Mizuho Kazami, a beautiful young woman, came to a high school in a mountainous area as a Japanese Language teacher; however, she is actually a representative sent by the Galaxy Association on a mission to observe the Earth. Her troubles start when Kei Kusanagi, one of her students, accidentally discovers her true identity. In order to keep her true identity a secret, Mizuho Kazami and Kei Kusanagi get married. Living together in secret, can they keep their relationship from Kei's classmates?

Story & Characters

The life of Kei Kusanagi is one that something exciting never happens, nothing ever changes, that is until he met an extraordinary person.

Kei lives a school life with his friends at middle-school where he is thought to be 15 years old. However due to his illness, his flow of time had stopped for 3 years (when he was 15), hence his real age is 18.
Kei called his illness by the term of standstills. Whenever he falls into a state of depression or stress, his body collapses and shuts down.
He moved away from his parents because he thought he was in the way of things, and hence lived with his uncle and aunt; Minoru and Konoha Edajima, respectively.

Then on one night, where he was gazing up to the skies and stars thinking about the universe, Kei encountered an entity, a person who gradually herself near a lake. He ran to avoid anymore close encounter with this alien lifeform. It was at that moment where Kei's life would start to change.

After returning back to school in the middle of the year, Kei's homeroom teacher had left and had to be replaced by another teacher. It just so happens that the new homeroom teacher of Kei's class was the alien who he encountered near the lake the night before.

The new teacher was known as Mizuho Kazami. From the moment Mizuho saw Kei as one her students, she knew that he was the boy who she met on the lake.

Again, it just happened that Ms. Kazami had moved into an apartment next to where Kei was living. As Kei met her and helped her with the moving in, Mizuho led him on and Kei had found that she was the lifeform who he had encountered. Then as the mishaps and scares stumbled on Kei, Mizuho had to keep Kei from breaking out her secret. Then as one thing leads to another from the all the running and chasing, Mizuho's technology transports Kei and Mizuho into Kei's bathroom where his uncle discovers them.

As all it may seem a misunderstanding, Mizuho and Kei was also discovered again together by the principle of the school whilst Mizuho was explaining her reason being here on Earth. Kei mustn't reveal the true identity of Mizuho. Hence to hide Mizuho's identity (of a Galaxy Federation observer of Earth), Kei had to marry Mizuho, and from there on their relationship develops, through the tough times and the good times, they find one another under this planet... under one star.

Rating: 10

Art

The art and designs used in Onegai Teacher are beautiful. With the original character designs by Uon Taraka (Studio Orphee) who originally designed characters for Read Or Die (OVA and TV), character designs by Gohda Hiroaki (director of Ah! My Goddess OVA, Movie and TV) and Ide Yasunori (director of Hanaukyo Maid Tai, Onegai Teacher and Onegai Twins); the standards of anime art here do truly live up to the expectations of Bandai Visual.
The backgrounds truly bring out the feel and atmosphere of the scene and the vastness of the space/universe that we live in.
You have to pay special attention that the locations used in Onegai Teacher, are actually based on real life locations themselves. Yes, that's right, the places in Onegai Teacher do exist in reality, and that many fans have visited to these places to honour the artists of Onegai Teacher, and show how dedicated they are to being an Onegai Teacher fan.

You can visit the link link to see 4 photos taken from the places used in Onegai Teacher:
http://www.gamevillage.nl/index.php?act=ST&f=49&st=15&t=15974
And if you're still not satisfied with the photos there, you have to see the photos in the link below:
http://noir417.hp.infoseek.co.jp/event/one1and2.htm

The animation in Onegai Teacher is nice and bold, very clean and detailed. Vibrant colors and excellent combinations of outfit designs for each of the characters.

