I found Onegai Teacher appalling - I disliked the male and female leads, the story was kinda dumb with the Rip Van Winkle sickness and alien/UFO thing. In contrast I enjoyed Onegai Twins very much - I liked the three main characters and the simple, elegant way the story was built around their past, moving towards the future. As such, it passes the rewatchability test (aka as the Jeff Lawson test) which is my first condition for proceeding with a DVD purchase. RightStuf also offered a great price for it during their Twelve Days of Christmas sale - second condition, tick! (Currently they’re having a 20% off Spring Cleaning sale until 30 Mar 2008.)
Given that Onegai Twins aired during the ancient times (2003), detailed episode summaries on the usual reliable repositories have been hard to come by. I smell a niche for retro-blogging here. And despite the occasional outburst of blah blah, good episode summaries are really useful aids to memory, especially when you want to find a specific scene; episode summaries banzai!
Vol.1 Three’s Company
Ep 1. Three Twins? Maiku, Miina and Karen are introduced, linked by a photograph and a house.
Ep 2. We Might Be Related. The trio play house; Maiku stops Miina from leaving.
Ep 3. We Might Be Strangers. Miina versus Tsubaki-senpai, Karen’s dad does a Hayate Ayasaki.
Ep 4. Kind To You. The girls’ attempt to apply for part-time work at Maiku’s school; hilarity ensues.
Vol.2 Sibling Rivalry
Ep 5. Do You Like Girls? The girls end their truancy; the battle against Kousei ‘Your Face Is Too Close’ Shimazaki.
Ep 6. Love Alliance. Tensions build up. The girls admit their feelings for Maiku and establish the Love Alliance, governed by the following rules:
- Until they find out who is blood-related to Maiku, neither will confess to him;
- If one discovers she is related to Maiku, she will tell the other ASAP;
- The relative will support the non-relative’s romance with Maiku;
- Death to the hos who try to snatch our Maiku from us!!!
Ep 7. Making Memories. BEACH EPISODE!!!!
Vol.3 Only For You
Ep 8. Be Honest In Love. Tsubaki-senpai and Shimazaki make up/out.
Ep 9. Don’t Leave Me Out. The trio get separated on a shopping trip; this is the ancient pre-ketai times so dorama ensues.
Ep 10. I Want To Run Again. Miina confronts her past.
Vol. 4: Twins Forever
Ep 11. I Want To Tell You, I Love You. Karen discovers the secret of the trio’s past.
Ep 12. We Three Twins. Overwhelmed by her feelings, Miina leaves the house.
Ep 13 (OVA). The Summer Never Ends. Karen becomes clingy; things are resolved over a summer camp out.
A third condition is good quality of the merchandise. No point paying a cheap cheap price but getting amazing Xedo ‘my DVD looks like VCD and lousier than my AVI!’ quality. Combining the second and third conditions gives a more holistic condition of Value for Money. The obvious stuff checked out ok - all discs present and accounted for, all discs can be played, all are actual DVDs.
The 4:3 resolution surprised me even though it shouldn’t. Kinda like when I popped my Mai HiME DVDs into the DVD player. Once you start down the 16:9 path, forever will it dominate your viewing perspective. Slightly disappointing that the audio was only available in stereo and no 5.1 - the OP Second Flight and ED Asu e no namida are still among my favourites. On the flip side, I didn’t have to endure even a moment of the default setting of the English dub in 5.1 . Why oh why do they bother with dubs? Does anyone actually listen to them? Think of the costs that could be saved by dumping dubbing as well as producing just Limited Edition single releases and box sets. Looks like US licensees have successfully experimented with LEs (Haruhi) and the straight to boxset model looks good for MariMite. ARIA next plz ktksbai!!!
A few other minor notes upon rewatching: For me, Yukari Tamura is indelibly associated in my mind as The Voice of Nanoha. When I heard Ink-chan, I thought: ‘LOL! That’s Nanoha!’ When I heard her as Midori Sugiura, I thought: ‘LOL! That’s Nanoha on speed!’ When I heard her as Morino, I thought: ‘LOL! That’s Nanoha on prozac!’ I admire her work but versatility isn’t something that seems to come with her voice range. Or perhaps she needs to play a typecast breaking role e.g. Nana Mizuki with Touma in Minami Ke.
