PC | DS | Wii | PlayStation 2 | PlayStation 3 | PSP | Xbox 360 | Retired: GBA | GameCube | Xbox

News | Reviews | Previews | Features | Classics | Goodies | Anime | Forums

So, we finally made a Twitter thingy.  You can follow it here.

Please Teacher Volume 3 –

The Honeymoon’s Over

Now that Mizuho’s family has finally left, maybe the newlyweds will finally have some time alone… well probably not. In the continuing tradition of good romance anime, this volume manages to increase the stress on the burgeoning couple more than before. What makes this series so good is the realism; as each character moves, they second guess themselves and wonder about the people around them, and not every character is happy.

Episode 8: Long Night

One of those “slice of life” episodes. This episode starts with both Kei and Mizuho being late for school because of an unset alarm clock With women needing more time to get ready than men, Kei runs from the house first without Mizuho and ends up drawing her ire at school where she can punish him for being tardy but a simple excuse makes up for her mistake. After school, the boys and girls go their separate ways and end up in the usual discussions – the girls talk about Kaede and Hyosuke as well as how Koishi is trying to set up a relationship with Kei. During the girl’s talk, you really notice that Ichigo seems to be more withdrawn from thoughts of love than usual, and maintains her status as a cheerleader for the other two girls; when confronted with this, she claims that she doesn’t intend to fall in love.

The boys are having a discussion of their own about Kaede and Hyosuke, which prompts Matagu to state that he wants a girlfriend too. After the usual responses from Kei and Hyosuke, Matagu claims that he’s going to confess his feelings to Mizuho and ask her out on a date. Back at home now, the battles continue between Kei and Mizuho who are in full stride on their passive-aggressive attacks on each other. Kei mentions what Matagu said to Mizuho, which she 

Advertisement

finds amusing and comments that he’s a good student. Their continuing arguing is broken up by a phone call by Koishi who wants to meet with Kei that night. While Kei was  getting ready to leave, Matagu calls for Mizuho with claims of having difficulty with the homework; Mizuho offers to meet with him that night to help (mostly because it will annoy Kei).

Kei and Mizuho are both struggling inside with how they are going to handle their “outside relationships”, especially Kei who has difficulty with the thought of willfully hurting someone that he cares about. As expected, Koishi once again declares her love to Kei, but this time, he’s actually able to tell her that he cannot because he’s in love with someone else. Kei then leaves Koishi and runs toward Mizuho and Matagu. Upon reaching their meeting point, the two were merely studying and no awkward situations arose. Koishi leaves the meeting with Kei and heads to school to speak with Mr. Sanada, who was still working on his glider; upon hearing about her disappointment, he reminds her that love doesn’t always work out, but it is important to have fun on the build up. Kei and Mizuho work out their feelings towards each other, and Mizuho helps Kei with the thought of how he hurt Koishi with that relationship – by deciding that they chose a situation that made them the happiest, they made the right decisions in life.

Episode 9: Let’s End It Now

Kei’s happy outlook on life is interrupted once he begins thinking about how he hurt Koishi; he is now guilt-ridden and doesn’t know how to act around her. Koishi also is having difficulty acting around Kei, which draws the attention of Ichigo. During lunch the girls eat together, which gives Ichigo the opportunity to ask Koishi what happened the night before. After hearing what happened, Ichigo begins to feel responsible after continually pushing her friend to act and the information about the incident filters to both Hyosuke and Matagu who are at a loss over how to act around the two. The next day at school, Ichigo meets with Kei to confront him over rejecting Koishi. Even though she realizes that Kei has his own reasons for acting as he did, she is angry with him and upset with herself for pushing Koishi. The high amount of emotions running around causes Ichigo to have a standstill, which surprises Kei that another person suffered from the same condition as he does.

After taking Ichigo to her home, he discovers that she lives alone and that she lost 6 years of her life to standstills and is really 21 years old. Kei feels more sorry for her, as he thinks that his current choices in life will cause her to enter another series of standstills. With this in mind, he decides to move out of Mizuho’s house and back in with Minoru and Konoha. By having a relationship with Koishi, he believes that he can prevent Ichigo from entering another standstill, and the episode ends with him setting up a meeting with Koishi.

Episode 10: But…

In order to be “able” to date Koishi, Kei claims that the girl that he was in love with broke up with him, and that he is now available. Despite the appearances, Koishi is happy to be with Kei and decides to start up a relationship nonetheless. Now that Kei and Koishi are seeing one another, Kei has been suffering internally with his heart wanting to be with Mizuho but his sense of duty and his fear of standstills make him want to help Ichigo by staying with Koishi. The new pairing has left Matagu more distraught (nothing like seeing more people in relationships to help out that angst about being alone) and Ichigo happy that her friend is happy. Now that Kei knows about Ichigo’s condition, he spends more time talking to her than before. After an outing with Koishi, Kei goes to visit Ichigo but Koishi realizes that she forgot to give him something. Seeing Kei and Ichigo look close makes her think that Ichigo was the girl that Kei was in love with, after angrily confronting the two, she runs away.

After finding Koishi with Ichigo’s help, Kei speaks with her and tries to tell Koishi that he was merely asking Ichigo for advice about the relationship. Not believing the lie, he asks what he needs to do, to which she asks him to kiss her. As Kei moves in to kiss Koishi, Mizuho sees the whole scene and runs away crying. Unable to see his wife run away, he runs after Mizuho leaving Ichigo to explain the situation to Koishi. Ichigo tells the entire truth about her and Kei’s condition and explains that Kei was seeing her to prevent another standstill; angry that her friend would lie to her, she was happy to know that Ichigo was trying to help her. After searching for Mizuho, he asks Marie to transport him to her. After getting their feelings out in the open, Kei struggles with the situation, his intense love for Mizuho paired with the fake relationship to Koishi. With the troubles rampaging through him, Kei once again falls into a standstill.

The third disc of Please Teacher is an excellent one, with its honest portrayals of emotions and relationships. A must have series for those looking for something deeper than the usual fare of explosions or violence.

- Tazman

(January 17, 2004)

“Aww. I'm gonna lose my job, just because I'm dangerously incompetent.”

- Homer (Simpsons)

Digg this Article!  | del.icio.us

Advertise | Site Map | Staff | RSS Feed

Affiliates:

- BDGamers -   - CnC Den -   - CivFanatics-   - Creative Uncut -   - Darkstation -   - DarkZero -   Devil May Cry   - Dreamstation.cc -   

- Fable 2 -    - GameZone -   - Mario-Kart.net -   - PS2 Fantasy -  - PS3 -   -TalkXbox -   - Zelda Dungeon -

All articles ©2000 - 2008 The Armchair Empire.

All game and anime imagery is the property of their respective owners.

Privacy Statement - Disclaimer