[Spoilers] Dear Brother... Episode 001 Discussion

For those of you who don't know this cult classic was announced as AnimeSols latest project. I wanted an excuse to finally use the service as well as support a series with my wallet directly.

I had heard of Dear Brother (aka Oniisama E...) for a good majority of my life. It was cited as a good staple of the era. From what I had known about the series I thought it would be up my alley. While I'm not against what I saw in the first episode, I was severely uneducated.

First off, I was under the impression it was a romance dealing with heterosexual couples. So as I began watching Nanako experience her first day at school and bumping into, what I thought, was a man... I discovered something was off. The moment had the vintage painter-like design that I haven't seen in the past few years, and then the guy very dramatically swept her off her feet and the camera spun around them three times. It was almost comical, but since it was an older show, it didn't bother me.

Then this guy spoke. He was obviously voiced by a female and I thought I had missed something.

Surprise! It's a shoujo-ai!

Not that I mind, it just caught me off guard. As another character, I was for sure was male, was introduced with a female voice actor though... I realized I have no idea what is the gender of anything in anime anymore.

Besides my own derp when it came to the characters, I felt the animation was super gorgeous. Initially I found it off-putting since the style is so exaggerated and rather old, but as the episode went on I realized how individual strands of hair are moving. It's a pretty amazing sight just to admire some of the stylistic choices.

The characters are so far well defined. There's a hint of huge drama on the horizon. It feels very real with a subtle bit of fantasy (what with the school being unique and some of the girls looking like 6'6" males). It's not like there's magic or duels happening in this rose garden somewhere in the back.

The more I let the episode sink in the more I liked it. I have a tendency to enjoy older shows naturally, but even so I felt indifferent finishing the first episode. Now I'm patiently waiting for AnimeSols to upload today's episode. I'm extremely curious where the show will actually go. I feel like it has so much potential and hints of symbolism, which just gets my head running a bit more.

My only concern is Mariko. It's obvious this series is going to focus on bullying and the likes, but I hope that Mariko actually continues to be Nanako's friend and doesn't turn her back on her right away.

This is really cool. the art is beautiful, and there's already a lot to think about and a lot f potential symbolism.

I have to agree, I had been spoiled on the gender of the love interests, but I was still laughing in surprise when I heard their voices as I was expecting deeper female voices. Ive some suspicions about some characters, but I'll have to wait and see. about to jump into episode 2, let's do this!