EB 0

After going head-over-heels for the illustrated Ellen-sensei, fans are startled to see her being portrayed by an actual human being.

Just a week ago, fans of anime-style artwork and language-learning were smitten with Ellen Baker, a fictional character in the New Horizon textbook, a perennial favorite of middle school educators in Japan. While Miss Baker, or “Ellen-sensei” as her rapidly expanding fanbase calls her, is cheerful and dedicated to her job, what really got everyone’s hearts aflutter was the undeniably cute character artwork by illustrator Denchubo.

EB 1

The Japanese Internet immediately sprang into action, gathering all the drawings of Ellen-sensei it could, then adding to the amount available with almost instantaneous fan art. But even with the excitement over the 2-D Ellen going strong, now comes the news that there’s also a live-action version of the character.

EB 2

▼ She even does her now-famous “Yes, I’m a Boston Red Sox fan” baseball bat swing pose.

EB 3

EB 4

But while official live-action adaptations of anime franchises are being greenlit with greater swiftness and frequency than ever before, that’s not what happened here. Like many textbook publishers, Tokyo Shoseki, the company behind New Horizon, also produces supplemental study materials, including educational videos, and it seems the series’ video lessons feature the same characters as the text.

As a matter of fact, Ellen isn’t the only one with a live-action counterpart, as there’s also a human version of Alex Green, the Canadian seventh-grader studying at Midori Junior High School who has a penchant for wearing T-shirts emblazoned with Japanese kanji characters.

EB 5

EB 6

But while a multi-media approach to learning can keep things fresh and engaging for students, we have to admit to being a little creeped out by some of these admittedly out-of-context screen grabs of Alex. It’s one thing to be stiffly leering at two girls while wearing a shirt declaring that you’re kenkou/healthy, but it’s another to later be seen handing out money to women on the street, then having them lounge around with you in a room where there are shiny boas within arm’s reach.

EB 7

EB 8

Maybe it isn’t Ellen-sensei’s moral standing we should be worried about, but young Alex’s.

Source: Jin
Top image: Twitter/@haiyore_audio, Twitter/@domo_mondo (edited by RocketNews24)
Insert images: Twitter/@haiyore_audio, Twitter/@domo_mondo (edited by RocketNews24)