Gokusen (2002)

Gokusen is a bold and funny school drama brimming with fiery moves and passion!

Gokusen was one of the J dramas recommended by fans for those who looking for similar genre like Great Teacher Onizuka. I started out with the first season, several details I found are probably inspired by GTO, thus nothing new at first, except that the teacher is a female this time round. Quite like Onizuka who is a bike gang leader, she comes from a yakuza clan, and both never give up on their students.


But seeing that Gokusen has three seasons already out before I even started watching, I became curious about this series. I must admit one of the main fun here is to see how the female protanganist Yankumi intimidates arrogant and ignorant delinquents who belittle her as a woman with her years of martial arts training.


The conflict and comedy is raised as she teaches at a boys school, taking over a class of aggressive and seemingly hopeless delinquents who often mock and spit sarcastic remarks about her plain and unappealing appearance and show entire no interest in study. But no matter how sad she is, she only shows it when she's alone, keeping always an optimistic front before others. No one knows her better than her yakuza family.


She only lets down her long straight hair and takes off her nerdy specs when she's back home, or getting ready for a fight which she is outnumbered. I would always chuckle when she does so. Man, why must she go to school dressed up in a jersey with two awkward ponytails sticking out on both sides. She looks really different, way cooler and pretty in her other portrayal, but no complaints, it's more funny this way, having opposite sides to her character and appearance.


In short, Gokusen sets its focus on the issues regarding male delinquency while Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) diverts across a wider group of students of boys and girls facing problems of varying natures. Overall, Gokusen is more comedic and action filled whereas GTO is more emotional in its direction and has several memorable scenes accompanied by very sentimental scores.


I'm currently watching the 2nd season and find the 1st episode quite moving. The pace compared to season 1 is much faster. There have been comments from fans that Gokusen 2 is better than 1, as well as vice versa. Guess I gonna watch it to find out for myself :)

*Episodes available.

*Synopsis (every episode) available.

Below info taken from DramaWiki

Episodes: 12, + 1 Special + (Continued on Gokusen 2...)

Genre: School, Comedy

Viewership ratings: 17.43 (Not including Special)

Broadcast period: 2002-Apr-01 to 2002-Jul-03

Air time: Wednesday 22:00

Songs:

• 'Feel Your Breeze' by V6 (Opening Theme)
  

Cast

• Nakama Yukie as Yamaguchi Kumiko (Yankumi / Ojou / Kumicho) (Math Teacher/Class 3D adviser)
• Matsumoto Jun as Sawada Shin
• Namase Katsuhisa as Sawatari Goro, Kyoto (School Vice Principal)
• Utsui Ken as Kuroda Ryuichiro (Kumiko's grandpa / 3rd Generation Oedo Yakuza Boss)
• Anan Kenji as Wakamatsu Hiro
• Kaneko Ken as Asakura Tetsu
• Uchiyama Shinji as Tatsukawa Minoru
• Ryogoku Hiroshi as Sugawara Makoto
• Oguri Shun as "Uchi" / Uchiyama Haruhiko
• Waki Tomohiro as "Kuma" / Kumai Teruo
• Narimiya Hiroki as Noda Takeshi
• Ishigaki Yuma as Minami Yoichi
• Ito Misaki as Fujiyama Shizuka (English Teacher)
• Nakazawa Yuko as Kawashima Kikuno (School Nurse)
• Nabe Osami as Ando Osamu (Social Studies Teacher)
• Kohmoto Masahiro as Iwamoto Kohei (P.E. Teacher)
• Okuma Ichiro as Oyama Hajime (Science Teacher)
• Tayama Ryosei as Shirakawa Gonzo (Principal)
• Saito Satoru as Washio Kanji (Japanese Language Teacher)
• Sawamura Ikki as Shinohara Tomoya (Police Officer)
• Sakata Tadashi as Kashiwagi Yutaka (Police Officer)

General Synopsis

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, Sawada Shin is lazy but bright and 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 does not know is that Yamaguchi Kumiko is actually the 4th generation heir to the Ooedo Group, a notorious yakuza clan. Even though her family would like her to take the title of Ojou when her grandfather dies, they have accepted the fact that Yamaguchi would rather be a teacher.

Eventually, the students learn to respect their quirky teacher because of her devotion to them, and even give her a nickname: Yankumi.