Manga Review #1: Onegai Tīchâ
The following is from the animated series (with bits and pieces of the graphic novel thrown in for rounding out pieces of information) Onegai Tīchâ (Please Teacher!). The review is behind a cut in case any of the readers haven't seen or heard of the series before, as spoilers are involved.
Primary Characters: Kei Kusonagi, Mizuho Kazami, Kaede Misumi, Ichigo Morino, Hyosuke Magumo, Matago Shido, Koishi Herikawa, Principle Tendo, Minoru and Konoha Edajima (Kei's uncle and aunt), Maho Kazami (Mizuho's younger sister), Hatsuho Kazami (Mizuho's mother), Kozue Kusanagi (Kei's sister), Marie and Minuru (the physical controlling agents for Mizuho's and Maho's respective spaceships).
Overview: The events of this series start with a fifteen year-old boy (Kei) who witnesses the suicide of his sister (Kozue) and falls into a three year coma that will later be classified by both Kei and his uncle Minoru Edajima as a 'standstill' ('stagnation' in the graphic novel). At the time this story takes place, Kei is now living with his aunt and uncle, the Edajimas who run a local medical practice in a town purported to be Nagano--near Lake Kizakae--and attends the local highschool Nagano Prefectural Kizakae High School with his 'new' friends Kaede Misumi, Ichigo Morino, Hyosuke Magumo, Matago Shido, and Koishi Herikawa. Kei moved to live with his aunt and uncle in order to be less of a burden upon his parents, as well as to keep his illness (the 'standstills'/'stagnation') a secret and avoid being ostracized from his original peer-group... that and his underlying fear of what he saw that triggered the illness when he was fifteen are what keep the illness recurring.
The start of summer though brings new changes, and not the least of which is the arrival of a Galaxy Federation Observer (Mizuho Kazami) to the location, while Kei is reflecting at the side of Lake Kizakae. He witnesses her arrival, and as he attempts to flee the scene of the landing, falls in the lake and almost drowns. The next day in school, he discovers that a new teacher has taken the place of their old one, and that her name is Mizuho Kazami... it is only after she moves in next door to Kei's aunt and uncle that he learns her true identity. In the misadventure that follows, Kei almost gets trapped in between alternate dimensions, and then he and Mizuho end up being transported by Marie into the bathtub at Minoru's house.
It gets compounded when attempting to deal with the situation with his uncle that Kei and Mizuho get locked in the gym room at school, and are discovered by both Minoru, Kodoha, and Principle Tendo... only a lie by Minoru and Kodoha--that Kei and Mizuho are married--saves the two, as does Kei's informing the principle of his illness and his real age.
Based on the principle's instruction to keep their relationship secret from the other students, the adventure continues through the next several months as Kei and Mizuho go through the steps of courtship normally experienced prior to marriage, rather than after. Kei's relationship with his friends doesn't make it any easier on the two of them, especially as Ichigo is bent upon setting Kei up with Koishi who has a crush on him (Kei). As Kei tries to move forward with both his secret life with his teacher who is also his wife, as well as with his friends... his illness compounds the issue at several critical moments: after he and Mizuho have their first fight over he and Koishi going out, then after Maho transports him (Kei) to the world between dimensions and almost nearly succeeds in killing him, and then after Marie transports him to the beach where he and Mizuho spent their first honeymoon after their largest fight to date. It's there, in that last and worst episode of his illness that we learn about the initial trigger of his sister's suicide due in large part to the changing nature of human emotions and a desire to live in a world where only peace and happiness exists without sorrow or contradictions.
In violation of Galaxy Federation rules and regulations, Mizuho uses the technology of her spacecraft to enter into Kei's mental realm in order to bring him out of his standstill. As he is about to go into a near-death state of consciousness, he sees Mizuho for what will be the last time. She tells him how they met, and how she eventually came to love him after their marriage and through all the trials they underwent. After embracing one last time, Mizuho disappears and teleports Kei back to his uncle's house where Kodoha wakes him up. Mizuho herself places a pack of poochy (loosely based off of the Japanese snack pocky) in Kei's back pocket (in the manga, he had bought it as a present for her), but as he looks at it, he feels some important piece disappearing from him as Mizuho goes back to face the displeasure of the Galaxy Federation who seal off the memories of those she encountered here on earth, and send her back to her home planet.
