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Japanese manga and anime
the manga and anime series

Dear Brother (おにいさまへ ) is a Japanese manga series by Riyoko Ikeda. It was adapted into an anime series that aired on the channel NHK BS2 from July 14, 1991 to May 31, 1992. The series originally started out as a manga in the early to mid 1970s. The story is about a 16 year old girl, Nanako Misonoo (御苑生奈々子), who attends a prestigious academy and deals with life as a high school student via writing letters to her "brother". The manga has never been officially released in English, though it has been translated into French, Italian and Polish. The series spans 39 anime episodes and three manga volumes, ending when Nanako is eighteen.

Nanako Misonoo is a young high school freshman at the exclusive girls' school Seiran Academy. When she begins her first year at this school, she falls into a world of female rivalry, love, chaos, and heartbreak. She narrates the story of the series in a chain of letters to a young man named Takehiko Henmi, who she calls "Oniisama" (Brother). In reality, Takehiko was her teacher at the cram school she went to earlier. She feels such a strong bond with Takehiko that she asks to continue corresponding with him. Takehiko agrees, and soon Nanako begins addressing him as "brother" in her letters. When Nanako starts her new school year at the all girl Seiran Academy, she is unexpectedly inducted into the school's Sorority despite having none of the looks, talents, or background needed to become a member. As the series progresses, she becomes involved in the lives of the "Magnificent Three", the three most popular girls in the school. As Nanako interacts with these women, she becomes attached to the great but troubled Rei Asaka, whom she wants to help, but cannot get close to due Rei's obsession with Fukiko Ichinomiya, the Sorority president. Nanako also becomes friends with a beautiful and lonely young girl named Mariko Shinobu, who is determined to get into the Sorority and make Nanako her best friend at all costs. Meanwhile, Nanako has problems of her own; she is constantly being bullied by her peers due to her unlikely membership in the Sorority, especially by one Aya Misaki who feels that she should have been the one chosen for it. Throughout these problems Nanako is supported by her childhood friend Tomoko, the athletic but secretly ailing Kaoru Orihara, the passionate and troubled Mariko Shinobu and the correspondence with her "brother", who just happens to have some secrets of his own. The series chronicles her first year at Seiran Academy as she uncovers the past of some of the most popular girls in school, learning of love, loss, and her own family's secrets, including her true relation with Takehiko.

The show's themes revolve around suicide, incest, lesbianism, drug addiction, violence, divorce, and disease. Rei Asaka has a deep love for Fukiko Ichinomiya which can be seen as incestuous due to later revelations about their actual relationship and early interactions with each other. Lesbianism is mentioned due to heavy overtones of female interaction at an all girls school, as well as Nanako's romantic feelings towards Rei, and Mariko's feelings towards Kaoru.

The series was dubbed and released in Italy, Spain, Arabia and France, though it was pulled after seven episodes in France, due to strong adult content. A Greek version is also known to have existed, with its broadcast halted between the commercial breaks in the third episode. The anime series is available online to viewers in the United States through Viki. com, Hulu, and YouTube. Anime Sols has successfully crowdfunded the entire the show for North American DVD. Under the title Dear Brother, three DVD box sets were released between July 29, 2014 and April 7, 2015. Retrocrush started streaming in United States and Canada from October, 2020 via streaming app and website under the title Dear Brother. Discotek Media has re licensed the series.

Lynzee Loveridge of Anime News Network noted that in the series "everyone's off their rockers and has beautiful clothes" and called the Seiran Academy's Sorority "relentless" and slighting anyone who is not "perfect." Erica Friedman of Okazu described the series as "extraordinarily dark" and centered around one person: Ichinomiya Fukiko. Carlos Ross of THEM Anime Reviews said that the series is not known in the United States, but the subject matter, the "cruel machinations of high school age girls" is treated frankly in this "character driven story." Ross did say that some newcomers to the series may not like the enka which "might be a bit slow and plaintive for Western ears," while saying the music is appropriate, and noted that the series has a "reputation for having lesbian overtones," adding that the anime is a "classic."