Fan reviews: Jyoou no Kyoushitsu

ester_grace · 19 Jan 2011

I don't like akutsu maya but I must say that amami yuki is a wonderful actress, her acting is BRILLIANT here.

JapanAi · 5 Jul 2008

Must See Dorama, and underrated here. Very very interesting one.

syploveyou · 9 Sep 2007

Jyoou no Kyoushitsu (including the special ep) is a must-watch drama. Very touching and interesting storyline although i dun wanna stay in her class as well:) However if without the special ep, i would give a 9/10. The special ep explained everything which the drama didnt. Well done!!!

afiqwitri · 7 Sep 2007

Huhu.....
One of my best Jdrama i've ever seen....
I wonder why all of u just gave overall rating 8/9??
This drama should be 10~~!!!
Even though it was cast by kids, but their acting are quite awesome....
can't stand laughing watched Yosuke and Kanda making those "Yoroshiku ne?" and "Tee Hee?" (",)v
But at the end it's quite touching....huhu
I'm about to cry~!
made me memorize my experience in my old school.....haha

jdoramadotcom · 20 Apr 2007

The plot is really gripping (though not quite in a GTO kind of way), and it's hard not to root for the herione. At the same time, the plot is sometimes awfully convenient, and the evil schoolteacher has a knowledge of her class and parents that's not possible. The acting varies, but Yuki Amani takes control of the drama in the same way her character controls her classroom. The kids are really cute.

monta · 3 Mar 2007

finished Queen's Classroom / Jyuu no Kyoushitsu

When i saw the cover, i thought it was gonna be an elite women high school with super-strict teachers that teaches manners. Turns out it was far from what i imagined.

This dorama kinda reminds me of Matilda... but without magical powers.

Shake Head i think it's gonna sound a bit stupid to some people.

Scary teachers are always pictured wearing black outfit, with the usual scary teacher hair, and shoes that makes her look like she has no taste? Rolling eyes . Even black umbrella !

This is so not a family dorama but it has kids in it. What the teacher says and does are so explicit. She has a hand knife in her pocket, she knows everything, she can do anything, she talked about one of the student's mother about the mother being a boy-crazy slut and abadoned the kid just to flirt for a random good-for-nothing man and about his father being a no good boozer crimanal who is now behind the bars... in front of the whole class!

The ending scene in each episode is so wrong. it really ruins the atmosphere

The thing that annoys me most, is that why did it have to be elementary school students? It would've been more appropriate if it was high school students. To be exact, junior high school students, if the producers are afraid it'd turn out Gokusen-like.

But of course on the other side of the coin, tha fact that it was about an elementary school just makes it become sweet. It would be too dark if it was in senior high school. and again, thank god it's not gokusen-like. But elementary kids? so not appropriate.

Despite all those annoying facts, Queen's Classroom is actually one hell of an entertaining show! The pace was fun, the plot was good, and it also has the addicting factor! No doubt about the acting! The Amami Yuki was so scary as if she's about to stab someone with a knife any moment. And the best thing is, for each episode, you always get this feeling like you wanna slap someone in the face! It's great. No wonder two specials was actually made to it.

This is so like putting Saddam Hussein as a kindergarten teacher.
might as well dress her up wearing a chain bra and holding a whip

8.5/10

another one worth watching!

shari · 24 Jan 2007

A depressing and uninspiring school drama about a tyrannical teacher who looks like a vampire and believes that oppression and mental torture are the best teaching tools. 3 points for being worth watching the day you'll grow to hate kids (may the day never come).

kou · 6 Jan 2007

yuki amami portrays on-the-surface the cold n heartless type of teacher very well. overall, this show is realistic in covering the fragility of human mind n heart especially that of children towards popularity and the powerful while shunning the outcast and blacksheeps.
this show might appear typical whr the strong always win but the essence of the show is in the many reasons behind the basic morals n rules tt govern our lives. for example "why is it wrong to kill people?". Most probably would answer "u will go to jail." i definately learnt alot.

aki_07 · 4 Dec 2006

Some lessons to be learnt though abit unreal becos the series has to show these lessons in 11 episodes. But I like it overall.

chesed · 24 Jul 2006

Jyoou no Kyoushitsu is a drama that criticizes various aspects of Japanese society simply by asking rhetorical questions through the character of Akutsu Maya, a "devilish" teacher who is hell-bent on making sure each student in her 6th grade class thinks for themselves by throwing in their collectively cute faces the harsh realities of life. Her mantra: those who work hard and follow the chain of command will succeed and be "happy."

The students, all used to the carefree day to day happenings of school life with study time, sports days, and lunch breaks, immediately feel threatened when their sensei, "Akuma," unleashes her strict set of guidelines complete with harsh penalties and unfair judgements with an unkind demeanor in which to carry them out. The students react in various ways depending on their individual personalities. Some attempt to do everything the teacher says in fear of punishment and some attempt to get others to help take down the teacher. In dealing with the teachers, the relationships between the students fluctuate just as it would have in a business or family environment -- exactly as the teacher seemingly enjoys describing to the students.

It's a tough drama to enjoy because the atmosphere throughout the series is quite dark. Many times I found myself shouting at the teacher or the students for acting a certain way that I found disgusting, but at the same time I valued these negative routes taken not because it made it seem real, but because they evoked questions that I believe everybody should ask themselves -- questions like What makes me happy? and Why do I act the way I act?. When a drama makes me angry, I know it's a good drama because the emotion I feel is real and I realize it has forced me to reflect on myself and my own life.

