A Few Of My Favorite Things...

THIS is a TEACHER?

Moving to a building with a new cable provider has given me the chance to pick up on a few new things (new to me, anyway) and one is Gokusen. Based on a manga by Kozueko Morimoto which started in 2001 in You, a women's magazine, it's also given rise to two live versions for Japanese TV.

This is the story of Kumiko Yamaguchi, a novice teacher at a boys high school full of delinquent wannabes. Little do they know that their space-cadet teacher is actually the real deal: the acting head of the Ooedo yakuza gang. Her parents were gang members who got out and went straight; dad became a teacher and wanted Kumiko to follow in his footsteps. However, they were killed in a car crash; Kumiko went back to live with her grandparents (the head of the gang). The gangsters doted on her, calling her "Princess" and acting like the air pirates with the kindergarten girls in Porco Rosso. While staying as acting head of the gang, she also wants to teach because of her father, and because she knows that the boys in her class need someone to believe in them.

What saves Gokusen from being another After School Special about a Committed Teacher amongst the Underprivileged Kids is that this teacher is trying to keep her two worlds (school and yakuza) going, and keep them separate. That, plus she can kick some serious butt.

If you get the Encore WAM cable series, it's definitely worth checking out.