Mai Aida is a woman in her third year as an english teacher at a private all-girls high school. Due to declining enrollment, the school decides to admit its first batch of male students. Those five freshmen initially feel they're in paradise, but the concerned Mai tries to help them adjust by creating a social dance club and inviting five girls. Those ten students become the focus of the drama, which is described as a story of love and adolescence.
My opinion:
The synopsis suggests that this would be another school comedy dorama. Of course the elements of love, teacher-student relationship, problem with discipline master, unreasonable schoolmates, making a new club and performing for school cultural festival are already "integral" parts of Japanese school dorama. But if it is just like that, why would I watch? Lol.. I am already telling myself that I will not watch anymore sports+school+comedy-themed stories. It gets boring haha..
Oh well, the first reason I got interested to watch this was because of Kyoko Fukada. Haha.. few years back (when I was introduced to J-doramas for the first time) she was still young and mostly play teenage characters. Time passes and now she is at an age to play as a teacher already. Lol so I gave it a try and I was very shocked to find that this is not a normal school comedy drama. It explores themes which are taboo but then are very relevant in today's teenagers' life.
The first episode was about masturbation (I am not joking!). The second was about underage sex (the students depicted were barely 16 in the story). The third was about teenage pregnancy and abortion (though I don't know whether the girl did the abortion or not.. or perhaps the girl was not pregnant at all). The fourth was about suicide thoughts. Perhaps the first few episodes are just to generate all the buzz and it will die down after that? Well no.. After that, came the theme of homosexuality (both lesbian and gay!! including a boy-boy and a girl-girl kisses OMG!).
Another aspect that makes this story appealing to me is the "background" of the story. Aida-sensei created the social dance club to cater for the girls ostracised in the school: an obsessive compulsive girl who is crazy about cleanliness and thus does not come into close contact with others, a typical bimbo who has a long history of boyfriends and does not hesisate to steal others' boyfriends, a shy girl who suffers quietly in her clique just for the sake of not being alone even though she is always bullied by her clique, a girl expelled from track&field team because she didn't listen to the coach, and a girl who gets all rumours from a senior (a lesbian) whose love she rejected. Though it doesn't make sense for the school to take in 5 male students just to couple them with these 5 girls right? But anyway, the teacher does this because of her own paiful experience: how she was all alone and ostracised in her school life and thus she doesn't want her students to experience similar pain.
My afterthoughts:
This is perhaps my second or third show which confirms my sentiment that girls suck! Well, "suck" in terms of being bitch and cliquish etc. Lol that is the sentiment I got in JC. Guys are usually cool to mix around with anyone. It is always the girls who create cliques. I guess it is true everywhere. Haha.. I have not been in an all-girl school so I don't know how painful it is to be in one. But for sure, I know the pain of being alone or ostracised. Well, being alone and ostracised in a class is terrible enough, but for being alone and ostracised by the whole schooL?? That's unimaginable.. Anyways, I guess the way the characters being depicted are quite true. These ostracised people will appear strong and defiant in front of their bitchy peers but they actually hide things deep in their hearts.. things like repressed violence, suicide tendency, emo-ness etc. But honestly, I doubt whether friendship can grow as simple as like that: put people who are ostracised together in one room and after sometime they will be good friends etc..
The ending also sets apart this series from other school comedy doramas. Instead of heralding endless friendship and happines bla bla bla, it actually explores the theme about growing up, making tough decisions, and reality that there are times to say goodbye. That's what real life: you can be good and best friends but once you graduate, everyone will go their own way. Similarly, sometimes you have to choose whether you wanna stick with your friends forever or you just have to step out of your comfort zone to achieve your personal goals. And to me that's what friendship is. It is okay to keep in touch like few times in months or something even if you are no longer being together. It is bullshit to equate friendship to do things together etc etc. It is the sad truth here (in Singapore) haha.. When still in the same class or something, can do everything everyday together kind.. Once change school, totally no contact whatsoever. Wew.. I left my friends in Indonesia for like 6years already but when we have the chance to meet and talk, we will never run out of things to share. Well, perhaps that is also why I feel very lonely here. I am not getting the kind of friendship I am expecting :p
And this show also makes me realise that parenting is not an easy job. Just imagine the various things that teens go through. Perhaps I can understand why sometimes my parents can be anal. But oh well, there is a "side story" regarding parent-daughter relationship in this show and I share the same sentiment with the daughter. I am pissed with my parents to be honest. What they care is just about their "name", their image, bla bla bla... Too bad, I just cannot follow their ego forever. I am a being on my own so please do not use me as your ambassador or your advertisement or your whatever to boost your popularity rating. As a child, it can be frustrating for people to compare me with my parents bla bla bla..
In all, I don't think the series is very fantastic. It is so-so at best in many aspects. The dancing performance was not all fantastic, the acting is quite akward, the comedy is corny rather than funny at most times, the actors and actresses are not that goodlooking, and I absolutely don't buy the idea of "love conquers all" thingy. Perhaps it is because I can relate to the antisocial theme that makes the series bearable to me. Afterall, I am an antisocial ^^ And I think I am just lonely with all the fake friendships I have around me right now. Haha..
