Maicching Machiko-sensei

Shameful!

New science teacher, Machiko Mai, is a young and attractive woman with healthy mind and body. Being around her makes everyone happy. Students like to play practical jokes on her, but no matter how many times they cause troubles, she does not get upset. She always tries hard to understand her students.

—Studio Pierrot's description of the series

Maicchingu Machiko Sensei is a series that could be best described as a loose compilation of Fan Service or Ecchi, starring a female schoolteacher and her pervy students. It aired in The Eighties in Japan as a kids' show. It had a lot of controversy with the Moral Guardians but somehow managed to survive.

Machiko Mai, a young and inexperienced teacher, is taking her first job as a teacher to a group of elementary students. Unfortunately (for her), Machiko's students, lead by resident troublemaker Kenta, think it's utterly hilarious to grope her, flip her skirt, or find new and exciting ways to get rid of her clothing. Even worse, the very universe itself seems to think it's funny too; despite her best efforts, almost every adventure ends up with her at least slightly humiliated (ie: stripped to her bare pantsu if not completely naked).

Add a cast of ninnies and perverts, a standard children's show plot, and you have one of the most infamous Ecchi series in history.

It is finally getting an English release, 30 years after the manga started, courtesy of Anime-RG.

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Tropes used in Maicching Machiko-sensei include:

• Action Girl: Despite being a victim of a lot of pranks, Machiko often gives back as much as she takes. She's more athletic than the rest of the staff (including the phys ed teachers), able to pick up skills like skateboarding in one or two tries, and knows martial arts of some kind -- several episodes involve her beating the crap out of someone who goes too far. (One memorable instance of this involved her breasts popping free from her shirt from a thief who had taken her as a hostage, which she used as a the start of a breast-and-karate-chop combo.)
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Averted; see Nipple-and-Dimed below. The "Box" mangas went even farther, with Machiko's naughy bits being non-explicitly visible a few times.
• All Men Are Perverts: The entire school seems to be perverted.
• Beach Episode: Of course.
• Because Destiny Says So: It does not matter how, it does not matter where, it does not matter when -- somehow, someway, Machiko will lose her clothing, usually in the most humiliating way possible.
• Big Ball of Violence: One episode ends with all the characters getting into a fight with this effect. And, of course, Machiko loses her top in the melee.
• Body Paint: A couple of instances of this in the manga. Played for Laughs, of course. It would have helped if Kenta's plan hadn't involved painting Machiko solid black (instead of, say, trying to paint clothing or somesuch).
• Catch Phrase: "Maichchingu" ("Shame!"). Something she says after something happens to make her lose an article of clothing, get groped, or have her skirt flipped up. Which happens Once an Episode (at least).
• Censor Steam: Completely averted, as in most shows of the era. Kids' show!
• Children Are Innocent: They really, really aren't. Some of them aren't up to speed on the Ecchi parts of her situations, but all of her students at least think it's funny.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Kenta and Fukuoka-sensei. Special note goes to Fukuoka-sensei, who is teaching elementary students nude figuring drawing.

Fukuoka: A female in the nude is the apogee of beauty.

