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Please Teacher! (おねがい☆ティーチャー, Onegai Teacher?), is a Japanese anime series, authored and scripted by Yousuke Kuroda, and produced by Bandai Visual, which was adapted into a manga and light novel, centering around a group of friends and the odd things that happen to them after they get a new teacher.

The Please Teacher! anime series premiered in Japan on the WOWOW satellite television network between January 10, 2002 and March 28, 2002, spanning a total of 13 episodes, including twelve originally premiering on television plus an OVA episode released on DVD on October 25, 2002. It was adapted very soon into a manga, serialized in Media Works's seinen manga magazine, Dengeki Daioh, in January 2002, and was also later adapted into a light novel, entitled Onegai Teacher: Mizuho and Kei's Milky Diary, published in March 2003.

The Please Teacher! anime series was soon continued onto a sequel/spin-off [1] [2], Please Twins!, which premiered on WOWOW between July 15, 2003 and October 14, 2003.

The setting of the series, though left unsaid in either anime or manga, is Lake Kizaki, located in Nagano, Japan, and the region and its surrounding locations are featured prominently and accurately across the series.[3] The novel does say the school the characters attend is the Nagano Prefectural Kizaki High school. This school is based upon the Old Matsumoto High School located in Agatanomori Park of Matsumoto-shi, about an hour south of Lake Kizaki on the JR Ooito Line. The tower of which we see Kaede & Hyouske standing upon can be found in Joyama Kouen on the northwest part of the city.

Characters

Kei Kusanagi (草薙 桂, Kusanagi Kei?)

Kei is an 18 year old who retains a 15 year old body after a three year long "standstill", which is a coma-like state that occurs during a time of extreme emotional distress. Standstills are derived from an unknown - possibly psychological - disease that Kei and his friend Ichigo Morino have. He tends to be a very frail, shy boy, never often wanting to assert himself when need be.

After observing the landing of a UFO while on the bank of a lake and subsequently observing the alien on the lake shore, odd things begin happening to Kei in connection with this alien. The next day, Kei is surprised to find like everyone else that one of their teachers quit and a quick replacement was found which just happened to turn out to be the alien - Mizuho Kazami. After a few more encounters with each other, Kei is taken to her spaceship where the whole situation goes from bad to worse.
Upon striking Marie, a tiny computer helper of Mizuho's, it effectively is unable to perform as well as it seemed to work, which often puts the characters in strange situations if they can't rely on the help of Marie.

Eventually, after Kei and Mizuho are found in a locked storage room by Kei's uncle and the principal of the school, his uncle impulsively tells the principal that Kei and Mizuho are in fact married. Later, Kei and Mizuho do actually get married, though only the paperwork is done while there was no official ceremony. This whole situation was, of course, kept secret from Kei's friends as Ichigo Morino constantly tries to pair Kei up with a friend of hers, Koishi, while all the while Kei and Mizuho's relationship and attraction for each other only grows.

Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi (Japanese), Dave Wittenberg (English)

Mizuho Kazami (風見 みずほ, Kazami Mizuho?)

A half alien, half human, Planet Inspector from the Galactic Federation, sent to Earth to observe and study humans. Mizuho came to Earth to monitor the planet though inadvertently was seen by Kei as she was just landing on Earth. Although she did not trust him at first, she started to become attracted to Kei after they exchanged secrets about their past.

One of the main conflicts in the story involves Mizuho and how she tends to have great jealousy and misjudgment. She even went to great lengths as to spy on Kei while he was hanging out with a friend from school, Koishi Herikawa, in a set up date, and when Mizuho's mother held Kei hostage in a hotel.

She loves to eat pochy, a Japanese snack food that consists of a biscuit stick covered with chocolate. Pochy is a fictional version of an actual snack known as pocky.

Her catch phrase is "Saiyu sen jiko yo!" ("This is top priority!").

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (Japanese), Bridget Hoffman (English)

Koishi Herikawa (縁川小石, Herikawa Koishi?)

She is one of Kei's close friends who also pursues a romantic relationship with Kei, but towards the end of the series discovers her affection for one of her teachers, Yamada. This inappropriate relationship is only ever hinted at, but it's more than obvious that something is going on between them when Yamada is confronted by the principal about him seeing Yamada and a girl from their school walking together. Her parents own a grocery store and she often has to go to deliver food that people ordered.

Koishi has a happy-disposition to her personality and is only ever seen crying when it comes to matters that involve Kei. One of the things Ichigo would get irritated at was that Koishi would never act on her urges and in effect she waits too long, and by the time she does tell Kei her true feelings, he's already hopelessly in love with Mizuho.

