Tell me youve heard this premise before: Normal girl gets accepted into a prestigious school gets into a clique but is bullied by both other members of the clique and people outside of it including a stereotypical alpha bitch who rules the school and experiences both romance and hardship. A fairly common story thats the focal point of a lot of movies shows and books about teenagers aimed at teenagers and depending on the execution of said story it can turn out well or it can turn out really bad and cliche. Thankfully Dear Brother or Oniisama e is the former. Basically take the premise of Mean Girls change the setting to an allgirls school in 1970s Japan amp up the melodrama by making half the characters either kinda psycho suicidal or giving them mountains of sad backstories complete with stuff like divorce suicide affairs and so on have it be directed by Osamu Dezaki and have the entire story written by Rose of Versailles creator Riyoko Ikeda complete with 70s shoujo flair grace and style and youve got Dear Brother in a nutshell. Of course the premise I mentioned above is really an oversimplification of things. The story centers on high school girl Nanako Misono who frequently writes letters to her pen pal former cram school teacher Takehiko Henmi who she refers to as her brother. She gets accepted into the prestigious Seiran Girls Academy and is looking forward to life in high school...but for some reason she gets recruited into the schools sorority an elite clique consisting of the schools richest and most talented students which angers most of Nanakos classmates who think she somehow must have gotten in through cheating. As a result bullies try to make Nanakos life a living hell through every cruel deed possible whether it be rumors slander violence or so on. Her friends do help whenever they can though even some of Nanakos friends may not have her best interests at heart. But Nanako finds herself caught in a web of deceit misery toxic class politics and jealousy and even has to contend with secrets that completely shatter her worldview forever including ones about her own family. A warning for those wanting to get into the series: Dear Brother tackles a lot of difficult subject matter such as violent bullying divorce characters attempting suicide extramarital affairs the whole enchilada. Whether the show tackles them with tact nuance or the sensitivity they deserve Im not the best judge on that one so I couldnt tell you. If theres one thing I can say about Dear Brother it is filled to the brim with almost nonstop drama up the wazoo complete with teenaged angst girls being absolute bitches to each other wild catfights lots of screaming and yelling and its usage of sensitive subject matter could put it on the level of a soap opera. And yet...having seen the show here all of it just works. Dear Brother stands out from others that use the exact same premise in a lot of ways and it comes with such a style grace and elegance that actually helps everything I just mentioned above fit perfectly into place. One of the reasons for this is the fact that Osamu Dezaki directed the anime and while the show doesnt exactly have the highest budget Dezaki is famous for always making optimal use of the animation techniques available at the time. He has very specific directorial choices that hes pretty well known for such as dual screens repeating certain shots three times at different speeds to stretch certain moments out and most famously frequent usage of lush heavily lined watercolor still frames to heighten emotions or close off scenes. Plus the animation itself is surprisingly kinetic using a lot of frames and with smooth movement and motion from the characters far more fluid than was present in Rose of Versailles. Dear Brother holds up surprisingly well in terms of the quality of its animation especially considering this was made in 1992 not too long after Japans economic bubble popped. I dont have as much to say about the soundtrack as its pretty nice in its back and forth usage of elegant classical music as per the setting and music box lullabies though some of the shoujo sound effects are pretty dated at this point. Of course you cant simply sell an anime on its animation alone as you need a wellrounded cast of characters to hold it up and Im happy to say Dear Brother really delivers here. Now usually when I say something is melodramatic I mean this in a negative way because drama should be used to flesh out and bring out the best in the characters not simply be a vehicle for endless angst or rehashing cliches soullessly. I should know Ive done this in plenty of my own fan fics before. All the characters have their own sets of issues to work through and they dont always tackle them in healthy ways Which to the shows credit it does acknowledge. Theres vicious cat fights galore and sometimes the characters just dont want to talk to each other and resolve their issues This is pretty prevalent early on with the characters of Mariko and Tomoko. But heres the thing: While all the drama that goes on is definitely over the top it never borders on cheesy except for several rare occasions. It doesnt try so hard that it just winds up being silly and instead its used to flesh out the characters even more as the show goes on. From the main characters to even the side ones who appear later on all of them are engaging and deep and its great to watch them all grow and deal with issues that while over the top many teenaged girls have experienced and can relate to. Because of the way the show builds the chemistry between all of its characters and the care that goes into fleshing them out and developing them all of the over the top drama here actually feels earned rather than simply feeling forced and shoehorned in just for the sake of it something thats plagued other media with a similar premise. This is further compounded by the fact that with the manga only being a paltry three volumes long and the anime was due to go on for 39 episodes rather than simply pad out the anime the production team decided to expand on the characters and backstories that didnt get as much development in the manga. For example Nanakos friend Tomoko was a minor character in the manga who never got to do much but in the anime shes a prominent supporting character who gets a lot of screentime. Fukiko and Reis past is expanded upon several sorority members get more to do in the anime Marikos arc is more fleshed out and even Aya and her girl posse get expanded roles. I personally do like this series a lot though I wouldnt consider it an alltime favorite. For one the early parts of the series indulge in the characters refuse to talk through their issues and keep silent to drag out the conflict trope that I tend to hate though I didnt find it nearly as annoying here and the show does have its fair share of silly moments that really break your suspension of disbelief. I mean when an older student does a better job at keeping a violent classroom in line than a teacher does maybe that teacher shouldnt be teaching. Some later parts of the series may not sit well with modern viewers especially near the finale and Dezakis overall involvement may be a doubleedged sword for those who arent huge fans of his style. The reception for his work on the Air and Clannad movies wasnt the best so his style is pretty loveitorhateit especially depending on how well you can stomach the dramatic scenes. Even the character designs dont look like your typical anime style and you can thank Akio Sugino for that one who was frequent collaborator with Dezaki before the latters untimely passing. Bottom line Dear Brother is definitely a great anime that should be on everyones radar if youre looking for something that has more meat on its bones than others that have used the same premise but its not for everyone. If you dont have a tolerance for bitchfights and melodrama or cant handle the sensitive subject matter depicted Dear Brother may be too much for you. Plus while the series is finally available on BluRay Discotek Media stated that for some reason the producers only allowed them to license it for a year and since the BR came out last year if you want to own this series you better get it now before the prices on it start jacking up like crazy. As someone who spent ten years trying to find one movie on DVD at a reasonable price I can tell you the pain is real. But Dear Brother is a great anime that shouldnt be missed especially now that its come back into the limelight thanks to being streamed on RetroCrush.