Kumiko 'Yankumi' Yamaguchi teaches a class of violent underachieving delinquents while trying her best to hide her Yakuza background and avoid run-ins with the police. In later episodes you discover that all of the characters have more to them than first meets the eye and many of them have multiple layers of depth. Gokusen walks the line perfectly between humanity and comedy and all but a handful of the episodes are brilliantly written and very, very funny. The music here is awesome too, and although the intro song isn't all that good, the music during certain fight scenes or tense moments is decent, consisting of film noir type jazz (with lots of trumpets) and early 90s synth pop. There's nothing too special in the sound department but it works just fine.
With a strong start, a good ending with no loose ends, and laugh out loud humour throughout, I can't recommend Gokusen enough for those of you looking for something easy going to waste an afternoon on.
