Yukan Club (2007)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 10 episodes
Genre: school, comedy
Cast: Akanishi Jin,Yokoyama You, Taguchi Junnosuke, Minami, Kashii Yu, Suzuki Emi, Kaga Takeshi, Kataoka Tsurutaro, Kato Kazuko, Shirakawa Yumi, Hasegawa Hatsunori, Guests: Iwata Sayuri, Matsuzawa Ren, Chinen Yuri, Fuse Hiroshi, Iriyama Noriko, Oshinari Shugo, Koyama Keiichiro, Waki Tomohiro, Mike He, David Ito,
Synopsis: Minoru, Seishiro, Bido, Yuri, Noriko and Karen are six best friends. They are rich and famous which gives them the privilege to have their own room and act as student council. But actually most of their time they get messed into difficult cases just because they have too much free time in their hands and nothing better to do.
Rating: 4/5
"Yukan Club" is another very popular school drama. It is based on same-named manga by Ichijo Yukari.

Miroku can be viewed as the main-main character, because most of the things are connected to him

more than to others. He loves technology and he is often seen building something. He is the son of famous police chief and world traveler. On the contrast to his father, Miroku has a really big acquaintance-circle within yakuza, hosts and other underground world people, but it stays as a mystery how was he able to build this kind of and this big circle. He also keeps his thoughts to himself. Most of the time he either does not care much or does not show out his feelings, but actually he is really soft-hearted when it comes to sad or beautiful things and due to it he ends up crying quite often, which is very funny, because of the big contrast in his personality. I think Akanishi Jin was very good in it, he suits into "IdonotcareaboutthingsyetIdo" character and he is always great at being Bakanishi. "Yukan Club" is Akanishi Jin's latest drama and it is considered one of his best roles, because he won 2 "best actor" awards for it.  

The mega-mind behind Yukan Club's actions is Seishiro, whose intelligence outrages everyone. He is

able to think of plans really fast, but at the same time he can lose himself when he starts to do things for wrong reasons. Most of the time he is really rational, but he seems to overrate his abilities when he is doing things all alone. That means that he literally must be beaten to his senses again. Seishiro is a person who is capable of doing everything. I do not know what to say about Yokoyama You acting.. it was as if he was just there, because Seishiro hardly ever changed his facial expression or way of talking. It is as if he was always passive or neutral with his feelings, but in a way that cannot be called "stable-condition ".

Bido Granmarie is rich narcissistic playboy, who loves himself over everybody else and he seriously

believes that if he were to date only one woman at time the world would not forgive him. There comes a lot of jokes on him or his narcissistic attitude. They do not show much about what else goes on in his head, but for sure he is not the dumbest one in Yukan Club. I think this role really fitted to Taguchi Junnosuke and he even won Best supporting actor award for it. Taguchi Junnosuke at some scenes he is wearing blue contact lenses, but at some scenes he does not. It is nice how they make characters stereotyping - Swedish ambassador's son - tall, blonde and blue-eyed. But I think he would have looked better and more like half with a bit shorter hair..

I think the only character that I did not like was Kenbishi Yuri and I also did not like Minami's

acting. Yuri was all over the place and acting was a bit over done. She was the most unrealistic character from these six and Yuri's immaturity almost killed me. She is really stupid and only cares and thinks about food. She was literally the stupidest character in drama, but we can also see that she got a lot of genes from her father whose background will make your jaw drop. Yuri's parents were the only parents beside Minoru's who are shown in the drama and non of them can be called normal.

Noriko was actually my favorite character, because she was rather realistic. At first I hated her

hairstyle, but it either got better or I got used to it. I would have wanted to know why she hated men so much, because this kind of hatred can be because of harassing, but they did not explain it at all. Noriko is childhood friends with Seishiro and she sees him as an example of how man should act and be. It is still unsure whether Noriko and Seishiro shared more than childhood friend feelings for each other as it usually is with long time friends, but it is sure that both held an important place in each others hearts. Seishiro, Miroku, Bido are almost the only men who can be near to Noriko without her panicking. I liked that Noriko was the only one from girls who had elegance and self-respect. Kashii Yu also won the best supporting actress for twice for this role.

Karen is similar to Bido, because she is also blinded by her beauty and style. Her only purpose in life

is to marry rich man and live happily ever after, but even she understands that there are some things that matter more than the size of a man's wallet. Karen loves to put people into pairs, but she cannot forgive Noriko for getting more love letters each day than she does. I think that I must say that she really is stylish, but way too skinny. Suzuki Emi is said to be one of the skinniest models in Japanese fashion business, but it is said that she is not dieting or having eating disorders. 

Have you ever seen normal school officials who do not want to expel everyone in school dramas? Neither have I. That's why in every episode there are principal and head teacher who go on and on

about expelling Yukan Club. "Yukan Club" talks about many usual subjects in school dramas - love, hatred, teachers and school problems, but everything with them being able to help or investigate things. They are able to solve all kind of things and it seems that they have no fear of death, because even guns cannot stop them. It is nice drama and really funny one, so I think that every person who likes Japanese comedy will like it. 
The same castle is used in dramas like "Yamato nadeshiko shichi henge", "0 Goshitsu no kyaku" and "Atashinchi no danchi, but "Yukan Club" was first from them to use it as a shooting location. It is actually The Lockheart Castle in Takayamamura and it is mostly used to weddings.