The cameos from Onegai Teacher were not as irritating as I expected. I’ve always liked Herikawa so it was nice to see her being the big sis to Miina and Karen at the supermarket. But Mizuho-sensei surprised me. I really really disliked her in Teacher. But she provided a crucial stepping stone to integrating the girls into Maiku’s school, was actually funny with her ditziness as well as awkward but sweet relationship with her husband.
Since acquiring the DVD boxset, I’ve rewatched the series twice and I’m finding lots of enjoyment in the characters but also, more rarely for me, in the way the plot was constructed. I’m still impressed by how it was revealed who is the twin, and even more impressed by the clever twist about the photo. The major plot line was tied together and (more or less) resolved beautifully - such a rare thing in anime where many series just seem to collapse at the end from the sheer weight of their contradictions, creative exhaustion and/or budget crises. Onegai Twins has stood the test of time for me and was one of the foundation stones of the SISCON Alliance. LOL
“Think of the costs that could be saved by dumping dubbing as well as producing just Limited Edition single releases and box sets.”
THIS. So much sense in a single sentence.
Also, agreed on OT’s analysis.
Opposite. Like Teacher and the cast of characters. You must have been influence by your sis-con-meido-lolicon bro. Especially Mizuho. Didn’t like Twins all that much, i thought the story was too shallow, even by fanservice anime standards. The whole would have been solve early on if Maiku would stick in both of them. Both girls were hot, ready and willing.
As for Yukari Tamura, As big as Nanoha fan that i am, i don’t associate her with just Nanoha. That might probably be because i heard her in other roles before i watch nanoha, Midori, Sakura and Rika. Three very different characters with different voices.
Also on the issue of dubs and no dubs. Some companies are releasing anime (the more niche genre0 without dubs. The companies probably learn that for niche title of a niche hobby, dubbings for some of these series adds un-necessary cost without bring in much revenue, making it a net loss.
Certainly the Please! franchise elicits almost diametrically opposed views from fans - we’re so hard to please (pun not intended!). I’d also love to hear from those who liked both OTe and OTw or disliked both OTe and OTw and crucially ‘Why?’
Dub/no dub. Now that the initial euphoria about anime going mainstream has dissipated (esp with GENEON going tits up), companies probably recognize that most anime releases are consumed within a niche market. Dark Mirage, jpmeyer etc. have been shouting from the rooftops for ages that anime is a niche market even in Japan itself. Going after niche market share with a mass market strategy is just financial kamikaze - consumers and producers both lose.
Onegai series… people either love it or hate it.
Personally though, I actually enjoyed and rewatched Onegai Twins more than I did with OneTea. Mostly because I enjoy seeing Kamishiro suffer and his GAR-ness, plus Mai Nakahara and Ai Shimizu make a good combo together.
It’s a bit too bad there were no more Onegai shows after it…
SInce we are on the subject of anime companies. Gonzo have at least seen some light as they are planning to streamline 2 series the sameday they are air in japan. It will be Eng Sub. There is a free streamline ver and downloadable ver that you can purchase. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I wasn’t planning to watch either titles that will be streamline but i guess i will give it a shot.
Kurogane, Mai Nakahara and Ai Shimizu are such a good combi that so many rumours about them IRL - which I’m sure is just a way to tease the fans. LOL But it sure works, they’ve got great chemistry e.g. Mai x Mikoto in Mai HiME/Otome, Nagisa x Tamao in StoPani.
On the theme of anime seiyuu chemistry, I’ve also been thinking that Shizuka Itou and Hitomi Nabatame make a good tag team too. I’ve been enjoying their work as Wirhelmina x Margery and the Katsura sisters.
Xellos-_^, do let me know if those shows will be worth catching. I’ve been so traumatised by GONZO that I steadfastly avoid their stuff unless the animeblogger/fan response is generally positive.