Gokusen

I'm taking points off for the constant loosening of the ponytail and taking off the glasses when something starts happening, watching this happen over and over isn’t exactly awesome. The speeches annoyed me at times, too; sure, something had to be said, and sometimes it started out so clichéd that I had to smirk, but by the end something came out that made sense and probably had some truth to it. Otherwise, I had fun. It falls short of GTO, but it's still a good show about hooligans with good hearts, bad grades, and a goofy teacher. I kind of liked MatsuJun here (okay, I spent most of the time studying his hair, but that's beside the point... :-D), but the others don't fall too far behind – in my favor. Quite the contrary. Every character here really had something going for them. I enjoyed them all. Even the damn vice principal was likable in the end (I don't mean by what he did at the end, but maybe by the way he made a face at Yankumi...). One more thing I didn't like – the nurse's son... I don't know, that actor just can't act. Nice kid, but I felt like he couldn't deliver what was asked of him. Other than that, it's really great. Entertaining, amusing (I laughed out loud so much my roommate was scared something was wrong :-D). A strong 4 stars. (24.10.2010)