Denpa Kyoushi

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Denpa Kyoushi is an interesting manga. In English, the manga is called 'He is a Ultimate Teacher'. This manga is truly great. I like it a lot. Though, keep in mind that when deciding to read, that over 70 chapters haven't been translated, and the translators seem to take their damn time. At least, the release between chapters seems to be around 100 days difference.

Denpa Kyoushi is about a genuis NEET called Kagami Junichiro. He manages a website blog, and one day his sister goes into his room forcing him to be a teacher. His way of teaching isn't like a normal teacher, he uses ... stuff like games to teach the students. Surprisingly, the method actually works and he uses other various programs to teach them as well.

Kagami is a genius physicist who wanted to make the 'Dokodemo Door'. The Dokodemo Door is also known as the Anywhere Door, and it is from the popular manga & anime series, Doraemon. He gave up on making it and went to his life as a NEET, it seems.

The art is pretty good. In the moments there needs to be good art, the art is good. Though, generally, the art is pretty good. There isn't much not to like about the art.

The characters, like most manga, is my favourite thing about the manga. My favourite character especially is Kagami Suzune, the sister of the main character. She's a good character and is decent looking, but this isn't an Ecchi, we don't need to care about looks. But, she is undoubtedly my favourite female character from Denpa Kyoushi. My favourite male character other than Jun would have to be Araki Koutaro. Anyway, I like most- maybe even all of the characters. Characters I didn't originally like, I ended up kind of liking.

I enjoyed this manga. It was fun to read, and I got through it kind of quickly. Though, I hate that over 70 chapters are yet to be translated, and the translators take way too long to translate their chapters. I don't know if they're just really inactive, or they just don't bother with Denpa Kyoushi. These chapters need to be translated. Not to mention, we're in the middle of an arc here.

This is the first teacher-based manga that I have read, and this is my opinion on the manga after reading another teacher-based manga, Great Teacher Onizuka. Denpa Kyoushi revolves around an otaku NEET of a teacher named Kagami, whom is unwilling to teach yet amazingly good at helping his students with their many problems and challenges. After all, he is an ADW, in which he can only do things he wants to do.

Story:6
Truth be told, reading this manga from the start to the latest chapter, there isn't much of an actual direction that this manga seems to be taking. ... All Kagami is doing is helping out his students with their problems and such, and the only suggestive thing of certain progress is that of Kagami potentially being transferred from the current school he is teaching to a school with supposedly more problematic kids.

Despite a lack of direction, the elements involved are quite well delivered. Kagami, the protagonist, being the otaku character he is, would communicate with his students through unconventional, otaku-esque methods, and solves his students' problems through somewhat unconventional and unpredictable means. This is the main selling point of Denpa Kyoushi: incorporating otaku characteristics in helping and aiding those around him.

Another aspect of this manga would definitely be the romance, which is a typical harem, when Kagami would be quite the charmer when it comes to his female students. However, such an idea is not new to the world of anime and manga, when many other works have already incorporated such an idea, and the only thing that has changed in Denpa Kyoushi would be the protagonist's position as a teacher, in which his somewhat shallow female students tend to utterly disregard.

However, the manga also has its set of heart-warming moments that I can appreciate. After helping the student, the arc ends with a nice moment between the Kagami and the student, when the problem is resolved, and all is good, well and done, adding a nice touch to the conclusion of the story arcs..

Characters:6.
What can I say. Not the best characters that I have ever laid my eyes upon, nor are they the worst. They are good at best, and they will stay as such. From a glance, you may find Kagami to be a mix between Onizuka from GTO and The World God Only Know's(TWGOK) Keima. It is somewhat unique in that combining these two characters would give birth to a new type of character called Kagami. Kagami is an ADW, in which he can only do things that he wants to do. And boy, when he does what he wants to do he does it darn well. His unwillingness to become a teacher and the otaku-ness of his ways makes him very likeable a character. However, Kagami is also portrayed as a rather "perfect" character, as he seems to have absolutely no difficulty in handling the tasks that the has taken upon himself, and this leaves little room for character development. As such, from the start of the manga up till now, he maintains his character without any substantial development; and at times, perfection can be boring.

The other characters, particularly the female characters, are rather plain and uninteresting. They basically undertake many moe characteristics that have been used over and over, and that by itself is not very fresh and appealing, to me at least.They have their problems, but once they're solved, they are back to being happy-go-lucky background characters that have absolutely no more character development, or any pertinent relevance to the storyline. The students with their problems solved are occasionally brought back for the heck of it, which is mainly for comedic purposes.

