Gokusen

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Gokusen: A manga that I just can't help but go back to and read over and over again. I dont know why I love it so freaking much. I mean its my favourite manga despite the Mediocre art and the weird style its drawn in. Im still trying to figure out how I, being a giant shoujo fan, Favourite manga is A Josei. Dont get me wrong I like Josei manga to I just dont read it as much which is why Im baffled! What I DO know though is that any person who loves a light hearted story with tons of comedy would love ... this. Throw in a little bit of romance, some awesome fighting skills/scenes, the Yakuza, A school for Delinquent dropouts and A math teacher and you get Gokusen. Thats right The Yakuza and a Math Teacher!

Story 8/10

It starts off fairly simple. We meet Yamaguchi Kumiko, the grandaughter to one of the biggest and toughest Yakuza gangs in Tokyo; The Kuroda Family. They're feared and respected in the Yakuza world. Yet the next heir is a woman! And what exactly is her occupation? A rookie math teacher fresh outta University! And where does she choose to work at? Well at Shirokin Gakuen Senior High, a school for delinquent dropouts who have no where else to go. Follow her adventures as she befriends and earns the respect of her rowdy 2nd year class and kicks ass while doing it! But who finds out her secret right at the beginning of her career? Sawada Shin the smartest guy in the class... No wait make that the whole grade... Or even the whole school... So as you can see "Yankumi", as she is dubbed by her students, is in a little bit of trouble. But this manga does not focus on one plot! We get to learn about some of her students pasts, about her Yakuza family and life, about the hilarious situations she and her class end up in, about her love life which is not going so well and as we do Gokusens comedy will surely make you chuckle throughout the ride!

Art 5/10

Now this would have to be Gokusens weak point. The drawings are fairly simple with basic backrounds and easily drawn faces. Some people would probably think the art is very crude and well... Ugly compared to their fluffy shoujo art. Once again dont get me wrong Im a sucka for fluffy, Cute and Beautiful shoujo art and I nearly didnt read Gokusen because of its simple art style. Yet I gave it a chance and Im so thankful I did. If you dont want to miss out on an awesome manga just give it a go! Also you might be happy to hear that the art does improve throughout the manga. The Mangaka obviously got better at drawing and the art changed a little which is common in long mangas.

Characters 8/10

The cast for Gokusen is quite large so we dont get to find out the history of every character. But the ones we do of are done quite well! Also mangas with large casts are infamous for not developing characters well but thats not true for Gokusen! Each character has a distinct personality and usually an arc or two where they play main roles. The main the characters: Yamaguchi Kumiko and Sawada Shin are developed quite nicely and you can see them grow as the manga progresses. Yankumi is not afraid to fight for what she thinks is right and she hates an uneven battle filed. She protects her students and grows wonderful Teacher-Student bonds with them! Shes an easily likable character that can be a little dense and she can rush into things but thats why Sawadas there to help her! He could be the exact opposite from her. Calm, cool and collected, we rarely see him freak out and if It wasn't for him helping Yankumi all her plans would probably fail... So 2 strong protagonists who are interesting and hilarious!

Enjoyment 10/10

As you can tell from my mostly positive review I absolutely LOVE Gokusen and its humour, Great story with nice plot elements, Unique characters and overall awesomeness make it a highly enjoyable manga. In fact Im pretty sure I red all 15 volumes in 1 day... Aka one sitting so that must of been hours worth of time dedicated to sitting down and reading it! I just could not put it down it was addicting becuase it was just so much FUN to read! The extra bonus chapters are a blast and I definitely recommend reading them to!

Overall 9/10

Overall if your looking for a Light read with some good humour and a great set of characters this is a must read! I'd give it a perfect 10 but because of the mediocre art Im going to have to concede and give it a 9. Still I recommend that you give it a go if your contemplating whether you wanna read it or not because of the art style cause if you do read it you wont be disappointed!

I've already seen the drama (and loved it, well Gokusen 1 at least with its glorious Shinkumi and amazing Nakama Yukie/Matsujun chemistry), so I thought I'd read the manga too.

The art is ... LOL, but the story is good. It's a teeny bit repetitive with Yankumi always saving the day, saving the delinquents of her class from troubled paths, beating down all the gangsters, etc, but it's still a fun read no matter how repetitive. There's more Shinkumi development in the manga than the drama, which I enjoyed very much. I don't care how scandalous it is; the Shinkumi is the best ... part about Gokusen, imo. Love the two lead characters, the way they antagonize and still care for each other.

The art never really gets better, although it's quite charming that it's so simple. The ending was perfect though... JUST WHAT I WANTED! Now I need a sequel!

It's tough for me to describe just how much I love this manga. I have read it at least four or five times at this point, over and over again over the course of the past 6 or 7 years. I don't write this review strictly to recommend this manga, more to try and articulate why I like it. By all means, go read it, but just so you know, I'm writing this review sort of just for me (sorry?).

This manga single handedly made me watch the entire existing video canon of this IP. I have seen all three seasons of the J-drama (twice), the ... movie, and the anime. If you enjoy this manga, I do recommend you seek out its other iterations. It's pretty much all fantastic stuff, though imo the manga is the best out of the lot.

The main facets of this manga that I think about when I try to boil it down are truly the characters and the comedy. The manga can be serious, but leans towards gut-wrenchingly funny. It's even more difficult to describe humor than it is to describe why someone likes something, so I will simply say I find it hilarious, even on reread, even when I remember what the punchline will be. The sense of humor also ranges wildly, from straight up physical humor and blue humor, to more clever or stinger/gotcha based humor. One moment characters are farting and laughing about it, the next someone comes up with a quippy double-entendre that actually takes a minute to unravel itself, the next someone does a classic pratfall. It's beautiful.

Yankumi, the main character, is my favorite character in the entire work - which in my opinion shows that the writer did their job, because frequently I can't stand the main characters of manga (even when I'm clearly supposed to like them). Her antics are hilarious, the situations she gets herself into are increasingly ridiculous, she is strong physically, emotionally, and morally, and she can be a little bit thick/prudish/innocent at times. It's such a refreshing characterization of a main female character to find in manga. She is complex, her history and upbringing affect her in clearly understandable ways, and I would even call her a role model, by the end of the manga for sure.

I also love that every single character, at least the main ones, have clearly defined character arcs as well as clearly defined backstories - the world building is seriously well done in terms of character continuity. There are several flashbacks in the story to Yankumi in high school and to her students as middle schoolers, and you can see the lessons they learned then and the actions they took, and how that shapes who they currently are in the story.

I'm not an art critic, nor am I widely read enough in manga to talk about art even semi-confidently, but I will say I like the style. It is sort of dated, at least compared to more contemporary styles I've seen kicking around, but it's so stylistic that for the most part you don't really notice. I admire the strong choice behind the art style, especially as I think it is equally able to service the comedic moments as well as sober up for the more serious or heartwarming scenes. Also, the faces Yankumi makes are some of the best non-verbal jokes I've seen in a manga.

In reality, it's just a really good manga, with solid storytelling that makes sense, likable characters, ridiculous scenarios, hilarious content, and an interesting style. I think the reason I like it can be more easily explained by simply asking: what's not to like?