Oniisama e
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Oniisama e (おにいさまへ
; lit. "To [my respected] elder brother") was an anime series that aired on NHK from July 1991 to April 1992, based on the manga by Ikeda Riyoko. It is commonly known in English as Brother, Dear Brother, this being the translation given to it by the fan sub group TechnoGirls.
The series originally started out as a manga in the early-mid 1970s, about a 14 year old girl (Misoono Nanako) who attends a prestigious academy and deals with life as a high school student via writing letters to her "brother" (generally, brothers in this sense are merely older men who agree to read someone else's letters.. sort of a one-sided pen pal). The manga has never been released in the United States, though it has been translated into Italian.
The anime series spans 39 episodes and ends when Nanoko is about 17 and a half years old. The show's themes can be dark, ranging from incest to suicide attempts to life-threatening illnesses. The series was also dubbed and released in Italy and France, though it was pulled after 26 episodes, due to strong adult content.
Fan Subs
The TechnoGirls are best known for sub tiling this series. A digi sub group called The anime instrumentality Project released episodes 36-39 c. 2003, which had a much higher quality picture and sound (the video source may have been dvd but it's uncertain). In a twist, the TechnoGirls subbed episodes were converted to avi files and uploaded as a torrent (the TechnoGirls have often expressed their dislike for people who profit off of their work, though no money was involved concerning transferring the tapes to avi files, as far as public knowledge goes.)