Gokusen

Gokusen is about a nerdy looking female teacher named Kumiko Yamaguchi. It's her first day on the job and she got the unlucky duty of teaching the rowdiest class in the school. Unbeknown to the students that they are in for one "hell" of a teacher.



Story - (FAIR)
The story has been done redone and overdone through out the years from actual feature length films to multiple instances in anime. One thing about this one is it doesn't try too hard to be different from the rest, unless you can count a talking dog and a nerdy female crime boss. Throughout every episode it'll pretty ... much focus on one student and their trouble. Of course the teacher will 'teach' and help them overcome their issues and the student gets wiser. The end. Well repeat that formula for 11 of the 13 episodes and you have yourself a full series of Gokusen. Its not bad, but its not great either.

Art - (MEDIOCRE)
Art work is really average for its time of production. Nothing great at all to be honest. You'll get your standard amount of comedy scenes, mixed with action and drama scenes. All the typical freeze frame character against a moving background will be everywhere. But I must admit this show has more fight scenes than some "so called action anime" which i found to be pretty fun.

Sound - (MEDIOCRE)
The sound is also quite mediocre as well. You'll noticed a few rehashed sound effects and all the typical sound effects. I did enjoy the voice actors as, the mostly male cast was pretty funny (and stupid). But overall just hearing the talking bulldog made me wanna punch my screen.

Character - (FAIR)
Most the characters are your typical roughneck tough high school bully types. The kind of characters people usually grow to hate. So at the start the character cast is not a very strong one. But like any normal anime, they'll begin to grow hearts and have personalities. Unfortunately thats really not my thing (I prefer girl-dominant cast). Oujo was pretty funny though. At least the main main character was definitely the high point of the show. Too bad her supporting cast was more worthless than an anime wall scroll.

Enjoyment - (GOOD)
Overall the characters are pretty forgettable with the exception of Oujo. The stories all had morals and if you're into that give it a shot. Because at least it was fun to watch and you kind of learn something after each episode :)

NOTE: i didn't reference GTO even once ^_^

So I ran into a bit of a problem after watching this show… figuring out how the hell I was going to write this review. The show does not make that easy at all as I really don’t know exactly what I thought of it. Sure the story line and characters were pretty fun and entertaining, but then the artwork and the script seemed rather dated to a point that it didn’t appeal to me. I guess I should just start breaking it down and see what my end result of this review will be.

Let’s talk about Kumiko first. Under the cute, good-hearted woman ... is that of a true Yakuza boss. The whole show is based around the two sides of her life and how they end up meeting every once in a while. While it’s a really awesome concept, the execution has to be really good for it to make any sense. In this case, it’s done rather well. We have the slice of life drama of a high school teacher on one side while also having the dramatic yakuza underworld on the other side of the coin. I think I mostly kept watching just for the chance to see where the two sides would actually meet. While a lot of the stuff that happened was rather predictable, the comedy that ended up happening made it all the more interesting to watch.

Now, I guess next we should talk about the students… oh boy. So these students are a real handful. This is an all boy’s school so not only do they have a lot of them as traditional degenerate style characters but there is a lot of bullying as well. While I felt a little bit of the stories that came from them, I couldn’t really understand it being a girl myself. I don’t know, maybe a guy could understand better. There was also another problem for me to understand these characters and I think it has to go into the time in which this seems to be set. The characters talk pretty cheesy gangster style from the 90’s, hair style kind of leading into that aspect. While I was a kid for the late 90’s I was not a high school student. I was a middle school student still in 2000 so when I did end up in High school, these fashions and the way they talked were out of date. This did not help me understand the characters any better.

On the other side of the coin, the Yakuza were not much better. They were stereotypes of old Yakuza movies but they were also rather childish and almost dumb in a way. If I was Kumiko, having to deal with it both at home and at school would make me want to pull my hair out. But, she cares very much for the members of the Yakuza just like they were family or even her own students which shows how much patience she has.

There were only two other characters that were rather interesting, both seemed to be the other’s counterpart in the two worlds she lives in. Shin Sawada is one of her students. He is a rather calm, level-headed guy who basically seems to have a rather interesting obsession with Kumiko’s secret. So much so that he would put his life on the line to find out at times. I didn’t like him at first, though he did slightly grow on me as the story kept going.

The other is Kumiko’s dog, Fuji. I just fell in love with him when he first opened his mouth. I say first opened his mouth loosely as he never talks to the others. The only ones who can understand him are us as he narrates some of the things happening or Shin but just barely. Other then that, he does normal dog stuff, go on walks, bite people who might hurt his master, walk on two legs, wears a sports coat, and drink Sake… um… I only suspect other dogs in this world can do all those things as no one really questions what he does. I also don’t remember seeing any other dog in the series so ya. I consider him sort of the wise budda though as the things he does say seem like morals. You’ll understand if you watch the show.