Amami Yuki, the actress who play Akutsu Maya, did very well in portraying such a devlish teacher. She did so well that for the end credits of each episode, they had to show her after a take and smiling, a facial expression only used when she does something particularly "evil." Afterwords, she dances happily with a bunch of kids in a lively romp that when seen for the first time after episode 1 completely threw me off kilter.

Shida Mirai did an excellent job as the innocent-minded child that cannot understand why the teacher acts the way she does. Perhaps she was chosen for the role because she's incredibly adorable, but when it came down to serious business, she comes through without faulter. Her role required her to cry a lot, and while I thought it was a bit overdone, it was done as well as can be expected -- definately better than all the students. My favorite character, though, was Shindo Hikaru. Dark and silent, her too-calm demeanor hides an intelligence and maturity that's just too friggin' cool. Her actress was okay, perfect for the role but seemed weird when required to smile.

I don't like to spoil much, and I definately will not say what the ending is, but I will say that contrary to a lot of people out there, I actually enjoyed the series all the way to the ending. The two specials were okay and did very well in explaining the things they set out to explain, but the emotional impact was nowhere near as heavy as the main series.

All-in-all, it's a great series with a message or two for people to think about. Great acting by the main characters and decent acting from most of the kids, the series hides a warm-hearted message in a dark tale.

booniez · 20 Apr 2006

This drama was certainly much better than I expected it to be. In fact, it was much better than I could have imagined given the setting -- elemetary school(!!).

I once had a hard-nose teacher, but he wasn't at all like the teacher in this drama. I think he wanted peace and quiet rather than to help us learn to find our own way in the world. ... but back to the show...

I agree with Old-Ant that the ending was unsatisfying, but I think it fit the show since we are all curious about how the people we knew when we were younger turned out later on. Graduation is like this unsatisfying ending. One day, we're gone and a new story begins. That can't happen on TV, but we saw how one class' story ended and we are left to wonder about the next one -- the one we'll never see.

thtl · 10 Dec 2005

To be honest I wasn't expecting much from this drama, as I have not seen any previous works of Amami Yuki. As it turns out it is a very pleasant surprise.

Up until episode 7 I thought this was a reflection of the Japanese society - the need to work hard, obey, and confirm. After watching the whole drama I realized this is an accusation of those Japanese values.

The side plots added a nice touch while not too distracting. I don't know where they come up with 24 kids who can, basically, all act.

All in all, a must see.

icpmat · 20 Nov 2005

this drama had a very original and entertaining start. however the choice of topic also happens to be the curse of this drama - it goes in the oppotiste direction from all the recent school drama, and finally we see a teacher actually in charge of her class, and to such an extreme extent as well. However half way through the series, the sponsors bulked and pulled out of their support fearing that such an association would jeopardize their images, and that must have had a somewhat significant impact on the writer/s, because there was a somewhat unnatural dramatic change from episode 6 (or thereabout) onwards, and unfortunately this series ended on a somewhat flat and conventional note.

Old-Ant · 19 Sep 2005

Akutsu Maya-sensei is the teacher you never wanted to have. Brilliant, manipulative, obsessive, and dead set on making sure you fall in line with her rules, or you'll find that your life will be hell. 12-year-old Kazumi has been getting below average grades and living a below average life, but the one thing she wants from her last year of elementary school is to have fun with her classmates and make a few good memories. She had no idea that those very reasonable ambitions will make her the teacher's nemesis.

The first ten episodes of Jouou no Kyoushitsu (The Queen's Classroom) are a breath of fresh air in the stuffy and formulaic world of Japanese classroom drama. Starting with Kimpachi-sensei and including others like GTO, Gokusen, and Medaka, all Japanese classroom dramas have been about the teacher saving the students from their own folly. The Queen's Classroom breaks from that with an apparently evil teacher who is out to prove that the world is a harsh place, and so is her classroom. Adapt or die. So what follows is a drama series where the teacher systematically removes the parental and academic protection the children had enjoyed, and forces them to deal with their problems themselves. The big question is whether she's doing it because she knows it will make the children more self-reliant, or because she actually is evil.

Some of the performances are spot-on. Amami Yuki's performance is chillingly good. Shida Mirai as Kazumi overacts, trying for comic effect, in the early episodes, but as the series progresses, she tightens up and puts in an excellent performance. Hara Sachie is especially good as the well-intentioned teacher who wants to be the best friend of all the students. The annoying aspects of the school administration and parents are the fault of the writing and not of the performances by Izumiya Shigeru and the other actors. And even so, authority has to be weak to allow for the premise of the show.

About halfway through the program, I came up with five ending scenarios. 1) She's evil and remains so until the end. 2) She's evil but is reformed in the end. 3) She right. The children must learn to face harsh reality, and even the children realize how right she is in the end. 4) She's misguided, and a successful rebellion by the children forces her to realize the error of her ways. 5) She's misguided, but with the same methods Kazumi used to unite the class, Kazumi saves the teacher as well.

My biggest problem with this series is that the ending, episode 11, chose the wrong scenario. I won't say more since what I've said so far might be considered a spoiler. But even the last episode isn't all bad, it's just that I came out...unsatisfied.

But for an excellent twist on the usual formula, this is a series to watch.