(no subject)
"So Becca, what did you do this weekend?"
"I read all fifteen volumes of Gokusen!"
"What else did you do this weekend?"
". . . reread some of my favorite bits of the fifteen volumes of Gokusen?"
There is a reason that I try to limit the amount of manga I read online. The reason is this: once I start, if it's good, I CAN'T STOP. And then all of a sudden there is no more, and I cry, and then inflict my enormous amounts of love on the internet in picspam form.
- okay that last doesn't always happen. BUT IT IS HAPPENING TODAY.
Basically if you had told me a week ago that my new obsession would be a Plucky Teacher Inspires Delinquents story, I would probably have been sort of dubious. But that is because I had not yet encountered the glory that is YAMAGUCHI KUMIKO.
People who have Kumiko burst unexpectedly into their lives often find themselves . . . kind of bemused.
Who is she?
JUST A PASSING HOMEROOM TEACHER.
Kumiko is a young and idealistic math teacher, fresh out of university!
And she's been assigned to the infamous Shirokin High School, home base of assorted underachieving delinquents who spend most of their time getting into fights and committing petty crime.
And also, terrorizing their teachers.
However, Kumiko - eventually fondly known to her students as 'Yankumi' - has an ace up her sleeve: she was RAISED BY THE YAKUZA.
While her family has not yet given up hope that someday she will take over the gang, they are also very supportive of her dream to become a high school teacher!
When her students drop by unexpectedly, they valiantly pretend that their beloved heiress is only hanging around because she's borrowed money from them. THE DECEPTION IS VERY DIFFICULT.
In short, they are stoic, manly and terrifying.
And Yankumi has inherited that stoicness.
Over the course of many adventures, her students grow from limited tolerance to a grudging respect to a total fascination with their extremely bizarre homeroom teacher.
BUT IT'S NOT LIKE THEY LIKE HER OR ANYTHING.
(It is seriously kind of hilarious how obsessed they become with her. On their holidays, they're like, "what should we do? LET'S GO STALK YANKUMI." When she goes to visit a guy she has a crush on, they're like "We're worried it might go badly! So let's follow her to a TOTALLY DIFFERENT CITY. Field trip! :D :D :D :D")
Yankumi does her best to keep her double life (and her mad skills) secret from her students, which is a challenge when they keep accidentally pissing off drug dealers and gangsters and other assorted miscreants.
The only student who knows the truth is Sawada Shin, the undisputed leader of the class gang. Shin is quite probably a genius, but he landed in Shirokin after punching out a teacher in middle school. He's the best-looking, the most badass, and by far the most intelligent kid in the class. In any other manga, Shin would probably be the lead. I mean, he's so cool!
He's so cool, even gangsters think he's cool!
However, sadly for Shin and Shin's image, in this manga he is the Designated Damsel.
Shin has a secret justice-loving heart buried under twelve layers of apathy. At first, following his weird new homeroom teacher around is just a way to add some interest to his boring life, but the more he gets to know her, the more he wants to get involved! and help her out! and watch her back and be her partner when stuff gets dangerous! and be with her always!
Yankumi takes him very seriously.
Sometimes, if there are other people around that she needs to hide her badassery from, she will graciously allow him to punch out a bad guy that she's already defeated.
Sorry, Shin. This is what happens when the love of your life is a.) the gangster-raised lovechild of Betty Suarez and Izumi Curtis and b.) your homeroom teacher.
(Hilariously, all his classmates ship it.)
Most of the main cast is male - it's an all-boy's school, and the only other main female character is Fujiyama-sensei, the other lady teacher at Shirokin High. I really love Yankumi and Fujiyama's friendship, though; Fujiyama does not need yakuza training or combat skills to be strong in her own way.
More than that, though, I don't mind as much as I might that there aren't that many recurring female characters, because of the way the women who do show up are portrayed - Yankumi might inhabit mostly male spheres, but it's emphatically not an all-male world, and you can tell the mangaka understands that women are important to each other.
It makes me happy, too. As does pretty much everything else about this manga. EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT. AND THEN COME BACK AND BABBLE TO ME ABOUT IT.
In conclusion: YANKUMI.
The manga is unlicensed, but you can read the whole thing here.
(I thought I was going to have to give a warning for a homophobic storyline involving a gay male teacher. And then I read on, and the manga actually returned to that storyline, and while it's not one hundred percent better, the way it worked out is so much better than I thought that I no longer feel the need to give a warning, except for the fact that, if you are at all like me, it is DANGEROUSLY ADDICTIVE and you may find your weekend vanished before you know it. ;__;)
"I read all fifteen volumes of Gokusen!"