• Clothing Damage: The Running Gag of the show -- the entire universe seems to have it out for Machiko's modesty.
• Defeat by Modesty: Kenta's favorite move while wrestling women (two are school matches and one is a professional event). He does it to Machiko once. Later, he wrestles a blonde wrestler who doesn't seem to care much, averting this trope. In another episode, an American foreign student comes to school. He tries it on her and while it makes her angry, she takes the time to beat him up before covering herself.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Yamagata-sensei, who frequently ends up getting mixed up with the student's plans, and Cannot Spit It Out about his attraction towards Machiko.
• Ecchi: One of the first TV Ecchi series. Relatively tame by today's standards, it still manages to do some things that would simply not fly on Japanese TV today -- like showing animated nipples^[1]. In the opening credits. Doraemon, which was shown around the same era, was the same way (kids' show, mild Fan Service -- and infamously, the rename added Censor Steam, amongst other things.
• Every One Remembers the Stripper: Obviously, the main point of this series was fanservice so it's easy to overlook the fact that the show involved episodes about a Haunted House, Sea Monster, and more than a few episodes where Machiko and her students take on criminals.
• Fan Service: If you took out all of the fanservice, there would be very little of the series left.
  • Although in some episodes, the fanservice honestly comes completely out of nowhere. For instance, at the end of one episode, a student pulls a thread on her sweater and exposes her in a skating rink, all within the last 15 seconds of the show. It was a typical cartoon up until that last moment.
    • Said sweater gag was used in the first live action movie -- Machiko's crochet-like sweater gets a single thread snagged while at home, and by the time she makes the full run to her classroom, her shirt is gone.
• Flanderization: Machiko, particularly in the manga, particularly in the "Box" series of bonus comics the author released. Machiko goes from being a somewhat naive, good natured young teacher who accidentally gets stripped and groped a lot to being easy to talk into stripping herself, and who often doesn't even notice anything's wrong unless someone points it out to her, (and even then, she is more bemused than anything else).
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: One YouTube user noticed that while a guy was trying to pull a Naughty Tentacle octopus off of Machicko, you could see detailed nipples (Well MORE detailed nipples considering the series had no qualms with them) when the swimsuit was almost completely off. Kids' show!
• Fridge Horror: The students rarely get punished for groping, flipping skirts, and undressing women (it's not always Machiko). What will these boys turn into when they get older?
  • Worse still when you realize that one of the major complaints about the show were that students were emulating the kids in real life.
• Fridge Logic: You would think she would stop wearing skirts after the twentieth time they are flicked up.
  • Not only that, but if she has to stand up in front of a crowd (school play, PTA meeting, fashion show, etc.), Kenta will make sure she's naked in front of as many people as possible. You'd think she would stop getting up on stage anywhere.
  • Also, every episode deals with the faculty and students traveling to exotic locations, getting involved in weird mysteries, or getting involved in grand schemes. One has to wonder when they found the time to actually teach/recieve an education.
• Garden Hose Squirt Surprise: Used in the very first episode.
• Genki Girl: Machiko-sensei. Her reactions to Kenta's pranks? A Moe pose, her catch phrase, and moving on.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: It's a kids' show about a bunch of 8 year olds sexually harassing their teacher, who can't keep her clothes on for more than an hour or two at a time.
• Hand or Object Underwear: Used repeatedly, although as a rule her breasts and bottom are fair game to be shown.
• Hot for Teacher / Hot Librarian: Machiko. Everyone is attracted to her at least a little bit, which is why no one stops her students' games. (That, and the very universe conspires to leave her denuded, so any such efforts would be futile.)
• Hypno Fool: Episode 8 involves Machiko going under hypnosis for some reason or other. Kenta attempts to mess with her, only to leave her with a mental Gender Bender. She then goes to the men's room and uses the urinal.
  • Similarly, one of Manga!Kenta's favorite tricks is to convince a just-woken up Machiko, whom he has almost inevitably stripped while she was asleep that she was going to go do something she previously refused to do. Examples from the manga include teaching class in the school pool, wearing a Naked Apron to her class's cultural festival Maid Cafe, or tormenting Yamagata-sensei in some way.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Takeshi Ebihara, the artist of the original manga, continues to farm the popularity of the series, publishing Doujinshi of his own series through her website, Miss Machiko's Roll Book (NSFW). MMS was also one of the first manga series to embrace eBook publishing as a result.
  • Special note goes to the "Box" series of bonus works (Pink Box, Black Box, etc) -- they are filler from the anime in manga form and retellings of the early chapters after Characterization Marches On took hold, and dial the Fan Service up to eleven. Notably, Machiko is either much more or less innocent depending on how you interpret certain scenes.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In some episodes, Kenta and his friends get stripped by the female students, sometimes with Machiko herself helping out. In one episode, Machiko had Kenta's mother called after Kenta took pictures of her in the bath. His mother stripped him down and spanked him in front of an audience, which was Played for Laughs. And yes, no one bats an eye to that either so at least there's no Double Standard.
  • Yamagata-sensei is the Butt Monkey of the series -- he's head over heels in love with Machiko, but he's also a bit of a hornball and not above joining in with Kenta's schemes, only for them to backfire on Yamagata-sensei, spectacularly. He remains sympathetic because every so often, his schemes involve proposing.
• Long Runners: Would you believe the premise described above lasted for 95 weekly episodes across 2 years? The now out of print DVD boxed set will set you back at least 70,000 yen, usually closer to 100,000 ($1000 USD) -- which is only slightly more expensive than when it was in print.
• Marilyn Maneuver: Her students often put fans on the ground and other elaborate ways of getting her skirt up. There's also her somewhat unique "Maicchingu" pose, which is a Japanese anime trope in an of itself.
• Megaton Punch: What happens when Yamagata-sensei happens upon Machiko at the exact wrong moment. Like, say, after she's woken up, but before she realized that Kenta has stripped her, again.
• Ms. Fanservice: To her students. And the viewers. Perhaps the most well known and Ur Example in Anime.
• Modesty Towel: Subverted, as if she ever dons one it usually falls off.
• Naked People Are Funny: A major point of the series. Be it slightly erotic fanservice or not, Machiko losing her clothing is hilarious. (And very Moe.)
  • The manga's first chapter is very similar to the first episode of the anime, except instead of biking across town in her underwear, Kenta tricks Machiko up a flagpole while only wearing a towel... and then steals said towel to use as a parachute.
• Naughty Tentacles: Animals seem to be pervs in general. One particular octopus had a very good grip on her swimsuit top...
• Nipple-and-Dimed: Machiko's nipples are openly visible, even in the opening. How the hell was this aired as a kids' show again?
• The Nudifier: Kenta often comes up with very elaborate schemes to get Machicko's clothes off, which often reach near Rube Goldberg Device levels of absurdity -- and always work.
• Parent Service: Ooooh boy. The major reason it wasn't killed off. The demographics on the series viewership were absurdly skewed.
• Once Per Episode: Either she will lose her clothing (usually her shirt), her skirt will get flipped or ripped off, or she'll be groped, usually by Kenta. Or any combination of the above.
• Only Sane Man: Tamako, the vice principal. In fact, in one episode, she worries when Machko takes part in a circus. The reason for this is because she is performing in front of a large audience which means that she will end up with her clothes torn off. Her warnings fall on deaf ears. Sure enough, a tiger happens to get lose and tear Machiko's costume off.
• Panty Shot: Once Per Episode. At least.
• Pro Wrestling Episode: This series had a few episodes centering around either pro-wrestling, school centered Olympic wrestling, or sumo wrestling.
• Public Exposure: One episode revolved around her getting photos taken of her frequent (and mostly accidental) Fan Service.
• Sarashi: She wears it once due to being in a festival as a drummer. Kenta takes it as an opportunity to get her on a bike before she can tighten her robe, and the resulting bouncing causes the sarashi to come undone. He doesn't stop the bike, leaving her bouncing around complaining and a large horde of shocked and happy neighborhood men looking on.
• Shower Scene: Even in the opening sequence... Much like Shizuka from Doraemon, even the kids join in on these, and Censor Steam is completely averted.
• Thanks for the Mammary: Machiko gets groped by almost everyone, including animals.
• Vapor Wear: Her bra was stolen by a crow once, and her shirt was...different.

1. ↑ (Although it could be said the censoring isn't for any particularly moral reasons, but to create DVD Bonus Content.)