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese), Michelle Ruff (English)

Ichigo Morino (森野 苺, Morino Ichigo?)

Often a shrewd girl with only a few select friends, her physical growth is stunted due to her "standstills", in the same way they affect Kei. Ichigo tends to have much more perceptive on life and is much more cynical than the rest of the characters. Surprisingly, even though she resembles that of a 15 year old or perhaps younger, her real age is 21.

She is currently living alone in an apartment so that her family wouldn't be burdened by her. Her illness was always triggered when she sees her friends get hurt, especially Koishi.

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Julie Anne Taylor (English)

Kaede Misumi (水澄楓, Misumi Kaede?)

Also one of Kei's friends, Kaede tends to be a rather shy girl most of the time. Her physical characteristics include that she is one quarter Irish, tall and with red hair and freckles. Despite being rather quiet and shy, she becomes the paramour to Hyosuke Magamo yet another of Kei's friends. She had feelings for Hyosuke for some time but she was too timid to say anything about it.

Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese), Melissa Fahn (English)

Hyosuke Magumo (間雲漂介, Magumo Hyōsuke?)

A brash student with blonde hair, Hyosuke aspires to attend college at Tokyo University and become a professional statesman, much like his brother. Of Kei's group of friends, he tends to be the most hyperactive of them all and often does the strangest things too.

Voiced by: Mitsuo Iwata (Japanese), Kirk Thornton (English)

Matagu Shido (四道 跨, Shidō Matagu?)

A rather serious student who is also into astronomy, Matagu seems to be the most hopeless of the cast, never even getting to the point to gain a girlfriend by the end of the series.

Voiced by: Hiroaki Miura (Japanese), Tony Schnur (English)

Minoru Edajima (江田島みのる, Edajima Minoru?)

Kei's uncle and doctor of the local clinic. Quite jealous of Kei's relationship with Mizuho, he is more than a little perverted, but often covers for and helps Kei out.

Voiced by: Naoya Uchida (Japanese), Michael McConnohie (English)

Konoha Edajima (江田島このは, Edajima Konoha?)

Kei's aunt and nurse of the local clinic. A quite attractive woman who puts up with her husband's behaviour only so much before she starts to get really angry at him.

Voiced by: Rei Sakuma (Japanese), Karen Strassman (English)

Marie (まりえ, Marie?)

A quasi-organic master control program for Mizuho's ship. Totally self-repairing and maintenance free. Hovers around in an innertube and on occasion plays a miniature guitar.

Voiced by: Tomoko Kaneda (Japanese), Sandy Fox (English)

Masami Yamada (山田正臣, Yamada Masami?)

A quiet and shaggy male teacher whose hobby is creating human-powered planes. Koishi delivers him meals from her parents' grocery store. At the end of the series, their relationship gets much closer than that of teacher and student.

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita

Maho Kazami (風見まほ, Kazami Maho?)

Mizuho's little sister, who disapproves of Kei but eventually comes to accept him. While she disapproves of him, she continued to stalk him and couldn't quite understand why her sister would chose him to fall in love with. Maho tends to be very immature as she often whines and complains about various things involving Kei and Mizuho.

Voiced by: Satomi Koorogi (Japanese), Sandy Fox (English)

Hatsuho Kazami (風見はつほ, Kazami Hatsuho?)

Mizuho's mother, who is very fond of Kei, whom she claims resembles her late husband. She can be a very bold and assertive woman who always seems to get her way. She greatly resembles Mizuho, with the exception of having purple hair instead of red, and a small beauty mark on her chin.

Voiced by: Yumi Takada (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)

Shirou Kazami (風見士郎, Kazami Shirō?)

Mizuho's father who's ship was lost in space and he was rescued by an alien spacecraft. One of the members of that spacecraft was Hatsuho, which is how they came to be married. Eventually, he went on to develop programs for the Galactic Federation. He died when Mizuho was still a child.

Miruru (みるる, Miruru?)

Another computer intelligence hologram, dressed in female-like clothing, responsible for the ship of Hatsuho and Maho. Seems also to be romantically involved with Marie.

Kozue Kusanagi (草薙 こずえ, Kusanagi Kozue?)

Kei Kusanagi's sister. Kozue was older than Kei, and loved him so much. She took new heights to obtaining happiness, or at least to cease the sadness, thus resulting in Kei's condition.

Voiced by: Omi Minami (Japanese), Julie Anne Taylor (English)