Saturday, April 16, 2011

Eh?! Sensei is an Alien and also my Wife?! -- Onegai Teacher!

I have finished watching an anime series lately. It is called "Onegai Teacher". This anime series is also known as "Please Teacher!".  It is a Japanese anime series, directed by Yasunori Ide and written by Yōsuke Kuroda, and produced by Bandai Visual, which was adapted into a manga and light novel, centering around a group of friends and the odd things that happen to them after they get a new teacher. I found this anime series is very funny and interesting, thus I would like to share with you.

"Please Teacher!" has a total of 13 episodes, including an OVA episode. Please Teacher! is a story mainly revolving around a tight-knit group of friends in high school and how they cope with several life-changing events that are never too far off from intimate relationships. The main character is a boy named Kei Kusanagi who suffers from a very rare disease which causes a comatose state referred to as a "standstill" whenever he is under severe emotional distress.

Title        : Onegai Teacher / Please Teacher
Genre      : Comedy, Drama, Romance, School-life, Science Fiction
Episodes : 12 + 1 OVA
Story       :
Kei, at 15 years old, had fallen into a "standstill" lasting three years after witnessing the suicide of his elder sister. After recovering, he quietly moved away from home in order to avoid social difficulty due to his long absence, and began living with his uncle, a medical doctor, and aunt. Due to the strange nature of how he came to live there, Kei wanted to keep the situation a secret from his new friends for fear of being ostracized as being too old to associate with them.
After Kei had established himself in his new surroundings and had entered into a close group of mutually supportive friends, a Galactic Federation starship had entered Earth's atmosphere stealthily (it is equipped with cloaking technology, rendering it invisible to EM spectrum detection equipment), approached Honshū Island and landed surreptitiously in Lake Kizaki. (Aside from physical travel of the spacecraft via its own engines, travel back and forth across intermediate and long distances - including other star systems and/or dimensions - is accomplished using Star Trek-like 'transporter' technology.) The story begins with Kei, after suffering a minor 'standstill' while in the vicinity of the lake, witnessing several unexplainable phenomena happening there, and then watching as a beautiful half-human alien named Mizuho Kazami materializes beside the shore.
Kazami was sent to observe planet Earth by a seemingly benevolent Galactic Federation in order to prevent humans from making developmental mistakes. (Later, it is revealed that she had personal reasons; she wanted to see the home planet of her father, who had died when she was a child.) Kei, upon observing the materialization, attempts to escape the pursuing Kazami (who he does not get a clear look at, as she appears surrounded by bright white light). Kazami is under strict orders to prevent her true identity and mission from being discovered (the penalty for which can include capital punishment). During his attempt to escape, Kei falls into the lake, seeming to drown as a result of another stress-induced 'standstill'. In fact, Kazami rescued Kei and, using information from his identification, was able to return him home after examining him for injuries.
The next day begins fairly normally, as Kei awakens at his uncle's home, in his room, under the impression that the previous evening was the product of a dream. Upon arriving at the school, Kei's peers are discussing the fact that the previous homeroom teacher has mysteriously quit his position, and that the beautiful Ms. Kazami has become his new homeroom teacher. Later that day, Kei is further astounded that she is now a next-door neighbor.
During assisting her in moving in, he suffers another standstill, and while in a weakened state explains his predicament to the compassionate Mizuho, who cared for him without alerting the authorities, and thus kept his condition a private secret. During his recovery, he recalls the events of the previous evening, realizing that it was not a dream, and that she was the person he saw by the lakeside. Mizuho's inherently honest nature causes her to admit her origins and purpose on Earth. A near tragic comedy of errors ensues, as a frightened Kei attempts to escape her embrace. An accidental activation of the 'transporter' technology almost costs Kei and Mizuho their lives as she rescues him once again. A rapprochement is achieved, as it becomes evident that neither Mizuho nor the Galactic Federation she serves is hostile, and Kei promises not to reveal her identity as Mizuho makes a similar promise about Kei's medical condition. This is the beginning of a friendship that rapidly becomes more intimate.
After being discovered in what on the surface would appear to be a compromising situation (Mizuho had wanted to speak with Kei privately and had him transported to a physical education sports equipment locker), Kei protects Mizuho from charges of an inappropriate relationship between student and teacher by supporting the idea impulsively given by his uncle to the school's Headmaster that they are married, resulting in an actual civil marriage that later blossoms into genuine affection for each other. Kei's true calendar age becomes evident during the Headmaster's phone call to City Hall to verify their married status, and the Headmaster relents, partly because he, too, had married a former student younger than himself and can understand their situation personally. Both are allowed to stay so long as they do not reveal their status to the other students, and do not engage in any public displays of affection.

