35 sai no kôkôsei

So you can imagine how good a show, entirely subtitled, has to be to get a 10 out of me!!

I stumbled on this little diamond in the rough only a week ago when I was surfing Cruchyroll. I had mined out Netflix for things to watch from the 'usual' sources (read US, UK, Australia, etc.) and was looking through anime, yes I know almost all of it is subtitled - that's how much I had gone through everything worth watching on Netflix, when I stumbled on this strange title "No Dropping Out -Back to school at 35-". From the first scene I was hooked. A hooded woman in a darkened room, watching a news report of a teacher's suicide, gets a call from an imposing figure of a man asking if she can start.

Her story is interweaved between the stories of the class - a class filled with toxic castes, vicious bullying, impossibly stressed teachers and a 35 year old student who throws a spanner into the works.

The greatest stand out of the show is the acting across the board. The emotions are palpable, and powerful. There is some slap-stick comedy, but when it comes time for the serious stuff, no-ones laughing!

An amazing show that should have a much wider showing than what it does - 10/10, subtitles and all!

Firstly this is my first review, secondly the first Japanese drama I've ever watched.

So I never thought I might watch a j-drama but while browsing Crunchyroll I stumbled upon this. The premise was pretty interesting so I gave it a shot.

The story is about 35-year-old Baba Ayako, which goes back to Highschool. Shes totally different than the other students, comes to school driving a Corvette and smokes during the break.

She tries to fit in and solves problems of the other students one after another. Class 3-A has a huge problem of bullying. This comes from the so called „castesystem" the students are placed in. It's rather unofficial but students as well as teachers really care about it. The students are therefore placed in lower-, middle and upper class emanating from their status in class. Lower class pupils are treated like sh*t by upper class pupils and are bullied a lot. They are not supposed to eat with the upper class during break and so on. You get the picture.

Ayako-sans reasons for doing the last class of highschool again are in the dark for the most time but are revealed during the end of the series in a heart-breaking finale.

I have to admit I was never moved that much emotionally during any other series, movie, anime you name it. During a lot of episodes I had tears in my eyes and in the end I even cried a little bit. (male, 23 years old)

Even though it was overacted a lot the emotions are really palpable. The music is always fitting and underlines the tone of what is shown on the screen.

Furthermore the acting especially of Ryoko Yonekura was superb. She fits the role of the 35-year-old highschool woman in a great way. The dynamics with her teacher portrayed by Junpei Mizobata were really funny. Whenever he adressed her in a formal way he slapped himself. This only makes sense if you know a little bit about Japanese honorifics but is funny nonetheless. Lastly young actor Maska Suda was an amazing „antagonist" if you can call him that. He concivingly plays the arrogant asshole and I bought it all the time.

He was probably one of the best actors in the series.

Anway all in all it's a great drama. The title might make you think it's a comedy but it's definitely not. Even though it has it's fair share of light moments due to overacting and funny situations overall it a drama. Like I said before I've never watched a j-drama so I don't know if it was rather cliché but I really digged it. If you want to watch a school drama/slice of life series this one is perfect for you. The perfect mixture of comedy and drama with a lot of emotional moments that will make you tear up. It's certainly not for everyone and if you don't like Japan or if you don't understand Japanese culture you might not like it. If you are however interested in those kind of things it's probably right up your alley.