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.

~

Holyland ホーリーランド [series]

fists of fury or fists of fuwa fuwa, either way im sold.

Cast:

Ishigaki Yuma - Kamishiro Yu

Tokuyama Hidenori - Izawa Masaki

Aoyama Sota - Kaneda Shinichi

Mizutani Yuri - Izawa Mai

Suzuki Shinji - Midorikawa Shogo

Ueki Kiyohiko - Iwado

Umemiya Tetsu -Tsuchiya

Yuge Tomohisa - Kato

Miyata Daizo - Taka

Mimoto Masanori - Yoshii

I looked for this series about a year ago and didn’t find anything and promptly forgot all about it. I am in fact quite glad about this, I think I would have liked it back then but I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much as I do now. There are a few reasons for this, I know the two main actors now, and also have just been overloaded by immense amounts of serious gayness from kamen rider kabuto and youkai ningen bem (both of which were great) so the unbelievable boy love desperate to break out in this drama was not lost on me.

Don’t worry, if that isn’t what you’re after, it doesn’t really ever surface but it really was so funny – on a par with the longing looks and adoration in my boss my hero (Tegoshi can never hide his gay much) and the put on a pedestal dialogue of natsu-bem in youkai ningen bem in the throws of confusion (tokuyama matching kamenashi’s sex voice and raising hell with it)

So enough ranting about the gay, the plot is coming so be patient.

There is this adorable little feeble chipmunk of a lad called kamishiro who gets bullied and pushed around so much he barely goes to school and is frightened of everyone. Completely alone in the world he only really longs for a place to belong and goes out into the city at night to search for it.

Kamishiro had learnt a one-two punch from a book and practised 5000 repetitions a day for the two years he had been house bound from his severe bullying incidents. The fights that ensue after he attempts to hang out in the city at night time lead to him using this punch and earning the name of yankii hunter.

This series really reminded me of Kennichi the strongest disciple, he learns fast and picks up other people’s techniques, learning boxing moves, karate kicks and other stuff from the random reprobates he inadvertently beats up. They love him once they realise that he is an awesome little munchkin and a bizarre band of friends grow out of this weird situation.

Every gang, thug, and martial arts master ends up after this poor lad (just like kennichi) and one by one he ends up having to fight them all.

It includes having big ass show downs with mental feel no pain type crack pot kato after he smashes the living crap out of kamishiro’s two best boy love friends. And I haven’t even explained the deal with him and his super sempai izawa yet.

Izawa is played by mr sex voice himself tokuyama hidenori (ai no
kotodama, kamen rider kabuto) jeez that man’s voice is beautiful. But besides that, before I get carried away, this guy is a boxer, known and loved by all and sundry. No-one really wants to mess with him apart from yoshii who is a d*ck with a white polo neck and too much hair gel.



Izawa has clearly rubbed this dude up the wrong way – and probably got covered in hair gel in the process. After bumping into each other a few times izawa and kamishiro form a fluffy fuwa fuwa eyed view of each other and even they end up at one point having a gloriously incestuous fight in front of kamishiro’s adorably stupid mates and a blood thirsty crowd of yankii b*stards.

It has an esc of crows zero and as I’ve said most definitely kennichi, and a bit like the prince of tennis in the way he learns the other's moves, throw some fantastically over the top acting, absolutely p*ss poor camera work and terrible sound quality and you have got yourself this drama.

What I don’t get, is that the brilliant ishigaki yuma that we all know and love these days, was in Gokusen looking like an adult years before this – where he looks so tiny and young. Gok was 2002 damn it. How could he then look so young and small in 2005 for this drama... I don’t get it. Japanese actors are amazing for this. Time and time again this will happen, I just don’t get it. Narimiya Hiroki played a married guy with a kid in ima ai ni yukimasu 2005 then 2010 was a high school kid in yankii kun to megane chan. I seriously don’t get how they do it. (sorry for the random narimiya rant but I just finished bloody monday2 and my god I love that man)

So back to the gay – I mean series. Yes, well anyway. This drama was so much more than I was expecting. I couldn’t really tell you why. It was totally budget. Really cheesy – almost unbearably so. And pretty bad by all accounts. But just absolutely brilliant. In every way.