Characters Description :

Kei Kusanagi (草薙 桂 Kusanagi Kei)
Kei is an 18 year old who retains a 15 year old body after a three year long "standstill", which is a coma-like state that occurs during a time of extreme emotional distress. Standstills are derived from an unknown - possibly psychological - disease that Kei and his friend Ichigo Morino have. He tends to be a very frail, shy boy, not often wanting to assert himself when need be.
After observing the landing of a UFO while on the bank of the nearby lake and subsequently observing the alien on the lake shore, odd things begin happening to Kei in connection with this alien. The next day, Kei is surprised to find, like everyone else, that one of their teachers quit and a quick replacement was found which just happened to turn out to be the alien - Mizuho Kazami. After a few more encounters with each other, Kei is taken to her spaceship where the whole situation goes from bad to worse. Upon striking Marie, a tiny computer helper of Mizuho's, it effectively is unable to perform as well as it seemed to work, which often puts the characters in strange situations if they can't rely on the help of Marie.

Eventually, after Kei and Mizuho are found in a locked storage room by Kei's uncle and the principal of the school, his uncle impulsively tells the principal that Kei and Mizuho are married. Later, Kei and Mizuho do get married, though only the paperwork is done while there was no official ceremony. This whole situation is kept secret from Kei's friends as Ichigo Morino constantly tries to pair Kei up with a friend of hers, Koishi, and all the while Kei and Mizuho's relationship and attraction for each other only grows.




Mizuho Kazami (風見 みずほ Kazami Mizuho)


A 23 (as alien physiology is only hinted at, and growth rates may be different for the un-named alien species she is partly derived from) year old half alien, half human, Class C Planet Inspector from the Galactic Federation, sent to delta DES 8228 (Earth) to observe and study humans. Mizuho came to Earth to monitor the planet, but inadvertently she was seen by Kei as she was just landing on Earth. Although she did not trust him at first, she started to become attracted to Kei and eventually falls in love with him after they shared secrets about their past to one another. In a conversation with Maho, Kei learns that she is the youngest member of the GF Observers ever to gain a license. She is stripped of her surveyor status in episode twelve. Also from Maho we learn that Mizuho apparently has never had a romantic relationship, which is verified when she admits as much to Kei.
One of the main conflicts in the story involves Mizuho and how she tends to have great jealousy and misjudgment. She even went to such great lengths as to spy on Kei while he was hanging out with a friend from school, Koishi Herikawa, in a set-up date, and when Mizuho's mother held Kei hostage in a hotel.
She loves to eat Pochy, a Japanese snack food that consists of a biscuit stick covered with chocolate. She eats Pochy because it reminds her of her dead father; an empty box of Pochy was all Mizuho has left of him. Her mother and sister are also seen eating it in several episodes. Pochy is a fictional version of an actual snack known as Pocky. Her catch phrase is "Saiyūsen jikō yo!" ("This is a top priority!").




Marie (まりえ)

A quasi-organic master control program for Mizuho's ship. Totally self-repairing and maintenance free. Hovers around in an innertube and on occasion plays a miniature guitar. Due to Kei fearfully striking 'him' during an initial escape attempt when Mizuho revealed her true identity, Marie's programming became scrambled, endangering both Kei and Mizuho. Communicating partly through indistinct sounds and through gestures, Marie is essentially a portable link to the ship's operating system. But 'he' is also capable of emotion, as witnessed by the romantic relationship formed between 'himself' and Miruru and his sorrow at their parting. Additionally, in the OVA they are implied to have sex, and both of them become embarrassed when they see others display affection. The implication provided in the series 'extras' is that Marie and Miruru are but extensions of the ships themselves, and thus are the ships.


Koishi Herikawa (縁川 小石 Herikawa Koishi)


She is one of Kei's close friends who also pursues a romantic relationship with Kei, but towards the end of the series discovers her affection for one of her teachers, Yamada. During the anime this taboo relationship is only ever hinted at, but in the OVA special Ichigo taunts her about having sex in his room triggering a flashback. In the series itself, Yamada is confronted by the principal about him seeing Yamada and a girl from their school walking together. Her parents own a grocery store and she often has to go to deliver food that people ordered.
Koishi has a happy-disposition to her personality and is only ever seen crying when it comes to matters that involve Kei. One of the things Ichigo would get irritated at was that Koishi would never act on her urges and in effect she waits too long, and by the time she does tell Kei her true feelings, he's already hopelessly in love with Mizuho.