The animation is very early anime style which is surprising seeing as how it was made in 2004. Your talking about the same studio who did ‘Monster’, ‘Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad’, and ‘Paranoia Agent’ that same year so I guess that isn’t a large leap seeing as how the art style is kind of similar. The thing is, this was probably a large risk for them as around that same time we got ‘Gundam Seed Destiny’, ‘Rozen Maiden’, and ‘Bleach’. Most of those shows had started using a rather normal style we know of now days so this feels like it was a pretty interesting chance that they did. You can tell that they took a lot of inspiration from the manga as the designs look almost identical. It’s refreshing to see after all the slice of life wide eyed cutesy stuff I have gotten so used to reviewing. Sadly, the characters seemed very plain, even when they added special scars or details that were supposed to make them stand out they seemed plain. The eyes also tended to creeped me out as they were only dots surrounded by a line on top and a line on bottom. Points for keeping it like it was in the manga, but seriously creepy.

The English Dub, although very cheesy, is pretty good. I do like how all the voices really fit the characters and how the dialog fits the punk gangster vibe. I especially love Jon Avner as Fuji. It’s very hard to actually match the voice to an animal’s personality and looks, and Jon does a very good job with his rather gruff deep voice. It’s similar to the old Scruff Mcgruff voice. For those who don’t know, Scruff Mcgruff was the ‘crime dog’ back a long time ago. I would see him all over the place when I used to live in Chicago and was a poster child… er… dog for keeping kids safe. If Scruff’s voice was just a little deeper, it would probably be the exact match. On the other hand though, I’m not so big on Shin’s voice. I know it fits the character and all, but I am just not a fan of the rather slow talking cool kid vibe.

There is a small problem I have with the script and the show. You see, it is so good at doing the punk gangster vibe with how the characters dress, how they talk, and how they act that I just get to a point where I am done with watching it for a time. It was the same with GTO in that the show definitely set a time period that, to me, feels a little embarrassing. I guess you could call it a guilty pleasure show, one you think is so cheesy that you can’t help to watch it every once in a while. When I got past that problem, I found the show very enjoyable and it actually pushed me to go read the manga after.

STRUCTURE / PRESENTATION: (7.0)

Gokusen is a semi-episodic semi-serial anime in the sense that each episode is usually someone getting into trouble and Yankumi having to go and save them or something like that, but slowly in each episode you can really see these rowdy students getting used to their new teacher and even starting to like her a bit, as well as Yankumi bonding with Shin, and (failing) to hide her identity to the school district. This style did this show justice as it highlighted some of the best parts, being able to fit in some good action fighting scenes in each episode, and since ... each episode usually deals with a specific character, you really get to bond with them and understand them a bit more.


STORY / SETTING: (4.0)

Honestly the idea that the students were brainless hot-headed thugs didn't last long enough. It was really only present in the first two episodes, and after that they already warmed up to their new teacher, and kinda became softies. The affection towards their teacher grows stronger and stronger in each episode. That aspect could've been paced or spread out a little better, but it was pretty alright. One other thing I noticed (or rather didn't) was the importance of Yankumi keeping her identity hidden to the school. Shin realized it almost straight away, and the other students knew something was up pretty early too. It didn't really feel like she was trying very hard, or perhaps just didn't care, because wow it didn't last long at all. I did really like the story though. It may not be the most original but it did leave me wanting to see what would happen next. The setting on the other hand was quite boring. The school may as well been a 2 room building. The classroom and the teachers' office are pretty much the only parts we ever see, no hallway shots, or pans around the school, or anything. Besides the school and the Ooedo hideout, there are few places which hold much significance and they are few and far between. It really was quite bland.

AUDIO / VISUAL: (5.0)

The art is abnormal compared to what you see in most anime, as the characters aren't your typical "Aryans" and look more realistic (yet still goofy). Overall though it was average, and so was the animation. (For 2004 at least.) There wasn't a whole lot of music, but there wasn't a time when I think it needed any when there wasn't any. Voice acting was slightly above average, portraying voices which fit the characters quite nicely.

CHARACTERS: (3.5)

Honestly I had a tough time identifying all the different characters in the class from each other. Half of them look the exact same, and their personalities couldn't be more copy paste. No student stood out to me more than any other, and there wasn't a single time when one student couldn't been in the shoes of another during the story, as they're all the exact same (Besides Shin). Yankumi is pretty cool but it's kind of hard to believe she's the leader of a famous Yakuza clan when she's so clueless and laid back sometimes. Yeah, It's part of her personality, but the way she treated the issue and the fact that she was so bad at hiding it, really didn't make me feel the importance of it at all. The quirky personalities of the staff of the school and the Ooedo clan gave some comic relief, and some lightheartedness. One character I especially like is Fuji the dog. The fact that he's a bipedal talking dog in an otherwise realistic show is the least of my concern when his prime voice acting, and red track suit are a welcome addition in almost every scene, and his inner monologues help shed some insight on the situations as well.

OVERALL: (4.9)

Gokusen doesn't excel in one area, but it's quite a charming show that had me keep clicking "next episode" despite it's many shortcomings. I wouldn't recommend it, but If you want to give it a try, it won't be a complete waste of time.