From: hitokiri@club-internet.fr   
      
   The drama's first season is really good too, with Yukie Nakama in the   
   role of Yankumi.   
   Unfortunately the second season was crap and the show was cancelled.   
      
   Yukie's fans can rejoice though for she'll appear this fall/winter in   
   the 3rd TRICK movie, which can only be a work of art since it's been in   
   preparation since the series ended 2 years ago.   
   ^-^   
      
   Aixchel wrote:   
   > Gokusen is a highly popular josei (adult women) title by Morimoto   
   > Kozueko currently running in You Comics Magazine. It has been made into   
   > a very successful drama (3 seasons!) and anime. Despite that popularity   
   > in Japan, only the anime has been licensed in North America.   
   >   
   > The story follows Yamaguchi Kumiko (nicknamed 'Yankumi'), the   
   > granddaughter of a yakuza boss and teacher of the delinquent filled   
   > class 3-D at Shirokin Gakuen, an all boys private high school.  The   
   > story is both amusing and fun as it follows Yankumi's attempts to keep   
   > her yakuza heritage hidden while still using all her skills to protect   
   > and encourage her class. Interesting characters are peppered throughout   
   > including a sister-teacher with a teenage-boy complex, a host of   
   > interesting yakuza who work for her and her grandfather, a principal who   
   > doesn't quite have all his marbles, and the rebel-leader of her class   
   > who is far smarter than his naive and idealistic teacher. Thrown into   
   > the mix is an unrequited love interest in the form of the family's young   
   > lawyer.   
   >   
   > There is quite a but of fun humor as Yankumi often slips and talks/acts   
   > like a Yakuza in front of her students and then has to cover herself by   
   > acting dumb or excessively girlie. Her attempts to conceal her family's   
   > affiliation are well done and arguably the best parts of the early   
   > volumes. Later, much of the humor comes from the antics of her clueless   
   > students - who typically act first and then regret later.   
   >   
   > The artwork is very clean and easy to follow, making it a quick and   
   > enjoyable read. Superficial parallels are going to be drawn to GTO since   
   > this is a story set in a highschool full of misfits. But that is the   
   > only similarity between the two. GTO's Onizuka is jaded, street-smart   
   > and oversexed - and so are his students. He soon loses his idealism and   
   > concentrates on fixing his student's personal lives. In contrast,   
   > Yankumi is naive and never loses her idealism  (much to the dismay of   
   > the class leader, Sawada Shin).  Her students are very typical clueless   
   > and dumb high schoolers - which makes their hormone-induced mistakes   
   > understandable and even appealing. So while Onizuka wants to be the best   
   > teacher possible for pure bragging rights, Yankumi wants to be the best   
   > teacher so her students learn. As a result, Gokusen's kids are still   
   > faced with tests and schoolwork by Volume 9 in contrast to GTO's kids'   
   > plethora of personal dramas that show up later in that series. That the   
   > kids are dumb and naive (except for the quiet spoken leader Sawada Shin)   
   > really is Gokusen's strongpoint.   
   >   
   > Interestingly, the drama, manga, and anime differ in one key point:   
   > Yankumi's love interest.   
   >   
   > In the manga, it is clear that Sawada Shin (the class leader) is   
   > fascinated by his unusual teacher. The author, Morimoto, has fun dumping   
   > the two into unusual situations together providing examples of how   
   > Yankumi's brash naivete is balanced by Sawada's grounded pessimism.   
   > Often, Sawada has to extricate Yankumi some scrape she has managed to   
   > get herself into while protecting her errant students - and if she has   
   > to save him, it is always because he was trying to protect her himself.   
   > The most telling scene in the story is a 'romeo and juliet' nod when   
   > Yankumi climbs up to the balcony of a room in which Sawada is being kept   
   > in as punishment by his father. As he comes out to find her perched on   
   > the edge of the balcony, she jokingly says to him, "Shouldn't this be   
   > the other way around with the boy climbing the trellis?" and earns a   
   > blush by the usually unflappable Sawada. Yankumi may be completely   
   > unaware of her student's crush on her (she has always had her own crush   
   > on the family's young and handsome lawyer)  but it will be interesting   
   > to see how that relationship develops as the story progresses.  Yankumi   
   > is, after all, the daughter of the yakuza and Sawada is the son of a   
   > strict police commissioner. But this isn't a story about a   
   > teacher-student relationship and several humorous scenes arise from   
   > Yankumi's shock at her fellow female teacher's obsession with any young,   
   > cute boys she finds at the school.   
   >   
   > In contrast, the 2002-2004 drama tones down Yankumi's Yakuza family   
   > members to the point where even her stern and wise grandfather seems   
   > more like the nice old man next door than the head of gangster family.   
   > The love interest switches from Sawada/the lawyer to a police detective.   
   > And, tellingly, by season two the original class is gone and she gets   
   > new students. It works for the drama to take the focus away from the   
   > class (and specifically Sawada) since it gives the series and Yankumi's   
   > character longevity by giving her new challanges each season. But quite   
   > a bit of the tone, humor, and pathos of the manga is lost and those are   
   > what keep me following the story. Without the Sawada-Yankumi   
   > relationship, the story is just about fixing her student's problems and   
   > chasing them around. Season two is just a retread of season one but with   
   > different students - yet it was still the highest rated drama in Japan.   
   > Incidentally, Japanese Drama fans will recognize the actor playing   
   > Sawada Shin - he played Momo in another drama adapted from a josei   
   > manga: Kimi wa Petto.   
   >   
   > The 13 episode anime originally aired in January, 2004. It also   
   > minimizes the Sawada crush and instead focuses on Yankumi winning him   
   > over so he will help her with her students. Key scenes in the manga that   
   > establish the Sawada-Yankumi dynamics are dropped and although there is   
   > still evidence of his crush on her, it is understood by him at the end   
   > that it is a result and measure of his respect for her and not romantic   
   > in nature. There is a nod-off between Sawada and the lawyer in the very   
   > last scene where Sawada says he better take care of Yankumi.   
   >   
   > Readers afraid that the Gokusen manga has at its heart another   
   > unrealistic shoujo cliched teacher-student relationship story need not   
   > worry. In many ways, Sawada is far more mature than his young teacher   
   > but at no time has he been shown to seriously consider her as a romantic   
   > interest. Similarly, Yankumi is completely oblivious to her student's   
   > crush.  If there was an impediment to a romantic liaison between Sawada   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)