I My Me! Strawberry Eggs

2001; 13 episodes

Milld violence; lots of sexual innuendo; no nudity - but lots of cross-dressing!

B

STORY:  Hibiki Amawa is in need of a job, if only to save his dog from the stew pot of his landlady!  He applies to a nearby Seitou Sannomiya school only to be turned away.  It seems the strict, conservative headmistress will only hire female teachers.  So, what's Hibiki to do?  Put on some women's clothes and apply again, of course!  With the help of his landlady, he strives to show the headmistress that men can be good teachers, too.  Even if you can't really tell they are men. Along the way, he will become the best teacher he can to his students!  That is, if he doesn't fall in love with one of them.

THOUGHTS:  I have to admit, I giggled far too much at this anime.  It reminded me of Bosom Buddies (now I'm showing my age!) - set in a high school.  Hibiki is a likeable character and you root for him most of the time.  He is a good teacher and deserves a chance.  The storyline is silly, but it's supposed to be.  Hibiki is too easily disquised (only the Headmistress' assistant is skeptical).  The idea of one of his students falling for him as a woman - and questioning her own sexuality - was a nice touch.  It is a bit squicky, however, when he starts to return her feelings - not because he's dressed as a woman, but because she's 14 and he's her teacher.  There is also the perverts living in the same boarding house as Hibiki.  They follow the girls around and take pictures.  While this sounds awful, they are played so over-the-top that I found them really funny.  Even if they were perverts.

I wish there was a follow up series to thiis anime (or they had done 26 episodes), since the story kind of abruptly ends.  There isn't a whole lot of closure here.  The school rules remain in place and you never find out why they are there in the first place. 

ANIMATION QUALITY:  The animation quality is quite nice, if a bit mundane.  Again, Hibiki is far too pretty as a guy, but the rest of the character designs are nice.  Nothing extraordinary, but good quality animation.

TRANSLATION: I watched this dubbed, so I have no opinion on the quality of the subtitles.  The voice acting on the dubbed version is quite good.