There aren't as many manga out there about brothers as there are about sisters, but a series like this doesn't make the best case for why there shouldn't be more.
ME & MY BROTHERS (Onii-chan to Issho), by Hana Tokeino. First published in 2004 and first published in North America in 2007.
PLOT:
Sakura had been orphaned at an early age, and age 14 she was orphaned again when her beloved grandmother passed away. Shortly thereafter, her quiet home is invaded by four strange young men who immediately declare themselves to be her brothers. They are in truth her former step-brothers, who were separated from her upon the death of her parents when Sakura was an infant. Now they want to make up for lost time, but can Sakura deal with the challenges that come with having four very overprotective guardians?
STORY:
Me & My Brother makes a lot of hay about the importance of family but mostly it's about rehashing a lot of the same old shojo set-ups for the sake of cheap drama. Part of me wonders if Hari Toekino wasn't trying to ape Fruits Basket a little with this series, considering it revolves around an orphaned girl surrounded by a veritable harem of handsome, overprotective young men. Maybe that's just because Tsuyoshi the resident tsundere comes off very much as a bargain-bin Kyo, while the obnoxious Masashi feels like the worst possible mash-up of Shigure and Ayami. The other two are simply there to restrain the others.
Sakura is definitely no Tohru, though. There are times where she tries to be a subservient peacemaker, but the story doesn't linger much on any grief she might feel about her parents, her grandmother, or over being too young to remember her previous family the way her brothers can. She's also prone to very dumb, surface-level misunderstandings that somehow always seem to conclude with her having a pout in the park until the brother she's mad at comes to fetch her. Even for a 14 year old, she comes off as very childish.
Considering the premise and the fact that the story goes to great pains to stress how Sakura and her brothers are related only through marriage, you might worry that this story might go full Bunny Drop and actively ship Sakura with her brothers. It's hard to say at this point if Tokeino will go that far, but there's definitely moments where their affection and over-protectiveness of her goes beyond mere brotherly love. Either way, it adds nothing to the story but a whole lot of awkwardness.
ART:
Hari Tokeino's artstyle only adds to the childishness of the story. The simple, cutesy way she draws everybody's face makes everyone look like a teenager regardless of their actual age (and Sakura like an elementary student). Maybe I'd forgive it more if her panels weren't so busy with screentones or if she had any talent for conveying comedy. Visually, there isn't much here that you couldn't get from dozens of other shojo mangaka from the same time period.
PRESENTATION:
There's an additional side story: "Parallel To the World." It's about Shuu, a tomboy who's crushing on her reserved childhood best friend Takao. She complains out loud at one point that if she were a boy and Takao was a girl, everything would be different. A tiny magical Santa Claus (don't ask) takes her up on that wish, pulling her into an alternate world. Some of you might hope that this is a story of Shuu cracking their metaphorical gender egg, but in truth it's just about forcing her to acknowledge that she's been kind of a dick to her friend and to just go ahead and confess her feelings to him. It's a rather ho-hum conclusion to an otherwise attention-grabbing premise.
I did find it a little funny that I clearly wasn't the only one who was reminded of Fruits Basket while reading this, as there's a preview for Volume 17 of that series at the end of this volume.
RATING:
This series was published by Tokyopop. It is complete in Japan with 11 volumes available. All 11 volumes were released and are currently out of print.
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