English: The Gokusen
Japanese: ごくせん
Episodes: 13
Aired: Jan 6, 2004 to Mar 30, 2004
Studios: Madhouse
Genres: Slice of Life, Comedy, Josei
Duration: 23 min. per ep.
Rating: R – 17+ (violence & profanity)
My Rating: 8 out of 10
Gokusen is one of those 2000’s anime that I really wanted to try. I heard of this anime when I was younger after watching a commercial of its live action adaptation on our local TV station. Sadly, I wasn’t able to watch even a single episode from the said live action because of some time conflict. Shameful but I forgot to check out this anime later on until I accidentally saw its “trailer” on Youtube early this month. So yep, I guess you can already tell what happened next eh? Hehe.
And my! I’m happy that I was right about this one. To tell you honestly, I’m not really planning to read the manga this early but my! That ending just made me haha. You see, I’m always a sucker for romance and I’m really curious what’s going to happen next. Well, I’m always curious and it’s actually because of my curiosity that I read my first ever manga and since then I’m not just enjoying anime but also their manga counterparts, *wink.
Btw, unlike with books, I always watch the anime first before reading the manga, *wink.
Plot
I absolutely love the plot. I’ve heard of Yakuzas before but I honestly don’t know about them, the only thing I know is that they’re dangerous and most people stay away from them. And my, imagine creating a story centered about them, isn’t that exciting?
Aside from sharing life lessons, I also love the fact that it was so funny.
Art
The art was good and it kind of gave me the old anime vibe, I’m not sure why though. The sound effects and soundtrack we’re fine and I think it goes well with the anime.
The opening theme also reminds me of some good children-centered anime that I remember watching when I was just a kid so I already expected that it would give us some pretty good life lessons.
The character design was good too and now that I read the manga, I have to say that they’re pretty identical excluding Shin and Shinohara. Shinohara was ok in the anime but he’s more handsome in the manga (like really handsome!). And Shin on the other hand, my! He was supposed to be hot but I don’t like the anime version. In manga, he’s definitely so hot that you will learn to hate the Shin in the anime, haha.
And speaking of characters, I really love the main character, Kumiko. Despite her family background, she’s very nice and considering her age, she sure knows how to give you very good advice. She’s quite violent which makes this anime even funnier, lol. I just love how she loves her family and how she cares for others especially for her students. She will really do anything for them and I’m glad that she was able to face all the challenges she met but with some help from her family, friends, and students especially Shin, ayeeei! (I just dropped some hint there, haha)
Voice Actors
Just like the rest, I also watched this anime in English dub. There’s some really annoying English dubs out there but for this anime, it was fine. Not that great but not bad either. I guess when I really like the plot, the voice actors wouldn’t concern me that much…sometimes.
Overall
The anime version was very short with only 13 episodes. The ending was really good and it’ll make you curious on what’s going to happen next. And as you can see, I got so curious that I decided to read its manga afterwards, *wink.
It wasn’t really a splendid anime but it’s undeniably one of the good ones in the slice of life genre. I love that it teaches some pretty good life lessons to its viewers and I’m loving the relationship Kumiko AKA Yankumi was able to build with her delinquent students.
And you know what’s the other thing I like about this anime? The hint of romance in the ending, *wink.