My opinion:
The synopsis suggests that this would be another school comedy dorama. Of course the elements of love, teacher-student relationship, problem with discipline master, unreasonable schoolmates, making a new club and performing for school cultural festival are already "integral" parts of Japanese school dorama. But if it is just like that, why would I watch? Lol.. I am already telling myself that I will not watch anymore sports+school+comedy-themed stories. It gets boring haha..
Oh well, the first reason I got interested to watch this was because of Kyoko Fukada. Haha.. few years back (when I was introduced to J-doramas for the first time) she was still young and mostly play teenage characters. Time passes and now she is at an age to play as a teacher already. Lol so I gave it a try and I was very shocked to find that this is not a normal school comedy drama. It explores themes which are taboo but then are very relevant in today's teenagers' life.
The first episode was about masturbation (I am not joking!). The second was about underage sex (the students depicted were barely 16 in the story). The third was about teenage pregnancy and abortion (though I don't know whether the girl did the abortion or not.. or perhaps the girl was not pregnant at all). The fourth was about suicide thoughts. Perhaps the first few episodes are just to generate all the buzz and it will die down after that? Well no.. After that, came the theme of homosexuality (both lesbian and gay!! including a boy-boy and a girl-girl kisses OMG!).
Another aspect that makes this story appealing to me is the "background" of the story. Aida-sensei created the social dance club to cater for the girls ostracised in the school: an obsessive compulsive girl who is crazy about cleanliness and thus does not come into close contact with others, a typical bimbo who has a long history of boyfriends and does not hesisate to steal others' boyfriends, a shy girl who suffers quietly in her clique just for the sake of not being alone even though she is always bullied by her clique, a girl expelled from track&field team because she didn't listen to the coach, and a girl who gets all rumours from a senior (a lesbian) whose love she rejected. Though it doesn't make sense for the school to take in 5 male students just to couple them with these 5 girls right? But anyway, the teacher does this because of her own paiful experience: how she was all alone and ostracised in her school life and thus she doesn't want her students to experience similar pain.
My afterthoughts:
This is perhaps my second or third show which confirms my sentiment that girls suck! Well, "suck" in terms of being bitch and cliquish etc. Lol that is the sentiment I got in JC. Guys are usually cool to mix around with anyone. It is always the girls who create cliques. I guess it is true everywhere. Haha.. I have not been in an all-girl school so I don't know how painful it is to be in one. But for sure, I know the pain of being alone or ostracised. Well, being alone and ostracised in a class is terrible enough, but for being alone and ostracised by the whole schooL?? That's unimaginable.. Anyways, I guess the way the characters being depicted are quite true. These ostracised people will appear strong and defiant in front of their bitchy peers but they actually hide things deep in their hearts.. things like repressed violence, suicide tendency, emo-ness etc. But honestly, I doubt whether friendship can grow as simple as like that: put people who are ostracised together in one room and after sometime they will be good friends etc..
The ending also sets apart this series from other school comedy doramas. Instead of heralding endless friendship and happines bla bla bla, it actually explores the theme about growing up, making tough decisions, and reality that there are times to say goodbye. That's what real life: you can be good and best friends but once you graduate, everyone will go their own way. Similarly, sometimes you have to choose whether you wanna stick with your friends forever or you just have to step out of your comfort zone to achieve your personal goals. And to me that's what friendship is. It is okay to keep in touch like few times in months or something even if you are no longer being together. It is bullshit to equate friendship to do things together etc etc. It is the sad truth here (in Singapore) haha.. When still in the same class or something, can do everything everyday together kind.. Once change school, totally no contact whatsoever. Wew.. I left my friends in Indonesia for like 6years already but when we have the chance to meet and talk, we will never run out of things to share. Well, perhaps that is also why I feel very lonely here. I am not getting the kind of friendship I am expecting :p
And this show also makes me realise that parenting is not an easy job. Just imagine the various things that teens go through. Perhaps I can understand why sometimes my parents can be anal. But oh well, there is a "side story" regarding parent-daughter relationship in this show and I share the same sentiment with the daughter. I am pissed with my parents to be honest. What they care is just about their "name", their image, bla bla bla... Too bad, I just cannot follow their ego forever. I am a being on my own so please do not use me as your ambassador or your advertisement or your whatever to boost your popularity rating. As a child, it can be frustrating for people to compare me with my parents bla bla bla..
In all, I don't think the series is very fantastic. It is so-so at best in many aspects. The dancing performance was not all fantastic, the acting is quite akward, the comedy is corny rather than funny at most times, the actors and actresses are not that goodlooking, and I absolutely don't buy the idea of "love conquers all" thingy. Perhaps it is because I can relate to the antisocial theme that makes the series bearable to me. Afterall, I am an antisocial ^^ And I think I am just lonely with all the fake friendships I have around me right now. Haha..
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