Sister Princess is a popular Japanese bishojo series authored by Sakurako Kimino and illustrated by Naoto Tenhiro. It began as a serialized light novel series in 1999. In 2001, a manga series and a bishojo game for the Sony PlayStation were released. Sequels to the game were released for the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance. Sister Princess was also adapted into a Japanese anime television series.
The history of Sister Princess can be traced back to March 1999, when it first appeared in the monthly Dengeki G's Magazine. Originally, there were only nine sisters, not twelve. Readers were able to vote for their favorite sister and following the tremendous response from the fans, the magazine decided to serialize Sister Princess.
In March 2000, a decision was made to renew the series, this time by featuring the short letters that the girls wrote to their beloved brother. Three more sisters were added to the mix: Haruka, who came from Germany; Yotsuba, who came from England; and Aria, who came from France.
A year later, on March 8, 2001, the game version of Sister Princess — about the older brother spending a month with all twelve sisters, and featuring original artwork by Naoto Tenhiro—was released on the Sony PlayStation. Priced at 6800yen (9800yen for the limited edition), the game was the third best-selling title in Japan in its first week of release.
In July of the same year, a new series of stories began in Dengeki G's, right up till April 2002. While the magazine was preparing for yet another renewal of the Sister Princess stories for its May 2002 issue, a premium edition of the game (the original plus two other Christmas and Valentine side stories) was released for the Sega Dreamcast on Mar 28, 2002.
Sequels include Sister Princess 2 and Sister Princess RePure.
In September 2003, the series was retired as G's Magazine premier flagship title (replaced by another popular series, Futakoi). Despite the urging of fans, no official story elements has been produced since then.
The portrayal of events in the first Sister Princess anime is not considered canon by MediaWorks or hardcore fans. It's more commonly accepted as an alternate universe setting. The Sister Princess RePure anime is more faithful to the original magazine stories than its predecessor, and was created to answer disappointed fans. In fact, the stories told in the "second half" of each episode are actually modified versions of the magazine stories or mini-novels. There is nothing in Sister Princess RePure that contradicts the games, magazine stories or mini-novels: thus it can be considered canon, despite not actually being so.
The premise behind Sister Princess is that an ordinary young man (the player) is made to live with twelve lovable little sisters, each with their own distinct quirks and personalities. Both the "little sister" characters and the plot of "being forced to live with beautiful girls" are very common and popular in bishojo products.
Sister Princess is remarkable for its intensely cute and saccharine atmosphere, taking to an extreme a tendency in Japanese culture. With its focus of young girls, the series can be classified as moe but not technically lolicon since it does not contain pornographic elements.
The game itself plays out like a dating sim. Players have about a month to spend with the sisters with each day broken up into three segments: first is the free time period before noon, followed by the period after lunch and ending with another period of time before bed. During day time, the player can choose which of the girls he wishes to escort to school, if any. The period after lunch is similar to the one in the morning, with additional choices which allow the player to go to various places in town besides walking home with one of the girls. Every night before bed, the player will be allowed to check his e-mail and send replies. As the player continues to interact with the sisters, their reactions to their big brother will change accordingly until the ending.
According to one source, there are two different endings for each sister: the normal ending and the "non-blood relation" ending. As the name would suggest, the special ending reveals that the brother-character and sister aren't actually related by blood. In the case of some of the older sisters, this can lead to the protagonist and "sister" marrying one another.
In Sister Princess 1, the player can see two different endings for each sister, but Sister Princess 2 has four endings for each sister. The first two were the non-sibling relation and siblings-together ending and, if the player chooses one sister in the beginning but ends up with another sister, either of the other two endings for the first sister who the player does not choose appear ("non-blood relation" ending and "still brother and sister forever" ending also) but with a different story.
Sister Princess is one of the few popular dating game series that does not feature hentai elements. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, a rival company known as GIGA decided to create the hentai knockoff Colorful Kiss. While this game features a different cast of characters (to avoid lawsuits), their setup and personalities are comparable. Colorful Kiss was popular enough to warrant the sequel Colorful Heart. It is important to note that these GIGA titles are ultimately incestuous.
CHARACTERS:
1 - Aria: Aria is a rather soft-spoken character who has a tendency to cry whenever there is trouble, uttering the phrase "kusu" (an onomatopoeia for sniffling) when doing so. She enjoys sweets, especially parfait, and can usually be found wearing very frilly dresses with plenty of lace and bows. She refers to herself in the third-person, which is considered childish in Japanese culture, and speaks slowly.
