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Manga: Oniisama e

Tomoko (left) and Nanako (right).

Oniisama e ("Dear Brother") is a Girls Love manga series by Riyoko Ikeda, also the author of Rose of Versailles. Written in the 1970s and published in Shueisha's Margaret, it is one of the earliest examples of the genre, and seems to have had a considerable effect on the series that came after it. It was adapted into an anime series in the early '90s.

Told through a series of letters written by the protagonist to her Cram School teacher and older brother figure, Takehiko, it is the story of Misonoo Nanako, an average girl who manages to be accepted to Seiran Academy, a prestigious girls' school for the wealthy and talented. Despite lacking the background and qualifications of her fellow students, she is soon invited to be a member of the Sorority, an elite group of talented and popular girls. This makes her an easy target for the machinations of her ambitious peers — especially one Misaki Aya, who will do anything it takes to discredit her so she loses her place in the Sorority.

As time passes and Nanako meets more people, she becomes embroiled in the drama and complex, often angsty relationships between them... And that's only the tip of the drama iceberg.

Provides examples of:

Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The Sorority, sort of.
Ascended Extra: Tomoko gets much more facetime in the anime than in the manga, mainly thanks to a specific early incident being changed. ( Namely, in the manga Tomoko only rekindles her trashed-by-Mariko friendship with Nanako almost at the end of the story; in the anime, she does this after less than two episodes.)
Adaptation Expansion: The anime adds quite a bit more to the manga's storyline. To give some perspective, the manga is only three volumes, while the anime consists of 39 episodes.
Anguished Declaration of Love: Nanako delivers one to Rei. Fukiko also gives one to Nanako, although it turns out to be fake.
Bait-and-Switch Credits: The opening credits seem to be sort of thing suited to Shojo anime, but after Episode 11 and Rei's apartment are seen, they take on an eerie new significance. Even more so after episode 23, where we see Fukiko's Room Full OF Crazy....
Bait-and-Switch Lesbians: Kaoru aka Kaoru-no-Kimi (marries Takehiko in both manga and anime, with different results on each continuity), Mariko (implied to enter a relationship with Fukiko's brother Takeshi, though only in the manga), Fukiko (revealed to have loved Takehiko all along, then deciding to remain celibate after Rei's death and Takehiko hitching up again with Kaoru). Nanako subverts this: in the manga there are no hints of anything aside of her mourning for Rei, but at the end of the anime she mentions that she fancies a "university student" — but we don't know if said student is a boy or a girl, since in the original Japanese she uses gender-neutral pronouns when talking about them. (It gets Lost in Translation in fansubs, logically)
Bifauxnen and Lad-ette: Rei and Kaoru. Both are quite androgynous although Kaoru displays more athletic, tomboyish traits while Rei is more urbane with an interest (and huge talent) in art and music.
Big Fancy House: Fukiko and Takeshi's family have several, complete with greenhouses, rose gardens, huge pools, picturesque forests, and the odd Room Full of Crazy to even everything out. About all they lack is The Thing That Goes Doink.
- Also, for a middle-class girl Nanako lives with his parents in a pretty large house. Likely to contrast with her "Oniisama" Takehiko's rather simple apartment and Rei's flat with a Room Full of Crazy.
- Mariko and her mom Hisako live in a really nice home too. After the Shinobus's divorce, they move out into a cozy but small flat.
Bittersweet Ending: In the anime. In the manga, it's a full-blown Downer Ending.
Bookends: Early on in the show, several of the school's Mean Girls circulate a petition to have Nanako expelled from the Sorority, for which she was chosen over Aya. Much later on in the show, Nanako herself organizes the petition to have the Sorority disbanded.
Break the Cutie: Nanako, and in the past, Rei.
- Episode 15 also shows the devastating social/emotional consequences of being kicked out of the Sorority due to failing midterms, like it happens to Mariko and Nanako's classmate Junko Nakaya — which also affects Nanako quite a bit.
Break the Haughty: Fukiko and Aya.
Broken Bird: Rei, aka Hana no Saint-Juste. Kaoru/Kaoru-no-Kimi and Mariko also have their moments.
