Ranked #780

Onegai Teacher

This is an interesting series to review. First because I think a lot of people are going to read the summery of this show and dismiss it right away without even giving it a try and that is really a shame. As far as romances go this is one of the more satisfying series I have watched.

Let’s face it that for a large number of people the student teacher romance that is the core of this show is probably going to offend or at the least make people feel a little uncomfortable. With so many high profile real life cases, this sort of thing doesn’t feel like the innocent school crush that I think almost everyone (boy or girl) had for a teacher at their school at some point in their life. To be honest I felt a little uncomfortable at times with it. Even though they do point out that Kei is 18 and do to an illness that caused him to miss 3 years of school he was held back. So legally at least no laws are being broken I suppose.

The premise of the story is, well to put it bluntly, one of the silliest if not the silliest I have ever seen in an anime (and that’s saying something really). But what develops out of this turns into a very touching romance as both develop their love and feelings for one another. The supporting characters also have romances of their own and it was refreshing to see a show in which all the female characters were not in love with the same guy. The whole alien aspect of the show and Mizuho's really reason for being on earth is really just a small subplot of the series and the story is pretty much totally focused on the romantic elements. Which is great! Also you might think a show like this would be pretty echii but it really isn’t, which was a pleasant surprise for me. Sure there is fan service but it’s pretty tame for the most part. There are a lot of adult themes as well so this isn’t a show for kids.

The show does a great job in developing all its characters. The two leads and the main supporting characters all get fleshed out very nicely and by the end of the series I really felt they changed and grew. This is really a strong point of the show. However a couple things did annoy me that forced me to knock down the rating I gave it a little. One, Kei constantly refers to Mizuho as Sensei, even when they are alone and intimate. I expected him to grow in this way but with few exceptions he almost never refers to her by her name. I know that may sound like a silly thing to some but I think it’s important. In addition it constantly reminds you of the whole indecency of the relationship I talked about above. Also Kei is also kind of an annoying wussy.

The acting is pretty good, Kei's voice actor is not that great. He kind of reinforces the whole weakling aspect of his character that got on my nerves as the show went on. The music shines though, with KOTOKO and Mami Kawada doing the songs pretty much saves my view of the overall sound. The art is great too, especially Mizuho and her mother. I love Mizuho's school hairstyle and dress! Again Kei suffers here as well as sometimes he almost looks like a girl.

I think I could have gone higher in my rating on this show, but really some of the discomfort I felt about the story takes away from my overall enjoyment of this series. But don’t get me wrong this was a great show! If you even like romance anime even a little you should watch this.
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Onegai Teacher is an alright show with some interesting ideas and some good characters, but it's wrapped in a completely ridiculous scenario.

The premise behind the events in Onegai Teacher is pretty absurd. Oh, the alien side of things is OK, if fairly standard. There's nothing much to either endorse or complain about that. But I could not suspend my disbelief for any decent amount of time over Kei's illness, it was just soo silly. I don't like the 'mystery illness' plot device as a whole because it always seems so very contrived, and Kei's illness has convenience and contrivity coming out the wahzoo. Even though we get a faily bare bones explanation of what the disease is, what sort of stress brings on a standstill is applied pretty inconsistantly.

Fourtunately the show sidelines the illness for the first half of the show and concentrates on the characters. Aside from episode 4 being oh so very convenient, this part of the show is alright. But when we get to the reason behind the illness, it's difficult to take seriously. The conclusion to this is done via the introduction of a new character we only saw previously in a couple 1 second flashbacks. Because we know so little about this character and the relationship between Kei, this part of the plot loses a lot of impact. However, that part of the story does have a sound basis so it's not too bad. If the illness itself wasn't so absurd that part of the story would have been much better.

Where the show does shine is the characters. The relationship between Kei and Mizuho starts off quite timidly and grows at a steady pace, and even though the Hyosuke and Kaede thing comes out of nowhere the show runs with it and makes does a good job of it. The group of friends work quite well together. The only characters that didn't come off well were Ichigo and Mahou. Ichigo was just too flat and emotionless to be convincing, and I didn't like Mahou at all. I assume she was supposed to be a character like Skuld from Oh! My Goddess, but instead of coming off as someone who adores her sister, she looks like a vindictive, possesive bitch.

There's nothing much to say about the animation and artwork. They both do their jobs well, if not standout. Thought character designs do a good job of making each character look quite unique, and the artwork is quite colouful. The music compliments the show, but it's pretty standard stuff. The OP and ED are alright, but again, nothing particuarly great abou them.

The dub work was good overall. Bridget Hoffman does a fantasitic job as Mizuho Kazami, she portrays her timid earnestness very well. Ichigo's voice was far too deadpan, even for her character and Kei did sound a little too weedy, but the others did a good job overall.

The underpinnings of Onegai Teacher are too silly to take seriously, but it's got some good characters in it and some amusing jokes so it's not all bad. More a reccomnedation for fans of the romance genre. read more