A Belated J-Drama Viewing With "Jigoku Sensei Nube"

Maruyama Ryuhei as "Nube" Sensei

 I don’t know if it’s the show’s Super Sentai sensibilities or simply how great every character is, but I just love, love, LOVE the quirky drama JIGOKU SENSEI NUBE! A story of a clumsy and inexperienced teacher who secretly holds the power of a demon in his left hand, this show mashes the traditional “Troubled School Students” motif with the “Haunted School” theme and throws in a dose of good old fashioned “Kamen-Rider Heshin” kick ‘em up action on top to create an entirely new and exciting genre! 

Calling Forth the Power

Chanting the Banishment Spell

Malicious spirits (Yokai) have been unleashed on an unsuspecting public, and it was then that this mysterious man arrived in town. Under the guise of a high-school teacher, this man, named Meisuke Nueno, ingratiated himself into the school, keeping an eye out for students or teachers that may be haunted or possessed by the ghosts. When he does find an attacker, he unleashes the demon in his hand and banishes the ghost back to hell. 
Now, this would seem like a flawless plan, but as a teacher, Nueno is so inept and bumbling that he’s looked down upon by his students, who laughingly call him “Nube” instead of Sensei! 

"Uhhh...Class?" Nueno Addresses the Room

"Haha, Who's this Joker?"

It’s only once the demons attack and he’s forced to reveal who he truly is do the students slowly start respecting him. Nueno is played by Kanjani 8’s Ryuhei Maruyama, and he does a fantastic job of balancing being a goofy teacher and a steel-eyed yokai exorcist.When he’s in teacher mode, he’s as dopey as the Maruyama we‘ve come to know in Kanjani8, but when he’s banishing the demons, he’s super COOL and very believable as a no-nonsense spirit-warrior! 

A DESTRON-ish Villain Invades the Classroom!

Protecting his students against the Wolf Yokai

"Holy Crap, Our Teacher is Cool after All???"

Besides Maruyama, the show holds a whole flurry of other fun characters, including pretty teacher Takahashi Ritsuko, who Nueno has quite a crush on, (and since she’s played by Mirei Kiritani, we can totally understand why), only problem is, she’s a gung-ho facts-only science teacher and has zero tolerance for his tales of ghosts and spirits… and with his constant brushes with the supernatural and his own general clumsiness, he can only look like a loser to her!

Mirei Kiritani is Takahashi Ritsuko Sensei

Nueno and Takahashi

Gung Ho For Science!

It doesn’t help that Takahashi Sensei is attracted to the Home Ecomonics teacher Tamamo Kyosuke (Mokomichi Hayami), who is stylish, perfect and slick at everything he does. What she doesn’t know is that Tamamo is actually a villainous yokai who has been masquerading as the Home Ec teacher to cause trouble and misery! Fortunately, after being beaten by Nueno, Tama has retreated and is content to remain at the school as a teacher, bemusedly watching Nueno’s struggles from the sidelines!

Eccentric Ikemen Economics: Mokomichi Hayami as Tamamo Sensei

Unlikely colleagues

Babe-a-licious Yamamoto Mizuki plays Izuna Hazuki, a ditsy amateur medium whose half-baked spells unleash even MORE troubles for Nueno to deal with- even worse, she has the adoration of Nueno’s students, who excitedly flock to her performances to see her harmful parlor tricks, which they perceive as cool magic, but put the kids in situations that Nueno must rescue them from!

Yamamoto Mizuki as Izuna

Reckless Medium

And if that wasn’t all we’ve even got adorable Jiyoung (she late of K-pop group KARA) as wandering Snow Goddess Yukime who’s insanely in love with Nueno and has even decided that they are a happy couple! Having an adorable sprite clinging on to you may not seem so bad, but she appears at the most inopportune times (i.e. in front of his students) and has a tendency to invite other stray lesser spirits to their home!

Yukime Loves Her Man

KARA's Jiyoung as Yukime

Yukime (Jiyoung) and Izuna (Mizuki Yamamoto)

I know that I’m really late to the ballgame with this drama, which ended quite some time ago. But I was waiting til the team subbing the show finished it up- and now that they have, I’m diving in headfirst and am REALLY digging it! Bad special effects, cheesy monster costumes and overly dramatic situations, I haven’t had this much fun since Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon!

By the way, I still marvel at the power of the internet- in the old days, if you watched a show and liked an actor or actress, there was not much info you could get on them unless they were written up in Eye Ai Magazine- But thing sure are different now!
 Watching Jigoku Sensei Nube, I was curious about the girl playing student Hosokawa Miki, and going online, I immediately found out her name was Sano Hinako- was she only an actress or was she also a singer or idol?

Hinako Sano as Miki

 A quick check found out she was definitely an IDOL! Knowing that, obviously the next question was…did she do BIKINI pictures? WHOA…Not only did I FIND Hinako bikini pics, I was to learn that this girl was VERY amply endowed (and had no problem showing it off)- a fact that somehow was kept “under wraps” in the show! 

Hinako Sano's Curvier Side

Ahhh, the internet…it’s a marvel!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com