Dear Brother

Did You Know?

• The series originally started out as a manga in the early to mid-1970s.
• Rei Asaka's nickname 'Saint-Juste' comes from Louis de Saint-Just, a French Revolutionary known as the 'Angel of Death.'
• Mariko Shinobu's father is an erotica author who has an affair with an actress and later divorces Mariko's mother.

Plot

Nanako Misonoo is a sixteen-year-old starting her first year at Seiran Academy, an exclusive girls' school. She tells her story through letters addressed to a young man she calls "Oniisama," or Brother. That man is Takehiko Henmi, who was once her teacher at a cram school. Despite lacking the looks, talents, or background typically required, Nanako is unexpectedly chosen for the school's elite Sorority. This draws her into the lives of the "Magnificent Three," the three most popular girls on campus. She grows close to the talented but troubled Rei Asaka, though Rei's obsessive attachment to Sorority president Fukiko Ichinomiya keeps Nanako at a distance. Nanako also befriends Mariko Shinobu, a beautiful and lonely girl determined to join the Sorority and make Nanako her best friend no matter what. Because of her surprising membership, Nanako faces constant bullying from her peers, especially a girl named Aya Misaki. Through all this, she finds support from her childhood friend Tomoko, the athletic but secretly ill Kaoru Orihara, the intense Mariko, and her ongoing letters to her "brother," who harbors secrets of his own. The story follows Nanako's first year at Seiran Academy as she uncovers the hidden pasts of the school's most popular students, confronting love, loss, and family secrets, including the true nature of her connection to Takehiko.

Characters

Nanako Misonoo is the main character, suddenly and unexpectedly chosen to join The Sorority, an elite group at her new high school, eliciting the wrath and jealousy of her classmates. She is innocent, caring, sometimes insecure, but always determined to do what is right. She falls in love with Rei "Saint-Juste" Asaka. Tomoko Arikura is Nanako's childhood friend and arguably the only "normal-themed" character in the series. In the anime, Mariko attempts to end the friendship and almost succeeds, but Tomoko ultimately remains by Nanako's side and protects her from Aya Misaki's bullying, and the three of them become best friends for the entire duration of the show, with Tomoko acting as the series' main comedic relief. Rei "Saint-Juste of the Flowers" Asaka is a second year student and one of the "Magnificent Three" known for her social indifference and her many artistic talents—she plays the guitar and sings in the manga, and plays the piano, the flute and violin and acts in the anime. She is also shown playing basketball in the anime, replacing Kaoru in at least one game (Episode 16 "Comeback"). Incredibly loyal and devoted to the ones she loves, Rei's destructive relationship with Fukiko Ichinomiya leads her to be troubled, obsessed with death, and drug-addicted. She dies late in the series; in the manga she dies by suicide via pill overdose, but in the anime her death is an accident as she falls off of a commuter bridge, into the path of a train (Episode 34 "Ablution") while trying to catch a bouquet of flowers that she purchased for Nanako. Mariko Shinobu is Nanako's classmate, a fellow Sorority member and a former student of the junior high school attached to Seiran. She distrusts all men because of her troubled family life: her father Hikawa is an erotica author who has an affair with an actress and later divorces Mariko's mother Hisako. As a result she is terrified of abandonment to the point where she becomes obsessed with the ones around her. On one occasion, Mariko becomes extremely possessive towards Nanako when Nanako tries to leave the Shinobu Residence, later refusing to eat until Nanako accepts her apology and forgives her; she collapses after three days due to hunger. She also admits to loving Kaoru (Episode 16 "Comeback"). Almost at the end, Mariko injures Aya after Aya makes fun of her family problems in front of the class, leading Mariko to be suspended from school and expelled from the Sorority. Near the end of the series, Mariko's parents finally divorce. Kaoru "Kaoru-no-Kimi" Orihara is one of the "Magnificent Three," the class representative of Nanako and her friend's class and the star of the basketball team, known for her tomboyish way of dress and her great athletic skills. She has a mysterious and deadly illness (breast cancer) kept secret from most of her classmates; it's only known in public that she was held back a year due to unnamed health problems. As Rei's best friend, she greatly dislikes Fukiko for everything she has done to Rei and hates the very existence of the Sorority.

Media

The manga has been translated into French, Italian and Polish. The series spans 39 anime episodes and three manga volumes.

Reception

Lynzee Loveridge of Anime News Network noted the series features characters who are 'off their rockers and have beautiful clothes,' calling the Sorority 'relentless' toward those who are not 'perfect.' Erica Friedman of Okazu described the series as 'extraordinarily dark' and centered on Ichinomiya Fukiko. Carlos Ross of THEM Anime Reviews said the series is not well-known in the United States but treats the 'cruel machinations of high-school age girls' frankly in a 'character-driven story.' Ross noted the enka music may seem slow to Western ears but is appropriate, and that the series has a 'reputation...for having lesbian overtones,' calling the anime a 'classic.'