My friend Mikey mentioned the drama Gokusen to me, and this weekend Mariko and I watched a couple episodes of it, and I loved it! It’s so funny. It’s got all the elements of a classic dorama, including melodramatic scenes, a silly love story, crazy situations, teen idols, offbeat characters, and of course pretty women!

The drama is adaped from the manga of the same name, and is about a new school teacher who inherits a class of “bad kids”. The twist is that the teacher, Kumiko, is fourth generation Yakuza, and heir to the family. Her parents died when she was a child, and she was raised by her Grandfather, who is the head of a Yakuza family.

She doesn’t want to inherit the family business, but rather wants to become a teacher just like her father. No one at the school knows about her Yakuza background (except the gardener) and she tries to keep it secret. However, the story is filled with situations in which her Yakuza lifestyle and speech slips out, and that is where it is the most entertaining. There are little sounds that happen when the Yakuza attitude appears in her, like a little flute, or sword-clashing sounds, sort of like in a samurai drama. It’s funny to see the two personalities of Kumiko: the dorky teacher and the street-savvy Yakuza. We are only two episodes into it (out of 12), and I hope the story holds up!

Gokusen 2 is showing now on TV-Japan, and it stars Yukie Nakawa again, which is great, because she is my new favorite actress. 🙂 It also stars one of the Kat-Tun members, and since Mariko likes Kat-Tun, it’s like a bonus. They also sing one of the songs that appears in the show as well. Here’s a link to the official site, and another link to a great fansite. There’s lots of funny stuff at the official site that you can buy, like the tracksuit and tshirt. It’d be fun to have. Or at least get some pics on my phone… too bad my phone can’t do that!