Brother-Sister Incest: Or rather, Sister Sister Incest, what Rei feels for Fukiko.
Bury Your Gays: Rei, the only major character to not get handed the Bait-and-Switch Lesbians card. (Nanako's ambiguous case notwithstanding). The circumstances of her death differ between the two versions: suicide via drugs overdose in the manga, a train accident in the anime (though people think she killed herself at first).
Chekhov's Gunman: In the first scene of the anime, Nanako reminiscences about a pre-teen boy she once saw when she was a little girl, and who ran away from her when she tried to talk to him. That boy is young!Takehiko... her stepbrother.
Costume Porn: The clothes worn by pretty much everyone are shown in VERY loving detail.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Specially for Nanako, Tomoko and Fukiko. Lampshaded by Nanako when one of her early letters to Takehiko begins with her describing the outfits she wears to school in loving detal.
Cram School: Takehiko was Nanako and Tomoko's Cram School tutor.
Crash into Hello: How Rei and Nanako meet: Nanako had trouble trying to get off the bus in the first day of school, Rei pulls her out of there and, in the anime, cheerfully spins her around in front of Tomoko before letting her go.
Does Not Like Men: Mariko. Blame it on her father.
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Mariko, too.
Driven to Suicide: Rei, Fukiko, Mariko, and Aya all contemplate or attempt it at some point, and in the manga Rei actually completes it (in the anime, she dies in an accident). Rei's mother also died by drowning herself in the ocean.
Elaborate University High: Seiran's campus is only slightly less elaborate than that of Utena's Ohtori Gakuen, for which it was the inspiration.
Empathic Environment: In the anime, and specially in the first part, it's very common to see the Grey Rain Of Depression start as soon as something bad happens.
Erudite Stoner: Rei; see Hyperspace Arsenal example.
Even the Girls Want Her: Kaoru and Rei both have sizable female fanclubs. Not to mention Nanako, who has Mariko clinging to her as well as a Romantic Two-Girl Friendship with Tomoko.
Fan Disservice: At some point in the anime, we have Kaoru stripping twice (one of them also including Kimono Fanservice). She's very beautiful, but both times we see her naked, are in regards to how she had a mastectomy due to breast cancer and is showing her physical scars to others (first to her boyfriend Takehiko, to break up with him; later to her friend Nanako, while explaining her backstory). We don't get to see that, exactly, but the context will get your eyes blurry anwyway.
- Earlier, Nanako and Mariko took a bath together after returning home from Mariko's birthday party, which seems to be pretty friendly...if it wasn't for the fact that Mariko goes Yandere on Nanako and threatens to kill her when she wants to return home afterwards. Brrrrrr...
- Also, in the anime we're fooled into believing that Nanako and Fukiko will have a Girl on Girl Is Hot-like "moonlight swim". But then Fukiko goes Strange Girl mode and almost drowns Nanako to scare her off, via hooking her foot under a log and then leaving. Nanako only survives because Fukiko didn't mean to go for the kill and returns to her soon. The scene goes from prospect Les Yay to utterly chilling in few seconds flat.
Feminine Women Can Cook: Played straight with Supreme Chef Nanako and Lethal Chef Kaoru. Subverted with Tomoko, who's both a Supreme Chef and a Tomboy.
Fingore: Happens when Fukiko drops a kenzan (a very pointy flower arranging device) on Rei's hand and makes it look like an accident. Nanako is the only one who notices it wasn't.
Funbag Airbag: No doubt happens whenever Nanako runs into Rei's chest despite the fact her chest looks male when hidden under her jacket.
Furo Scene: Mariko invites Nanako to take a bath with her.
- We're also treated to our fair share of Saint-Juste shower scenes, including one in a later episode where Miya-sama confronts her about their relationship while in the shower.
- And Fukiko gets a bath tub scene of angst in the anime, after Rei's death
Gayngst: Nanako has some when she realizes she's in love with Rei.
Girl with Psycho Weapon: Boxcutter Kaede could have taken a few tips from Mariko.
Hope Spot: In the manga, Nanako is overjoyed when Rei finally confesses that she needs Nanako's support and comfort. The next day, she finds out that Rei has killed herself.
