Class is in Session with "Billion x School"

Actually kind of astounded how freaking GOOD I found the new Teacher/Student drama “Billion x School”, as I dislike the tropes in this genre, however, when the show employs a certain “gimmick” into the premise, it can turn an ordinary High School drama into something really FUN and interesting to see!

Perhaps the most famous of these gimmicks is the legendary GOKUSEN series, with Yukie Nakama as a bookish and goofy teacher who is secretly the daughter of a notorious Yakuza clan who takes her students problems in class and “solves” them out in the field- BILLION SCHOOL has ALL of those fun and creative elements to it, spicing up the usual and over-used cliches (the first episode already had the “Student who must work a night job because his family cannot afford  his tuition” cliche) and turning them into entertaining stories to see!

Rei Kagami (Ryosuke Yamada) is the heir to a multi-million dollar tech empire KAGAMI, and when we first meet up with him, he is demonstrating a business suit using AI technology that gives the wearer inhuman agility and fighting abilities (think the Jackie Chan movie “The Tuxedo” and you get the picture.), a real marvel,  but he is currently working on something even bigger!

Below: conferring with his second-in command Ichika Serizawa (Haruka Kinami), the level headed of the two who frequently has to calm him down over his many outbursts!

Rei’s big invention is a completely AI instructional program called TEACH, software which will use a virtual projection of the perfect teacher (here modeled after Yumi Adachi) using a database of all its collective educational knowledge to give perfect lessons tailor made for each individual student. A futuristic program that he believes can change schooling  forever!

Kagami’s program is mostly completed, but what they need now is raw data of teacher and student interactions that can only be extracted by organic means. That is, Rei himself will have to get hired at a high school… and get his information by actually TEACHING students!

This might be hard enough for a normal person, but this Rei Kagami is a decidedly eccentric oddball. Because of his sheltered affluent upbringing, he is not good dealing with people and is extremely bristly and arrogant when talking, making him a quirky handful to deal with!

Already used to defying authority,the problem students (Okuno So, Azusa Ohara, Rintaro Mizusawa, among others) cannot make heads or tails of this quirky  and BOSSY young gentleman suddenly ordering them around!

The students aren't the only ones who can't figure out Kagami, as the other teachers on the staff seem to have a problem with him, too! Instructors like Mitsui (Mirai Shida) Sakai (Megumi), Uchimaki (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and even Vice Principal Dobashi (Munenori Nagano), they all find his methods rough and unorthodox!

Ichika Serizawa, however, is a smooth, calm and collected sort, able to diffuse any situation and take control. Working behind the scenes, she can fix and rearrange any shortcomings they might have and produce a succesful outcome! She will be an invaluable assistant to Kagami if he intends to take on this plan, and is already on the lookout to find what makes the students tick!

Kagami’s plans are to get the teaching data by teaching at one of the finest schools in Jaopan and teaching only the most intelligent and upright students, however for SOME reason, he ends up saddled with Class ZERO, where every single student there is a problem pupil on the verge of getting kicked out! Right off the bat Kagami is met with students struggling in some capacity, and as they are all part of his AI experiment, must use his skills and connections to help them out of their jams. 

And when mere counseling and guidance doesn’t help and he finds his students are in actual trouble of some kind (like this student below whose family is being threatened by scammers)…Kagami brings out his AI Battle Business SUIT and, much like Yukie Nakama did in Gokusen,  MOPS up the FLOORS with the bad guys!

Power Suit ACTIVATED!

Making QUICK work of the thugs...

 ...before they all chicken out and scatter!

Surely there isn't any teacher badder than THIS!

Back at school the next day, resuming his role as the mild mannered Sensei!

Like I mentioned, Billion School is a really fun and entertaining drama to watch! Funny to think I had been mostly avoiding it since I dislike school student dramas so much! Little did I know it might go on to become one of my big faves of the season!!! Can't wait to see more!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The Wonders of “The Miracles of the Namiya General Store”

Recently read one of the most entertaining, sweet and touching books, “The Miracles of the Namiya General Store”, by the awesome author Keigo Higashino. As some of you know, I’ve been obsessed with reading all the works of his I could find (of the few works of his that have been translated into English, anyway) after being blown away by his story “MALICE” and this was one I was particularly anticipating!

