Anime No masterpiece, but not that bad either.
Poor Doki Doki School Hours. If there was ever a Japanese series that got hit hard by the "Seinfeld Is Unfunny"-syndrome, this is the one. The manga the show is based on actually was one of the pioneers of the "hijinks in high school" format, heavily used by later mangas such as Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star, up to and including the "childish teacher" bit. The problem is that the anime got produced after Azumanga Daioh came out, which made people believe Doki Doki School Hours stole ideas from that show, when in fact it's more likely to be the other way around.
But aside from that, how does it stand on its own? Well, the parody episodes are woefully out of place and I am still not sure what to think of Mika herself; she sure is likable, but she is just not that believable as a teacher. The makers of the anime also could have tried to ditch the episodic format and go for story arcs, since the characters themselves are good enough base material. I like how they actually put the gay characters in a rather positive light, although Kitagawa is at times somewhat over the top; her feelings for Mika could have gotten more depth, for instance. They try to flesh that part out in the end, but by then it's already too late.
Still, I don't get the bile this show tends to attract. It's not a masterpiece and the animation is at times clunky, but it has its heart in the right place.
Anime Sobbing is all I can do...
There are very few things in fiction that I really, really hate. Even in the crappiest of shows, games or books, I can find something to latch on to, something I can honestly say I enjoyed. Not here. Doki Doki School Hours is, without a doubt, one of the most mindshatteringly awful anime I have ever, EVER seen.
The show has two big problems: it's bland, and it's not funny.
Every character is a cliche. All of them. There's the jock, the nerd, the crossdress, the closet gay guy, the lesbian, the foreigner, you name a High School cliche, it's represented. Other shows use these stereotypes as well, but the best ones take these base characterizations and build on them. Doki Doki...doesn't. Everyone stays and leaves just as flat as they came in. The worst culprit, sadly, is Mika, the teacher. She's a child-sized adult...that acts like a three-year-old. They could have actually made her a real adult, but no, "immature homeroom teacher" is on the cliche checklist, so here you go!
The cast finds themselves in wacky situations, or so we're lead to believe. The first half mostly walked through a couple stock scripts an episode, rarely (if ever) shedding a single light of creativity or originality. The second half loved to throw the characters into dream scenarios or random crap for no discernible reason. But Rule Of Funny doesn't work if you're not funny to begin with.
And that sinks this show more than anything else. It's not funny. The trope entry sounded so promising that I stuck it through all the fucking way, and you know what? I laughed maybe two or three times, tops. Once again, the jokes are simply stale imitations of long-dead comedy tropes. Everything has been done bigger and better somewhere else. It's THIS that makes it so unbearably horrible. A bad comedy is one of the worst things you can have, and that's exactly what it is.
Obviously, there are fans of this show out there. If so, please, tell me what I'm missing here. Is there something wrong with me? Am I just incapable of understanding Doki Doki's hilarious stylings? Or is this, like I suppose, a terribly unfunny show? In any case, I'm glad this thing is behind me.