If there's one thing I really like in an all-girls school story, it's melodrama. Star-crossed lovers, tragic beauties, excruciating heartache. The more over-the-top the sadness, the better. And no manga has ever been more over-the-top melodramatic than Riyoko Ikeda's 1975 Oniisama e - or done it as well.
Oniisama e (To My Elder Brother) introduces us to Nanako, your typical ordinary-girl heroine - cheerful, preoccupied with fitting in, and very naive. She soon learns that the exclusive Seiran Girls' Academy is no place for naive girls. At its center is the Sorority, a group of untouchably beautiful, accomplished, high-class girls who rule the school in ways I don't really get. Naturally, every student would pretty literally kill to join the ranks of those girls.
I'm sure you can guess what follows.
Nanako is chosen as a sorority candidate for reasons that are fairly incomprehensible (even when we get the Monologue of Explanation later on). She's not particularly smart, or beautiful, or even wealthy. And that makes all the other unremarkable girls very jealous.
The three-volume series follows Nanako as she becomes a member of the Sorority. She learns the dark secrets behind the ladylike facades of the Sorority members and the people they associate with, especially Saint-Just, the truant student whose masculinity and melancholy fascinate Nanako, and some secrets within her own family.
This is a work by Riyoko Ikeda, the award-winning, beloved member of the Year 24 Group. She's most famous for the French Revolutionary epic Versailles no Bara (The Rose of Versailles), which also had melodrama through the roof and extremely manly long-haired females (I get the feeling she has some kind of preoccupation with them). Nothing that Ikeda does isn't amazing, but when it comes to artwork and sheer creativity in layouts, this is hands-down her best work. Borders, shmorders. The action in Oniisama e cascades down the page, with shoujo symbolism overload in every corner. I mean, look at this page:
And I pretty much chose that at random. Lots of manga artists, even the best ones, feel free to get lazy on a page or two, but not Ikeda. Every single page is beautifully-drawn and amazingly laid out and gorgeous.
I'd say it's one of the best contributions to the all-girls school genre of any medium.
Oniisama e (To My Elder Brother) introduces us to Nanako, your typical ordinary-girl heroine - cheerful, preoccupied with fitting in, and very naive. She soon learns that the exclusive Seiran Girls' Academy is no place for naive girls. At its center is the Sorority, a group of untouchably beautiful, accomplished, high-class girls who rule the school in ways I don't really get. Naturally, every student would pretty literally kill to join the ranks of those girls.
I'm sure you can guess what follows.
Nanako is chosen as a sorority candidate for reasons that are fairly incomprehensible (even when we get the Monologue of Explanation later on). She's not particularly smart, or beautiful, or even wealthy. And that makes all the other unremarkable girls very jealous.
The three-volume series follows Nanako as she becomes a member of the Sorority. She learns the dark secrets behind the ladylike facades of the Sorority members and the people they associate with, especially Saint-Just, the truant student whose masculinity and melancholy fascinate Nanako, and some secrets within her own family.
This is a work by Riyoko Ikeda, the award-winning, beloved member of the Year 24 Group. She's most famous for the French Revolutionary epic Versailles no Bara (The Rose of Versailles), which also had melodrama through the roof and extremely manly long-haired females (I get the feeling she has some kind of preoccupation with them). Nothing that Ikeda does isn't amazing, but when it comes to artwork and sheer creativity in layouts, this is hands-down her best work. Borders, shmorders. The action in Oniisama e cascades down the page, with shoujo symbolism overload in every corner. I mean, look at this page:
And I pretty much chose that at random. Lots of manga artists, even the best ones, feel free to get lazy on a page or two, but not Ikeda. Every single page is beautifully-drawn and amazingly laid out and gorgeous.
I'd say it's one of the best contributions to the all-girls school genre of any medium.
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