Ranivus

Gokusen is about a nerdy looking female teacher named Kumiko Yamaguchi. It's her first day on the job and she got the unlucky duty of teaching the rowdiest class in the school. Unbeknown to the students that they are in for one "hell" of a teacher. Story - (FAIR) The story has been done redone and overdone through out the years from actual feature length films to multiple instances in anime. One thing about this one is it doesn't try too hard to be different from the rest, unless you can count a talking dog and a nerdy female crime boss. Throughout every episode it'll prettymuch focus on one student and their trouble. Of course the teacher will 'teach' and help them overcome their issues and the student gets wiser. The end. Well repeat that formula for 11 of the 13 episodes and you have yourself a full series of Gokusen. Its not bad, but its not great either. Art - (MEDIOCRE) Art work is really average for its time of production. Nothing great at all to be honest. You'll get your standard amount of comedy scenes, mixed with action and drama scenes. All the typical freeze frame character against a moving background will be everywhere. But I must admit this show has more fight scenes than some "so called action anime" which i found to be pretty fun. Sound - (MEDIOCRE) The sound is also quite mediocre as well. You'll noticed a few rehashed sound effects and all the typical sound effects. I did enjoy the voice actors as, the mostly male cast was pretty funny (and stupid). But overall just hearing the talking bulldog made me wanna punch my screen. Character - (FAIR) Most the characters are your typical roughneck tough high school bully types. The kind of characters people usually grow to hate. So at the start the character cast is not a very strong one. But like any normal anime, they'll begin to grow hearts and have personalities. Unfortunately thats really not my thing (I prefer girl-dominant cast). Oujo was pretty funny though. At least the main main character was definitely the high point of the show. Too bad her supporting cast was more worthless than an anime wall scroll. Enjoyment - (GOOD) Overall the characters are pretty forgettable with the exception of Oujo. The stories all had morals and if you're into that give it a shot. Because at least it was fun to watch and you kind of learn something after each episode :) NOTE: i didn't reference GTO even once ^_^

lowell

Along the lines of GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka), this anime focuses on an unorthodox teacher and her unmanageable class... well, they're unmanageable until they realize how bad-ass she is and she helps bring out their inner "good kid." ;) Original? No. The best ever? No. Amusing? Sometimes. Entertaining? Enough. Yankumi is trying to balance her goals to be a high school teacher and her life as the future head of a crime family. (In other words, the hoodlums and punks in her class aren't so tough compared to her.) Everyone's kind of someone you've seen before --down to the annoying, screechy vice principal who's always trying to trip her up and the class ringleader whose middle school experiences taught him not to like teachers (sound familiar, GTO fans?). The art and the sound wasn't anything to write home (or a review) about, but I have no major complaints either. (And as always, Kenichi Suzumura does a great job. ;) ) Despite the strong deja vu, I thought it was cute and entertaining over all. It's always kind of funny to see the soft, silly side to yakuza (like the way her henchmen fawn all over her or blow the smallest insult to her all out of proportion). And it's kind of funny to see Yankumi trip over things she shouldn't, like using gangster slang and/or metaphors when she shouldn't. It's no where near as good as GTO, but it's not awful. My feeling is that I'd probably have liked this show more if GTO didn't exist. In other words, if you're trying to decide between watching this or GTO, go watch GTO. (Or even if you're not... watch GTO anyway. ;) ) Or if you've seen GTO and really like that genre and that storyline so much that you'd like to see it again, this is for you! This might also be worthwhile for people who are a little too young for GTO. This is a cleaner, more superficial version, without the darker edges -- you're not going to find the levels of abuse, horniness and risk of death here that you do in GTO. If you're going to watch both anyway, I'd actually watch this one first and then GTO -- that way you'd be working your way up. =) Enjoy!