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Sharing the shoujo love
Jun. 25th, 2006 12:05 amOne of my favourite incredibly obscure anime series is Oniisama E... (aka Brother, Dear Brother). Schoolgirl drama and uber-angst! And oh, the gayness!
One of the reasons I love it is the way it captures the intense drama of adolescence. It's not over-the-top deliberate melodrama, and it's not an imposed adult sense of perspective. And really, this isn't the hysteric "Oh! We drank from the same cup! Is that an indirect kiss?" of Marmalade Boy. (No, instead the main character is upset because she's being ostracized and mercilessly hazed, and the girls in her class have just presented her with a box of razor blades.) Oh, and the hero worship between the younger girls and the three older "Magnificent Ones," and the androgyny, and the self-destructive codependence of Rei and Miya-sama... (To put it in context, Maria-Sama ga Miteru is Oniisama E... on some heavy, heavy antidepressants after years of therapy.)
It's an interesting transition between the manga and the anime--the manga was written in the seventies by Riyoko Ikeda, the manga artist best known for the classic shoujo series Rose of Versailles. (The French Revolution and gender-bending, yay!) The anime adaptation from the nineties was then aimed at the now middle-aged women who read the manga as adolescents.
The anime is visually stylized, sure, with the wide-eyed young girls (it helps to know that the large and shiny eyes are a sign of youth and innocence), and the symbolic swirling cherry blossoms (likewise, the transient and fleeting nature of beauty, often used during scenes of high emotion). But there's none of the goofy cartoon style about it. No sweatdrops, SD characters running around, or sudden nosebleeds. So if you're not a huge anime fan, don't let that deter you.
It's typically been really hard to get, unless you're willing to get fansubs right from the distributors.
Now, you can watch it on YouTube. I love the internet.
So you should all (and by all, I mean the few people who would appreciate the angst and drama, yes, looking at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
carlanime *g*) go and watch it.
So there.
(And yes *pointing to icon*, it was banned in Italy and France. Or at least the one episode. There was *gasp* a lesbian kiss! Shocking!)
One of the reasons I love it is the way it captures the intense drama of adolescence. It's not over-the-top deliberate melodrama, and it's not an imposed adult sense of perspective. And really, this isn't the hysteric "Oh! We drank from the same cup! Is that an indirect kiss?" of Marmalade Boy. (No, instead the main character is upset because she's being ostracized and mercilessly hazed, and the girls in her class have just presented her with a box of razor blades.) Oh, and the hero worship between the younger girls and the three older "Magnificent Ones," and the androgyny, and the self-destructive codependence of Rei and Miya-sama... (To put it in context, Maria-Sama ga Miteru is Oniisama E... on some heavy, heavy antidepressants after years of therapy.)
It's an interesting transition between the manga and the anime--the manga was written in the seventies by Riyoko Ikeda, the manga artist best known for the classic shoujo series Rose of Versailles. (The French Revolution and gender-bending, yay!) The anime adaptation from the nineties was then aimed at the now middle-aged women who read the manga as adolescents.
The anime is visually stylized, sure, with the wide-eyed young girls (it helps to know that the large and shiny eyes are a sign of youth and innocence), and the symbolic swirling cherry blossoms (likewise, the transient and fleeting nature of beauty, often used during scenes of high emotion). But there's none of the goofy cartoon style about it. No sweatdrops, SD characters running around, or sudden nosebleeds. So if you're not a huge anime fan, don't let that deter you.
It's typically been really hard to get, unless you're willing to get fansubs right from the distributors.
Now, you can watch it on YouTube. I love the internet.
So you should all (and by all, I mean the few people who would appreciate the angst and drama, yes, looking at
carlanime *g*) go and watch it.So there.
(And yes *pointing to icon*, it was banned in Italy and France. Or at least the one episode. There was *gasp* a lesbian kiss! Shocking!)
