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SHOUJO ANIME

Reviews of Shoujo anime titles #3

Introduction

Shoujo anime is formally defined as anime adapted from shoujo manga - that is manga written for magazines aimed at girls and young women. In general this nowadays means manga that is also written and drawn by women. Obviously, such anime has some female orientation, but it would be over-simplifying matters to label it as female anime, since men are likely to be involved in anime productions.
It should also be borne in mind that some popular manga created by a woman (eg RANMA 1/2) is not regarded as shoujo manga since it was aimed principally at boys and published in a boys' magazine. Also, for similar reasons, ORANGE ROAD, though it treats strong female characters sympathetically, is not regarded as shoujo. Anyway, we believe that Izumo Matsumoto is male. For those interested in such matters, there is a lively shoujo mailing list on the Internet.(to join, use Mailing Lists, and pick the Shoujo ML.
The "flowers" cliche has become associated with shoujo in fans' minds. Yes, but not all shoujo anime is like that...

Dear Brother (Onisama E)
Slayers

Dear Brother (Onisama E), (39eps. x 25m)
Onisama E is set in a private school for rich girls, the Seiran Academy, and is the story of Nanako, a professor's daughter & nice-but-ordinary girl, and how she fares there. The 'Dear Brother' of the title is an absent brother to whom Nanako composes diary-like letters telling him about her troubles. The school has an exclusive sorority, membership to which confers many social privileges (and also benefits such as extra tuition), and membership is eagerly sought after. When Nanako is admitted, other girls are consumed with rage and jealousy, and make life almost intolerable for her. Nanako is befriended by a beautiful girl, Mariko, who proceeds to undermine Nanako's friendship with her kindergarten friend Tomoko, and whose feelings for Nanako go far beyond friendship...
Then there are three girls with strange nicknames: "Saint-Juste-sama" a disturbed girl, so tall and slim that Nanako initially mistakes her for a boy, Kauro-no-Kimi, tall and athletic, and opposed to the Sorority, but ill with heart trouble, and "Miya-sama" the chilly leader of the Sorority. Saint-Juste is hopelessly obsessed with Miya-sama.
Kauro-no-Kimi befriends Nanako, who also is fascinated by Saint-Juste and tries to help her.
It's no exaggeration to say that this is one of the most beautiful anime series I have ever seen, with very detailed character design. It's a drama, with none of the attempts at humour which are ubiquitous in recent anime, and contains some fairly shocking elements; indeed the series is, as soon becomes obvious, largely about intense female friendships, (which some will interpret as lesbianism), as well as about hazing and the less pleasant things that go on in schools. The series was clearly aimed at older girls and is frankly unsuitable for juveniles. It was shown briefly on Italian and French TV but proved too much even for these liberal regimes and was respectively cut and axed.
Now visit the Techno-Girls' site, which is the only other substantial source on the Internet of Onisama e information. The Techno-girls also did the only available fansubs (#1-#12). Their site has a list of distributors.
There was a manga by Ryoko IKEDA of "Rose of Versailles" fame, but this is currently out of print. No complete set of episode translations or synopses for the anime seems to be available, but I do have a manga synopsis. The anime story is an expanded version of the manga story, and the two do not differ radically. I presume that there is a laserdisk set for the series, which you might investigate if money is no object.

SLAYERS (TV series)
This is a comedy fantasy series, featuring the adventures of spunky young sorceress Lina Inverse. Lina is quite small, but this doesn't prevent her from wielding some dangerous magic and generally getting the better of her opponents.
The TV series is a lot of fun, and while I am not 100% certain that it qualifies as shoujo, it has evidently been a hit with female fans, some of whom go as far as to use "Lina Inverse" as a Net alias. I also saw a Slayers movie, which teams Lina up with another female who has exceedingly large breasts. One for the boys, no doubt, and tiresome.
{G.Cowie, 10.5.98}