Gokusen: A manga that I just can't help but go back to and read over and over again. I dont know why I love it so freaking much. I mean its my favourite manga despite the Mediocre art and the weird style its drawn in. Im still trying to figure out how I, being a giant shoujo fan, Favourite manga is A Josei. Dont get me wrong I like Josei manga to I just dont read it as much which is why Im baffled! What I DO know though is that any person who loves a light hearted story with tons of comedy would love this. Throw in a little bit of romance, some awesome fighting skills/scenes, the Yakuza, A school for Delinquent dropouts and A math teacher and you get Gokusen. Thats right The Yakuza and a Math Teacher!

Story 8/10

It starts off fairly simple. We meet Yamaguchi Kumiko, the grandaughter to one of the biggest and toughest Yakuza gangs in Tokyo; The Kuroda Family. They're feared and respected in the Yakuza world. Yet the next heir is a woman! And what exactly is her occupation? A rookie math teacher fresh outta University! And where does she choose to work at? Well at Shirokin Gakuen Senior High, a school for delinquent dropouts who have no where else to go. Follow her adventures as she befriends and earns the respect of her rowdy 2nd year class and kicks ass while doing it! But who finds out her secret right at the beginning of her career? Sawada Shin the smartest guy in the class... No wait make that the whole grade... Or even the whole school... So as you can see "Yankumi", as she is dubbed by her students, is in a little bit of trouble. But this manga does not focus on one plot! We get to learn about some of her students pasts, about her Yakuza family and life, about the hilarious situations she and her class end up in, about her love life which is not going so well and as we do Gokusens comedy will surely make you chuckle throughout the ride!

Art 5/10

Now this would have to be Gokusens weak point. The drawings are fairly simple with basic backrounds and easily drawn faces. Some people would probably think the art is very crude and well... Ugly compared to their fluffy shoujo art. Once again dont get me wrong Im a sucka for fluffy, Cute and Beautiful shoujo art and I nearly didnt read Gokusen because of its simple art style. Yet I gave it a chance and Im so thankful I did. If you dont want to miss out on an awesome manga just give it a go! Also you might be happy to hear that the art does improve throughout the manga. The Mangaka obviously got better at drawing and the art changed a little which is common in long mangas.

Characters 8/10

The cast for Gokusen is quite large so we dont get to find out the history of every character. But the ones we do of are done quite well! Also mangas with large casts are infamous for not developing characters well but thats not true for Gokusen! Each character has a distinct personality and usually an arc or two where they play main roles. The main the characters: Yamaguchi Kumiko and Sawada Shin are developed quite nicely and you can see them grow as the manga progresses. Yankumi is not afraid to fight for what she thinks is right and she hates an uneven battle filed. She protects her students and grows wonderful Teacher-Student bonds with them! Shes an easily likable character that can be a little dense and she can rush into things but thats why Sawadas there to help her! He could be the exact opposite from her. Calm, cool and collected, we rarely see him freak out and if It wasn't for him helping Yankumi all her plans would probably fail... So 2 strong protagonists who are interesting and hilarious!

Enjoyment 10/10

As you can tell from my mostly positive review I absolutely LOVE Gokusen and its humour, Great story with nice plot elements, Unique characters and overall awesomeness make it a highly enjoyable manga. In fact Im pretty sure I red all 15 volumes in 1 day... Aka one sitting so that must of been hours worth of time dedicated to sitting down and reading it! I just could not put it down it was addicting becuase it was just so much FUN to read! The extra bonus chapters are a blast and I definitely recommend reading them to!

Overall 9/10

Overall if your looking for a Light read with some good humour and a great set of characters this is a must read! I'd give it a perfect 10 but because of the mediocre art Im going to have to concede and give it a 9. Still I recommend that you give it a go if your contemplating whether you wanna read it or not because of the art style cause if you do read it you wont be disappointed!