Onegai Twins

English Title: Please! Twins
Also Known As: OT2
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Format: 12 Episodes
Allegiance: GENCO Please!
Director: Yasunori Ide
Vintage: 2003
Intelligence Agency Report by: Orax
Motivated by recognizing a house inside a childhood photo, Kamishiro Maiku moved in to discover any new clues about his past. Trying to make a living as a programmer, he tried to pass for a normal life until two strange girls showed up possessing the exact same photo and claiming to be his twin in the photo. Unsure as to who was speaking the truth and who was lying, Maiku decides to let both of them stay until the issue was resolved. However, it didn’t take long for things to complicate themselves into something more…

Field Agent Report by: Orax
Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio
4.50
5.25
3.00
8.25
8.50
Overall 4.50
(not an average)

Instead of a sequel to Onegai Teacher, it would be more accurate to describe Onegai Twins as a spin-off. Instead of focusing on the previous characters, Onegai Twins introduces new characters yet still brings back old ones. In hindsight, I would actually have liked this series to be completely independent, as this only manages to butcher the Onegai Teacher name.

The first episode starts off with a bang, leaving the viewer wanting more. However, this desire rapidly wanes as the series quickly degenerates into an incestuous love triangle. Mina and Karen quickly form a love alliance to thwart any candidates who might like Maiku and at the same time to maintain a smooth friendship with each other. This wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that Twins drills us with this alliance several times an episode to the point of insanity. To add insult to injury, the little plot that it started with was stretched across far too many episodes than it needed.

Twins will also give you characters who’ll start crying by the second episode but since you don’t “know” the characters, you can’t sympathize with them. That’s the biggest problem this anime has; it tries to draw emotion without any solid character development. As the series progresses, there is a lot of character interaction but because the series tries to draw out this emotion in almost every single episode, character development is sacrificed. For being a twelve episode series, this is unacceptable.

The good points are few and far between. The art is similar to Teacher as the background is drawn in the same illustrious colors making it very appealing to the viewer. As for the music, it was enjoyable and the opening theme is one of my favorites, but sometimes the music was used to dramatize an event completely at a wrong time severely ruining not only the scene but also the overall enjoyment of the series.

I should have noticed that when most of the little character development that happened was inside the bath, I shouldn’t have hoped for anything good. I don’t even guarantee the fans of Teacher will like Twins. As the music identified the climax and end of the series, I rolled my eyes and wondered whether the creators had actually even bothered to make a serious attempt at romance.