Please Twins!: Anime Legends Complete Collection

After the success of the impeccably put together "Please Teacher!" romantic anime series, it would have been very easy for these folks to simply produce another season of that show filled with the episodic, predictable predicaments relying on running gags that so many other anime series use. But, the studio kept with the theme of "Please Teacher!" and continued moving forward, and "Please Twins!" is the result. And although watching "Teacher" before this series will increase your enjoyment of it, it isn't really a necessity as this one stands on it's own two feet just fine. Now, onto the plot: picking up a year and a half after the ending of "Teacher" we are introduced to our three twins in question. You read that right: three twins. Self-made man Maiku, fiery Miina, and demure Karen all show up at the same house with the same childhood photo showing them and their only sibling, the same eye color, and the same story of childhood abandonment. That is to say that one of the girls is Maiku's twin sister, and the other is not. The question quickly becomes which is which? The plot thickens when both girls fall in love with their possible brother. Icky? Yeah, but any anime veteran knows that this kind of implied incest is pretty much par for the course in this genre. Plus, it's comic gold. That is, if you have kind of a sick sense of humor. (ahem) Needless to say, this show opts to push the bounds far past the levels of inappropriateness that "Teacher" went to. This turns out to be a good thing as the humor in "Twins" is raucous and thoroughly enjoyable throughout. My favorite episode, for example, focuses on rumors that Maiku is in a homosexual relationship with a fellow student, so the girls put him to the test to see if he really is gay. The results are more than a little bit amusing. Not to be forgotten, the fantastic cast of "Please Teacher!" play supporting roles, most prominently the teacher herself, Mizuho Kazami, a beloved anime girl if ever there was one. In fact, she shows up so often that it leads a main character to wonder aloud whether there are even any other teachers at the school. But the best returning character by far is Ichigo Morino, the little girl who shared Kei's disease in "Teacher" which causes her to go into a state of suspended animation (or "standstill") when she loses the will to move forward with her own life. Morino is now a devious class president with an evil little chuckle and a full-time hobby involving surveillance of her classmates and taking inappropriate pictures of them. Shidou, on the other hand, has been relegated to uber-loser status this time around, becoming a one-note joke about lusting after his underage sister. As if there wasn't enough incest in the show already, sheesh. Despite the fact that this show is populated by characters from it's predecessor, it shares little in common with "Teacher" on the surface. Still, the creators manage to put together another fine romantic comedy series that ends too soon, continually evolves and moves forward, and keeps you both entertained and rivetted. The ending is a suprisingly definitive one, but it doesn't stop there. After the initial 12-episode run, we are again treated to a bonus episode that acts as a coda to the series. The plot involves Morino organizing an impromptu summer camp where the entire casts of both series get together for a great send-off to two of the best romantic-comedy animes out there. It's also fun to see the huge shift in the dynamics of the relationship between the three "twins" following the events of the television show. Faithful to the philosphy presented in both series, the show never stops accelerating, even at the end. If you saw the first series and want more "Teacher", or if you thought that series was too tame then this is as good as it gets. But if you are looking for some family-friendly entertainment to share with the kids, maybe you oughtta look elsewhere.