The fighting is good – it actually is interesting instead of stupidly fake. Maybe because it is shot so budget it works better. I haven’t read the manga so I cant compare it to it, but it still had that kind of manga feel to it for sure and I’ve heard there is an anime of it. I may track down the manga at least to give it a read.

I have to say I really rate ishigaki. I love to watch him fight – you don’t really see him do it enough these days. i do love it when he goes meccha psycho for like two or three episodes in this and beats the sh*t out of everyone. The boy is crazy fit – I certainly wouldn’t want him to punch me.

And it is always nice to see tokuyama fighting as if I hadn’t seen enough of that when he was being completely ridiculous all gothed up in kabuto with his little chibi bee buddy.

Aoyama shota (prince of tennis) had me in fits, and I did love the odd friendship between Shin and Shogo. Seriously there was boy love being flung around like a baseball made of Japanese teenage girl’s daydreams. Was stupid funny.

It isn’t gay enough for boys to mind, and it is gay enough for girls to find it hysterical so really it is an all round win on that count.

But besides all that, it must have been a good show as it left me with a massive smile and all I could do was ureshii squee that it was so brilliant. I think kamishiro won me over just like all the yankii f*ck heads he fights that all in turn fall in love with his weirdo little self.

The episodes are 20mins long so its one to watch in one go, doesn’t take much. I will be watching this stupid drama again someday, so safely away onto my hard drive it goes, and if I show it to anyone else I bet they will think I’m mad for ranting about how great it is. I fully don’t care though. Whenever I want to see ishigaki fight – which I often do as he is so great at it, I can just watch this. In hana kimi it is all just so silly that he doesn’t really do much real martial arts, and in gok he is just a – well you know what gok kids are like. If he has done any other martial arts roles tell me because I don’t think I’d ever get sick of seeing that boy fight. Ive seen him in quite a few things (none of which I can remember off the top of my head other than the two ive already mentioned) but this is my favourite so far. But hey, there is still time. And many dramas and movies I have not seen. Bring it on! kakatte koi! Im pathetic enough to have Yamapi shouting that as my message tone.

Ive not stuck to the point much, but I think you get the picture anyway.



ホーリーランドHolyland (manga in Japanese)
http://manga-zip.net/archives/1604.html 

ホーリーランドHolyland (manga in English)
http://bakabt.me/166285-holyland.html

ホーリーランドHolyland (drama with English subtitles stream online)
http://www.gooddrama.net/japanese-drama/holyland 









...Now I feel a bit sick from all this chocolate Ive eaten, im going to have a bath. Why the f*ck would anyone put rice in chocolate. Morons. I love it too much.

 ~

gokusen ごくせん [series] [movie]

duuuh duh nuh nuuuuh! dun dun duh  da duuuuh!
(that was yankumi turning up in your smokey warehouse to beat you down!)

where on earth do i start... how do i review the almighty gok? there is no way to not love gokusen. even if you dont like it you actually do you just dont realise it. this has the potential to be the longest review with the most pictures im not even gonna bother putting all the main characters names in it would take me forever. look it up on dramawiki. 

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Gokusen

ok, we first meet yankumi on her very very first teaching job. she is heir to a yakuza gang but wanted to be a teacher so off she went. hiding her yakuzaryness from eveyone was a little bit hard as she was put in charge of the rowdiest bunch of delinquent yankiis ever seen this side of the second series. kekeke

sawada (matsumoto jun) leads the group he's all moody ass and pouty (though its hard not to pout with that mouth youre never sure what's acting and what's just his face) also featuring in the main group are fantastic actors oguri shun and narimiya hiroki.

one by one the class comes to love yankumi as she sticks her nose (and fists) into their fights and disasterious attempts to stay in school her job becomes to just get them all to graduate without dying or getting expelled first.

yankumi storms into the abandoned warehouses (that apparantly japan has millions of) to save the beaten sh*tless boys when theyre in trouble she beats up any thugs that even sneeze near the tv program and all the guys come to kinda know she's a bit special.

