I've pretty much been breathing, sleeping, watching and reading Gokusen for the past week or two.
It started off when I downloaded the J-Drama version of
Hanazakari no Kimitachi e from
SARS. I'd been a fan of the manga version of HanaKimi, so I was really excited when I found the live action version on SARS's site, and, after watching it, I went looking on their site for something else to watch.
I found
Gokusen.
At this point, I'd never come across the manga, or the anime, and I'd never read up about it, so I went into the series totally blind. I was hooked from the first episode of the first season.
Gokusen is pretty much a perfect blend of comedy, drama and school life. Season one was amazing. The acting brilliant (especially in Nakama Yukie's case, since she was simply astoundingly good), and the storyline very well presented. After season one, I went on to season two, was shocked when it had a completely different class in it, and ended up enjoying it immensely, just as much as season one.
After season two I went and got the manga and the anime. I read the manga, and was blown away. While the drawing is pretty bad in most places, the storyline is extremely gripping, and I ended up pulling an all-nighter to read all 15 volumes (well, up to vo15 - ch02 anyway).
I ended up a little bit torn then, because I was already used to MatsuJun, who played Sawada Shin in the drama, and I really, really liked the way he presented the character. Unfortunately he was also pretty different from the manga!Shin, who had (dyed) red hair, a cool alias (the Young Master Red Lion), and had quite a bit more depth to him.
The manga also had a hard-ass Kuroda Ryuichiro who you can actually picture being a Yakuza boss, rather than the drama's friendly, wise old grandfather figure. It also had Ooshima Kyotarou, who I adored, and in the manga, was the one who trained Yankumi. I also have to say that I much prefered manga!Shinohara (the lawyer) rather than the drama!Shinohara (who was a police detective).
One thing I regret about the drama is that they really didn't show the differences between Ojou!Kumiko and Teacher!Yankumi, like they did in the manga. It made things a lot more interesting. In the drama it's not really touched upon, which is very disappointing, because it could have provided quite a bit more depth to Yankumi's character.
As it is, by season three, she was getting quite a bit repetitive.
The drama did have a lot going for it. Seasons one and two were excellent. The characters were brilliantly acted, and the plots, while very divergent from the manga, were satisfying and fun. The fight scenes were very dramatic and extremely well played. They felt realistic and wild. I enjoyed them immensely.
Season three was very good, although it lacked something that was there in the first two seasons. The first two seasons were very appealing and charismatic...but season three, whilst well acted, just felt a bit...empty.
I have to say that I'm a big
ShinKumi fan, although that stems mostly from the manga, since nothing was really touched upon in the drama until the last episode of the first season. In the manga the relationship between Shin and Yankumi, and between Shin and Yankumi's family was much deeper.
Another good thing about the drama were the actors. I seem to have become quite a fangirl in regards to
Matsumoto Jun who played Sawada Shin in season one, and in season two, Kamenashi Kazuya who played Odagiri Ryu, and Akanishi Jin who played Yabuki Hayato. =^___^=
I've started six or so different stories in the past three days, mostly ShinKumi, with a few HayaRyu and YamaRen, one YamaKumi and one ShinKumiRyu among them (which I'm still debating about because it might end up having some ShinRyuShin in it too...depending on where I take the story towards the end...but if I add it as a possible pairing, would it count as a spoiler?).
While the manga is more satisfying in terms of an exciting series of plot developments and interesting scenarios (an eight-year old Kumiko perchance?), the drama is more satisfying in a different way. There's more progression, for instance, we get to see one of Yankumi's first students as a father, having grown up and moved on with his life, whereas in the manga Shin is still in school.
As for the anime, if you're wondering why I haven't mentioned it...it's rubbish. The only real good thing about it was that I could see what shade of hair colouring Kyo and Shin had, and the ending song sequence and images were very nicely done. That's it. It cuts all the good parts off of the manga, badly edits the violence, and skips the things which made Gokusen interesting beyond just its premise.
Personally, for my writing, I'm going to discount the fact the anime exists and rely on the manga and the drama. They at least are good.
I'm really, really, really glad I found Gokusen, even though quite a few things puzzle the hell out of me. I think it's just culture shock, but there was a lot in the drama that I just didn't understand. Seriously. I mean, a lot of things were hypocritical, and there were things that didn't make sense to me which I've seen before in Japanese movies and such.
Culture shock like whoa.
It's like, with the whole fighting thing, sometimes they got in trouble for doing what I thought was appropriate, or they got in trouble for being the victim. Hell in one of those scenes I'd have screamed 'police brutality' to make them back off. So yeah...a lot didn't make sense.
I also don't get the whole bowing thing. I mean, I can understand it, kind of, when they do it...but it's a very alien thing to me. It's like...it's an excuse and an imposition on both ends.
I also don't really understand a lot of the 'romance'-type scenes, because honestly...it was all just too vague. I think it might be because I'm used to overly touchy-feely gestures, but...well...I don't know. I guess it's just weird seeing people hold back so much when even I, as anti-social as I am, would have initiated a hug or a touch or something. --sigh-- It's just weird.
Anyway...since I seem to be veering off topic, I'm looking forward very much to a subbed version of the Gokusen movie, and there's a trailer for it which you can find with
English subs here. There was also a double special issue of the manga released in July of this year, although I can't find it anywhere. Sometime around July 1st and July 15th I think...in 'YOU' or some other magazine.
Well...considering I was only planning on a short entry, this has turned out somewhat large, hasn't it?
Right, well...a few extra links. I've put together some of the pics I've found in searches on google up in my Photobucket account. Wanna take a look?
MatsuJun - Matsumoto JunKame - Kamenashi KazuyaAkanishi JinWell, until next time, take care!
Hugs,
~Shi-koi~
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