But Nanako finds herself caught in a web of deceit, misery, toxic class politics, and jealousy, and even has to contend with secrets that completely shatter her worldview forever, including ones about her own family.

A warning for those wanting to get into the series: Dear Brother tackles a lot of difficult subject matter such as violent bullying, divorce, characters attempting suicide, extramarital affairs, the whole enchilada. Whether the show tackles them with tact, nuance, or the sensitivity they deserve, I'm not the best judge on that one, so I couldn't tell you. If there's one thing I can say about Dear Brother, it is filled to the brim with almost non-stop drama up the wazoo, complete with teenaged angst, girls being absolute bitches to each other, wild catfights, lots of screaming and yelling, and its usage of sensitive subject matter could put it on the level of a soap opera. And yet...having seen the show, here, all of it just works. Dear Brother stands out from others that use the exact same premise in a lot of ways, and it comes with such a style, grace, and elegance that actually helps everything I just mentioned above fit perfectly into place. One of the reasons for this is the fact that Osamu Dezaki directed the anime, and while the show doesn't exactly have the highest budget, Dezaki is famous for always making optimal use of the animation techniques available at the time. He has very specific directorial choices that he's pretty well known for, such as dual screens, repeating certain shots three times at different speeds to stretch certain moments out, and most famously, frequent usage of lush, heavily lined, watercolor still frames to heighten emotions or close off scenes. Plus, the animation itself is surprisingly kinetic, using a lot of frames and with smooth movement and motion from the characters, far more fluid than was present in Rose of Versailles. Dear Brother holds up surprisingly well in terms of the quality of its animation, especially considering this was made in 1992, not too long after Japan's economic bubble popped. I don't have as much to say about the soundtrack, as it's pretty nice in its back and forth usage of elegant classical music, as per the setting, and music box lullabies, though some of the shoujo sound effects are pretty dated at this point.

Of course, you can't simply sell an anime on its animation alone, as you need a well-rounded cast of characters to hold it up, and I'm happy to say Dear Brother really delivers here. Now, usually when I say something is melodramatic, I mean this in a negative way, because drama should be used to flesh out and bring out the best in the characters, not simply be a vehicle for endless angst or rehashing cliches soullessly. I should know, I've done this in plenty of my own fan fics before. All the characters have their own sets of issues to work through, and they don't always tackle them in healthy ways (Which, to the show's credit, it does acknowledge). There's vicious cat fights galore, and sometimes the characters just don't want to talk to each other and resolve their issues (This is pretty prevalent early on with the characters of Mariko and Tomoko). But here's the thing: While all the drama that goes on is definitely over the top, it never borders on cheesy except for several rare occasions. It doesn't try so hard that it just winds up being silly, and instead, its used to flesh out the characters even more as the show goes on. From the main characters to even the side ones who appear later on, all of them are engaging and deep, and it's great to watch them all grow and deal with issues that, while over the top, many teenaged girls have experienced and can relate to. Because of the way the show builds the chemistry between all of its characters and the care that goes into fleshing them out and developing them, all of the over the top drama here actually feels earned, rather than simply feeling forced and shoehorned in just for the sake of it, something that's plagued other media with a similar premise. This is further compounded by the fact that, with the manga only being a paltry three volumes long, and the anime was due to go on for 39 episodes, rather than simply pad out the anime, the production team decided to expand on the characters and backstories that didn't get as much development in the manga. For example, Nanako's friend Tomoko was a minor character in the manga who never got to do much, but in the anime, she's a prominent supporting character who gets a lot of screentime. Fukiko and Rei's past is expanded upon, several sorority members get more to do in the anime, Mariko's arc is more fleshed out, and even Aya and her girl posse get expanded roles.

I personally do like this series a lot, though I wouldn't consider it an all-time favorite. For one, the early parts of the series indulge in the "characters refuse to talk through their issues and keep silent to drag out the conflict" trope that I tend to hate, though I didn't find it nearly as annoying here, and the show does have its fair share of silly moments that really break your suspension of disbelief. I mean, when an older student does a better job at keeping a violent classroom in line than a teacher does, maybe that teacher shouldn't be teaching. Some later parts of the series may not sit well with modern viewers, especially near the finale, and Dezaki's overall involvement may be a double-edged sword for those who aren't huge fans of his style. The reception for his work on the Air and Clannad movies wasn't the best, so his style is pretty love-it-or-hate-it, especially depending on how well you can stomach the dramatic scenes. Even the character designs don't look like your typical anime style, and you can thank Akio Sugino for that one, who was frequent collaborator with Dezaki before the latter's untimely passing.

Bottom line, Dear Brother is definitely a great anime that should be on everyone's radar if you're looking for something that has more meat on its bones than others that have used the same premise, but it's not for everyone. If you don't have a tolerance for bitchfights and melodrama, or can't handle the sensitive subject matter depicted, Dear Brother may be too much for you. Plus, while the series is finally available on Blu-Ray, Discotek Media stated that for some reason, the producers only allowed them to license it for a year, and since the BR came out last year, if you want to own this series, you better get it now before the prices on it start jacking up like crazy. As someone who spent ten years trying to find one movie on DVD at a reasonable price, I can tell you the pain is real. But Dear Brother is a great anime that shouldn't be missed, especially now that it's come back into the limelight thanks to being streamed on RetroCrush.