Brittany Vincent
November 25, 2015 
Junichiro Kagami is the Ultimate Otaku Teacher. It’s not really clear whether that’s a good or a bad thing, it just is!
Junichiro Kagami is, quite surprisingly, a genius. He’s nothing but a NEET (not in education, employment, or training), an otaku who’d like nothing better than to work on his anime blog, watch anime, collect anime memorabilia, and debate which character is the greatest. He especially seems to enjoy magical girl shows, and who can blame him?
But he needs a job, and when one is handed right to him because of his special genius status, it takes his sister’s pigheadedness and stubbornness to get him to actually get off of his lazy butt and go to school at East Shinmei High. His sister’s school is down a physics teacher while the current one is out on maternity leave, and this 24-year-old with scientific theories published in magazines is stepping in to fill the role … if he can tear himself away from his waifus long enough.
Kagami is about as unlikable
as they come for the first few episodes, as his antics are childlike and unacceptable in the real world. He meets up with a student named Minako Kanou, who’s an aspiring voice actress, and he later finds out that, through the usage of a game, Minako is actually being bullied by her classmates because of her desire to be involved with voice acting and theater.
When the bullies in Minako’s class force her to drink a liquid that ruins her voice, Junichiro has to devise a plan to save her and make sure the bullies get their just desserts. It’s not exactly the way you or I might go about doing it, but it’s part of Junichiro’s nature to approach things in a bizarre manner, as you soon learn upon viewing the series. But his methods do seem to come from the heart, when they come at all. There are a few touching scenes like this sprinkled throughout the episodes thus far, and in the end you’re led to wonder if Junichiro was a little different what he’d be
capable of accomplishing.
Luckily, despite Junichiro’s insistence upon buying toys and playing games every day all day, he still manages to enrich his students’ lives, especially those in need of his help. It’s just unfortunate that he also suffers from a “syndrome” that makes him unable to do anything but what he wants to do. Doesn’t quite sound like he’d make it in the real world, then.
At first glance, it certainly doesn’t seem that way, but Ultimate Otaku Teacher is a lot more than just a simple long-running joke about otaku and their bizarre habits. Junichiro does tend to learn a lot more about himself as the series wears on, and the lessons he imparts to students (and likewise) could very well be taken in life as well, if you’re open to them. That’s part of what made series like Great Teacher Onizuka so influential and popular among anime fans, and I surmise what will end up bolstering this series as well. There’s more to take away from it than just tired otaku jokes and silliness at the protagonist’s expense. He begins as a grating buffoon, but he does grow, and that’s the mark of a great series.
