Rev. Doc wrote:It's not one I would really recommend for a 13 year old. I would give this a 16+ age rating.
I have to agree with this post. Please Teacher is actually a "guilty pleasure" favorite for me, because it IS actually a very sweet love story (of the "love overcoming any obstacle" variety), good enough that I tolerated the marginally excessive fan service in order to finish the series. It isn't the level of fan service so much as the following that makes it slightly problematic:
1) It was obviously conceived of by someone who remembered having a serious crush on a teacher when they were a student. Probably was based upon some fantasy they concocted about that teacher (this is just MHO, based upon the content, not upon some extra information.) In the real world, we generally frown very strongly upon any teacher returning such attention.
2) It uses the unfortunate device of making a child who is obviously not of age "really 18, so it's okay." I'm always very uncomfortable with this device.
3) As also mentioned, after wrapping up the TV series (in a very pleasant and heart-warming way, actually) they turned around and did the "OVA full of everything the censors wouldn't let us put on TV." This is the last episode in the Box Set. It was completely extraneous to the story, contributed nothing but fan service, and I would have been very happy if they had left it out.
So much so, in fact, that I hesitated for a long time letting my 14 year old see this series, finally relenting by watching it together on a supervised basis only, and keeping the OVA episode strictly off limits.
4)
Rev. Doc wrote:While nothing is shown there is a pre-marital relationship that develops between two of the characters, although brief, it's still present.
Actually, if I'm not mistaken, this happens twice (i.e. there are two such pairings, although IIRC, one is only implied as beginning to develop at the very end of the TV series, but confirmed in the OVA.) I think the only saving grace to these is that in both cases, this has the feeling of actually being "pre-marital" (i.e., these people could realistically be paired for life, not just the moment) but I recognize that isn't much of a "saving grace". It is still pre-marital.
On the positive side, my normally non-anime-fan wife loved "Please, Teacher." She's a sucker for a good love story.