- Played differently in the anime, where Nanako and Rei are about to have a meeting is all bout stated to be their first date... but Rei dies right in her way there. Nanako is left waiting for her and only learns about it when Tomoko takes her to the hospital where Rei's lifeless body is.
Hyperspace Arsenal: Rei with drugs. But it was the seventies.
I Kiss Your Hand: Mariko does this to Fukiko during the Sorority initiation ceremony. Apparently, it's a part of the etiquette during said acts; when Nanako doesn't do anything similar due to being distracted after the Fingore incident involving Rei, Fukiko says nothing, but it's clear that she's pretty angry and surprised. At the end of the episode, Nanako has a nightmare in which she does kiss Fukiko's hand... and then is maimed by her with a pointy kenzan that's very similar to the one that she used to harm Rei.
Ill Girl: Kaoru, who actually repeated her freshman year due to this. She has cancer, actually, and even went through a mastectomy at the age of sixteen.
Intimate Healing: Kaoru strips naked to share body heat with Rei after she goes through an icy Shower of Angst.
Kick the Dog: Aya does this quite a bit, but an especially good example is when she mocks both Nanako's middle-class background and Mariko's dysfunctional relationship with her father. Doubled when, some time later, she publically annunces to her classmates that Mariko's parents are getting divorced in a very scandalous manner. And then, Mariko massively snaps on her.
- Fukiko's abuse of Rei is like kicking a puppy repeteadly. Specially when she tells Rei to wait for her under a tree. During a rainy, cold day. Rei stays there for hours as Fukiko "classily" conducts study sessions, and she fully knows Rei's out there.. No wonder Kaoru hates her so much.
- Ogiwara does this when she either tries to slap Junko's friends around for supporting the dissolution of the Sorority (anime), or when she throws a stack of papers at Rei and insults her for saying the Sorority should be disbanded. (manga).
Kick the Son of a Bitch: Mariko may be a clingy Yandere, but you root for her when she slaps Aya around to protect Nanako.
- Kaoru gets a huge CMOA when she mauls Aya and her Girl Posse for being mean to Nanako in class.
Knife Nut: Rei/Saint-Juste has rather good aim with her throwing knives.
Late for School: Nanako is almost late for her first day in Seiran when she meets Rei. in the anime, so is Tomoko.
Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Played straight with Nanako and Mariko. While cute, mild-mannerd Nanako sits firmly on the Light spectrum, Mariko is a fair-skinned, raven-haired Yandere (with some elements of Tsundere) from day one.
Love Dodecahedron: Let's see: Mariko admires Kaoru but has a clingy obsession with Nanako and later is sorta tsundere for Takeshi; Nanako loves Rei, who pines for Fukiko, who acts possessive towards Nanako but actually loves Takehiko; and Kaoru also loves her ex-boyfriend Takehiko, who returns her feelings. Phew!
Love at First Sight: Nanako, for Rei. Arguably, Mariko for Nanako.
Melodrama: While there is some very real drama in the series, there's plenty of this, too. It is old-school shoujo, after all.
Moral Guardians: The animated series was broadcast on Wednesday mornings in France. Guess what happened after 5 episodes. Not even a Macekre could save it.
Mundane Made Awesome: As broken and unstable as Rei is, you can't deny that she throws her knives in a very hammy, stylish ways.
Na�ve Everygirl/Na�ve Newcomer: Nanako and Tomoko.
Names to Know in Anime: Yuko Mizutani and then Hiroko Kasahara (Nanako), Mami Koyama (Fukiko), Keiko Toda (Kaoru), Tessho Genda (Takehiko, Playing Against Type), Masako Katsuki (Aya), Sakiko Tamagawa (Mariko), Kenyuu Horiuchi (Takeshi), Sumi Shimamoto (Rei, Playing Against Type too), Rihoko Yoshida (Mariko's mother Hisako), Tomomichi Nishimura (Mariko's father Hikawa), Ai Orikasa ( Hikawa's unnamed lover and "other woman"), Kinryuu Arimoto (Professor Misonoo), Hiroko Suzuki (Nanako's mother), Emi Shinohara ("Borgia" Ogiwara), Shinobu Adachi ("Mona Lisa" Komabayashi), Miki Itou (Megumi), Yumi Takada (Miyuki).
