I wouldn’t say Youkai Gakkou no Sensei Hajimemashita! was a sleeper, since I really had no idea if it was going to be any good. But I certainly hoped it would be, because Ohsaka Ryouta is one of my favorite seiyuu and rarely shows up in lead roles these days. He can do deadly serious and he can do zany and madcap (which is a rare combo), though he mostly gets pigeonholed as the latter now. And that certainly seemed to be the case with this series.
It would be nice if I could say this worked for me but truthfully, it hit pretty flat. Comedy either clicks or it doesn’t, and this didn’t. Ohsaka has his moments but the execution here was mostly a miss. The plot finds a young teacher named Abe Haruaki chased out of his human school by bullying. He’s a bit of a general sad sack, and the experience has him a recluse for a year until he gets an offer to teach through family connections (it turns out he’s a descendent of Abe no Seimei, but it’s unclear whether he knows this). The new school looks nice from the outside, but it turns out the students are all youkai.
I just didn’t laugh enough to really care about any of that. None of the gags were especially effective (some even bordered on creepy) and none of the characters especially likable. I think the concept has something here, but the end product is another story. Hopefully the next chance to hear Ohsaka in a major role arrives soon – and hopefully it’s a more interesting one than this one.
Nicc
October 11, 2024 at 7:18 amI too was hoping that this would turn out better than what we got. The premise is that the MC Haruaki Abe, a teacher, is such a pushover he hasn’t made it past a few days teaching at any human school. However, he’s offered a position at a school on an island. He doesn’t seem to notice that the island is a bit off as he enters the school. It turns out it’s a school for yokai and maybe he’ll be able to deal with them better than humans? Well… No.
He’s the only human at the school and it seems that he was hired because he’s from a family of exorcists, and he does manifest his powers by accident a couple of times in this episode. I’m not sure why an exorcist is needed in a school for yokai, but the headmaster has got something in mind. We get a quick introduction for most of the class and including what type of yokai they are. Two lads, Mamekichi Maizuka and Mikoto Sano, seem to be sharing first billing with Abe. The humour really didn’t work for me either and the most interesting parts of the episode were the factoids about yokai. I think I’ll give it at least one more episode. It seems that it’s getting two cours and so I’m willing to let it cook a little longer. I do hope that Abe stops being such a pushover fast as it already got old before the halfway point.