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This story starts off like Tenchi Muyo, and then slowly segues into an Oh My Goddess rip off...

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Please Teacher

Review by Ikeda Takezo w/Matt Anderson

12 Episode TV series + 1 OVA

Company: Bandai ent

Running Time: 325 minutes (13 episodes)

Region: 1

Rated: PG-13 (language and Adult situations)

EXTERNAL EXAM

Life can be rough as a high school student. It can be particularly difficult if you have this rare disease (called standstills) that causes black outs under stress. The only thing that could possibly be worse is to be abducted by gruesome aliens.

For Kei Kusanagi, the worst thing that could happen, has! He has discovered that his new teacher, Miss Mizuho, is an alien, sent to observe humans. Not only that, but because of his knowledge, he has to marry her. While being married to a beautiful alien may not seem like a bad thing, it totally messes up his life. First, he has to hide their relationship from his fellow students. Then he has to deal with his parents objections. Last but not least, he must figure out how to deal with his budding relationship with class mate Koishi.

Just when he though things couldn't get any worse, Mizuho's mother and younger sister arrives, with their own plans for our lucky looser Kei.

With all this stress, will Kei be able to handle things, or will the next standstill put him in a coma forever?

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: The video is excellent quality with stunning main characters. The backgrounds were also done well and overall this is an excellent production. No color bleeds or fading were noted; however, there were many instances of aliasing problems as viewed on the computer. On a regular television these were not apparent, and with an HDTV, previous tests have shown the aliasing would not be present.

AUDIO: Both Dolby tracks had good sound, good separation and volume. The Dolby 5.0 track did have a different sound, but this is due to 5.0 v.s. 2.0. If you got that answer right, you get an A.

EDITS: The original credits have all been replaced by English translations. Having been in a blackout during the original TV airings, I can’t say if there are any edits beyond the credits.

EXTRAS: The content in each volume is fairly extensive, and what one would expect from a current release. TV commercial segments, promotional clips, music clips, and a long trailers are always a nice addition. Each volume also has an extensive gallery of the main characters in that volume, which includes design sketches as well as cell shaded images. Inside the case, there is a mini poster that also lists the chapters and has full cast and production credits on the reverse side.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: This story starts off like Tenchi Muyo, and then slowly segues into an Oh My Goddess rip off, right down to the sexy older woman, and the young sister who opposes the marriage. Planned and created by Please! and written by Yosuke Kuroda, it feels like the series was written by geeks who need to fill some sort hole that OMG and other romantic comedies left.

ACTING: The acting in Onegai Teacher is unfortunately very good, yet bland. Both Japanese and English casts do a good job, it’s just that with a choice of either stereotypical or simply bland characters, neither cast stands out. Looking at it from a purely performance standpoint, the acting gets an A on both accounts, but as the acting alone can’t flesh out something not written, both casts are disappointing.

FAN SERVICE: The fan service in Onegai Teacher is fairly good. However, it isn’t saying much when most of the information given only shores up the weak foundation of the story itself. But the fan service does get a B+ for effort.

Ecchi content in Onegai Teacher isn’t really there. Even Kazami-sensei’s alien costume isn’t that revealing. If you were hoping for some super sexy scenes, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

FINAL EXAM

The biggest problem with Onegai Teacher is that there is simply nothing original. Well, if you count the cell phone caricature of Marie, Mizuho-sensei’s ship controller, you could say there is something original. Perhaps Marie’s undeveloped image might strike the cute-chord in some, I felt that his (yes, Marie is a he...) character was rather undeveloped and lacked plausibility. If Marie (pronounced Mar e ay) is the key to such a powerful ship, and can teleport people anywhere to other dimensions, why does a backhand render him useless? Surely the Galaxy Federation didn’t simply design Marie as an after market sale item? Right?

The music in Onegai Teacher was also clearly re-tuned from other anime. You may think it sounds good and is original, but take a look at To Heart and Kodomo no Omocha, and you’ll hear the better, original music that is in Onegai Teacher.

Am I being overly harsh regarding this show? Here’s an example of why I had such a problem with Onegai Teacher. Kei and Mizuho-sensei are on vacation, and stop along the road to look at a man powered glider. Sure it looks like the science teacher’s plane. Oh wait! There he is! Oh, look! Here come all of Kei’s high school friends, fancy they’d be at the same beach, on the same weekend as Kei and Mizuho-sensei. Now, Kei and Mizuho can’t be seen together, that would cause too much scandal. So what does our main character pair do to avoid such an embarrassing scene? Nothing! They sit there until the kids see Mizuho-sensei and walk over to say hi. Of course, Kei has to sneak around the car to coincidentally arrive as well. It’s called start the car and drive off, then flesh out some meaningful relationship between Kei and Mizuho-sensei.

Simply put, the artwork of Onegai Teacher is great. But the story is brutally simple, unimaginative, and taken right from the frames of past anime. If you’ve watched some very well known cable anime, you’ll recognize each scene in all four volumes of Onegai Teacher.

Please Teacher, may I be excused? If you are not going to teach us anything new, why should I stay?

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