Rating: 10

Sound

This is where the wonders of Onegai Teacher are heightened: music composition. By the artists of I'VE Sound and Orito Shinji the background music here really does express the nature of the scene, and conveys real emotion. If you watch the anime and then listen to the soundtrack, you'll reminisce the characters' expressions and emotion of the scene. Some of which will bring happiness and joy to your face or those that will bring tears of sadness and the feel of having lost someone you love. The soundtrack worked very well for me, because I can cry when I watch the anime, but I can also cry when I simply listen to the soundtrack.
The opening song Shooting Star by Orito Shinji and I'VE Sound, with the vocal by KOTOKO expresses the thoughts and feelings of Kei Kusanagi to Mizuho. The music by I'VE brings me the feel of the vast sky above me and the scenes of Onegai Teacher. Many times I look up to the sky it reminds me of the opening theme Shooting Star and also the intro of Onegai Teacher.
The ending song Sora no Mori de (In The Forest Of The Sky) by Orito Shinji and I'VE Sound, and vocal by Kawada Mami expresses a feel of warmth, and also acts as a good interlude in each of the end of the episodes to enable the viewer to sum up and think back what happened, enabling them to put their emotions and memories of the individual episodes into mind.
Two songs that you'll find in Onegai Teacher are by Inoue Kikuko (famous for the voice of Belldandy), who is one of the most prestigious seiyuu around in the anime industry. The most memorable song that you'll hear is during episode 11. I don't want to go into too much detail because it may spoil those who haen't watched Onegai Teacher yet. But the song that Kikuko sings is Sora wa Kataranai (The Sky Doesn't Tell), really does hit me hard and touches my heart. The song is a sad song and if you really think about the love between Kei and Mizuho in Onegai Teacher, you'll see why.
The ending song in episode 12 (the final TV episode) makes me cry too. This song does a really good job summarising the whole of Onegai Teacher. It plays in the back whilst showing the conclusion to Onegai Teacher. It's nice and long (if you have the full version that is), and enables the audience to reminisce the story of Onegai Teacher. It's emotional to me because when I listen to it, I always think of the sad times in Onegai Teacher and also the ending of Onegai Teacher where it's such a happy ending that it so happy that it hurts me and thus the tears fall.

Now onto the seiyuu. Yes as I mentioned previously, Inoue Kikuko (a.k.a. Oneesan) does the voice for Kazami Mizuho, her voice fits so well (as always with Inoue-san's resume). Kikuko doesn't fall below any of my expectations she did the voice for Mizuho with so much versatility and really does express the personality of Mizuho.
The voice for Kei Kusanagi is Hoshi Souichiro (also the voice for Hanabishi Kaoru in Ai Yori Aoshi). Souichiro does a superb job for Kei, the intonation is great and I couldn't ask for a better seiyuu for Kei.
The voice for Koishi is none other than our Kawasumi Ayako (also the voice for Aoi in Ai Yori Aoshi, and Mahoro in Mahoromatic). Boy, did Ayako do a perfect job, yes the voice for Koishi was flawness. Ayako really aced the voice for Koishi, so cute.
As for the rest of the seiyuu I have to say that they did a marvellous piece of work. Not to mention our singer Tamura Yukari who voiced for Ichigo Morino, again, excellent.