"What else did you do this weekend?"
". . . reread some of my favorite bits of the fifteen volumes of Gokusen?"
There is a reason that I try to limit the amount of manga I read online. The reason is this: once I start, if it's good, I CAN'T STOP. And then all of a sudden there is no more, and I cry, and then inflict my enormous amounts of love on the internet in picspam form.
- okay that last doesn't always happen. BUT IT IS HAPPENING TODAY.
Basically if you had told me a week ago that my new obsession would be a Plucky Teacher Inspires Delinquents story, I would probably have been sort of dubious. But that is because I had not yet encountered the glory that is YAMAGUCHI KUMIKO.
People who have Kumiko burst unexpectedly into their lives often find themselves . . . kind of bemused.
Who is she?
JUST A PASSING HOMEROOM TEACHER.
Kumiko is a young and idealistic math teacher, fresh out of university!
And she's been assigned to the infamous Shirokin High School, home base of assorted underachieving delinquents who spend most of their time getting into fights and committing petty crime.
And also, terrorizing their teachers.
However, Kumiko - eventually fondly known to her students as 'Yankumi' - has an ace up her sleeve: she was RAISED BY THE YAKUZA.
While her family has not yet given up hope that someday she will take over the gang, they are also very supportive of her dream to become a high school teacher!
When her students drop by unexpectedly, they valiantly pretend that their beloved heiress is only hanging around because she's borrowed money from them. THE DECEPTION IS VERY DIFFICULT.
In short, they are stoic, manly and terrifying.
And Yankumi has inherited that stoicness.
Over the course of many adventures, her students grow from limited tolerance to a grudging respect to a total fascination with their extremely bizarre homeroom teacher.
BUT IT'S NOT LIKE THEY LIKE HER OR ANYTHING.
(It is seriously kind of hilarious how obsessed they become with her. On their holidays, they're like, "what should we do? LET'S GO STALK YANKUMI." When she goes to visit a guy she has a crush on, they're like "We're worried it might go badly! So let's follow her to a TOTALLY DIFFERENT CITY. Field trip! :D :D :D :D")
Yankumi does her best to keep her double life (and her mad skills) secret from her students, which is a challenge when they keep accidentally pissing off drug dealers and gangsters and other assorted miscreants.
The only student who knows the truth is Sawada Shin, the undisputed leader of the class gang. Shin is quite probably a genius, but he landed in Shirokin after punching out a teacher in middle school. He's the best-looking, the most badass, and by far the most intelligent kid in the class. In any other manga, Shin would probably be the lead. I mean, he's so cool!
He's so cool, even gangsters think he's cool!
However, sadly for Shin and Shin's image, in this manga he is the Designated Damsel.
Shin has a secret justice-loving heart buried under twelve layers of apathy. At first, following his weird new homeroom teacher around is just a way to add some interest to his boring life, but the more he gets to know her, the more he wants to get involved! and help her out! and watch her back and be her partner when stuff gets dangerous! and be with her always!
Yankumi takes him very seriously.
Sometimes, if there are other people around that she needs to hide her badassery from, she will graciously allow him to punch out a bad guy that she's already defeated.
Sorry, Shin. This is what happens when the love of your life is a.) the gangster-raised lovechild of Betty Suarez and Izumi Curtis and b.) your homeroom teacher.
(Hilariously, all his classmates ship it.)
Most of the main cast is male - it's an all-boy's school, and the only other main female character is Fujiyama-sensei, the other lady teacher at Shirokin High. I really love Yankumi and Fujiyama's friendship, though; Fujiyama does not need yakuza training or combat skills to be strong in her own way.
More than that, though, I don't mind as much as I might that there aren't that many recurring female characters, because of the way the women who do show up are portrayed - Yankumi might inhabit mostly male spheres, but it's emphatically not an all-male world, and you can tell the mangaka understands that women are important to each other.
It makes me happy, too. As does pretty much everything else about this manga. EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT. AND THEN COME BACK AND BABBLE TO ME ABOUT IT.
In conclusion: YANKUMI.
The manga is unlicensed, but you can read the whole thing here.
(I thought I was going to have to give a warning for a homophobic storyline involving a gay male teacher. And then I read on, and the manga actually returned to that storyline, and while it's not one hundred percent better, the way it worked out is so much better than I thought that I no longer feel the need to give a warning, except for the fact that, if you are at all like me, it is DANGEROUSLY ADDICTIVE and you may find your weekend vanished before you know it. ;__;)