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REVIEW: Please Teacher! DVD


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Levonr



Joined: 19 Nov 2003
Posts: 807
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 11:11 am Reply with quote
I liked the dub, especially Bridget Hoffman. You know, an important main character. Ichigo is just a side character so not that important but I thought she was supposed to have an emotionless monotone voice.
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kazume



Joined: 18 Dec 2006
Posts: 129
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 12:20 pm Reply with quote
I remember liking this as a kid (damn this show is old to me.)

Then i saw years later Onegai Twins and was let down with the last few episodes (no, not because of who won, but because the writer simply forgot that the audience had intelligence and was jut writing for the sake of... writing...)

Then late ron I saw Waiting in that Summer (or whatever it was called: Great Music, especially dat ending theme, great story, only to be "deus Ex'd" at the end by the MIB. *sigh*

It seems the creator can't let go of this alien fantasy and to me, it seems like it's holding him back from writing something incredibly memorable and instead relies on that trope as his forever-crutch that he will never get out of no matter how much rehab he goes to.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4064
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 12:31 pm Reply with quote
Another fan of Bridget Hoffman in this series and I think her control and composure is what's the dub is built upon.

My own estimation of the show was average until it went... come to think on it, there's a recent anime that used the same plot contrivance with even less science behind it. I don't see it as a lame excuse plot but rather as a storytelling device to showcase how people can lose those special connections in the blink of an eye. I can give Please Teacher! even more credit than that other one because its far more subtle in its implications and fears.

The main point of the series is "My teacher is an alien!" with "my teacher is my wife!" so in terms of propriety, don't they cancel each other out? The show's designed so it's hard to take the latter serious when combined with the former.

The last thing I have to mention is Ichigo and how much I love her character and her place in the story. While I guess Taylor's performance is monotone but against Yukari Tamura, a rainbow is monotone, I think it works for the character and her "above it all" distance she feels she has to maintain.

I've yet to get the DVD but I'm just waiting for a good sale or when I need a cart topper. It's not a knock on the series, it's just that they're streaming the dub and the sub. Check it out if you haven't seen it, you will be disappointed.

Not because of the show but because you want to see more of them.
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Animechic420



Joined: 25 Sep 2012
Posts: 1724
Location: A Cave Filled With Riches
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 12:46 pm Reply with quote
Ahhhh, the category I hate most in the anime world: Older Female Younger Male.

I haven't had the liberty to watch this, nor do I care to. I already know I won't like it.
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Swissman



Joined: 11 May 2006
Posts: 764
Location: Switzerland
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 1:31 pm Reply with quote
Theron wrote:
Quote:
"and weirdly, the opener always looks fuzzy compared to the much sharper pictures in the episode content."


I thought that was due to an attempt to imitate the digital look of a early 2000's video cam, like the opening of Ano Natsu de Matteru imitated the look and feel of super 8 movies.
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JohnnySake



Joined: 22 May 2008
Posts: 582
Location: Auburn Hills, MI
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 1:32 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
and weirdly, the opener always looks fuzzy compared to the much sharper pictures in the episode content

I was under the impression that you were getting the point of view of someone handling a manual focus camera, but I could be wrong.

This was of those gateway anime shows for me back in the day, so it holds a special place in my heart. I love my Bandai dvd's, but I double dipped on these to see how Nozomi did with the show. I am glad the show is out there in an affordable form again.
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unitmikey



Joined: 15 Feb 2013
Posts: 286
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 1:52 pm Reply with quote
After watching this fairly recently streaming, I don't think that this show aged well. It just doesn't go far enough off of the train tracks of romcom drama scifi because it has so much to juggle with the intent of the premise and genre trappings (even for 2002, but much MUCH more so when viewed today).

IMO the manga is way more worth the time. It's quicker, covers the best parts of the series, has consistent art, and handles a lot of the dramatic points towards the end with better direction.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14744
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:53 pm Reply with quote
Blast from the past, somewhat popular back in their day, predating the teacher taboo and sis-con boom. And all the arguments whether it should be Please or Onegai............

Still remember the AMV "Hot for Teacher" by classic Van Halen. Laughing

Even the Newtype USA magazine centerfold:


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HaruhiToy



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 4:23 pm Reply with quote
This is one of my favorite titles in my collection and I will second all those above who liked the English VA for Kazami-san. There is no question there are a lot of flaws in it (art, direction, story) but none of that seems to matter.

Like many I was initially put off by Ichigo -- both the VA and the character -- but oddly enough she started to grow on me. And she has a reasonably interesting arc of her own and improves in the sequels. And the VA didn't create that personality herself. I'm pretty sure the director signed off on it.

