anime: Gokusen eps 1-13
Mar. 6th, 2008 12:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreYamaguchi Kumiko is a first year math teacher who just got hired at Shirokin High, a school known for having the delinquent students at the low end of the academic food chain. On her first day, Kumiko and a fellow female teacher, Fujiyama, are told by the construction helmet wearing vice principal that they are forbidden to wear business clothes to school, and much instead wear sneakers and track suits. This is because it's the wardrobe best suited for fleeing for one's life should one's students decide to attack one. Kumiko herself is given the rougherst, rowdiest, most undisciplined class of them all. Her class ignores her, throws chalk at her, and doesn't bother to show up half the time. On her second day at the school, they attach a photograph of her face atop a nude pinup and rename her "Yankumi." They consider themselves the baddest badasses around and as far as they're concerned, she's just another stupid teacher who doesn't care about them, and completely useless.
What they don't know is that Yankumi is the heir of the Ooedo group, one of the most powerful Yakuza organizations in Japan, and the lot of them don't have enough badass combined to fill one of her pinkies. Despite her heritage, she's wanted to be a teacher and steer kids down the right path since she was a teenager, and is determined to be the best teacher Japan has ever seen. She may not care if her students fight, but she'll be damned if they'll be delinquents, and they'll become useful, productive members of society if she has to beat the productiveness into the little bastards herself. Her students, of course, think she's completely insane, especially as she switches from complete spaz to yakuza tough guy in the blink of the eye, and one student, Sawada Shin, the smartest student in school who was sent there after hitting a teacher, is determined to solve the mystery of exactly what's up with this insane teacher.
Along the road to graduation, Yankumi and her students battle gangs, bullies, muggers, rival yakuza clans, the police, school cultural festivals, and evil plots to bulldoze the school and replace it with a parking lot.
Most of the people I know who have watched the anime recently started with it, then moved on to the live action and manga. I watched the first disc of the anime when it was first released stateside, then I stopped following series as they were released and waiting until they were completed(or, in the case of the never ending ones, had large chunks of episodes available on DVD) and then just hadn't got back to it until I picked up the set several months ago(and then my DVD player didn't like it, so it had to wait until a catsitting week/weekend.) The live action, however, was my first asian drama, and remains one of my favorites, and because of that, it's what I typically think of when I think of the characters, especially since it made me a fan of Nakama Yukie, Matsumoto Jun, Oguri Shun, and even Itoh Misaki and Sawamura Ikki. Not only is it wackier on the whole, but going from the drama visuals of the characters to the anime versions is...odd. The drama essentially cast guys who(with certain adjustments to things like manga hair) essentially were prettified versions of the basic physical types of the anime(and, I assume, manga) characters...and then switched some of them around. Drama Uchiyama looks like anime Minami, drama Minami like anime Noda, and drama Noda like anime Uchiyama. Even though the anime identified them from the start, I kept getting confused.
One of the major differences between the two is that the drama, love it as I do, is largely a vehicle for Matsumoto Jun and Nakama Yukie, and it shows watching the anime. (My understanding is that the drama made both stars, so I say more power to it.) Without that, it remains more focused on Yankumi's double life, and her tough love approach, both to her students and her yakuza family, who are hopelessly devoted. While still a complete dork while in teacher mode, she's also more focused, and not quite as off the wall. This, I think, is because unless she's in full Tragic Heroine mode, Nakama Yukie just can't turn off the cute and likable. She is also undeniably exceptionally pretty, something the camera wants to make sure we know, even if the characters say we aren't, which changes how some scenes are approached. I love drama Yankumi to death, but anime Yankumi could take her in about five seconds. (Really, though, they'd never fight unless it was over their students...they're much more likely to bond.) Matsumoto Jun's Shin is very smart, but anime Shin is also calculating and investigative, and while drama Shin often comes across as lazy, anime shin is more apathetic, and his determination to uncover Yankumi's secret borders on an obsession until he actually does. Their relationship in the anime almost resembles a game of cat and mouse, with each thinking the other is the mouse.
One odd difference between the two is Yankumi's dog, Fuji, who smokes cigars, wears a coat, has a bow in his tail, and narrates the episodes, though the humans don't hear his words. I...honestly don't know what I think of him.
As a technicality, the anime is probably the better of the two, but I have to admit that I am irrationally fond of the drama, and I'm not sure it could be supplanted. (I do want to read the manga now, though.)
For fun, the bizarrely entrancing end credits:
Incidentally, I swear I remember someone binging through the anime, manga and drama in a short period of time and posting a comparison of them, but I couldn't find it when I went looking earlier in the LJs I thought might be responsible. Anyone remember who/when/have a link?
Also, because I'm me, I watched the Otogi Zoshi trailer on the third disc...uhm...a few times(one can never have too much Otogi Zoshi in one's life...I did the same with the Twelve Kingdoms trailer) and I noticed that They completely spoil Abe no Seimei's identity in the trailer...but you'd probably never notice it unless you knew. I wonder,though, if it subconsciously influenced me in figuring it out before it was revealed, since I first heard of the series in a trailer on some anime DVD or another.
