Gokusen

My wife and I were browsing through premium cable channels when we came across a Japanese Anime series called Gokusen showing on Encore. We watched an episode since nothing else was on and have gotten hooked on this hilarious series. The gist of the series is that a new, seemingly meek high school teacher takes her first job teaching a class of juvenile delinquents. That sounds boring because its been done many times before, but the hook here is that the teacher is also the head of a Yakuza clan.

That's where the fun comes in, as Teacher / Yakuza leader Ojo juggles her violent, ruthless tendencies with her caring, nurturing intentions. She often loses control of herself while teaching class, switching from cold blooded fighting machine to naive sweet girl...sometimes in the same sentence. Most of the school thinks shes crazy, except one student who suspects something more about his teacher but can't figure it out.

Most of the anime I've seen is entertaining but has extremely complex storylines and hyperviolent action (Robotech and Star Blazers come to mind). Gokusen has violence, but the storylines are usually simple and the violence is often played for comedy making this an unusual show. It's like Robert Deniro in Analyze This, if he was a woman in his mid-twenties teaching a class. This is the funnest, lightest anime show I've seen and I get a real kick out of seeing the almost schitzophrenic behavior of the lead character.

In researching this series, I've found there is a live action version of this show as well. Hopefully, this will air in the US as well so I can compare the two.