"I am their homeroom teacher" - A Gokusen I Review

Originalname:	ごくせん　（第１期） | Gokusen
Also known as:	-
Release Date:	2. April - 3. July 2002
Director:	Toya Sato, Taro Otani
Writer:	Michiru Egashira, Rie Yokota, Kozueko Morimoto (manga)
Cast:	Yukie Nakama, Yuma Ishigaki, Jun Matsumoto, Hiroki Narimiya, Shun Oguri, Tomohiro Waki

Plot

Kumiko Yamaguchi is the grand- daughter of the Oedo Clan’s boss, a yakuza family. She becomes the new homeroom teacher (get used to this expression, you hear it a lot during this drama) of the class 3-D, also known as the delinquent class in which Sawada the leader is.

After an incident in which the school money disappears, the school head teacher accuses Kumai, one out of her class, that he stole the money. She believes him, when he says he didn’t do it and to prove his innocence she searches for the money. Kumai who feels guilty conscience tells her the truth. The head teacher dropped the money and he took it, but it got taken away from him.

She beats the criminals up and gives back the money. The head teacher apologizes to Kumai and Kumiko makes the promise that everybody of her class will graduate.

Minami starts dating a girl who is already dating someone else and gets beaten up for it. Sawada recognizes the girl and wants Minami to stop dating her but Minami hits Sawada which causes Sawada t have to write an apology letter otherwise he’ll be expelled. The girl breaks up with Minami and that leads to Minami getting called out by her boyfriend. When his classmates said that they didn’t want to help him Kumiko gets really disappointed and decides to take things in her own hands. Arriving at the battle field she sees that only Sawada appeared to help his friend. She finally steps in and saves her students. When the fight is over Kumai, Uchiyama and Noda arrive fully armored. Sawada has written his apology letter and won’t get expelled.

A thief scares the neighbourhood and everyone believes it’s Uchiyama. Kumiko, Sawada and the others want to prove Uchiyama’s innocence so they set a trap for the thief. The trap doesn’t work (mainly because Kumiko looks like a prostitute) but they catch the thief anyway. The students get rewarded from the police and everything seems fine. But Uchiyama beats a guy up (the pride of the school). So he’ll be expelled and searches for a job. Kumiko and the others find out that he hit him because he hit the puppy (awww, how cute, a puppy) and she tries to convince him to apologize. So he does. Anyway, Uchiyama doesn’t get expelled because Kumiko threatened that guy with prison because apparently you get one year when you hit a puppy.

One of the teachers, Miss Fujiyama, has started a part-time job as a hostess to earn more money. However, when she throws Noda’s gift in the garbage he sends a picture of her working as a hostess to the head teacher and Miss Fujiyama gets suspended. But she can return if all of the 3-D score above 30 points which after a lot of tutoring everyone manages. (Yeah, well, at first it seems as if Kumai didn’t get the 30 points but that’s a mistake...).

Kumiko manages to lose her mobile and Sawada finds it and brings it back to her house. So he discovers that she is in fact the granddaughter of a yakuza family. Her grandfather asks him to keep quiet about this.

Kumai gets to fall in love but she already has a boyfriend. In the mean time there is a gang of high school students terrorising the neighbourhood. When the boyfriend gets beaten up Kumai tries to protect the girl and get hit badly. But gladly Kumiko steps in and has a word with them. So they get to know the difference between fighting and violence. And Sawada tells Kumiko that he’s totally into her... I mean that he knows she’s the yakuza familys granddaughter, but he might as well could have!!

Sawadas sister comes to his school because she wanted to talk with him and we find out that he lives alone because he has problems with his parents.

His sister can’t take the pressure of her father any longer and decides to go to a gambling club, of which Sawada rescues her from and gets caught in the process.

The head teacher expels him but the police already know he’s innocent. But since he’s a minor a parent has to go and get him. So Kumiko and the whole class beg Sawadas father and he does go and get him. And Sawada even cries a little (Holy sh--, the robot cries!!)

Shirokin’s volley team gets into the nationals. But an expelled student wants so sabotage it. It’s Kurosaki, an old friend of Sawada and Uchiyama. Their worried and ask Kumiko for help which she does. She tells the PE teacher he should apologize to Kurosaki since he didn’t even try to keep him in. So he does, but gets beaten up for it. Sawada and Uchiyama try to stop him but don’t succeed. Kumiko arrives, kicks ass and lectures him and he tells Sawada that if he’d had Kumiko as a teacher he probably wouldn’t have had to quit.

The next day Kumai bumps into a shop lifter but the shoplifter accuses the gang because the game which was stolen was in Uchiyama’s hands. She believes when they say they didn’t do anything. Thanks to Shinohara (the police man she has a secret crush on) the real criminal comes out. It was a student from a rich high school.

Meanwhile Tetsu tries to convince Kumiko to be the Oeda Clan’s head in 4^th generation. But she refuses. After a talk with Kumiko’s grandfather about god-given jobs he realizes that the teacher job is the god-given job for Kumiko is.

But soon Kumiko gets stalked by a reporter. The boys ran into a criminal and handed him over to the police. He was a searched murderer. The boys get honoured and they should speak on a press conference with Kumiko. Because of that Kumiko gets interesting for the press and one reporter wants to make a 24h close up.

Anyway, In the meantime, Kumai’s father dies and Kumai falls in depression. He runs away. Kumiko suddenly finds him while he was beaten up and rescues him. She brings him back.

The reporter publishes the story - a story about a violent yakuza teacher who beats her students. Kumiko is forced to resign and for the sake of her students she does. When Sawada and the others find out what she did they decide to resign as well. But Kumiko comes, kicks ass and saves the day... sorry she just asks the teacher to take good care of the students.

After the touching speech the head teacher decides that they need Kumiko in this school and rips it apart. That means Kumiko can stay at this school and they all celebrate with the can kicking game, where we learn that Sawada has three other love rivals.

Conclusion

I love the nostalgia! But seriously I couldn’t remember most of it. I don’t know why I just couldn’t. I’m almost certain that I did see it. But when I watched the first season I always thought “What? Did this really happen? Did I really see this a few years ago?” Sometimes I just couldn’t remember. If I honest, the whole drama I nearly forgot. So I forgot that Eiichi Wentz appears in the drama. You know, the American guy. Especially him you shouldn’t forget because he looks non-japanese. But yeah... I forgot him... I’m really asking myself if I watched the drama then. But this has also its good side. I mean so I could dive into it again and so I could cry like a waterfall at the end.

So, what else can I say? I like the drama. It’s about friendship, school and learning something for life. It has a lot of charm and a lot of funny scenes (especially this one where Uchi, Kuma and Noda run fully armoured towards Sawada and Minami). But it has also cute scenes like the episode with Yuta, the little boy of the nurse (all he wanted was to see his mommy *sob sob sob*).

The actors were okay but Jun Matsumoto was a little stiff as Sawada. But it was his third drama and it’s Jun Matsumoto for god’s sake!

Shun Oguri was good at least what we saw of him, he wasn’t in the drama too much. That’s a pity. But Jun makes up for it ;)

Yukie Nakama is great as Kumiko Yamaguchi. You just love to see her in that role.

The only thing I can complain about is the song. It gets so annoying and it never leaves your head. (“I saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay,feeeeeeeeeeeeel your breeeeeeeeeeeeze. Anytime, anywhere, in your heaaaaaart!” You know what I mean?)

All in all it's a must see drama if you are a fan of Asian Drama or MatsuJun or Shun Oguri or of course Yukie Nakama. It's like I said: It's fun, it's crazy. You'll enjoy it.