Most of Higashino’s novels centre around mystery and crime, (a la his GALILEO and SHINZANMONO works) however, Miracles of Namiya Store is a pleasant diversion, dealing with a more magical realism type style  in the vein of Haruki Murakami. Miracles concerns an old, abandoned general store that gives out advice to those who seek it- though the method of transaction between asker and giver is one of inspired wonder! More on the plot later....

I really loved this book, and after wards must have recommended it to SEVERAL of my friends, even as I was re-reading it yet again! And as almost every novel of Higashino’s has been translated into television series, one-off specials or theatrical films, I wondered with hope if Miracles had had the similar treatment….and was HAPPILY THRILLED to find out it HAD! A 2017 release, this movie starred actors and actresses I loved, and wasted NO TIME grabbing it!

Our Story:

 Three troubled youths (Ryosuke Yamada, Nijiro Murakami, Kanchiro Sato) break into a house, tie up the owner and flee with her valuables into the darkness. They attempt a getaway, however the vehicle they’ve acquired won’t start and, trapped in the neighborhood by the police, they’re forced to find a place to hide out for the night til the heat dies down.

One of the teens remembers an old abandoned general store in the neighborhood and they make for it.

 This is the Namiya General Store, and though they do not know it, once upon a time it was famous not only for its goods and wares, but the kind and humorous advice given by the Owner, Mr. Namiya (Nishida Toshiyuki). If fact, the place and his advice became something of a small sensation in the area at the time!

 

Namiya has long since passed on and the general store shuttered for years. But from time to time, troubled individuals will still drops letters asking for advice into the mail slot, in hopes of getting some kind of divine guidance in their problematic lives.

As the three teens hunker down in the dusty old store, they contemplate their options…when a letter clinks down from the mail slot, startling them all. But after checking outside, it seems this letter came from out of thin air. And upon reading the letter, they realize it is a letter that had actually been sent some 30 years past! 

How can this be happening? The boys do not know, but without anything else to do while they wait out the night, one of the lads decides to answer the letter and place it in the mail crate out back, where the writers always picked up their messages.

Through this magical, impossible connection, the boys answer letters from a faraway time, and as we do, we see how their crude but sincere advice shapes those that ask for it, as well as those around them.

There is  Katsuro Matsuoka, (Kento Hayashi), a struggling musician torn between taking over his Father’s (Kaoru Kobayashi) fish business…or leaving the family and little sister (Asami Himeka) behind and pursuing his career.

There is Seri Mizuhara (Mugi Kadowaki),  a former orphan herself who rises from despair to become a world famous vocalist…

An orphaned young woman named Eiko (Rio Yamashita) who becomes suicidal when she discovers that she is a child from an illicit relationship and a mother who seemingly tried to kill both of them in a car crash (which only she survived)..

A woman named Harumi Tamura (Machiko Ono) balancing life working an office job by day and  cabaclub hostess by night, while all the time caring for her elderly parents . She hopes to gamble on quitting her office job and working full-time as a hostess and investing in a (seemingly  shady) business venture with one of her clients.

With all of these individuals, their lives are guided by the words of the mysterious advice-givers, and we see by the fateful outcomes, for better or worse, just how everyone, in one way or another, is truly connected to each other.

“The book was better” is a oft used trope, and I can’t deny that a lot of the time I was disappointed by the exclusion of certain scenes or passages from the novel, however, for its cinematic time restrictions, I think this movie hits all the high points and captures the spirit and hopefulness of the book perfectly fine, and had me bawling my eyes out by the end as well!

I've already long sung my praises of Keigo Higashino ,and as he's one of the most celebrated writers in Japan, my opinion hardly matters, but I'm just amazed at how many wonderful novels, short stories, television series and movies he's made that have all become huge favorites of mine. Here's hoping to MORE of his work getting translated! There's still so MUCH out there and I'm eager to read 'em ALL!!!