All in all, the characters are good and fun but lack depth, and once their issues have been settled they would be left there with no development. Even Kagami, has no development of his own.

Art: 7.
Not much I can say about the art. It is a very highly stylized manga, with many characters with much moe-ness in their appearances. Perhaps one thing I could say is that the characters lack much detail, in terms of the clothing creases and such. However, less is more, and perhaps the simplicity of the design of the characters allows the other aspects of this manga to shine more.

Other things:
I've read Denpa Kyoushi first, up till its latest chapter at the time, than completed GTO, then ultimately realize how much Denpa Kyoushi pales in comparison to GTO, so much so that I can safely say that Denpa Kyoushi can only reside in the shadow of GTO's pure and insurmountable awesomeness. GTO is my benchmark for this particular type of manga, and for me at least, Denpa Kyoushi imcomparable to GTO (This is purely my opinion, and you can see I am VERY GTO biased.) As such, this review was written with such a high benchmark that was set by GTO (just to let you know where I am coming from), and the Denpa Kyoushi criticisms ensue.

Enjoyment:8
Perhaps at the end of the day, no matter how inadequate this manga may seem as I have put it, against GTO, and amidst the rather direction-less storyline, and insufficient(not in quantity, but quality) and rather shallow characters, the manga is very enjoyable. I had a slight grin plastered on my face as I read the manga, and I enjoyed its comedic and somewhat dramatic moments thoroughly.

Overall:8
Denpa Kyoushi, despite my criticisms,, is an enjoyable manga, and the enjoyability of a work is what would truly account for a rating of a work.
In fact, if I had not read GTO before writing this review, I would probably give this manga a perfect 10. This manga has potential, and I would want to see how it would develop in the future, and whether or not it would eventually surpass GTO(though I'm quite certain it won't, at least in my opinion).

To talk about Denpa Kyoushi, you need to talk about Great Teacher Onizuka first. GTO was an incredibly popular manga about a delinquent named Onizuka who became a teacher. Its popularity derived mainly from two qualities: one, it’s hilarious. More importantly however, it was well-received because it managed to properly capture the relationship between student and teacher that many readers could relate or aspire to. More so than being a manga just about Onizuka, it was a manga about how students who have suffered from their own individual problems could improve themselves and be functioning members of society on their own merit. The classroom isn’t ... just about the raw content you learn, but the lessons you retain. Great Teacher Onizuka managed to convey *teaching* very well.

So that brings us back to Denpa Kyoushi. It basically follows a similar premise. Kagami, a genius-level otaku and NEET, is forced to become a high school teacher. The setting is pretty much identical albeit Kagami being basically the opposite of Onizuka. So what makes Denpa Kyoushi different? Instead of using Kagami as a means of teaching students, Kagami serves more as an idolizing figure. If there’s ever a bully or conflict, he almost always solves it through his own skill set. This aggrandizes the character and is only meant to glorify Kagami; it doesn’t properly convey any form of teaching. It’s just a way of Kagami exerting dominance over the antagonists. There’s one arc where Kagami teaches a student a lesson by basically outsniping him in an arcade game. Where is the lesson here? It’s fairly non-existent, nor is it even a conceivably realistic scenario or a scene that can parallel a real life lesson. There’s not much readers can actually relate to other than having meaninglessly flashy scenes. As I said before, GTO was a manga that wasn’t just about Onizuka, but Denpa Kyoushi is a manga that is almost wholly about Kagami. There isn’t a conflict, nor are there any strong subtle themes about teacher-student relationships. It occasionally does try to go out of its comfort zone in that regard and does occasionally bring interesting ideas to possibly flesh out on, but most of the chapters really just highlight how good Kagami is at strategizing and at video games. It’s hopelessly boring and borderline pathetic; it feels more like escapism glorifying NEET and otaku culture than an attempt at a coherent and interesting plot.

Hopefully you feel differently about Denpa Kyoushi than I do since I can’t see Denpa Kyoushi past a poor attempt that completely misunderstood why GTO was so popular. That’s not to say GTO was flawless, but it at least had a consistent and well-executed theme that could extend into the real world. That only exists in small, tiny portions in Denpa Kyoushi if at all.