Gokusen

Kumiko Yamaguchi is smart, enthusiastic, and ready to start her dream job as a math teacher at Shirokin Academy. But as her first day opens on atrocious students and cowering teachers, Kumiko realizes that the all-boys high school is a cesspool of delinquents with no intention of improving themselves.

However, what her rowdy students don't know is that behind her dorky facade, Kumiko is the acting head of a powerful yakuza clan, and she has the skills to prove it! Capable of overpowering even the strongest of gangsters in seconds, Kumiko must keep her incredible strength and criminal influence a secret in order to keep her job. Unfortunately, with the vice principal constantly trying to get her fired and Shin Sawada, the leader of her class of delinquents, suspecting she's stronger than she lets on, Kumiko has a difficult teaching career ahead of her.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yamaguchi, Kumiko Main

Hayamizu, Risa Japanese

Sawada, Shin Main

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Ooshima, Kyotarou Supporting

Wakamoto, Norio Japanese

Fuji Supporting

Katou, Seizou Japanese

Uchiyama, Haruhiko Supporting

Masukawa, Yoichi Japanese

Noda, Takeshi Supporting

Yamagishi, Isao Japanese

Kumai, Teruo Supporting

Sugino, Tanuki Japanese

Asakura, Tetsu Supporting

Hirai, Keiji Japanese

Tatsukawa, Minoru Supporting

Yoshida, Hiroaki Japanese

Minami, Youichi Supporting

Nakakuni, Takurou Japanese

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Tamura, Manabu Producer

Kobayashi, Mikiko Assistant Producer

Satou, Yuuzou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Reviews

Nov 26, 2007

lowell

Recommended

Along the lines of GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka), this anime focuses on an unorthodox teacher and her unmanageable class... well, they're unmanageable until they realize how bad-ass she is and she helps bring out their inner "good kid." ;)

Original? No. The best ever? No. Amusing? Sometimes. Entertaining? Enough.

Yankumi is trying to balance her goals to be a high school teacher and her life as the future head of a crime family. (In other words, the hoodlums and punks in her class aren't so tough compared to her.) Everyone's kind of someone you've seen before -- ... down to the annoying, screechy vice principal who's always trying to trip her up and the class ringleader whose middle school experiences taught him not to like teachers (sound familiar, GTO fans?).

The art and the sound wasn't anything to write home (or a review) about, but I have no major complaints either. (And as always, Kenichi Suzumura does a great job. ;) )

Despite the strong deja vu, I thought it was cute and entertaining over all. It's always kind of funny to see the soft, silly side to yakuza (like the way her henchmen fawn all over her or blow the smallest insult to her all out of proportion). And it's kind of funny to see Yankumi trip over things she shouldn't, like using gangster slang and/or metaphors when she shouldn't. It's no where near as good as GTO, but it's not awful. My feeling is that I'd probably have liked this show more if GTO didn't exist.

In other words, if you're trying to decide between watching this or GTO, go watch GTO. (Or even if you're not... watch GTO anyway. ;) ) Or if you've seen GTO and really like that genre and that storyline so much that you'd like to see it again, this is for you!

This might also be worthwhile for people who are a little too young for GTO. This is a cleaner, more superficial version, without the darker edges -- you're not going to find the levels of abuse, horniness and risk of death here that you do in GTO. If you're going to watch both anyway, I'd actually watch this one first and then GTO -- that way you'd be working your way up. =)

Enjoy!

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 27, 2008

Ranivus

Mixed Feelings

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 ^_^

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 2, 2018

GrayRealm

Not Recommended

Alright. Long story short it is a different take on idea from Great Teacher Onizuka, except it is significantly less interesting. This time we have a yakuza boss girl posing as a teacher in a school full of problematic students. She tries to hide her yakuza origin, because that will get her fired....

Basically, same premise or similar premise as Onizuka, except poorly executed and with weaker characters. Story uses many very predictable events, characters act in stereotypical and predictable moment, and antagonists are resembling cartoon villains. Also... that annoying dog. Sigh.

Detailed breakdown below.

Story: 3/10. It is weak and not very interesting. The premise is ... interesting and has better potential than onizuka's it is just you can see where it is going from ten miles away and can have a good idea of what is gonna happen in the next episode. Another problem is ... it doesn't really get anywhere, story-wise. Important elements that were present in Onizuka are missing from this one. Becasue of this the story ultimately fails to deliver.

Art: 5/10
It is actually okay. Most of the characters are not exactly attractive, and are very uncute. However, in a few episodes there are few cute characters in backgroudn, that have very small amoutn of screen time - think seconds, not minutes. Nevertheless, the art does its job, is consistent, and gets the point across. Even though amount of details is low, and shading could be better.

Sound: 5/10:
Also okay. Norio Wakamoto (who usually voices tough guys) voiced one of the supporting roles. It is okay. Just that.

Character: 3/10:
They're completely stereotypical, completely predictable, and none of them have any proper character development. There are some attempts to have some character development, but they ultimately fall flat. After watching the series, there was very little I could say about character's personality. Basically, everyboyd is predictable, and hard to take seriously.Also, I hate the dog in the anime.

ENjoyment: 4/10 :
Didn't enjoy it that much, and thought it would be better. Predictability of the events doesn't help, and neither does relatively weak character portrayal. Basically, they grabbed an amazing idea nad ultimately failed ot deliver.

Overall: 4/10:

This is an anime you can safely skip. There were no amazing moments that would make it worth watching, and the story was not very believable, plus had an occasion deus ex machinas and "trouble out of nowhere". Art didn't stand out either. A lot of time I felt irritation because I could see what is gonna happen next, because characters were acting according to another cliche, or because the story was developing in very predictable way.

So.... not really recommended. You could give it a try, but if you skipped it, I doubt it would be a great loss.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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