Dear Brother is a Japanese manga series by Riyoko Ikeda. It was adapted into an anime series that aired on NHK-BS2 channel 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, 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 Italian and Polish. The series spans 39 anime episodes and 3 manga volumes, ending when Nanako is eighteen.
Plot
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". 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.
Characters
;Nanako Misonoo ;Tomoko Arikura ;Rei Asaka ;Mariko Shinobu ;Kaoru Orihara ;Fukiko Ichinomiya ;Aya Misaki ;Takehiko Henmi ;Takashi Ichinomiya Miyuki Sonobe Megumi Furuta Junko Nakaya A girl from another first-year classroom, chosen to be in the Sorority alongside Mariko and Nanako. She is becomes the first member of the Sorority who is expelled from it due to her bad grades, despite having a reasonable excuse ; Fukiko further humiliates her via exposing her case to everyone in the Sorority and then demanding for her to resign, despite Nanako's objections. She ultimately does so, and later confesses to Nanako that she had begun to feel uncomfortable in the Sorority itself. In the anime she is given some more spotlight, as she is introduced via speaking to a friend about Nanako's qualifications to be in the Sorority, which angers Mariko; few later, she rejoins the cast and befriends Nanako more properly. Later in the series, she returns to support to motion to abolish the sorority. Mr. and Mrs. Misonoo Nanako's parents, or more exactly, Nanako's mother and stepfather. Mr. Misonoo, a well-known and respected college professor, was formerly married to Takehiko Henmi's mother, and after a very bitter divorce, he took to drinking his sorrows away; Nanako's mother was the waitress of the pub that he attended the most, and once the professor sobered up, they fell in love and got married. Ever since then Professor Misonoo has been a kind father figure to Nanako, though he wasn't able to rekindle his bonds to Takehiko as well; he and his new wife still worked hard to both be able to support themselves and help Takehiko after his mother's death. When Nanako is chosen as a Sorority member, one of the reasons she was questioned the most for was the assumption that her mother was a homewrecker, which was obviously false. Hisako and Hikawa Shinobu Mariko Shinobu's parents. Hikawa Shinobu is a rich and popular erotica writer, and his work is used by Aya and her group to bully Mariko at school; not to mention, his affair with an ex-actress is very well known, as well as the reason why Mariko hates men of all kinds. Hisako attempts to take care of Mariko as much as she can while ignoring her own troubles, but while Mariko loves her deeply, her forceful personality sometimes is too much to handle. In the manga, Hikawa never made proper apparitions; in the anime, however, he and his mistress show up in person.
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.
