In 1988 Hokkaido's Hokusei Yoichi High School became the first high school in Japan to accept students who had previously dropped out of high school from nationwide.This special follows Yoshiie Hiroyuki (based on a former graduate of Hokusei Yoichi) and his friends from the time they enrol in the school during it's first year accepting delinquents. At this school, there are no compromises, no lies. This is a brilliant tale of troubled youths trying to break free from their former lives- fighting through various gut-wrenching challenges on their way- while the teachers struggle to help them every step of the way.

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  Sakurai Sho (Yoshiie Hiroyuki)

  Main Role

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  Harada Yoshio (Iwazaki Tooru (teacher))

  Supporting Role

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  Nukumizu Youichi (Endou Nobu)

  Supporting Role

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  Matsuda Shota (Unknown)

  Supporting Role

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  Kimura Ryo (Unknown)

  Supporting Role

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  Kazama Shunsuke (Unknown)

  Supporting Role

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• Apr 1, 2012 1 of 1 episodes seen

  Caterpillarpie
  1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  Other reviews by this user
  • Overall  9
  • Story  10
  • Acting/Cast  10
  • Music  8
  • Rewatch Value  9

  One of those rare occasions where, at least to me, the special is better than the drama. The upside to this is that, as it takes place several years before the events of the drama, it can be watched as an entirely separate entity. It seems highly under-rated.
  
  Story: 10/10- The story for this is truly touching. Even supporting characters have a real depth to their own back stories, and the emotional journey taken by Yoshiie is tremendous. There's also just the right amount of humour to balance out some of the more heavy scenes.
  
  Acting: 10/10- The acting is this is fantastic on all parts. Yo Kimiko and Sakurai Sho especially played the respective parts of a patiently struggling teacher and her most troublesome student amazingly well- there are some scenes acted by these two which I personally couldn't tear my eyes from.
  
  Music: 8/10- I'm not very good at recalling soundtracks etc, but to my recollection all of the music in this was nicely done and fitted the atmosphere well.
  
  Re-watch value: 9/10- I myself have already re-watched this special at least twice I believe (and some scenes several times), so the only reason I didn't give this a full ten was because other people may not feel quite the same way.
  
  Overall: 9/10- The only reason I didn't give this a perfect score is because I don't do so unless a drama is practically perfect. This comes close (a 9.7 on my own scoring system), but it doesn't quite reach a 10.0 standard. Altogether, though, it's an absolutely amazing watch. Although a certain scene did have me cringing somewhat... (I'll leave it to you to find out why though :P) read more

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