What they don't know is that Yankumi is the heir of the Ooedo group, one of the most powerful Yakuza organizations in Japan, and the lot of them don't have enough badass combined to fill one of her pinkies. Despite her heritage, she's wanted to be a teacher and steer kids down the right path since she was a teenager, and is determined to be the best teacher Japan has ever seen. She may not care if her students fight, but she'll be damned if they'll be delinquents, and they'll become useful, productive members of society if she has to beat the productiveness into the little bastards herself. Her students, of course, think she's completely insane, especially as she switches from complete spaz to yakuza tough guy in the blink of the eye, and one student, Sawada Shin, the smartest student in school who was sent there after hitting a teacher, is determined to solve the mystery of exactly what's up with this insane teacher.
Along the road to graduation, Yankumi and her students battle gangs, bullies, muggers, rival yakuza clans, the police, school cultural festivals, and evil plots to bulldoze the school and replace it with a parking lot.
Most of the people I know who have watched the anime recently started with it, then moved on to the live action and manga. I watched the first disc of the anime when it was first released stateside, then I stopped following series as they were released and waiting until they were completed(or, in the case of the never ending ones, had large chunks of episodes available on DVD) and then just hadn't got back to it until I picked up the set several months ago(and then my DVD player didn't like it, so it had to wait until a catsitting week/weekend.) The live action, however, was my first asian drama, and remains one of my favorites, and because of that, it's what I typically think of when I think of the characters, especially since it made me a fan of Nakama Yukie, Matsumoto Jun, Oguri Shun, and even Itoh Misaki and Sawamura Ikki. Not only is it wackier on the whole, but going from the drama visuals of the characters to the anime versions is...odd. The drama essentially cast guys who(with certain adjustments to things like manga hair) essentially were prettified versions of the basic physical types of the anime(and, I assume, manga) characters...and then switched some of them around. Drama Uchiyama looks like anime Minami, drama Minami like anime Noda, and drama Noda like anime Uchiyama. Even though the anime identified them from the start, I kept getting confused.
One of the major differences between the two is that the drama, love it as I do, is largely a vehicle for Matsumoto Jun and Nakama Yukie, and it shows watching the anime. (My understanding is that the drama made both stars, so I say more power to it.) Without that, it remains more focused on Yankumi's double life, and her tough love approach, both to her students and her yakuza family, who are hopelessly devoted. While still a complete dork while in teacher mode, she's also more focused, and not quite as off the wall. This, I think, is because unless she's in full Tragic Heroine mode, Nakama Yukie just can't turn off the cute and likable. She is also undeniably exceptionally pretty, something the camera wants to make sure we know, even if the characters say we aren't, which changes how some scenes are approached. I love drama Yankumi to death, but anime Yankumi could take her in about five seconds. (Really, though, they'd never fight unless it was over their students...they're much more likely to bond.) Matsumoto Jun's Shin is very smart, but anime Shin is also calculating and investigative, and while drama Shin often comes across as lazy, anime shin is more apathetic, and his determination to uncover Yankumi's secret borders on an obsession until he actually does. Their relationship in the anime almost resembles a game of cat and mouse, with each thinking the other is the mouse.
One odd difference between the two is Yankumi's dog, Fuji, who smokes cigars, wears a coat, has a bow in his tail, and narrates the episodes, though the humans don't hear his words. I...honestly don't know what I think of him.
As a technicality, the anime is probably the better of the two, but I have to admit that I am irrationally fond of the drama, and I'm not sure it could be supplanted. (I do want to read the manga now, though.)
For fun, the bizarrely entrancing end credits:
Incidentally, I swear I remember someone binging through the anime, manga and drama in a short period of time and posting a comparison of them, but I couldn't find it when I went looking earlier in the LJs I thought might be responsible. Anyone remember who/when/have a link?
Also, because I'm me, I watched the Otogi Zoshi trailer on the third disc...uhm...a few times(one can never have too much Otogi Zoshi in one's life...I did the same with the Twelve Kingdoms trailer) and I noticed that They completely spoil Abe no Seimei's identity in the trailer...but you'd probably never notice it unless you knew. I wonder,though, if it subconsciously influenced me in figuring it out before it was revealed, since I first heard of the series in a trailer on some anime DVD or another.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-06 10:11 am (UTC)Yeah, I've always wondered why Yankumi is suppose to be the ugly one in her shows. Like in TRICK too she's apparently unattractive. I personally think she's more attractive than Itoh Misaki. :P
If they bring the cigar-smoking dog in Season 3, I'll forgive the 3-D bad boy rethread. ;)
no subject
Date: 2008-03-06 04:36 pm (UTC)With Gokusen, I get the feeling that Yankumi isn't actually meant to be very pretty, but Yukie is, so they just textually ignore that they have an attractive actress...but still cater to that inthe filming.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-06 11:11 am (UTC)Anyway, the anime, while I loved it, I think, was too short to be fully appreciated.
I'm not sure if I'm making any sense here. sfgdjhgk;
no subject
Date: 2008-03-06 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-07 01:25 am (UTC)I had so much trouble with that since I'd watched the drama first. I don't think I correctly remembered who was who of the side guys (besides Kuma) throughout all of the Gokusen manga I read.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-07 01:38 am (UTC)