Gokusen Drama Season 2, Episode 9

A few weeks ago we had the obligatory Valentine's Day episode. Now it's March, and hey look, it's a White Day episode! That is so great! So many times shows will do a Valentine episode and totally skip White Day! In Japan, they celebrate Valentine's Day differently than in America. Over there, it is a day where girls give chocolate to the guys they like. It's a huge day for the chocolate industry. To continue the celebration, and reap even more profit, a new holdiay was pretty much created by the candy industry. It's called White Day, and it takes place one month after Valentine's Day, on March 14th. This is a day for guys to give chocolate to the girls they like.

After Yankumi's adventures in giving Chocolate to Kujou-sensei last month, she is all excited to see if she will get anything back for White Day. Unfortunately her main fan on White Day is Baba-sensei, who has a big gift for Yankumi. Tetsu also sees White Day as an opportunity to give Yankumi a heatfelt gift, but his attempt is twarted by the rest of Yankumi's family. Aww, poor Tetsu!

Meanwhile, the main storyline of this episode involves Odagiri Ryu and his father. Like Shin last season, Ryu also has a very influential father. If I understand it correctly, Ryu's father is very high up in the ranks of the police. He is basically the police version of Yankumi's grandfather. He's that powerful. Unfortunately he is also very disapproving of Ryu and all of his friends. After Ryu and the gang get caught having a group date with some girls from the neighboring school, Ryu's father yanks him from class and locks him away in his room. Hayato and the gang manage to break Ryu out of his house-prison, and Yankumi attempts to help Ryu reconcile with his father. Part of this storyline really reminds me of the Gokusen manga, and a plot involving Sawada Shin ^_^

Yankumi sits in her home, face to face with Ryu's father, and manages to produce an inspirational speech that knocks some sense into him. It is interesting how Yankumi's Yakuza family ties don't seem to be as much of an issue this season. This episode is great for the "Gokudeka" manga reference, and for the photo of one of the police detectives from season 1!