The set ends with Mizuho's mother breaking through the embargo that the Galaxy Federation placed on earth, and dropping Mizuho off so that she can see Kei one more time, if not pick up where they left off altogether. When she reappears in the school classroom as the home-room teacher, Kei regains his memories but suppresses his happiness while in the presence of his classmates--Mizuho reproaches him for that angrily, though she doesn't seem to mind all that much. The manga ends with Kei's saying that "We can start over as many times as we want." The animated version ends with their kissing, and announcement of marriage.
Components: There are 13 episodes in the English and Japanese animated series about the relationship between Kei and Mizuho, and two volumes in the manga/graphic novel. A third component is a short novel by Gō Zappa titled "Kei and Mizuho's Milky Diary."
Thoughts: The animated series in English is a very amusing interpretation of human emotions, and the degrees of self-induced torture the mind can put one through while trying to figure out how to navigate the minefield that social interactions can bring. At the same time, it also touches (albeit briefly), the possibilities and problems with Teacher/student romantic interactions, especially given at the start, one is made to believe that Kei is indeed fifteen or a little younger, rather than the eighteen that he is; this older person/young student angle is also covered by Koishi, who in delivering the meals to Mr. Yamada, winds up falling in love with him--though her heart is initially set on Kei.
Even though there are discrepencies in orders of sequence and action between the manga and the animated series, both are compatible in understanding the overall situation and the parts that one or the other left out of the overall story arc. At the same time, the third part of the series--the 'diary' is a poorly written attempt at filling in the remaining gaps of sequence and action that neither the manga nor anime cover. Indeed, I could write it better. While I understand that it's intended audience are teens and/or young adults, it's overall effect is a poor rendition of an otherwise excellent series.
Rating: Three and a half-four stars overall. Two for the diary.
Primary Characters: Kei Kusonagi, Mizuho Kazami, Kaede Misumi, Ichigo Morino, Hyosuke Magumo, Matago Shido, Koishi Herikawa, Principle Tendo, Minoru and Konoha Edajima (Kei's uncle and aunt), Maho Kazami (Mizuho's younger sister), Hatsuho Kazami (Mizuho's mother), Kozue Kusanagi (Kei's sister), Marie and Minuru (the physical controlling agents for Mizuho's and Maho's respective spaceships).
Overview: The events of this series start with a fifteen year-old boy (Kei) who witnesses the suicide of his sister (Kozue) and falls into a three year coma that will later be classified by both Kei and his uncle Minoru Edajima as a 'standstill' ('stagnation' in the graphic novel). At the time this story takes place, Kei is now living with his aunt and uncle, the Edajimas who run a local medical practice in a town purported to be Nagano--near Lake Kizakae--and attends the local highschool Nagano Prefectural Kizakae High School with his 'new' friends Kaede Misumi, Ichigo Morino, Hyosuke Magumo, Matago Shido, and Koishi Herikawa. Kei moved to live with his aunt and uncle in order to be less of a burden upon his parents, as well as to keep his illness (the 'standstills'/'stagnation') a secret and avoid being ostracized from his original peer-group... that and his underlying fear of what he saw that triggered the illness when he was fifteen are what keep the illness recurring.
The start of summer though brings new changes, and not the least of which is the arrival of a Galaxy Federation Observer (Mizuho Kazami) to the location, while Kei is reflecting at the side of Lake Kizakae. He witnesses her arrival, and as he attempts to flee the scene of the landing, falls in the lake and almost drowns. The next day in school, he discovers that a new teacher has taken the place of their old one, and that her name is Mizuho Kazami... it is only after she moves in next door to Kei's aunt and uncle that he learns her true identity. In the misadventure that follows, Kei almost gets trapped in between alternate dimensions, and then he and Mizuho end up being transported by Marie into the bathtub at Minoru's house.
