yankii bokou ni kaeru ヤンキー母校に帰る [series]

Yup, this is the one, Ichihara looks like my dog.

Ok so try to put out of your mind all the things you learnt from Gok and tumbling and gachibaka etc. the teachers and delinquents in yankii bokou are inspired by a real situation. The way the teachers pull together to support the students is not like anything we see in the usual school dramas. This is because the school is based on a real school which became the first in Japan to open its gates to drop out students.

After a documentary followed the events of Yoichi high school in Hokkaido for 15 years, TBS decided to make a drama back in 2003 inspired by the feelings and intentions of the people involved. It has the usual themes covered in most school dramas – as you would expect, but the way problems are dealt with, and the honest responses of the students are often moving and inspiring.

I can’t fault it.

Why would I even want to? I forgot throughout the show many times that this was based on real situations, and every time the teachers had meetings to discuss what was best for the students I found myself feeling in awe of the honest intentions they had.

This is by no means a story of one brilliant teacher fighting to save all his or her pupils from the evils of the world and including all the other stiff unyielding teachers in the seemingly insurmountable dilemmas. All these people are fighting for the same cause, all the students want to start over and those intentions are faced head on with belief and hope. This is not something you see in dramas much. The absolute faith that in these kids the good will out when given the opportunity runs at the very front. It is immensely cheesy at times but actually a lot more subtle than other school dramas of similar ilk. It is no gok. There are no fights in warehouses. Come to think of it, no-one is even on the roof at any point through this whole drama. Mind you, it is Hokkaido. It’d be f*cking freezing.

Cast:

Takenouchi Yutaka - Yoshimori sensei

Shinohara Ryoko - Kanai Momoe

Ichige Yoshie - Kanai Sayako

Yo Kimiko - Andou sensei

Aiba Masaki - Yashiki Tetsuji

Harada Yoshio - Iwazaki sensei

Sayaka - Nanae

Kato Natsuki - Akane

Murano Mia - Wakana

Nukumizu Youichi - Nobu

Ujiie Megumi - Chiaki

Nagai Masaru - Kazuto

Ichihara Hayato - Tooru

Ichikawa Yui - Yuuki

Oshinari Shugo - Chiba

Otsuka Chihiro - Sakuta Kumiko

Takase Yukina - Sawada

Ishigaki Yuma - Shimada Tetsuki

Hayami Mokomichi - Hideo

Koike Teppei - Motoya

Emoto Tasuku - Junichi

Ok, so gushing over. I have a lot of respect for this drama and I guess I’ve made that clear enough. Now I MUST mention my favourite poodle Ichihara Hayato. This is the drama I first saw my dog’s human equivalent, and became a little too enamoured with a certain shigedgehog’s voice twin, mainly because he looks like my puppy and has the most awesome speaking voice in the world.

I started this drama almost two years ago now and forgot all about it. On watching something else where Ichihara cropped up it reminded me of when he looked so much like my little puppy in yankii bokou. I spend my time surfing between wanting to stroke his hair and wanting to tell him to pull his god damn trousers up. He must buy his clothes at the giant world emporium in massive land – either that of he fell through a huge rapper’s washing line and got tangled up in his clothes before going to shoot for the drama.

Also, I feel I should again mention ishigaki yuma’s bizarre ability to look totally the wrong age. Or right age. Or whatever.

My head hurts with thinking about how the hell he shrunk so much after gok in 2002 and yankii bokou in 2003, to be mr tiny fighty kamishiro in holyland in 2005. ah, and I should mention Tokuyama Hidenori is in this too, being generally leather jackety and smooth. The class we follow in the drama is flooded with well known faces. Yashiki sensei’s class aswell. – ah that brings me to aiba masaki with his gorgeous hair and ridiculously try-hard character. I like yashiki sensei and kind of wish they had done more with him.

The special... dare I mention the special...

Well, I got to the point where yoshiie cut off his toenail and just couldn’t put up with any more of the over the top yakuza wannabe sh*t. it didn’t feel realistic, well written, or thought-out. I didn’t like the characters – even the likable ones – even the teachers I already liked from before! How the hell did they get it so wrong? I know I shouldn’t comment when I watched like 30mins of the 2 and a half hour long thing, but no matter how much I love kazama shusuke (akihabara@deep) no amount of him or the love for the series that came before this special was going to keep me watching for another two f*cking hours.

The main problem at first I think is that I just can’t find sakurai sho believable as a yankii. Sorry. He looked like an utter d*ck and nothing he said made me understand where he was coming from. The flash backs to him being violent looked sh*t – I just didn’t believe in him. when kazuto got p*ssed of in the series I felt everyone’s intimidated feelings, when tooru shouted and threw stuff I totally felt his stress and frustration. Sakurai sho just looked like he was taking the p*ss in some bad budget spoof. It is a shame, I don’t know what doesn’t gel about it, but matsuda shota (liar game, hana yori dango, tsuki no koibito) and kimura ryo (who I f*cking love, akai ito, nodame cantabile, hana kimi, puzzle, heat island) both very watchable actors – didn’t even make this palatable.

I may attempt it again and update this post. But I will need to be really f*cking bored. I’m hoping that as it is such a long special that lots of stuff happens and it all mixes up in a really interesting way – but everyone annoyed me so much in that first half an hour I just didn’t have the energy to stand it.

I didn’t want to rant about the special, really I should just be praising the main series for being so great. I feel it could have been longer with no drain on the momentum. Whether it was good or not though, just knowing where it all came from is enough to make it a worth while project. I hope it continues to inspire and remind people of the effort some people really are making in the world – it isn’t all just idealised pretty words in dramas.

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