Please Teacher
Please Teacher is the bizarre yet enjoyable tale of an alien, Mizuho, sent to observe earth who gets a job as a high school teacher; a series of mishaps makes it look like she’s romantically involved with a student, Kei, right after being hired. When the principal finds out, it looks like it’s big trouble for Kei and game over for Mizuho, but Kei’s uncle comes up with a “great” plan in just the nick of time – he says that they’re married; the principal decides to turn a blind eye to any past transgressions that may have occurred as long as they keep the relationship a secret from the rest of the student body. Knowing that anything else might ruin this story, Kei and Mizuho really do get married and Kei moves into her apartment. As the series progresses, the two actually fall in love, but the secret nature of their relationship causes problems with Kei’s circle of friends, who think he still needs a girl in his life.
Please Teacher is an anime soap opera with typical, but good, zany humor thrown in. The OAV/bonus episode is especially heavy on innuendo and fanservice, but acts as an interesting transition for some of the returning characters into their Please Twins forms. Speaking of Twins, Please Teacher has less of an emphasis on music, although the soundtrack is still good, but shares a strong sense of visuals; in the vast majority of episodes, almost every frame looks as if it could be turned into a poster.
Teacher also has some elements which are unique. Kei has a disease which causes him to freeze up, even beyond the level of a coma. In the past, he suffered through one of these stress-related “stand-stills” for three years, making him younger than his classmates. Mizuho has a hand sized helper bot, Marie (actually more of an alien than Mizuho herself), that can teleport people around and controls her spaceship.
This anime is sappy, but in a good way. Maybe the resolution was just spoiled for me from watching Twins first, but the ending of the series, and which characters end up as a couple with one another, was never seriously in doubt in my mind. Which is a good thing, as, let’s face it, some characters are just meant to be together, no matter how unlikely that may seem at the beginning.
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Buy Please Teacher at Amazon.com