Ichigo Morino (森野 苺 Morino Ichigo)


An evidently shrewd young woman who is seemingly wise beyond her (apparent) years, and who associates with very few friends. Surprisingly, even though she resembles a diminutive 15 year old or perhaps younger, her real age is 21; her physical development was stunted due to her "standstills", in the same way that they affect Kei. She had been in a "standstill" for 6 years. Ichigo's loss of time and her sense of life cruelly having passed her by due to the illness (she wistfully reveals to Kei that she has a younger sister who is now married and expecting a child) tends to cause her to have a much more cynical and serious demeanor than is normal for someone of her seeming age, which is sometimes commented upon by her (much younger) friends.
In order to prevent the triggering of 'standstills', her emotional expression is very subdued and phlegmatic. But for all her apparent depressive state, she is in fact very caring, attempting to assist both Koishi and Kei by acting as a 'matchmaker' for the two, because her own losses have been felt so keenly, and because she doesn't want her friends to experience the kind of heartache she has felt by their wasting opportunities for closeness that she has been forced to endure.
She is quiet but fiercely independent, currently living alone in a rather Spartan apartment, partly on her own initiative so that her (well-to-do) family wouldn't be burdened by her malady. She still maintains ties to her family, providing at least a semblence of normality. At one point she confesses to Kei that had they met earlier and revealed their mutual affliction to each other sooner, they might have become closer.
Her keen mind causes her to suspect the too-often 'coincidences' regarding their former teacher's departure, the new one's arrival and strange events in their neighborhood immediately after that to be connected, but her much younger and guile-less friends dismiss those connections. She also deduces that Kei and Mizuho repeatedly being found together in unusual situations to be the result of a covert relationship, but does not alert the authorities, preferring to observe the situation to verify it, proving herself to possess a formidable intellect as well as no small degree of compassion.

Kaede Misumi (水澄 楓 Misumi Kaede)

Also one of Kei's friends, Kaede tends to be a rather shy girl most of the time. Her physical characteristics include that she is one quarter Irish, tall (for a Japanese) and with red hair and freckles. Despite her shyness, during an accidental visit to her hotel room by a sleep-deprived Hyosuke, in which he mistakenly climbed into her bed, she awoke from a lightly inebriated slumber and claimed that he had appeared to her in a dream which now seems to have come true. She then sweetly confesses her love for him and proceeds to seduce him. The two become inseparable and are seen together throughout the series, to the point of being seen exiting a love hotel together in the OVA.

Hyosuke Magumo (間雲 漂介 Magumo Hyōsuke)
A brash student with dyed blonde hair, Hyosuke aspires to attend college at Tokyo University and become a professional statesman, much like his brother. Hyousuke's demeanor is initially that of a shallow attention-seeker, but after he becomes romantically involved with Kaede, a deeper and much more sensitive and reflective side is revealed. Kaede confirms to Ichigo and Koishi that the private Hyosuke is actually a very different person; of him, she says "He's a gentleman and he's sweet." Of Kei's group of friends, he tends to be the most hyperactive of them all and often does the strangest things too.


Matagu Shido (四道 跨 Shidō Matagu)

A rather serious student who is also into astronomy, Matagu seems to be the most hopeless of the cast, a classic 'nerd', never even getting to the point of gaining a girlfriend by the end of the series. He is much less confident and self-assured than Hyosuke, or even Kei, leading one to conclude that he suffers from crippling shyness. His stated fondest dream is to meet with 'an alien creature from outer space', totally unaware of the fact that his teacher certainly qualifies as such, and that he has had several conversations with his life's dream in a very normal setting. He even considered to confess his love to her, but his shyness put a halt to his plans.

There are more characters in the anime series, but the above are the main in the story! Frankly speaking, I think this anime series is interesting. I was kept on laughing when i was watching it. Sometimes there are many funny scenes.

OK, let us preview some of the scenes of the "Onegai Teacher".

















OK, if you are interested to catch the anime series and manga of "Onegai Teacher", you may click on the respective links below.

Onegai Teacher Anime Series
Onegai Teacher Manga Series

Enjoy watching and/or reading! ^.^

2 comments:

  1. i do know bout it when is aired in Animax last time but i don't like it cause it's really look inappropriate.

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  2. This anime series has aired on Animax before?! I have no idea for it. I think its OVA is inappropriate for the kids! :P

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