понедельник, 30 июня 2014
Finally done with the series. It's been about 5 months since I started watching it but the subs were slow and the graduation needed a special timing. Now I have a lot to say.
First of all, I kept hearing about Kinpachi for months but after struggling through My Boss My Hero I restrained myself because I've had one school drama too many. There are tons of teacher J-dramas like GTO, Gakusen and many others but all of them are based on manga, shallow and far from reality so none of them managed to capture my attention. Because of that I was pretty sceptical about this one. I've kept my resolve for awhile but at some point I happened to learn more about the whole series and about 6th season in particular. Kinpachi-sensei is an epic drama that aired every few years from 1979 to 2011 with a total of 8 seasons. Apparently Season 1 ended with a rating of 40% and I can understand why. Though other school dramas try to address problems such as bullying and violence, it's always pretty shallow and often resolved in a bizarre way. "Kinpachi" touched upon a much larger spectre of problems and dealt with them profoundly. Season 6 in particular had a very distinct theme of gender identity ad sexual minorities. When I learned all of this, I knew there was no way I could skip it.
MOREAnother very important difference from other cool teacher dramas is that Kinpachi is not a former wrestler or a yakuza or any other of that nonsense, he's a very normal human being with a huge heart and unlimited patience. He doesn't just help out his students, he tries to make every incident into a topic of discussion in class and make every single student understand why it was wrong. And I think each lesson was very deep and human and meaningful. But I was very impressed by the in depth discussions about gender and sex and identity all the aspects of it. It's really bold and wonderful to bring up such difficult issues.
I also really liked the 3-B as a class. It wasn't filled with blond handsome troublemakers and model-like girls but 30 kids with very different looks and personalities. It felt very real. Season 6 is also known as the one that made Aya Ueto famous. Her role really was pretty damn complicated. At first I naturally assumed that Shige would be her love interest but it turned out that wasn't the case at all. Anyway, Shige didn't get that much screen time but he was an important presence and a very cool one too. Hasegawa Ken was basically that tall, smart and handsome guy all the girls fall for. Um, I don't think it's appropriate to have feels for a boy half my age. Massu's character barely had a few lines here and there but he was this cute and blunt kid and I think he didn't have to try hard to get into his role. Towards the end though he became a part of Narusako's group so he got more screen time. Though he and Shige never really mixed in class I guess since there were only 3 Johnnys on the set they got friendly. Also I find it really amusing that Kazutoshi often wore yellow because he wanted to participate in Tour de France but in the end he got to wear it a lot))
The only thing that I really didn't like is the ridiculous dramatization of the whole Narusako's story. The graphic portrayals of violence and such. But that isn't the problem of this series, it seems to be a problem with all J-dramas.
Shige and Massu often mention Kinpachi-sensei and how much it meant for them and now I can perfectly understand why. I'm sure for all the 30 kids of Class 3-B it was much more that a dorama, they really lived it. And the tears they cried at the end were real. Even the boys were weeping. Needless to say, I shed a few tears too.
All in all, Kinpachi-sensei is not your average school drama. It's not a comedy even though it has a fair share of humour and it has little romance. But it's full of humanity and wisdom and I really wish youth everywhere could watch a series like this. Even with 22 episodes and a 2-hour season finale it doesn't feel stretched out. Even though I'm way past middle school I could relate to it and quite enjoyed it.
Rating: 8
I though I'd end here but then I found out the characters from Season 6 appeared later in the series so of course I had to see that as well.
First of all, there was a small appearance in Ep.11 of Season 7. It was basically about Nao and how now, 3 years alter he could finally start taking his hormones. At first I wasn't going to watch it but then it turned out they also showed Haseken and Kazutoshi and other kids so... Apparently Ken and Akane are dating too which is a relief, really. Even though it was just 2 short scenes I am a real sucker for stories stretched in time so I was very excited about it.
And then of course there was the Graduation Special from 2011. The whole thing is about 3.5 hours long and it encompasses a lot of flashbacks as well as a new storyline. Of course it's a bit of a fast forward version of fixing the newest troublemaker but I quite like how they managed to put a lot of students from the earlier seasons. All of the graduates or rather the 3-B Gang coming to haunt him in turn in a "kid, you ain't know shit" way was kind of amusing even. With my Japanese I was only able to understand about 60% of the text but it was enough to get the main points.
I didn't even know about the bar scene. Ken being all "Sit down and listen, bitch. We're your senpai." But I was glad to see Masanori. I also noticed Masanori now works in Hasegawa Law firm probably under Ken's father. I wonder how Kazutoshi's Tour de France dream went. But at least he still wears a lot of yellow))
The episode ended with the teacher's graduation ceremony where most of the past 3-B students were present and it was very touching. A lot of them were crying. Kame didn't make it to the graduation though he had a 5-second scene earlier. Neither did Nao which is kind of understandable but I dunno they could have a bulky bearded guy come and say "Nao desu", that would be funny. At any rate he was a very important character for the season, you know. Massu looked really happy to be there and Ken was super-serious throughout the whole thing. But it was really interesting to see everyone after 9 years. Some kids hardly looked different while some changed a lot. Anyway, the whole atmosphere was really warm and natural and you knew the tears and smiles were genuine. Ah, the feels~
But you know one thing that bugged me? As the final credits rolled over sensei's walking off into the distance a ward "And..." appeared on screen. You didn't.
@музыка:
Fall Out Boy - The (Shipped) Gold Standard
@темы:
dorama
