I consider a "sad" anime one that does not have a happy ending. Please Teacher did. Even though the characters went through several trying and emotionally draining times, everything still worked out for all of them.
Kei ended up with the love of his life.
Ichigo got beyond her standstills.
Kaede and Hyosuke ended up together.
Koishi put her crush behind her and moved on.
None of them died. None of them were left with an endless life alone. Hardly a tragedy in my opinion. Yes, there were sad part and depressing scenes that tug on the heartstrings, but I think that was far outweighed by the drama and comedy aspects. If you're going to call something a "sad series", then you should look at the series overall. At the end of Please Teacher, I was personally left with a smile on my face.
To use AMG as an example, Keiichi and Belldandy win the race in the "Love Potion #9" TPB. Just because Bell runs out of power and falls asleep in the middle of the race, leaving them far behind their main opponents, does not make that race a loss. People have setbacks, and sometimes those setbacks are depressing, but as a whole, every character in Please Teacher is better off at the end than at the beginning.
*shrugs* When people talk about sad series, I think of stuff like Ninja Scroll, where Jubei loses the woman he loved at the end. One lap of a race is not the entire race. I consider a sad series something where, at the end, I can feel the character's loss. That simply isn't the case with Please Teacher, because nothing was really lost and a lot was gained.
I'm hardly knocking the series... I think Please Teacher is one of the best anime series of the past few years (probably in my top ten and at minimum my top 20 (I have about 500 anime DVDs, so that is a pretty darn good ranking from me). I just don't know that calling it a "sad series" is accurate. There are parts that were sad and move people to tears, but there were parts of the Lord of the Rings that were sad as well... I think few people would call it a "sad movie trilogy."
Hehehe... Who else is reminded of the old story of the blind men describing an elephant? The one who touched the trunk said it was like a snake, and the one touching its leg said it was like a tree, while the one touching the body said it was like a boulder. Yes, there are sad parts to Please Teacher, but a part is not the whole. Personally, I think it is greater than the sum of its parts.
Larry
11-Mar-2005