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.