It gets compounded when attempting to deal with the situation with his uncle that Kei and Mizuho get locked in the gym room at school, and are discovered by both Minoru, Kodoha, and Principle Tendo... only a lie by Minoru and Kodoha--that Kei and Mizuho are married--saves the two, as does Kei's informing the principle of his illness and his real age.
Based on the principle's instruction to keep their relationship secret from the other students, the adventure continues through the next several months as Kei and Mizuho go through the steps of courtship normally experienced prior to marriage, rather than after. Kei's relationship with his friends doesn't make it any easier on the two of them, especially as Ichigo is bent upon setting Kei up with Koishi who has a crush on him (Kei). As Kei tries to move forward with both his secret life with his teacher who is also his wife, as well as with his friends... his illness compounds the issue at several critical moments: after he and Mizuho have their first fight over he and Koishi going out, then after Maho transports him (Kei) to the world between dimensions and almost nearly succeeds in killing him, and then after Marie transports him to the beach where he and Mizuho spent their first honeymoon after their largest fight to date. It's there, in that last and worst episode of his illness that we learn about the initial trigger of his sister's suicide due in large part to the changing nature of human emotions and a desire to live in a world where only peace and happiness exists without sorrow or contradictions.
In violation of Galaxy Federation rules and regulations, Mizuho uses the technology of her spacecraft to enter into Kei's mental realm in order to bring him out of his standstill. As he is about to go into a near-death state of consciousness, he sees Mizuho for what will be the last time. She tells him how they met, and how she eventually came to love him after their marriage and through all the trials they underwent. After embracing one last time, Mizuho disappears and teleports Kei back to his uncle's house where Kodoha wakes him up. Mizuho herself places a pack of poochy (loosely based off of the Japanese snack pocky) in Kei's back pocket (in the manga, he had bought it as a present for her), but as he looks at it, he feels some important piece disappearing from him as Mizuho goes back to face the displeasure of the Galaxy Federation who seal off the memories of those she encountered here on earth, and send her back to her home planet.
The set ends with Mizuho's mother breaking through the embargo that the Galaxy Federation placed on earth, and dropping Mizuho off so that she can see Kei one more time, if not pick up where they left off altogether. When she reappears in the school classroom as the home-room teacher, Kei regains his memories but suppresses his happiness while in the presence of his classmates--Mizuho reproaches him for that angrily, though she doesn't seem to mind all that much. The manga ends with Kei's saying that "We can start over as many times as we want." The animated version ends with their kissing, and announcement of marriage.
Components: There are 13 episodes in the English and Japanese animated series about the relationship between Kei and Mizuho, and two volumes in the manga/graphic novel. A third component is a short novel by Gō Zappa titled "Kei and Mizuho's Milky Diary."
Thoughts: The animated series in English is a very amusing interpretation of human emotions, and the degrees of self-induced torture the mind can put one through while trying to figure out how to navigate the minefield that social interactions can bring. At the same time, it also touches (albeit briefly), the possibilities and problems with Teacher/student romantic interactions, especially given at the start, one is made to believe that Kei is indeed fifteen or a little younger, rather than the eighteen that he is; this older person/young student angle is also covered by Koishi, who in delivering the meals to Mr. Yamada, winds up falling in love with him--though her heart is initially set on Kei.
Even though there are discrepencies in orders of sequence and action between the manga and the animated series, both are compatible in understanding the overall situation and the parts that one or the other left out of the overall story arc. At the same time, the third part of the series--the 'diary' is a poorly written attempt at filling in the remaining gaps of sequence and action that neither the manga nor anime cover. Indeed, I could write it better. While I understand that it's intended audience are teens and/or young adults, it's overall effect is a poor rendition of an otherwise excellent series.
Rating: Three and a half-four stars overall. Two for the diary.