Oniisama E:

Reviewed: Episodes 1-12 (subbed)

Basic Plot:

Nanako has just begun high school at an elite all-girls school. Her best friend Tomoko is with her, and she easily made a new friend named Mariko on the first day. But when she gets nominated, and then accepted, into the super-elite Sorority, her life takes a drastic turn for the dramatic. Suddenly she’s befriending the three most popular and influential girls in the school, making enemies of those who yearn for her position, and getting mixed up in mysteries and affairs beyond her imagination.

Review:

The first time I put volume one of this series into the VCR, I only watched about half of the first episode. I stopped it after seeing that most of the characters were ugly, there were no decent-looking males, and the style seemed very dated. However, upon getting the next two volumes, I decided to give this series another chance. After getting through the boring first episode, this series began to get really interesting. This series has a very thick yet unusual atmosphere to it. I would compare it to the feel of Hana Yori Dango, with it’s neutral colors, classical and/or violin music, and overall melancholy tone. However, Oniisama E doesn’t have any of HYD’s playfulness or humor. The animation isn’t all that impressive, but overall, it looks like a series of moving paintings, as everything is done in a very unique, artistic style, with everything (like a flowing dress or the curls of the hair) being used to create beauty and flow.

The characters remind me a lot of Shoujo Kakumei Utena characters, with their tall, willowy elegance and all-powerful influence on the world around them. They’re developed well and used to show us the contrast between people from different social points. All of the characters are very different and unique. All of them have something to hide, or something that hurts them.

Something that struck me as strange was the warnings of “This is intended for mature audiences! Absolutely not for children!” and then hearing that it was banned in France. To be honest, I haven’t seen anything all that bad yet, though I have only seen 12 episodes. The only thing that could be considered not suitable for children is the highly emotional way that everything is played out. Sure, it talks about suicide, depression, death, homosexuality, etc., but MANY anime series touch on the same things. So my only guess is that people could become disturbed by how seriously and realistically these topics are presented. Either that, or a lot more heavy issues are brought in during later episodes.

All-in-all, this is a series that I think all female anime fans could enjoy if they could only take the time to watch a few episodes and get into it. It’s a different sort of show that has very little humor, but it’s not dark, violent, and brooding like most other humor-less series. It’s a serious look at what young girls go through at this stage in life, and also has a haunting, if not dead-on accurate, message about the dangers of trying too hard to fit in, and also how dangerous it can be to be one of the “lucky” ones who actually do fit in.