A Place Of No Substance

dramas are love.: Review: Finally finished all seasons of Gokusen (and movie!)

addicted-to-drama:

jinma-chan:

addicted-to-drama:

What a ride that was! It was so much fun hanging out with Yankumi and all her bishie boys for three seasons.

That was a great review *always gets excited about Gokusen drama stuffs*. The S3 cast were definitely more wild than the first two…

No need to apologize!! I’m still on my Gokusen-high, so everything is Gokusen and nothing hurts :D

I do agree with you that she’s especially close to Kazama, too. Truth be told, I think this is the only season that she loved the leaders equally well. She definitely had more poignant scenes with Kazama, but she relied more on Ogata to keep track of 3D (as he’s always the one she calls first, or who calls her first.) It’s different from the earlier seasons where I felt it was more romantic between her and a special lead (Sawada and Odagiri). Not that she didn’t love Yabuki too, but he was definitely a second shadow of Odagiri. But with Kazama and Ogata, it’s less romantic and more “comrade” in nature. They’re on an equal level with each other. I also think they’re the best “split personality” representation of Sawada, which may be why she’s close to both of them instead of choosing just one, like in the past..

Speaking of Odagiri. Kame Kazuya. The only man whose eyebrows of perfection make me want to wither in a pool of insecurity and die. I actually saw the movie before I saw the second season, and I fell in love with older!Odagiri personality pretty fast. Witty sarcasm + cool exterior = my ambrosia. I liked his friendly relationship in the film and it made me want to go back and see the rest of it in season two. Between them both, I actually prefer the younger, rebellious Odagiri. I just think Y/Odagiri had more time to shine in the series, where the film was a little bit more about Reita and Ren.

And REITA. LOVE HIM. I wish there was more time with him in the film because I adored him in the ‘09 special. He’s like a mini composition of all my favorites. Ogata’s beautiful face, Odagiri’s coloring, Yabuki’s angsty attitude, Kazama’s cool hairstyle and Sawada’s pretty, pretty, infinitely kissable lips. I think my crush is revealing itself…

I think this is the longest I’ve been… obsessed(?) with a fandom. I think it’s because I love Yankumi’s character so damn much (super-dorky + not quite in touch with reality + ability to go BAMF = GOD YES). So I shall rant while the time is right!

I’ve always wanted to discuss why she is close with particular students (cause I’m cool like that -_-). While I think you definitely right in that S3 there was a pretty equal closeness with the leaders, I think even within the whole series, Kazama just had a slightly more special place in Yankumi’s heart. Allow me to briefly tell you why.

It’s because they have both had similar experiences. Both of their parent(s) passed away while they were quite young (Yankumi was 7 and Kazama was 10 I believe?) and they were both bullied a kids as well (and we’ve already seen how she feels about that in ep6 of S1, no?). I guess I read into those similarities which made the various hospital scenes that much more touching for me ;_;… and the fact that he wound up going to the old classroom when he had nowhere to go (and his reasons for not going to Yankumi). That’s just my long, poorly written take on it anyway.

Though I pretty much have my ship goggles on constantly, so yeah there’s that too… o_o

But back to Ogata it makes sense that she would rely on him more. It seems to be a theme throughout that she goes to the leader who is quiet/reserved/level-headed when it comes to dealing with the class. If she’s thinking about it the way she was brought up it makes most sense for her (the ‘leader’) to have a second-in-command that is less likely to start bursting with emotions. I think…

Totally agree on the split-personality of S3.

Now that you mentioned the romantic tension with Sawada and Odagiri; I actually pointed this out to someone else a while ago: Yankumi gets those “love at first sight” crushes on tidy, upstanding, polite guys (Shinohara/Kujo/Natsume) that she claims to be the ‘perfect type’, yet the actual attraction and chemistry she has is with sarcastic, broody, serious types (aka Sawada and Odagiri). I believe she puts up barriers because they are her students and is not emotionally ready to see them any other way… yet.

Damn those eyebrows! No-one should even try anymore, there is no damn point. I like adult!Odagiri for many reasons. One of them being he’s more… filled out in the movie. Also he took a club to the head for Yankumi (which was hella awesome). Though rebellious Odagiri is great too (side note: love how during S2 he was the most concerned about the promise with Yankumi over not fighting; guess it stems from ep1…).

Oh Takasugi. The babyface delinquent leader. I really wished they had done a season with the 4th gen of 3D. Would have made an interesting back-story as to why he was expelled from Ara high. 

I’ve seen a few people say that Takasugi may have a crush on Yankumi.

I concur.

Sorry for the length again! And my harping on about ships and Yankumi and whatnot (it’s what I do). Seen this series way too many times already, gotta let it all out where possible :D

PS- Forgot to mention: I like how in S3 they had an episode about some of the ‘secondary character’ students. It was good to see Yankumi and co. interacting with classmates aside from the main boys.