Spring Anime 2015: Denpa Kyoushi

All humans have a habit of seeing themselves as more than what they really are.  Whether you're aggrandizing or depricating, there's a pretty good chance you're not as great/crap as you believe yourself to be.  Similarly, when we see ourselves in certain characters, a lot of time what we really see are characters we wish we were more like--especially when it's larger-than-life figures like the ones in popular television series and films of both today and yesteryear.    It's exceedingly rare--unless you just wrote yourself into a story--to look at a character and see yourself, and not be all that far off from the truth. 




Kagami Junichirou is a twenty-four year old physics genius who graduated from college at the age of 17....and then proceeded to lose all interest in science and become a NEET, more obsessed with keeping his anime blog #1 on the web than getting a job or making friends.  His (often irate) sister wants him to get a job, but Kagami has a major problem called "YD": he can only do something he Yearns to Do.   And, since that's largely a load of BS, he's forced by his sister to become a part-time teacher at his former alma matter.  That's the plot of Denpa Kyoushi in a nutshell.

Now obviously I'm not exactly a physics genius, but I definitely identify with much of the main character's primary traits.   Like him, I run a blog (that I wish were far more popular than it was *cough*tell your friends*coughcough*) that focuses on my super geeky interests.  Like him, I was a gifted student who got a degree and then basically became a NEET.   And the part I super identify with, is the "YD" bit. 

When Kagami's focused, he's pretty awesome...but the problem is, most of the time he's not focused.  And when he isn't, he's lethargic, ignores those around him, and shows an obvious lack of interest in whatever he's being made to do at the moment.  It took me a long time to realize it, but that's essentially me in a nutshell, so watching this is like staring into an anime-esque mirror image.

The show itself is essentially a GTO clone with an otaku in the role of Onizuka, and so far it hasn't done too much to differentiate itself.   But shows like these live and die off their main character, who's obviously done great capturing my interest so far.  He's capable when he needs to be, but not so much so that he's overbearing and makes everyone else in the series pointless.  In fact, he's completely worthless when it comes to anything physical, quick to point out that "I only have one point in strength and speed", a hilarious (if slightly obscure) reference to RPG character-building systems.   There's a lot of potential for development with the character--from his job as a teacher to whether or not he'll get over his YD.

As far as the show itself...shows that involve people who aren't career teachers becoming teachers tend to become some variation on GTO anyway, so that's not much of an insult.  Two episodes in, it looks like he's changing schools much like Onizuka did, so hopefully Kagami will end up with a class of students that are half as interesting as he is.

Result: I'm on board, I just hope this series makes it worth my time.