I love Riyoko Ikeda's classic shojo art, huge eyes and dripping tears and all. I'm simply obsessed with the way she draws the masculine female characters! They look like real butch women! And the 70s fashion is incredible.
(The only thing that threw me off about the art was that the pages often use solid black backgrounds just for effect, whereas I'm used to black backgrounds behind panels meaning this is a flashback scene -- this confused me for the first few chapters as I kept thinking I was skipping back to the past when actually the background meant nothing, haha...)
The plot is VERY melodramatic, and the ending of this series is both somewhat abrupt and bittersweet. There are no happy endings here, but I didn't find the sadness to be over the top. And it was nice how the angst isn't centered on "I love her but we're both girls" or anything, just a passionate story of high school first love that ends tragically.
For a short read that sweeps you up in the dramas and intense relationships of an all-girls high school, Oniisama E is one I highly recommend devoting a day to. I'm hoping this series gets officially licensed in English someday because I would love to own it in physical form.
