Gokusen

Anyone familiar with the j-drama Gokusen would know that there have been three made plus a movie. Most of these actors have gone on to be well known in the acting world (at least from Gokusen 1 and 2). It's also known to be a sort of "starting place" for some JE idols such as Matsumoto Jun and Kamenashi Kazuya.

"The story of a young, idealistic teacher who enters Shirokin Gakuen with hopes of making a difference in the students' lives. However, Yamaguchi Kumiko 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." - dramawiki


[The synopsis is for Gokusen 1, but almost the entire gist of it goes for both Gokusen 2 and 3 as well.]

If I were to summarize this drama in one sentence... it's pretty much a comedy with a tad bit of drama in a school setting with some messages about friends, family and life. That's the easiest way to summarize it. It does have some resonating factors such as what to do after high school, looking forward to the future, believing in yourself, and etc. But I think the main theme in this drama is having someone believe in you constantly and always seeing the good in you when you don't see it yourself. Honestly, I have never had a high school teacher I was extremely close with or that I could depend on to support me and knock sense into me when I needed it most. Yankumi for the most part is the idealistic teacher no one ever gets (excluding the part where she's an heir to a yakuza group). Gokusen depicts the delinquent students as being given up on by every teacher, except Yankumi. The students, themselves have given up on having a good future in society because society looks down on them with disdain, yet Yankumi somehow opens up their eyes, mind and hearts again. She has the power to see good in everyone and never gives up on anyone which allows her to reach the hearts of her students.  That's what makes this drama so captivating. What if there was a teacher like her? Would you also have her back when she needed it? How would you react in a situation where you don't know who to trust, not even yourself?




Setting that aside however, if you haven't watched Gokusen yet, I'd suggest the first two seasons. The third season was so dull and irritating, I gave up halfway and skipped over to the movie when it came out. On the other hand, it might depend on the order which you watch the seasons since there's no real transitioning for the most part. The drama is very predictable once you watch one of the seasons, which is why I was quite sick of Gokusen by the third season. Personally, I prefer the first season as it was the first season I watched and I think the actors were really good. That being said here are pictures of the cast from all three seasons!

GOKUSEN 1

Sawada Shin played by Matsumoto Jun
Uchiyama Haruhiko played by Oguri Shun
Kumai Teruo played by Waki Tomohiro
Minami Youichi played by Ishigaki Yuma
Noda Takeshi played by Narimiya Hiroki
(picture from http://bokunosekai.wordpress.com)
My favorite cast of delinquent students ever!! These five literally paved the road for the following cast. I'm pretty sure most people would recognize Matsumoto Jun and Oguri Shun from Hana Yori Dango. Or both Oguri Shun and Ishigaki Yuma from Hana Kimi. Narimiya Hiroki has some done some pretty good dramas as well such as Bloody Monday with Miura Haruma (Gokusen 3) and Stand up with Oguri Shun. I think each cast of Gokusen had really good chemistry with one another, but this group in particular seemed more realistic to me. They didn't exactly consider each other "nakama" (friends) and there was a lot of strife between the five of them throughout the show which never really appeared in Gokusen 2 or 3. Also they really passed for delinquents, there's no really "weak" person in this cast. This is the one season I'd definitely recommend people to watch. Not only is it good and the actors hold their own, the background of each character is more profound and you see a bond actually developing between themselves and Yankumi throughout the drama. (Not that the other two seasons don't, but it just doesn't seem as real or concrete.)



GOKUSEN 2

(Yankumi played by Nakama Yukie aka the Yakuza teacher who appears in all 3 seasons if it hasn't occured to you yet)
Odagiri Ryu played by Kamenashi Kazuya
Yabuki Hayato played by Akanishi Jin
Takeda Keita played by Koike Teppei
Tsuchiya Hikaru played by Hayami Mokomichi
Hyuuga Kosuke played by Koide Keisuke
(picture from http://chisanayuri3.wordpress.com/)
Not too shabby of a cast, considering Koike Teppei and Koide Keisuke are pretty impressive actors from the other dramas I've seen. Can't say I was exactly satisfied with Kamenashi Kazuya or Akanishi Jin as the main two students, (Why the hell did the writers decide to split Sawada Shin into two characters?!) but they made it work so I'm not complaining. On the other hand when Kamenashi played his role again in the movie as a teacher, I had some mix feelings about his acting. Hayami Mokomichi, I've haven't seen too much of though I am aware he's done Zettai Kareshi, which I have yet to watch still. Overall, in terms of chemistry, this cast worked out, there was definitely more humor between this cast compared to the first. However I felt the characters were a bit too soft to come across as delinquents who actually have good hearts on the inside. Koike Teppei and Koide Keiskue's roles were just a bit too wimpy to pull it together.



GOKUSEN 3

[from left to right]
Ichimura Rikiya played by Nakama Junta
Kuraki Satoru played by Kiriyama Akito
Kazama Ren played by Miura Haruma
Ogata Yamato played by Takaki Yuya
Honjo Kengo played by Ishiguro Hideo
Kamiya Shunsuke played by Miura Shohei
(picture from http://allaboutmiuraharuma.blogspot.com/)
I honestly don't know about half the cast here. The only two I really know anything about are Miura Shohei and Miura Haruma. Shohei, I recognize mostly from Tumbling, but if I'm correct he played a main role in Hana Kimi 2, so he's been gaining more media attention. Haruma on the other hand, I've seen in many dramas.( I love him especially as Kazehaya in the Kimi ni Todoke film!) He and Ishiguro Hideo probably had the most acting experience of this cast at the time. Ishiguro Hideo, I also recognized as the villain from Kamen Rider Den-0, so I'm really sad he hasn't gotten any main roles, considering he's amazing. The other three I don't know much about except they're part of JE, just as Kamenashi Kazuya, Akanishi Jin and Matsumoto Jun are. Like I said earlier I never managed to finish this season and in all honesty half of it was because of the acting and the other half was already knowing the plot of each episode. I don't recommend watching this season unless you're a big fan of one of the actors or you really love the Gokusen series.