the second series is exactly the same format just a new class. this time with kamenashi kazuya from kat-tun and his bandmate bakanishi jingrish sama akanishi jin. its got a great cast this time round too. the stories are exactly the same - but you just dont care!

they always get mixed up in stuff they shouldnt, nearly get expelled, all hell breaks loose every five minutes and yankumi must lose her job like three times every season.

the third series i have to admit i have a soft spot for. although really its too hard to have a favourite series for me as its all like one big epic movie (i lost a good few weeks just watching series 1 and 2 back to back while waiting for the 3rd one to come out)

this (supposed) final series has miura haruma (samurai high school, bloody monday) and lots of other lovely faces that once again get into the same old sh*t as the other previous classes. but hey - thats what teacher see right? kids go through a lot of the same stuff as their peers. just maybe not some of this sh*t. in reality.

if i say its far fetched, stupid, relentless, repetative, righteous, violent, farsical, unbelievable, corny, predictable, etc etc i may get slapped by the god of brilliant manga adaptation drama but i say it with love! i swear!

its jammed full of moral messages about not being a d*ck and standing up for your friends and all that sorta stuff - but in the nice way japanese tv does it not in the vomit inducing disney type way. yankumi talks the guys down while smacking them in the face. yay!

ok so i should mention yankumi and the other teachers for a minute. she is played by nakama yukie (she really has been in so many things i thought id just put in her dramawiki link http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Nakama_Yukie instead of bother to explain who she is if you dont already know her greatness)

the head teacher she butts heads with constantly in each series sawatari is played by namase katsuhisa. his character gets better and better with each series. the other reoccuring teacher is baba played by azuma mikihisa (he has the hots for yankumi from the moment they met but she only has eyes for unattainable prince on a horse type out of her bumbling clumsy league guys) also yankumi's yakuza family feature in all three series' playing a big part in the story lines. all those guys are great. and also bumbling clumsy idiots.

ok, so on to the movie.

this was supposed to finish off the lot. but im still hoping they do a final series and bring back sawada from the very first series to marry yankumi - lots of gok fans really wish for this.

the movie features a new class and also many of the guys from the third series as main characters in the film. it also has countless short appearances from past characters from all of the series'. (even nakamura yuichi is in there - yes i noticed that one you little scamp! - he was in series 2 if you didnt notice him)

                                                                    there he is ^

and like the three previous series kuma (waki tomohiro) is also around to be generally great and smiley. i really like that he comes back each time we get a new gok.

the best thing about this film? well along side yankumi who should come to work in this school but kamenashi kazuya! i mean his character from series two. aish he couldnt have been more cool. that jacket and the trousers tucked into his boots (^_^) the ever moody pout and quiet mumbling sarcastic remarks and getting beaten up all over again! just like old times right?

for me it works so well as i feel that out of all the students  he got to know yankumi the most somehow. having him there to remind her of what an idiot she is is just genius.

and for the hardcore fans of the drama (and there are almost as many as fans of the manga) we have gokathons where we just watch it all over again over a short period of time and walk around for the few weeks afterwards picking fights with randomers in the street who looked like they might shake us down for small change or pick on our comrade

but we dont back down from any fights do we?!

for this is the blood, sweat and tears of youth!

its also called psychosis caused by the over exposure to gokusen righteous violence.

it doesnt help when you have yankumi's big entrance theme as your ringtone.

if it goes off when you walk into a room... minutes later you realise youve just trashed the place by throwing everyone around and beaten the living sh*t out of them with steel poles that just happened to be laying there all around you.

and god forbid you go anywhere near the beach or a park or a long street you'll end up running or fighting or running and fighting. aish it never ends.

yeah thats right. gokusen psychosis.

there was a helpline.

but the 'on hold' music was yankumi's theme.

there were riots.

those dockyard warehouses never fully recovered.

...

kattun gok skit:

becky doing yankumi impressions on cartoon kattun:

i really want a clip of the bit right after when nakamaru does the impression too

its the funniest thing in the universe. aish nakamaru rocks.