2 - Chikage: Mysterious, aloof, and occasionally gothic, Chikage is very much into spellcraft, the occult, and religion. She is an accomplished practitioner of dark magic, but prefers to utilize her sorcery in subtle methods, rather than brute power. Common images associated with her are the Christian cross and butterflies.
3 - Haruka: Hailing from Germany, Haruka aspires to become a perfect Japanese lady (Yamato Nadeshiko). She is frequently seen wearing a kimono and can be found learning Japanese tea ceremony (sado) along with other cultural things. Haruka is an expert at handling the daikyu and naginata. Interestingly, training in these weapons is akin to the training given to the brides of samurai; Haruka's training in these weapons may or may not have been inspired due to her desire to be a perfect Japanese bride for a person of high standing—like her brother.
4 - Hinako: The youngest of the sisters, Hinako is very much a child and shows her affection accordingly. In the anime, Hinako frequently insists on her brother reading to her from picture books.
5 - Kaho: Despite being a bit clumsy, Kaho is on her school's cheerleading team and loves to cheer her brother on. She is an accomplished gardener, and frequently grows flowers for and with her brother. She refers to herself in the third-person and addresses her brother as Onii-chama , a childish version of onii-sama.
6 - Karen: Sweet and gentle, Karen's personality sometimes seems more suitable for an older (rather than younger) sister. She is a very skilled pianist. In the magazine stories and mini-novels, Karen owns a kitten named Vanilla (who, incidentally, has a thing for vanilla flavored sweets). Like several of the sisters, she refers to herself in the third-person and addresses her brother as Onii-chan, a way to call a brother by a younger sibling, usually a child.
7 - Mamoru: The athlete of the group, Mamoru is always trying to get her brother to play sports with her. She is sometimes mistaken for Rinrin due to their similar hairstyles and their penchant for donning their eyewear on their head. As she is a tomboy, Mamoru uses phrases and mannerisms that only boys are expected to. As proof of this, she addresses her brother as Anii (???, Anii?), a shorter address used by a male teenager.
8 - Marie: Possessing a weak constitution, the bespectacled Marie has spent a lot of time in the hospital due to her illness. Her pet Michael, a Golden Retriever, acts as her guardian and friend when her brother isn't around. She addresses her brother as Aniue-sama , the honorific -uesama (a combination of ue and -sama) being used within the royal family or as a sign of politeness.
9 - Rinrin: Gifted in the fields of science and technology, Rinrin spends a lot of her time building things but constantly asks her brother for monetary donations to keep her projects going. Lately, she's been constructing a robot duplicate of herself, Mecha-Rinrin. She speaks with a strong Chinese accent and addresses her brother as Aniki, another way for a boy to address his brother.
10 - Sakuya: Sakuya behaves very much like a modern teenager and is fashion conscious. She would love for her brother to see her as woman and not just a sister.
11 - Shirayuki: Shirayuki loves to cook, especially for her brother, and is always trying out new recipes for him. She refers to herself in the third-person as "Hime", which translates to "princess". This might be because of her name's Western variant: Snow White. She also frequently ends her sentences with the phrase "desu-no." She addresses her brother as Nii-sama, which is shorter than Sakuya's, but polite.
12 - Yotsuba: Hailing from England (as evidenced by her occasional penchant for anything with a Union Flag), Yotsuba fancies herself a detective à la Sherlock Holmes. She can often be found with either a digital camera or a magnifying glass in hand, trying to spy on her brother. In the magazine stories and mini-novels, Yotsuba owns an unnamed talking toucan (not surprisingly, it can only say "checki" and "Ani-chama"). She refers to herself in the third-person and is fond of using the catchphrase, "Checky!". She addresses her brother as Ani-chama, which is a childish address similar to Kaho's, but laced with a British accent.
Manufacturer's description:
Everyday conversational adventure begins with the hero's bustling twelve cute younger sisters. Set in mid-March from the month of February 11. Equipped with its own systems to reproduce the favorability of the sibling bond can be accomplished through communication and email conversations with my sister. What will you create a story and any sisters.
Features:
- First person perspective.
- 2D graphics
- Cartoon graphics
- Dating & Anime themes.
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