Onegai Teacher

Please! Teacher

Also Known As: OT

Genre: Romance

Format: 13 Episodes

Allegiance: GENCO

Director: Ide Yasunori

Vintage: 2002

Intelligence Agency Report by: Orax

Falling in a comatose state is never fun for Kusanagi Kei especially when it forces him to miss school for extended periods of time. It’s pretty much a sickness he’s been hiding from everyone except his family. However, one day he spots a spaceship with one lone passenger, a beautiful woman. Is it coincidence that this same woman turned out to be his teacher? And how unlucky can he be that within a day his teacher is able to discover his condition? This is only the beginning for an adventure in friendship and romance.

Field Agent Report by: Orax

Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio

8.00
8.50
8.75
8.50
8.50

Overall

8.50

(not an average)

Onegai Teacher is a short sweet, twelve episode series that has the potential to grip you if you let it. This is a series that starts off with comedy and gradually turns into a nice romance. Once you get past the fact that Mizuho is an alien who works for some organization that sounds like Gingerbread-men, Onegai Teacher might make a fan out of you yet.

Onegai Teacher has the tendency to borrow a lot from previous anime, most notably Oh! My Goddess, and in my opinion it’s able to improve upon them. Though some characters might be similar to other series, they never fail to bring this series alive. The last six episodes especially feel real to the point where you care and sympathize with the characters, just like they were your own friends. Onegai Teacher is able to make this attachment possible by following a real simple structure for most of the series. Each episode has its own little dilemma that needs to be worked out, and this dilemma serves as a way to bring Mizuho and Kei closer together. These episodes also focus on the side characters and how they relate to Mizuho and Kei. But a flaw shows up in this structure as too much emphasis is put on these sides characters, like Herikawa, to the extent that they feel like they’re main characters even though they’re not. As a result, both Kei and Mizuho feel bland compared to the rest of the cast. Thankfully by the end Mizuho and Kei receive the focus they deserve.

The music and art are no slouch either. The music really fits this series like a glove. I’m not saying it’s the best thing I’ve heard but from the opening J-pop song to the background music, all of it makes the OT atmosphere that much more complete. Decorated with beautiful, vibrant colors, the art in Onegai Teacher is very easy on the eyes and good quality for when it came out.

As for the ending, it can either be rewarding or downright unbelievable in a bad way. Like how a depressing, sad ending can be very emotional, leaving an impression on the viewer, I believe a joyful, happy ending can be just as powerful. Some may call it cheesy, but the execution complemented by the series ending song is excellent and never fails to put a warm smile on my face. Overall, Onegai Teacher is a solid anime with a few quirks, but those faults won’t diminish the enjoyment of the series.

Field Agent Report by: Drake

Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio

8.50
8.00
9.00
9.00
8.50

Overall

8.75

(not an average)

It’s nice to enter an anime expecting disappointment and leaving it content with the results. That’s the best one-line statement I can give regarding my experience with Onegai Teacher. What changed my opinion so drastically? The answer is pretty simple- don’t write off all high school love stories as the same thing, because they aren’t. Despite how similar some elements are to other series in the genre such as Ah! My Goddess, Onegai Teacher is able to take those elements and improve on them.

One of the reasons Onegai Teacher wasn’t such a flop was due to the length of the series, which comes in at twelve episodes. Each episode created smaller adventures that were able to easily build to a satisfying ending, as well as build great characters along the way. However, while I enjoyed the plot overall, I can’t help but point out some weaknesses that detracted from the anime’s ability to provide a realistic depiction of young teenagers dealing with life- namely the wedding scene, in which Kei and Mizuho get married. In my honest opinion, the reactions of the school and Kei’s guardians, who were all too cheery and accepting of a student marrying his teacher, just didn’t go over as well as I would’ve liked. These small flaws are balanced out by a phenomenal cast of characters ranging from the loser male protagonist to the ‘Belldandy’ clone, the shy girl, the loud and rowdy guy, the girl that is hopelessly in love with the leading male protagonist, and the young girl with an IQ greater than the entire crew put together. They don’t sound exciting, but by the end of the anime, they are no longer just cut-out models. They are truly fleshed out with a full three hundred and sixty degree view of their characters. In some cases, the characters in episode twelve are barely recognizable from their premiere selves.

Visually, the series is beautifully drawn. Everything from the backdrops to the characters is well done, despite some similarities in character design to its predecessors in the genre. To top off all these great aspects, the OT OST is pretty stellar, including openings and endings like “Shooting Star” and “Sora no Mori De,” respectively.

While, on the surface, Onegai Teacher may look like just another run-of-the-mill high school romance anime, its digestable length and fully-developed characters help bring even more to this series. It is definetly worth the money and time to watch, and I recommend you make this a top priority!