Onegai Teacher

Onegai Teacher (おねがい☆ティーチャー) is anime and manga, about a boy, Kei Kusanagi, who suffers from a very rare disease that puts him in a "standstill," a functionally comatose state caused by stress or extreme anxiety, lasting anywhere from hours to months or longer. The North American anime release by Bandai is called Please Teacher!.

The English version of the Onegai Teacher manga is published by ComicsOne. ComicsOne also publishes the Onegai Teacher novel which follows and expands on the events of the manga series. The title is sometimes shortened to 'OneTea'.

Before the series begins, Kei had fallen into a "standstill" lasting three years. During the first bits of the story, he meets a beautiful half-human alien named Mizuho Kazami, who is researching planet Earth and eventually begins posing as a teacher. After being discovered in a compromising situation together, Kei protects Mizuho's cover story by supporting the idea they are married, resulting in a marriage of convienence that later blossoms into genuine affection.

Onegai Teacher is popular among the anime fandom, particularly shonen fans, in no small part because of Mizuho, who has become something of a recent anime sex symbol. Although the series could be implied to be somewhat of a wish-fulfillment story (Kei is essentially a 15-year old with an adult wife), and an enormous draw to fans with teacher or older woman fetishes many fans enjoy the co-protagonist being an intelligent adult woman rather than the vapid young teens typical of the romantic comedy genre. The depiction of Kei and Mizuho's relationship is also complimented as not being totally idylic and more realistically argumentative, particularly the issues arising from the two having to maintain an aura of secrecy and complications resulting from Mizuho's profession and her age (it is a Seinen-Shonen Hybrid anime, showing many aspects of a seinen - such as deep character interaction and development - with a strong shonen foundation).

Mizuho's age is never mentioned in the series, although due to her job she is probably at least in her twenties. Due to the comments and actions of her more sexually aggressive mother, it is implied Mizuho has a pechant for younger men. This might explain why Mizuho has not been kissed before the series and perhaps why her attraction to Kei moves quicker than expected.

The popularity of the series resulted in a spin-off, Onegai Twins, featuring many of the same characters in cameos.

Based on background scenery, the events of both series supposedly take place at Lake Kizaki , located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan.

External links

• Please! Official Japanese Onegai Teacher website
• ComicsOne's Onegai Teacher webpage
• Bandai Entertainment's Official Please Teacher! Homepage