Gokusen

Gokusen

Details

• Title: ????ん / Gokusen
• Episodes: 12
• Genre: Comedy
• Broadcast network: NTV
• Broadcast period: 2002-04-01 to 2002-07-03
• Viewership:
• Theme Song: Feel your breeze by V6
• Related Drama: Gokusen 2

Cast & Credits

Producer

加藤正俊

Director

?藤?彌, 大谷太郎, 高橋直治

Screenwriter

Egasira Michiru, 橫田?惠

Music by

大島ミ?ル

Cast

Nakama Yukie as Yamaguchi Kumiko (Yankumi)

Utsui Ken as Kuroda Ryuuichiro

Kaneko Ken as Asakura Tetsu

Uchiyama Shinji as Tatsukawa Minoru

Namase Katsuhisa as Sawatari Goro, Kyoto (School Vice Principal)

Ito Misaki as Fujiyama Shizuka

Nakazawa Yuko as Nakashima (School Nurse)

Matsumoto Jun as Sawada Shin

Oguri Shun as Uchiyama Haruhiko

Narimiya Hiroki as Noda

Waki Tomohiro as Kuma (Teruo Kumai)

Sawamura Ikki as Shinohara

Synopsis

Fightu, oh!

The story of a young, idealistic teacher who enters Shirokin Gakuen with hopes of making a difference in the students' lives. However, Yamaguchi Kumiko (Nakama Yukie) is in for a rude awakening when she finds that she will be the homeroom teacher of 3-D, the hardest class to maintain in the school. The students have multi-colored hair, sloppy uniforms, and show absolutely no respect to her. The leader of the class is Sawada Shin, played by Matsumoto Jun is lazy, but shows some interest in Yamaguchi when he notices that she is very different from other teachers. The students try to bully her to make her quit, but their attempts don't get them very far.

What the class and the rest of the school do not know is that Yamaguchi Kumiko is actually the 4th generation heir to the Ooedo Group, a notorious yakuza clan.

Review

Kanin's Review

The teacher is played by Nakama Yukie, a new (wonderful) actress to me but apparently she has alot of dramas under her belt like Trick series etc. Does she fit for this one? Yes she does! She's perfect in this role where she's dorky, cute and sometimes even cool. She is actually hilarious in her role.

I thought maybe this was gonna be a Onizuka copy, but that was soon washed away. This had a more comedic touch and although it was built on the same idea of helping students with both school and private issues this still didn't feel like a re-make.

The teacher Yamaguchi Kumiko, later nick named Yankumi by her students had her secret connection to the Yakuza family, and that was used to give her uncontrolled outburst of Yakuza vocabulary which was very funny. It was also used for some neat problem solving.

More on the Yakuza part. Each scene with her grandfather played by Utsui Ken functions like episode wrap-ups and deals with what's right and wrong, much like a psychiatric moment. Ken makes a splendid performance as the clan leader. The other members of the Yakuza family has quite funny scenes where they show complete respect to Yankumi and she in return forgets to hide her role and scolds and tells them off in a roughly manner.

Was there love? Yes a little bit between Yankumi and a police officer, Shinohara, that she accidently meets. Being a law enforcer makes it a bit complicated of course and it adds to the comedy. It's nothing serious to be developed any further, but it's serious enough to be touched in almost every episodes, mostly from a Yankumi point of view. Unfortunately I don't know the actors name.

What's more? Yes same day Yankumi starts in school there's also another new teacher namely Itoh Misaki (You're under arrest). She plays the hot teacher (of course lol) who has no problem with her students. There is also the school nurse played by Yuko Nakazawa (Morning Musume).

One of the fun part is the interaction between the head teacher (Namase Katsuhisa) and Yankumi. Not only because he looks really funny and adds it with some funny moves, but he's always the Mr knows it all, despite it's always Yankumi who pulls the right strings. He is very good in his part and I had trouble not to think of a Japanese Jeff Goldblum throughout the whole series. Laugh

The Morning Musume connection: Yuko makes a nice performance as the school nurse and Shun Oguri (later Mari's boyfriend) plays one of the bigger parts of the students in 3-D.

In the end they have created a wonderfull atmosphere and you would like to be in that class of hers.

The music is as always very good. Sometimes I find it similar to what was used in Sailor Moon.

Summary

A light comedy drama mixed with a serious backbone. Highly enjoyable. I watched this pretty fast cause it was that good, like candy ready to consume.

Grade 10/10

Other Resources

• JDorama.com
• Emily's Feel Your Breeze Page