Please Teacher Review
Onegai Teacher
おねがい☆ティーチャー

Since the Community Anime Reviews site was all but dead, I’m republishing some of my OG reviews from there. I have corrected obvious spelling errors though. I will add new notes in parenthesis, labeled “ANB  note.”  😅 I won’t count these as part of the “Back to the Vaults” series as I have not rewatched them.

–> Buy Please Teacher BD Collection on Amazon.com!

Community Anime Review of Please Teacher

(ANB note: This series was originally reviewed on 21-Feb-2003. I still have my DVD’s, so I might go back and do a “Back to the Vaults” re-review of the series since I’ve not watched it in years on end.)

A Look at Marriage

On the surface, this show doesn’t seem like much. In fact, the creators of this series are trying to play into the fantasy of a young teenage boy hooking up with a hot teacher. But if you watch this expecting some sort of fantasy series (complete with Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher”), think again! This series works only because it seriously looks at marriage (and relationships) and the joys and troubles that come with it. And the supporting cast is very likeable and that helps too.

The first two episodes set up the story and the premise is pretty bad. The method used to bring Kei and Mizuho-sensei together is a HUGE stretch. But once they are married, things are really good. Like many romantic-comedy anime titles, this one uses some of the same things we’ve seen before in Oh My Goddess, Love Hina, or even Hand Maid May. Kei is part Keitaro (Love Hina) and part Saotome (Hand Maid May). Mizuho reminded me a lot of Belldandy from Oh My Goddess (and her seiyuu is the same). Also there’s Marie who runs Mizuho’s ship. She reminded me so much of Sumomo from Chobits except he has no lines. So you get the picture on how it borrowed from various other items.

As I said earlier, the difference comes from how it looks at romance and in particular, how two people have to get to know each other in marriage. Good intentions aside, Kei quickly learns that being married isn’t all it is cracked up to be, especially when that marriage has to remain a secret. To complicate matters further, a classmate of his has a major crush on him, and their mutual friends are trying to get them together. Mizuho for her part takes her wedding vows more seriously than Kei simply due to the fact that she’s more mature about things. Despite it all, she wants her marriage to Kei to work.

The Bad

There were some bad items aside from the intro two episodes. Throughout the series, Kei continues to call Mizuho “Sensei” rather than her name. This annoyed me a great deal, especially after they’d been living together for a few months. I guess the writers wanted to remind the audience that emotionally, Kei was still 15 despite the fact that his age is actually 18. The predictable way their attempts at some intamacy kept getting interupted was a tad annoying as well. However, all said and done, I really enjoyed watching this series. The ending was a good one in that as I watched the closing credits, glimpses of their life together show more good and bad times.

Bottom line:

Low on comedy and a lot of stuff we’ve seen in other series. However, the serious look at married life is what makes this well worth a rent.