Happy Lesson: Teachers' Pet Collection

Happy Lesson: Teachers' Pet Collection
List Price: $39.98
Our Price: $35.99
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Manufacturer: Adv Films
Starring: Happy Lesson
Average Customer Rating: Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5

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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0702727143120
Format: Animated
Label: Adv Films
Manufacturer: Adv Films
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: Adv Films
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2005-11-22
Running Time: 425
Studio: Adv Films

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Editorial Reviews:

What teenage boy wouldn’t want to be around beautiful women? Chitose, what’s who! He’s been adopted by his high school teachers, who actually move in with him. But their good looks are overshadowed by their near-psychotic maternal zeal!


Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: a cute show in its own way
Comment: happy lesson is a show about a guy who's pretty female teachers all decide to be his mother. it is a cute show that has its moments. there is not much to it other than that. when it is done it dosent feel finnised. i guess the ending feels a bit rushed. but it was funny and cute, and an easy to enjoy anime.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5
Summary: A decent series, a poor release
Comment: There are two different things I'd like to comment on, Happy Lesson the anime and Happy Lesson as it was released by ADV.

The anime is perfectly serviceable, but nothing more. The characters come in two flavors: one dimensional caricatures with a single personality trait, and vanilla characters with absolutely no personality. The idea of a shinto priestess school nurse trying to exorcise the bad luck from the hapless main character is great, and I quite enjoyed it the first time, when Urusei Yatsura did it. The second time around wasn't nearly so much fun, and its not hard to understand why: Yayoi-sensei is no Sakura, and Chitose is no Ataru Moroboshi. Most of the enjoyment derived from the story comes in spotting which more famous and more interesting character was reimagined for the show, and which generic misadventure Chitose is going to find himself in next. I'd like to think these were homages done for the sake of parody, but more often than not they come off as flagrant ripoffs done by writers trying to meet a deadline by replacing story with formula.

The only place the anime really shines is in the animation itself. The changes of animation style really work nicely to move the story along, and while its maybe not the most beautiful anime in the world, they certain managed to make the girls look interesting, if nothing else. In fact at times I wonder if they made this show on some sort of bet: to see if they could produce a passable character driven drama anime with no interesting characters to drive the story along. The answer is yes, but just barely.

As for the ADV release, the "Teachers' Pet Collection", that's not so good. The English Language voice acting, though surprisingly available in 5.1 surround sound, is positively atrocious. Seriously, guys... this isn't 1990, and anime isn't some rare thing you see on the Sci-Fi Channel at 4 AM on Saturday anymore. The voice actors/actresses are in many cases totally out of character, which is hard to imagine given the over-the-top one trait personalities most of the mamas have. I don't know how you could mess up generic female gym teacher, but by God, they found a way. Even worse than that though, is the way they butcher names.

I mean, its painfully obvious the voice talent, and whoever was in charge of managing them, didn't watch a single episode in the original Japanese (and perhaps had never been exposed to anything in the Japanese language in their entire life). When you can't even pronounce the name of the series' main character right, you might as well hang it up. Chitose is not even that hard a name to pronounce, how they decided to call him Cheetos I'll never know.

The English language version is totally unwatchable because of this, so I'd recommend reverting to the Japanese. The downside to this is, while the Japanese voice talent is much, much better, the audio track is in basic 2.0 only, no surround sound here. Moreover, the menu offers no way to select the Japanese audio track without also selecting the English subtitle track. You can, of course, turn off the subtitles after the show starts, but that barebones menu system is just emblematic to what is ultimately a very substandard release.

Even the subtitles feel tacked on, you get the gist of what is being said most of the time, but sometimes it felt like the story was being altered to more closely agree with the English language version. Moreover, sometimes, like the chanting by the priestess in the aforementioned purification episode, they decide not to even bother and try to subtitle it, and just leave you wondering. I guess the best thing you could say about the subtitles is that they're in coherent English, which is the only indication from the quality of the menus that this is an official release and not, in fact, a Hong Kong bootleg compiled from fansubs somebody grabbed off peer to peer.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5
Summary: Keep looking
Comment: Right. Consumer alert: if you get the Teachers Pet Collection you do NOT require the Mama Mia OVA disc. The product description does not make it clear that this set has all 14 episodes + the 3 OVA.
OVA 1 is a rehash of episode 1 - at a glance I couldn't see the difference.
OVA 2 is the obligatory Beach Trip (the cast even take the micky of this fact themselves)
OVA 3 is fill-in info some of which is slightly at odds with the televised episodes.
The only additional material in Mama Mia are some poor production sketches on the disc and a 2 sided 'poster' of less than A4 size.
I watched the whole thing through in 3 nights which may have spoilt it for me (see my thoughts below). Perhaps 1 episode a week may work better for you.
The story. We are thrown in the middle of the story. How Chitoses' situation arose is slowly revealed over the course of the series. Each character gets an episode based on them. So it's a bit confusing at the start and took some time to get used to the style. The animation drifts (spasms actually) from 'normal' to 'crazy / cartoony' as situations dictate.
What did I specifically not like? Chitose (as another reviewer pointed out) does actually have a spine, yet he has let 5 teachers gatecrash his house, take a bedroom each leaving him to sleep on the sofa! All of which destroyed his desire for a quiet life. He does raise the issue, but nothing changes. He won't actually share a bed with any of the girls (oops, women) because they are a) his teachers and b) his surrogate mothers.
Another point: Who, at 17 in high school, had teachers in their early 20s? Not me, matey.
No, this series seems half baked and just as fulfilling no matter which aspect is considered: character depth, scenarios, story direction etc. When you're 1/2 way through and wondering 'Why, What & Where to?' that's when it gets 3 stars.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Wacky, Sweet Fun!
Comment: Happy Lesson just made me after the series was over, Happy!
This is one of the most funniest, wacky, animes I've ever seen! Happy Lesson is one of those animes you just can't help but smile at. Just SILLY animation. What I mean by that very good looking in a funny way, bright colors, big eyes, in other words I enjoyed it. Great dub cast. Each esp is just well FUN! With a good touching message in it all! This is one Happy Fan! ^_^

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Cutie chracters and wonderful story
Comment: I love this anime very much. I watched with my husband. He loves it too. It is always so cute what the people are doing daily. Everyone will love to see from the start to the end.


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