Sister Princess: Oh Brother (volume 1)

Reviewed By: Carla Land

ADV DVD

Review based on 1st disk (episodes 1-4)

Rating 13+

What it’s (basically) all about: Wataru, the best student in his junior high school, didn’t pass the only high school entrance exam he took. His butler has quit, and he’s been kicked out of his home and sent to a high school he’s never heard of on an island he’s never heard of, and is now living with 13 sisters that he didn’t know he had. With his life completely turned on its ear (and his butler showing up in the strangest places), Wataru now has to try pull himself together and start his life over- if his sisters will give him a chance to do it.

Nitty Gritty: The disk opens with Anime Network and Newtype Magazine promotions. Other special features include clean open/ closing animation, three and a half minutes of production sketches, and a “Behind the Scenes” mini-featurette with the voice actors who play Wataru, Karen and Hinako. ADV previews for Wedding Peach, Azumanga Daioh, Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat, Aquarian Age, Cyberteam in Akihabara, and Kaleido Star are also included, and are appropriate for all ages.

The show itself is a little confusing. Wataru says “It can’t be true” three to six times an episode, and it’s easy to see why he thinks he may be dreaming all of this. Jeeves, his former butler, seems to appear at just the right time in a myriad of different jobs. By the end of the second episode Wataru finds that he is the big brother to 13 younger girls, ranging in age from 5 to 14. Like any boy confronted with that many sisters, he usually tries to escape the island at least once an episode.

Other quirks-of-interest include Yamato, another student new to the island that is jealous of Wataru’s living arrangements, the fact some of Wataru’s sisters have accents that are clearly supposed to be foreign, and the mysterious (and as yet overlooked) fact that he never applied to this school in the first place yet somehow got accepted.

The only thing to look out for is that Wataru is mildly attracted to a couple of his sisters before he finds out that they are sisters, and it comes back to haunt him a couple of times.

Survey says: Good for teen/ Young Adult collections. No bad language, no violence, and no nudity or sexual situations.

Personal Ad: I’m going to watch the second disk if only to find out if Wataru ever learns how he ended up with thirteen sisters that he’s never met before now. (That and I really like Braden Hunt, the actor who plays Wataru- he also played Hakkai in Saiyuki.)