Of course they had to have a couple of unreconciled male pervs in the cast: Minoru and Matagu. The first one is just weird and you wonder why his wife puts up with him except she seems to be a bit into it `herself, and Matagu just plumbs new depths of pathetic loserdom. You would put his little sister in a high risk category if it weren't for the fact that Matagu is so pathetic that it is hard to imagine him being a threat.

However the sequel, Please Twins, is much much better. Definitely my top ten. I'm glad to see this series getting some attention. I think it transcends its time period as well as any anime ever has.
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Splitter



Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 1276
Location: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 5:51 pm Reply with quote
unitmikey wrote:
After watching this fairly recently streaming, I don't think that this show aged well. It just doesn't go far enough off of the train tracks of romcom drama scifi because it has so much to juggle with the intent of the premise and genre trappings (even for 2002, but much MUCH more so when viewed today).

IMO the manga is way more worth the time. It's quicker, covers the best parts of the series, has consistent art, and handles a lot of the dramatic points towards the end with better direction.


I watched it about three years ago and had the exact opposite reaction. It was nice to see an anime that wasn't looking for ways to go off the rails. I feel like nowadays most anime is constantly needing to find a way to separate itself from the herd, and goes off into some really weird places to do so. Comparatively, this was refreshingly sincere and straightforward.

Thanks to Right Stuf for making it available to purchase stateside once more Smile
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Ali07



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 3333
Location: Victoria, Australia
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:54 pm Reply with quote
Saw this one last year, for the first time. Mainly checked it out due to some fans saying that it is a good romance title, I thought it was alright. Never really felt any connection between the MCs, so a lot of the romantic side of things fell flat for me.

I've yet to see Please Twins, but I am a massive fan of Waiting in the Summer. Was the MIB thought of as a deus ex? I guess I was always too suspicious of Remon then...she knew too much...Laughing

I'll get around to Twins eventually.

Back on Please Teacher, I may give it a re-watch. May watch the dub this time around, as I've only seen it subbed.
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NormanS



Joined: 15 Aug 2014
Posts: 167
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 7:13 pm Reply with quote
Personally, i love the music in the series. I am a huge fan of I've Sound, so i love the opening/ending and as well as inserts/bonus music videos (Kotoko's Snow Angel/Love a Riddle, Kaori Utatsuki's Senecio). Though i agree that the soundtrack in general is pretty unremarkable
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stevek504



Joined: 29 Apr 2007
Posts: 216
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 7:16 pm Reply with quote
HaruhiToy wrote:
...However the sequel, Please Twins, is much much better...

I agree that it is better. Though not exactly a sequel, just reuses the same location and some of the same characters. I saw Please Twins first and thought it was very good at the time. I then went on to rent Please Teacher, expecting something similar, but was disappointed. I had the same reaction of liking the "sequel" better when I watched Nuku Nuku Dash before Nuku Nuku TV.

Could this be a case of where you can only like one or the other? I know many were disappointed that Please Twins was not a true sequel of the same thing they got with Please Teacher. And I think it was true with the Nuku Nuku fans as well.

I don't think sequels can pull it off very often. But sometimes the sequel is as good or better than the original.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2497
PostPosted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 11:14 pm Reply with quote
I heard this was "so perverted" back in the day, so I had to watch. Got the whole series and I recently re-watched, I still consider this in my top 10 all-time list of anime. I think it really doesn't lose anything with age because I would characterize it as being sort an exploration of several ways people become emotionally and physically intimate in a relationship and that doesn't change. It also explores how that works in a larger context of friends and family which few if any shows bother with. It's not really "perverted" and I think handles the whole topic with tact and sensitivity. Sure the contrivances in the plot are huge but that just allows the story to "cut to the chase". For me, criticising the video quality seems more like nitpicking as is the criticism of the VA for Ichigo, compare to the delivery in Please Twins if you want more variation (hu,hu,hu). The English dub cast was a vast improvement on the Japanese in my opinion anyway. I recommend both Teacher and Twins, the latter less because the "who is the sister and who is the stranger" question gets drawn out far too long.
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Taskforce



Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 72
PostPosted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 7:49 am Reply with quote
I must say, had this have ended at ep 7 or was it 8, it might have been a lot better than it was. However, that last segment just felt so forced and out of place that I just couldn't like it too much personally. It really actually significantly knocked the series down overall. I can't agree that Please Twins was an improvement either. It took what little was good about the original, and left it on the cutting room floor, leaving only the bad stuff in tact. The last attempt, Waiting in the Summer, setting aside the ending was the best of the three efforts to me. Nothing that felt really forced like the end of Please Teacher and to me a more interesting setting and premise then Please Twins which felt like just a cash in series.
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