Please Teacher-Volume 4: Hello Again (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio & Animation DVD Credits Featurette-Marie Love Theatre (2:36) Trailer-Episode 13 Preview (0:31) Trailer-Episode 13 Promotional Clip (2:07) Gallery-Character Artwork (18 pages) Biographies-Character-3 Trailer-Madman Propaganda (5) Reversible Cover
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	67:22 (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

    And so, sadly, we reach the final volume of Please Teacher. If you are new to the series, you should read my review of the first volume: Hot for Teacher, at least. You might care to also read about Meet the In-laws, and The Honeymoon's Over.

    The three episodes on this disc are:

    The previous volume ended with Kei in a standstill, and that's where this volume opens. This isn't a simple standstill, either — Mizuho's kiss is not enough to draw Kei out of it. We venture into Kei's mind, and discover what triggered his big standstill (the one where he lost 3 years), and how it relates to this one. Be warned, this is rugged.

    Because of her actions, Mizuho faces a trial, accused of violating all manner of galactic regulations governing the behaviour of galactic observers. She's unrepentant, because she feels she did what she had to do.

    Note that Episode 12 is the end of the regular series. Episode 13 is a bonus episode of sorts (it was released as an OAV in Japan), with Mizuho's mother and sister dropping in on her. It's a bit raunchier than the other episodes (it even involves a visit to a Japanese "love hotel" — something they have because it's hard for couples to get privacy anywhere else), and you might want to avoid it if that disturbs you. 'twould be a pity, though, because it's rather funny.

    I was pleased to see that they put some trouble into giving us closure for more than just the central pair — Mr Yamada gets more attention than I expected, for example..

    I was a little surprised with how serious the central secret turned out to be, and yet it's much more satisfying that it was so serious — I guess it meant that they weren't just playing games. I dare not say anything more, for fear of spoiling it.

    Ah, well, this sweet little series draws to an end, but it's a good end. And now that attractive box is full. I wonder what new series I should be looking forward to now?

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.

    The opening credit sequence is soft, but that's about it. This disc is probably the best of the lot as far as sharpness goes. Film grain is never a problem, and there's no low-level noise.

    Colour is strong and intense, which is important in a show with such vivid hair colours (Mizuho's hot pink hair, Hatsuho's purple, and so on). There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are no visible film artefacts.

    There is aliasing, but it's all quite mild. There is no moiré and no MPEG artefacts. There's one instance of pixelization, but it is definitely deliberate, obscuring what we are supposed to assume is a sex toy.

    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 only problem I noticed was an instance of an increasingly common grammatical error: the use of "that" in place of "who" — we've all heard of the dehumanising influences of modern society, but that's ridiculous.

    The disc is single-sided and single layered. No layer change, and no complaints!

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 — just what we'd expect and hope for. 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, but no surround effects, even if the decoder is active.

    Both the English and Japanese dialogue sound clear, and seem well-synced to the animation. I have no trouble understanding the English, but I have troubles with the Japanese (but that's to do with not understanding the language, rather than any defect in the disc).

    Shinji Orito's score is pleasant, and supports the drama of the show well. The theme songs are apt for this show. During these episodes we get songs behind some of the dramatic passages, and these are appropriate.

    This disc offers just basic stereo (very good, but still 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

Menu

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

Music Clip #3

    The cover slick (both sides) promises this extra. But it simply ain't there!

Featurette: Marie Love Theatre (2:36)

    This is a faux home movie about love between Marie (Mizuho's space-ship control) and Miruru (Hatsuho's space-ship control). It is more than a little suggestive, but quite cute

Episode 13 Preview (0:31)

    We don't get to see this preview at the end of episode 12, but we do get to see it here.

Episode 13 Promotional Clip (2:07)

    A nice trailer for the episode, without too many spoilers. Amusingly, there's one shot that's pixelated in the show, but not in this clip.

Gallery — Character Artwork (18 pages)

    A mixture of Draft and Final Setting artwork, this time concentrating on Konoha, Minoru, Yamada, and Kozue Kusanagi, plus Yamada's aircraft, and the spaceships.

Character Profiles

    The characters covered here are all from Kei's circle of schoolfriends:

• Matagu Shidou
• Kaede Misumi
• Ichigo Morino

Trailers: Madman Propaganda

    Five individually-selectable trailers:

• Revolutionary Girl Utena - the movie (2:02)
• Grave of the Fireflies (2:09)
• Heat Guy J (1:30)
• Orphen (1:41)
• Real Bout High School (1:16)

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 the whole crowd, which is rather sweet. Our cover art is quite different from the Region 1, which features Mizuho in her space-suit.

DVD Credits

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

    The Region 1 version of this disc was released November 2003. By all reports the Region 1 disc has a superb transfer, just like this one. The R1 does get Music Clip #3 that is advertised on the R4 cover (but is not on the disc), but I wouldn't regard that as a reason to get the R1 over the R4. Nor am I too fussed over the fact that they get an insert mini-poster (the image is the one we get on the back of the reversible cover slick)

    It sounds like the two versions are equivalent — I'm happy with the Region 4 copy I bought.

    A sweet little anime series ends well. It's presented very well on DVD, too.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is excellent for a stereo soundtrack.

    The extras are quite decent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall