PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Please Teacher-Volume 3: The Honeymoon's Over (2001)

Please Teacher-Volume 3: The Honeymoon's Over (2001)

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Released 5-Dec-2003

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Anime Main Menu Audio & Animation
Music Video-I Can't Get Over Your Best Smile (7:17)
Credits-Textless opening (1:42)
Credits-Textless closing (1:22)
Gallery-Character Artwork (27pp)
Biographies-Character-Character Profiles (3)
Trailer-Madman Propaganda (5)
Reversible Cover
DVD Credits
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2001
Running Time 69:03 (Case: 75)
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Yasunori Ide
Studio
Distributor

Madman Entertainment
Starring Soichiro Hoshi
Dave Wittenberg
Kikuko Inoue
Bridget Hoffman
Ayako Kawasumi
Michelle Ruff
Mitsuo Iwata
Kirk Thornton
Yukari Tamura
Julie Anne Taylor
Sayaka Ohara
Melissa Fahn
Tomoko Kaneda
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI $29.95 Music Shinji Orito


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures Yes
Subtitles English Titling
English
Smoking Yes, rare
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, next episode preview

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    This is the third volume of Please Teacher. If you haven't read my review of the first volume, I recommend you do so before reading this one. You might care to follow that by reading my review of the second volume.

    The three episodes on this disc are:

8 Long Night Ichigo urges Koishi to tell Kei how she feels, while Motagu is determined to do the same with Mizuho
9 Let's End It Now Kei makes a shocking discovery about Ichigo, and this motivates him to back-flip with Mizuho and Koishi
10 But... Koishi isn't stupid. She knows something isn't right, and this comes to a head

    Now that Kaede and Hyosuke are an established couple, they want to spread the joy, so they start urging their friends to pair up. One obvious target for their matchmaking is Kei and Koishi — Koishi's feelings have gone unnoticed by no one, and Kei seems unattached... The other obvious pairing is Ichigo and Motagu, but Ichigo makes it quite clear that will never happen.

    To a certain extent these episodes seem to be marking time, and that's frustrating, but there are some nicely constructed scenes in these episodes, such as the fight between Mizuho and Kei that results in the two of them leaving the house to see other people. This leads to a development that affects all the other episodes on this disc.

    With this being the second last volume, I was expecting a lot to happen, and in a way it does, but not so much in terms of action as in terms of emotion. These are emotionally tumultuous episodes for several of the characters, which is heart-wrenching for the audience, but there are some sweet moments, too. Some of the lesser characters, like Mr Yamada, get more development than I'd have expected.

    There's an interesting flash-back sequence that explains more about Kei's past, and how the standstill affected his relations with everyone around him.

    Now the bad news: we have to wait until February to discover how this sweet little series will end...

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This DVD transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced. This is the original aspect ratio.

    Once again, this series exhibits variable sharpness, but this disc is much better than the second volume. The credit sequence is still soft, but most of the rest is as sharp as we'd like, although there's one sequence set at night that's a little soft. There is no film grain, and no low-level noise.

    Colour is magnificent, with more saturated colours on display, and these attractive colours are well-rendered. There are no colour-related artefacts, but the night-time sequence referred to above seems over-bright, somewhat washing out the colours.

    There are no visible film artefacts.

    There is plenty of aliasing, but it's generally quite mild, and less obvious than on the previous disc. There is no moiré and no MPEG artefacts. There is interlacing, but it's not visible when playing at normal speed.

    The usual two subtitle tracks appear, both in English, with the first being a "signs only" track, while the second is full subtitles. These subtitles are yellow, attractive, and easy to read.

    The disc is single-sided and single layered, so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in English and Japanese — the languages we expect on good anime. Both soundtracks are Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround encoded, at 224kbps. I watched all the episodes in English and then again in Japanese. The sound on both tracks is definitely stereo, with a reasonable spread on the music, and occasional directional voice.

    Both the English and Japanese dialogue sound clear, and there are no obvious glitches in sync between the dialogue and the animation.

    Shinji Orito's score is excellent, and is nicely suited to the action. The theme songs are apt for this show.

    This disc is basic stereo, with no use of the surrounds or subwoofer — they aren't needed.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu

    The menus are animated with music. They are easy to use.

Music Clip #2 (7:17)

    This rather pleasant piece is a song entitled I Can't Get Over Your Best Smile, and it plays over footage from the show.

Textless Opening (1:42)

    The opening of the show without credits, an extra with which we are rather familiar.

Textless Closing (1:21)

    The closing of the show, again without credits, another extra we've seen before.

Gallery — Character Artwork (27 pages)

    A mixture of Draft and Final Setting artwork, this time giving a lot of space to Koishi and the many outfits we see her wear. Ichigo and Motagu appear, too.

Character Profiles

    The characters covered here are:

Trailers: Madman Propaganda

    Five individually-selectable trailers:

Reversible Cover Slick

    The cover slick can be slid out and reversed, giving a front cover in Japanese. The inside cover features an image of what looks like a younger Mizuho, with a shocked Maho. This is completely different from the Region 1, where the alternate cover features Ichigo.

DVD Credits

    A single page that shows credits for the folks at Madman who worked on this disc.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 version of this disc was released in September 2003. Reports say the Region 1 disc has a superb transfer, and most of the extras (without the character profiles). Both versions have the same cover image, but the R1 artwork removes the "airmail" motif that was on the Japanese cover, and is on the R4.

    It sounds very much like the two versions are equivalent — I'm happy to have bought the Region 4.

Summary

    A sweet little anime series — certainly not one that I'm keen to see end — and nicely presented on DVD, too.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is excellent for a stereo soundtrack.

    The extras are quite decent.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-S733A, using Component output
DisplaySony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left, Centre, Right: Krix Euphonix; Rears: Krix KDX-M; Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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