Looks like Stephen Den Beste is considering Onegai Twins.  Not a bad choice, but definitely odd given his queasiness over something like Onegai Sensei which was after all your garden variety boy-falls-in-love-and-marries-alien-teacher story, only without the tentacles.  Onegai Twins is a somewhat more disturbing story involving a love triangle between an high school boy (Maiku) who was orphaned as a child, and two orphan girls (Karen and Miina) who move in with him each claiming to be his sister.  Their sole link to each other and to the house is a photo each one carries showing Maiku and a girl in a little plastic kiddie pool in front of the house.  All three are emotionally scarred from life in orphanages, though Maiku seems the most normal of the bunch.  Unfortunately both girls develop crushes on him, though Maiku is mostly oblivious to this.  For Miina this crush is semi-acceptable in my eyes as she is roughly Maiku's age, but Karen's crush is definitely icky.  For both girls however this crush triggers a crisis that lasts most of the series.  Both of them grew up in orphanages wishing desperately for a family, but now that they have one they face the irony that both of them love Maiku, but one of them will get him as a brother whle the other will be free to pursue him as a lover and husband.  "Pursue" because Maiku is oblivious to the girls' feelings for him and has his own interest that he's pursuing.

Fortunately the interminable agonizing "We might be related, but we might be strangers" discussions between Karen and Miina tends to take place in the bath.  And ultimately, the resolution to the story is pretty satisfying, though the OVA bonus summertime episode actually spoils this feeling a bit.

I've only watched Onegai Sensei once, and though I enjoyed it I've never felt the urge to go back.  But Onegai Twins has a better story and much more emotional punch despite the occasional ick moments.

FWIW, the only real connection with Onegai Sensei is that it takes place in the same rural town, and the three kids are attracted to the town when they spot the house in their photo in some of the news coverage of events in Onegai Sensei.  Many of the characters from Onegai Sensei are back again as Maiku, Miina, and Karen live in the same town and go to the same school that was the centerpiece in the earlier series, though these carryover characters tend to play a comparitively minor role in Onegai Twins.

Posted by: mparker762 at 08:17 AM
Post contains 429 words, total size 3 kb.