Please Teacher!

Director
Yasunori Ide
Production
GENCO, Studio Orfe, WOWOW
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
25 mins, 12 episodes
Year
2002

Onegai Teacher

By Frank Orville
21st May 04

I really like "Onegai Teacher". It seriously weirds me out to see myself saying that, because usually "Onegai Teacher" is something I would avoid like the plague. It is a strange mix of romantic comedy and science fiction, and that kind of mixing of genre almost never works.

But "Onegai Teacher" works very well because the show does not make the same mistake of so many others. All too often, the show is about the style. Sci-fi shows exist only to display fantastic gadgets and/or alien landscapes that we can boggle at. Romantic comedies exist only to create some faceless schmucks to be embarrassed or slapped around for our amusement. Shows that try to do both inevitably come off looking utterly ridiculous.

In "Onegai Teacher", by contrast, the styles are backdrops to the story and the characters, not the show in and of themselves. This is what every show should be.

And it's a good thing that "Onegai Teacher" works this way, because otherwise it just wouldn't be worth the time. The romantic comedy and sci-fi are completely unoriginal. Both elements go strictly by the book, and most everything is borrowed from some other show in the genre.

But this show goes far beyond all those things. At the bottom line, "Onegai Teacher" is about two people who are aliens on their own world (one literally, the other metaphorically) and who are drawn together because of this. And while the theme of love is important here, the theme of maturity and adulthood is the real primary point. What does it mean to grow up, and to be grown up? What happens when kids on the verge of adulthood begin pursuing adult relationships?

These are very difficult and tangled questions and "Onegai Teacher" handles them seriously and with tact. This is in sharp contrast to many similar shows, anime or otherwise, which resort to slapstick and tawdry sex to answer such questions. The characters in "Onegai Teacher" look and act realistically, the women in particular. While the women are all attractive (which is somewhat unrealistic in and of itself), they are still intelligent, emotional people instead of the peppy, brainless bimbos most romantic comedies resort to.

Keep in mind, though, that while the sci-fi and romance are backdrops to the story, they are still very pervasive throughout the show. And as mentioned before, both are completely unoriginal. The basic premise of "Onegai Teacher" has a big "been there done that" feel to it. The realistic characters and well thought-out plot can not hide the fact that most everything in this show has been done before many times.

Also, the artwork can be a bit uneven. While it is usually lavish and beautiful, the art can look rather blocky and choppy during the occasional action scene. Fortunately, since the character drama is the main point of the show, these pieces of poor artwork are few and far between.

At any rate, the good points of "Onegai Teacher" far outweigh the bad. Don't be fooled by negative reviews from people who obviously never watched it. Go see this show. It is a rare gem in its genre.

8/10

-- Frank Orville 21st May 04

Please Teacher! Images