Then there's the english voice actors for Onegai Teacher. As many anime fans would say, english dubs are awful and should be rid of. I as an anime fan, do not form a line between the original and english voices in anime i.e. I don't fall into a group of whether liking the original or english voice actors more over the other. I enjoyed both the japanese and english soundtracks.
The highlight of the english voice actors are in characters Mizuho, Kei, Koishi, and Ichigo.
Mizuho Kazami is voiced by Bridget Hoffman (a.k.a. Ruby Marlowe or Ellen Wilkinson) who voiced the characters of Maehara Shinobu in Love Hina, and Belldandy in Ah! My Goddess the Movie and Mini-Goddesses. I have to say that the tone and pitch of Bridget's voice emphasised the maturity and innocence of Mizuho. Bridget Hoffman and Inoue Kikuko are my number one voice actors. I have to say that some of Kikuko's roles are reprised that by Bridget, e.g. Hibiya Chitose in Chobits and Belldandy in Ah! My Goddess the Movie and Mini-Goddesses.
Kei Kusanagi was voiced by Dave Wittenberg, I can't say much about Dave, but that he did a marvellous job as well as the rest of the cast. Dave really emphasised the stress and personality of Kei well, he used great effort in the putting the feel of agitation and yet youth into Kei's character and overall the result is very good. However, some audiences do say that Dave does bring out a bit a of whining intonation from Kei's character, and that maybe seen as a good or bad thing depending on your expectation of Kei's character.
Onto Koishi's voice actor, Michelle Ruff who also voiced characters Sakuraba Aoi in Ai Yori Aoshi and Chii in Chobits. Michelle does a good job of bringing out the cuteness in Koishi and also a good job in highlighting the maturity of Koishi better than Kawasumi Ayako. Depending on your taste and expectations of Koishi, Ayako's voice may sound better for Koishi because she has the younger and cute voice, whereas Michelle has the cuteness and maturity aspect of Koishi
I myself like both and they're eqaul because you can fit them both as well as the other.
Ichigo's voice was done by Julie Anne Taylor (who also voiced for Otohime Mutsumi in Love Hina Again). She did a great job making the voice of Ichigo very mono-tonic and thus expresses how little expression Ichigo has, because Ichigo is very hard to read.

Overall, I love both the japanese and english cast. And I think every viewer should give the chance of the english voice actors as well, and not ignore them due some people's hate for english dubs.

Rating: 10

Presentation

Onegai Teacher spanning through 13 episodes based on its manga (2 volumes) by Please!. This anime is a romance drama, with a sci-fiction theme and a touch of comedy. The anime takes the manga and expands it and adds more content to it.
The anime does have several laughs and comedic scenes which provide a good variation and also contrast between the romantic story, but at the same time is used to highlight the romance too. The first episode starts with a burst and keeps the viewer clinged onto the screen. The anime develops the relationship between Mizuho and Kei by the interaction of the supporting characters Koishi and Ichigo. Whereas the love between Hyosuke and Kaede is used to provide another image of love to the viewer, showing the sorrow and happiness between the two and the circumstances that relationships go through. This anime does a marvellous impression that love doesn't come to the best for all of us, that is loving someone may mean hurting another and that you have to be true to your feelings and not lie to your own heart.
The comedy and warmth between Mizuho and Kei is complimented in episodes 5-7 where they fall into unexpected situations and thus had to make up excuses to cover up their relationship. Also that the mother and sister of Mizuho appear provides a good combination of humour and love to make the plot progress.
For me it paints the picture of finding your love in one place and under one star. Having an obstacle from reaching love is expressed in Onegai Teacher and it does so by the end episodes. It also shows the sadness by expressing a forgotten memory in Kei's heart, something that is missing, whereby this is revealed in the final episode.
The end episodes and the thus the overall ending finishes very strong. It portrays a lot of emotion between the characters and also happiness that everything went smoothly to a true happy ending. The ending with the song 'LOVE A RIDDLE' playing in the back summarises everything very nicely, and it gives one of the finest endings ever in the league of anime.

In addition, for a review of the 13th episode i.e. the OVA, it makes a good attempt to conclude the the present relationship between Mizuho and Kei. It simply wraps up the story by showing more comedic moments to highlight their love and happiness and also a mature scene at the end to show that Mizuho and Kei have truly got to the point of a eternal couple, husband and wife.
The OVA in my opinion isn't really necessary, and many other viewers say the same too. The OVA is very different to Onegai Teacher TV anime because the animation style or shall I say the actions and expressions of the characters are like something you find ni Love Hina, and at first I found this very deviant from the usual Onegai Teacher I watched before. However, it does provide good humour and shows more comedic potential in Onegai Teacher.

In all the 13 episodes compose a spectular anime of romance drama, slice of life, sci-fiction and comedy. For me, it's a masterpiece.
Recommended for audiences who love romantic dramas, or those who enjoy romantic comedies. For ages 13+up, although the US Region 1 DVD states it's for 16+up.

Rating: 10

Final Verdict

10.00 (excellent)

Reviewed by Kei-kun, Oct 11, 2004

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