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This was one of the few anime series I have picked up sight-unseen, based just on reviews in an industry magazine. Luckily, I was not disappointed.

At first the story would seem to be about the young woman Ai, who we are introduced to first. While she remains an important character, as the show develops we realize the story is really about the young man Hachimaki, the jaded veteran of the “debris section”. As the series progresses, we learn more about both of them, but especially Hachimaki, and see him fight against his personal issues with life and relationships, and grow as ... a person. While these two are the main focus of the show, they are surrounded by a colorful supporting cast that makes even the “filler” episodes enjoyable. Overall, in spite of some great action scenes and an interesting subplot about a controversial space exploration mission, this show remains a very character driven drama, with just enough action and comedy to provide some welcome relief and help things move along.

The near future outer space setting of the series is beautifully done and the mechanical design and artwork is all very realistic and believable, adding to the enjoyment of the show. The premise of the characters being part of an orbital garbage collection department is both original and rather interesting, as it reflects real some concerns about the slow accumulation of debris in near earth orbit as our use of space increases. It is definitely an example of realistic “hard” scifi in that respect.

The only problem I really had with the story was the ending but that was really a personal issue, and had nothing to do with the quality of the series finale.

I found the series a great combination of scifi, drama, comedy, and romance and definitely recommend it for anyone who enjoys a good story and characters.

I hate to say, but the Onegai Teacher manga was a huge disappointment. Unlike most cases, the manga was based on the original anime and in my opinion they did not do a very good job on the adaptation. Many elements of the anime are missing (for example the character of Hatusho has practically no part in the manga) and there were significant changes in the storyline, all of which made the whole thing weaker.

My advice is to just stick with the anime, and give the manga a pass.

I'm a hugh AMG! fan, so I was really looking forward to this special. I have to say, I came away a bit disappointed. It was good but not really as great as I was hoping/expecting.

The animation was nice (except for a when one of the fights degenerated into a series of still-shots), but the story seemed much too rushed. Given more time, this could have been expanded into an epic story arc to rival the "Lord of Terror" arc from the first season of the TV series, but instead we get a pale shadow of that drama. ...

The characters were also, I think, short changed due to insufficient time to handle so many properly. Peorth for example could have just as easily been left out all together for as much impact as she had on the story (sorry Peorth fanboys!) and Urd was given little more. The handling of Skuld's subplot (if you can even call it that) was probably the most disappointing of all. The only one that recieved any real development was Lind, but even in her case I think she could have benefitted from a bit more time.

So, while it still may be a "must-see" for AMG! fans, it just is not all that "special". (!__!)

An amazing looking movie, with spectacular artwork and animation. Unfortunatly, the story and characters were not of the same high quality. An enjoyable enough movie to watch, but it fails to capture the magic of a true classic.