Gokusen Drama

Last time I said that I was going to watch the J-drama for 'Gokusen' once I finished 'Goong'. Well, I finished 'Goong' and this week I watched the first season of 'Gokusen'. As you probably remember, 'Gokusen' is a manga, anime, and J-drama about a mafia princess who goes to teach school at an all boys school. That's the short version anyway.

The anime was relatively interesting, but only relatively. I thought that the art in it was pretty polly-wolly painful. I know I've said it before, but it looked shockingly like 'Bevis and Butthead'. The manga is the treasure. In the pages of the manga, an extremely interesting romance unravels between Yamaguchi Kumiko (our mafia princess) and Sawada Shin (one of her students). I promise, it's extremely tasteful and F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C. However, it's mostly left out of the anime, and I felt like it was completely left out of the J-drama. Honestly, I've read a lot of fanfic in which they pair Shin and Kumiko where the author says before they begin that their story is based off the drama (which included only a splattering of the original plot). I don't understand how they could get excited. Nothing happens between the two of them - nothing. There's a second season to 'Gokusen' where Kumiko starts working at a different school. Shin has already graduated and isn't in the second season at all - whoohoo.

The other thing was the kid they got to play Shin, how they dressed him up, how he acted and the lines they gave him. I know I shouldn't complain, but ... HOLY CRAP! That kid was NOT SHIN. Not even a little bit. I was actually able to buy a lot of the characters. The principal for instance was different than in the anime or the manga, but I found his performance totally charming (I thought he was one of the best characters). I was even able to buy Tetsu and Minoru - even though they were pretty different than in the anime or manga, but Shin ... it honestly hurt my heart. Everything that came out of his mouth was NOT Shin.

Basically, my verdict is - if you want to watch a light comedy about yakuza and high school life then go knock yourself out. I found parts of it really enjoyable, but I still maintain that the best part of 'Gokusen' is the romance that plays out between Shin and Kumiko and without it - the story is flat.

Oh, and just as a side note about 'Goong'. I really liked it. I found it a 100% satisfying watch. The manga was uncomplete, so they had to find a way to finish the drama. The ending of one plot arch was plotline was nice, but the ending of another one was not. It seemed like a cop-out. It's not like it matters much - they had to end it somehow and they might as well go that way as any other. Except there's one problem with it that has to do with the manga. The ending that they supply in the drama is not possible in the manga. They added an extra character part way through the drama and I sat there and wondered why. Then at the end I was sitting there going, 'Okay. If they want to."

I learned another thing about all this. I have become really lazy watching anything in Japanese. I had no idea that I was so lazy, but I am. I thought that I was a pro subtitles reader because of all the anime I watch. It's not true - it's only because I'm familiar with the language now and recognize words. When I was watching 'Goong' in Korean, sometimes they would have the Korean words spelled out at the bottom and I couldn't even identify what the actor was saying that translated into those letters. Seriously, I had to work so hard to watch 'Goong' compared to 'Gokusen'. As soon as Kumiko started talking I totally went from 'crouching tiger' mode to 'Hobbes lying in a sunspot'. Oh, easy Japanese! I was home.