If you are familiar with the Gokusen series, then I'm sure you will find the plot in this drama to be kind of similar. The setting is in an urban high school in Japan, Kunikida High, with the usual dressings: bullying, a caste system (a ranking of sorts), kids who think they are above everyone else, the unmemorable ones, and the depicted lowest of the low. In comes Baba Ayako, a mysterious 35 year old woman who turns up on opening ceremony day. She's not a new teacher, principal, or counselor, but she is, in fact, a student enrolled in senior year.

No one knows anything about her, her past, why she's there, and what the hell she's thinking. She goes to school in some fancy sports car, wears stylish clothes outside of school, and has a body of a 20 year old. In what could be a brewing recipe for even more bullying, Baba Ayako, known to her peers as Baba-san or Oba-san (granny) just casually brushes it off. And just like Gokusen style, she slowly brings to light what could be the hidden demons lurking behind this dreaded caste system.

 The opening line goes:

Modern high schools are degenerating into lawless wastelands

Vicious bullying. Absenteeism. Depression.

Their lives completely at the mercy of the dreaded school caste system.

Everyone is driven to exhaustion from playing their assigned role.

These apply not only to students, but parents and teachers, too.

Perhaps, even to school pets in extreme cases.

A cloud of darkness, impenetrable by hope.

That may be the case...

That's why we wonder...

What will a 35-year-old student experience in that endless void?

Okay. Wow. I mean, get a load of that. Talk about some serious drama business. So, what gives?

I've been seeing the poster of this on Crunchyroll since about the last time I was browsing through the drama section after I just finished Itazura Na Kiss. This was early June, I think. I decided...no, I'm still in a rom-com mood, so I went on to watch Switch Girl! and Last Cinderella respectively. And then after they were over, nothing was catching my eye. So I went on to watch this...just because. I was in my whatever-I-choose-randomly-will-probably-turn-out-fine mode. And it did, surprisingly. I did a little research (Google) and saw that it had good reviews online and for Crunchy users as well, so I knew it was going to turn out okay.

The way Baba comes up with solutions to something is kind of non-traditional in a sense. I mean, you have all your the-person-you-hate-saves-you-in-the-middle-of-a-crisis situation or shows you a scene about your classmates having feelings or you don't know what shit they're going through moments. The way she deals with it is getting into the root of the problem and let the people involved solve it by themselves. Genius.

The first couple episodes, she had the parents and the teachers be held responsible for their kids' actions, which is true in a way. But let's ignore the elephant bullies in the room, shall we? Everyone knows the problem lied between those seven kids in the back row who thought they were THE SHIT and was ready for a good fire extinguisher hosing. Every episode was screaming "SOMEONE SHUT THOSE BRATS IN THE BACK IN AN EXPEDITED PARCEL TO FUKUSHIMA" Maybe the radiation will cure whatever's up in their arse.

Although there are some scenes that are funny, as well. It's not all serious. I found it funny that Koizumi-sensei had to keep on slapping himself from blurting out the funny truth about situations (like "Kaiser!" in episode 8). His shoes bothered me, though. They didn't go well with his suit and tie. Reminded me of the runners seniors in the west would wear. Unless teachers also had to wear some sort of special shoes for inside the school walls? I don't know.

I was waiting for the whole violence extending to school pets thing (seriously, how the hell can that be?) or that they would egg her fancy blue sports car (Corvette, methinks) at some point, but sadly, they didn't. Bummer.

One thing that was a little too obvious apart from the acting (it was too obvious they were acting... but then again that's a standard in Asian drama) was that you just know that the silent guy with the headphones had something to do with it. Duh. He's the only one who barely looks affected by whatever. He looks like he's scheming something and he always had a cutscene. You just know he was up to something, and who was it controlling the whole website ranking anyway? Did no one ever thought of who was ranking who? Who started the whole stint? Did no one ever ask themselves that? Again, main ingredient for Asian dramas: extinguish all common sense. It happens in all dramas, though. The obvious, the forced smiles, doing things no normal human being would ever do. The cheese factor is way up it's practically the free cheese for nachos at 7-11. It's a given, but it wouldn't be an Asian drama without it.

One thing I also want to point out is freaking Yonekura Ryoko. Ok. Those legs. She's bloody 39 years old (today is her birthday, August 1st), and the series was filmed last year when she was 38. Not much of a difference between 38 and 35, according to the series title. But seriously. The Japanese are concocting some sort of youth elixir and hoarding it. It's not the radiation. Sure, she's an actress, but I'd kill for those legs.

The other students were cute too, lots of fresh faces, unless I'm just not that really updated with the J-Drama scene. I thought Yamazaki Kento, Katoono Taikou, and Takasugi Mahiro were all cute (but too young for my tastes!). Hirose Alice was really pretty in it, as well. She is Mikage Aki on the Silver Spoon movie! Must find torrent...

I can be a little bit of a crybaby. My heartstrings get pulled at the merest tug and I just start to bawl my eyes out. It's a drama, come on. I was crying in every episode for no apparent reason, only God knows why. I could not get a hold of myself. I guess I couldn't help relating to underdogs and those who are maltreated, all the while thinking what best dish to cook those bullies into.  Some cases shown were a little too extreme to be considered realistic in a high school setting, like throwing buckets of water over people or kicking chairs and stuff. I'm not too familiar with the Japanese high school environment, but I'm sure they're not that mean. It was a work of fiction after all, but still. Someone please tell me teenagers in Japan are not that violent.

And another thing, if one of my classmates tried to kill me, I think I would find it really hard to be buddy-buddy once they're out of juvie. Just saying.

The episodes are a standard 45 minutes-ish long, eleven episodes with the final being an hour and a half. Bottom line, I enjoyed it. It provided a nice refreshing break from all the even-cheesier rom-coms I've been indulging on lately. A glass of water between chocolate bingeing. It's different from Gokusen in a sense that, once you've seen one Gokusen, you've seen all three seasons of Gokusen. This one has a different approach, but same banana. Although there are some unexpected twists, with some that I didn't see coming, like the fact that someone else was the spy and her whole reason for being in school after all was an entirely different thing. Yeah.

The gist: 7.5/10

Not the *best* non-romantic drama, but definitely a great one. Available to watch on Crunchyroll. Email me for a guest pass!

Ps.

I don't get the whole slow-mo falling on the opening thing. Do you?