Gokusen

Type: J-Drama
No. of Episodes: 12 (season 1), 10 (season 2)
English Subs: Hardsubbed by SARS (season 1) softsubbed by ran_chan and others on d-addicts (season 2)

I decided to go with one of my favorite doramas for my first entry in this blog~ :)

GOKUSEN is the story of young high school teacher YAMAGUCHI Kumiko. At the beginning of the series, she is 23 years old, and has just accepted her first real teaching position as a math instructor at an all-boys high school. Kumiko is very cute in an awkward, quirky way. Her clothing is unfashionable, and she wears her long hair in two ponytails that make her look younger than she is. Her glasses add to the geeky effect. Her attitude is optimistic and almost naive. She wants to be a great teacher, and she believes in her students.

Kumiko's first class does not share in her dorky cheerfulness and optimism. They are a class of juvenile delinquents with multicolored hair, sloppy uniforms, and rough attitudes. They are lead by SAWADA Shin, their class leader who has a habit of being lazy in class. In the drama, her class is 3rd year, class D. The boys in 3-D are not thrilled to have such a lame looking teacher like Yamaguchi-sensei, so of course they try to bully her and force her to quit. Their attempts do not get them far.

What the class of 3-D does not know is that YAMAGUCHI Kumiko is a lot tougher than she looks. In fact, she has a secret life outside of the classroom that she goes to great pains to conceal from her students and co-workers. Kumiko is not your average shy geek. She is, in fact, the 4th generation heir to an infamous and powerful Tokyo Yakuza group! Years ago, Kumiko's parents passed away, and Kumiko was sent to live with her grandfather, the leader of the Yakuza group. Living with them has shaped Kumiko's personality in strange ways. When flustered or angry, she will switch from normal speech patterns, to the rough, crude slang speech of the Yakuza. She is also an excellent fighter, and can easily defeat a group of attackers.

The series focuses on Kumiko's attempts at earning the trust and respect of her students and helping them become better people, beating up badguys, imparting life lessons (through inspirational speeches ^_^;) and occasionally teaching math. And through all this, she must keep her unusual background a secret. If the school or the local PTA were to find out, she would be fired. There is, of course, a little romance going on, as Kumiko falls for someone very unsuitable for her, and a few people also fall for her.

Gokusen is based on a women's manga, and the manga influence is apparent in the style of humor and the camera angles. A second season of Gokusen aired a couple years after the first one, and was even more successful in the ratings. In it, Yankumi faces an even more dangerous class. There are plenty of new faces as well as a few old friends. It is a great series too, but I admit I prefer the first season. I have a website devoted to Gokusen, which can be found here.