On The Next Episode Of Catch Phrase: "Brother, there is no end to my tears!"
One Degree of Separation
One Gender School
One Head Taller: Nanako and Rei.
Onee-sama: Pretty much all of the eldest Sorority girls play the role, or are supposed to. Lampshaded by Nanako, who comments on how Ogiwara and Komabayashi were kind to her... until the Sorority is in risk of being disbanded.
Ordinary High School Student: Nanako, more or less. Tomoko is a more genuine one.
Parents as People: Mariko's parents aren't evil people, but they have... issues. Serious issues.
Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: At least half a dozen per episode.
Poisonous Friend: Mariko at first.
Psycho Lesbian: Lots of them, but especially Fukiko. Or so it seems at first - she's not actually a lesbian (She could qualify as Ambiguously Bi or Depraved Bisexual, tho).
Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Mariko.
- Also "Mona Lisa" Komabayashi. Her "Mona Lisa" alias comes half from this, half from having a "mysterious" smile.
Repeat Cut: Almost as many as there are Pastel Chalked Freeze Frames!
Rich Bitch: The school is full of them, but Aya is an uber-example.
The Rival: Aya is this to Mariko. Ogiwara is this to Fukiko in the anime.
Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Nanako and Tomoko, and to a degree with Mariko.
Room Full of Crazy: Rei has two. One with stuff carved into the walls, one with mirrors everywhere.
- Fukiko deserves an honorable mention for the room at her summer house full of creepy dolls and obsessively arranged items of memorabilia from the day she first met her obsessive crush Henmi, which she has since kept completely unchanged for six years and forbids anyone else (save for herself and one of the maids) to enter.
Scholarship Student: Nanako, and likely Tomoko as well.
Schoolgirl Lesbians: Yep, again lots of them, even though the girls wind up either alone or with guys in the end.
Schr�dinger's Cat: Kaoru-No-Kimi, who dies in the manga, but lives in the anime.
Shower of Angst: Oh, Rei.
Situational Sexuality: Very situational, as it turns out.
Snow Means Death: Sort of. It was snowy when Rei nearly died in her would-have-been double suicide with Fukiko.
Stalker with a Crush: Miya-sama. Somewhat unusually for this trope, it's not Henmi, the object of her affections, that is the target of her stalker behavior... but Nanako, his pen pal who Miya-sama believes he is romantically involved with.
Surprisingly Good English: Numerous scenes taking place during English class. For the curious, they're reading from Edgar Allan Poe's The Gold Bug.
Stood Up: Rei's death causes a Type Five in the anime, since she dies in her way to her and Nanako's would-be first date.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Nanako and either Rei or Tomoko.
- Expecially Rei, given that they fit the Japanese idea of a Butch/Femme role so closely.
Theme Tune Cameo: Nanako hums the opening theme in a couple episodes.
Tsundere: Mariko sorta evolves into this as she gets over her Yandere phase.
Unlucky Childhood Friend: Tomoko, if you see her and Nanako's relationship as a Romantic Two-Girl Friendship.
Wham Line: As spoken by Kaoru:
Kaoru: "But Rei... Rei, she's your younger sister!"
World of Ham: As a melodramatic shoujo from The Seventies. Specially in the anime where we have melodramatic thunderstorms, lots of Mood Whiplash and hundreds of both Repeat cuts and Pastel Chalked Freeze Frames.
Yandere: Mariko threatens to kill Nanako and herself when the latter tries to decline staying overnight, then holds the door closed so she can't get out. Luckily Mariko's mother Hisako provides enough distraction for Nanako to escape, but Mariko still protests. She slowly evolves into a Tsundere, though.
- Fukiko has shades of this, in another way. Rather than turning her disappointment against the object of her affections, Takehiko, she turns it against others, like Nanako and specially Rei.
- Also, Rei herself may count. It's less about possession and more about being VERY obsessed with her sister Fukiko, to the point of being a Love Martyr for her. Since she already has lots of issues, this does not bode well.