Gakkou no Kaidan (2014)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 10 episodes
Genre: school
Cast: Hirose Suzu, Kamiki Ryunosuke, Ishibashi Anna, Suga Kenta, Mamiya Shotaro, Kaneko Nobuaki, Nonami Maho, Namase Katsuhisa, Asano Atsuko, Izumiya Shigeru,
Synopsis: Haruna Tsubame is young high school girl who got into prestigious high school thanks to their program for poor students to have a chance to get better education. One day she gets pushed to become the president of the student council. On the same day she meets a mysterious guy with excellent speech-writing skills. Compared to previous presidents, with his help Haruna sets out to change the corrupted high school forever.
Rating: 3/5
Well, what to say - Yanne forced me into watching it and I suffered all the way until the end. It was difficult for me to watch it, but at the same time it all was worth it.

Haruna is a bit weakling and as you already know, I am totally annoyed by it. As having been in student council of my university and a board member of local section of one international student organisation then I do connect to Haruna and the things she is facing - solving the problems that have existed in the organisation before them, taking the responsibility, working on others motivation even when you do not have any motivation for the moment.

At the same time, I still did not like her way of action and that sometimes she just was too naive to do anything. It felt as if she depended on Him and most of her own plans just failed. It was good to see in the end that she had made some improvement and grown a lot. On the other had, she is not weakling at all as she puts up with the bullying and stands against it without giving up on it, so this I again really liked about her. For Hirose Suzu acting, well what to say - I would consider it the average high-school drama acting - nothing special but at the same time not the worst one, but what do you expect from 16 year old actress? At the same time, I can say that Yanne absolutely adored Suzu and her acting.

But more than Haruna, I really liked another really important character - Shizukui Kei. There are many things about him that make him really mysterious and once you think you know what is his past secret, you will have to think again. Let's just say that each one of us has some skeletons in their closet but some skeletons are just bigger than others. I like that he is an example how person can learn so much if they have the motive to do it. Though it was my first time seeing Kamiki Ryonosuke act, I just fell in love with him. His acting in it was perfect as the character himself is really complex.

Extra star worthy was definitely the relationship between Haruna and Kei. That was the one and only thing that kept me watching the drama and not keeping it on-hold for longer time. They start of with this weird friendship that is difficult to explain and the more time goes on the more you start to ship them. In the end, I already wanted to hope that this would be the main strory-line in the drama.

In every way this drama is similar to other high school dramas with elite schools. There must be this gang of rich and powerful students who just have horrible attitudes and mostly due to their more horrible parents who force their own wishes on them. This is the best way to explain the 6 bad students. I do not think there is much to explain more about them nor the actors who played the part.

I was asked to say few words about Natsuki's character and Shotaro Mamiya. Natsuki's role definitely brought him a lot of fame. Not only he became favorite of many fangirls, but he also caught the eye of many producers and 2016 has been very successful to him (edited in 2016). About Natsuki. I would say he is stuck in his life and he has no idea how to get out of it. In a way, it seems that he is spending all of the time thinking about how to escape from his life, and for the very same reason he really does not care much to intervene to business that is going on around him, unless someone manages to harm his self-esteem and/or he is "expected" to act some way.

Out of the all elite-group, the queen-bee Aso Minami, is the worst. Yet, we can see that this kind of people actually are the most unfortunate. Despite being the most popular girl of the high school and ruling over everybody, she is about to learn that "high school kingdom" just stays in high school. In addition, you can see in her case that the prettiest can be the most insecure in their heart. Though I have not seen Anna Ishibashi before in this kind of "bad girl" role, but for some reason she looks so natural in it that it feels as if I have seen it before.

But what I would like to point out are the teachers. This drama is a perfect example how teachers should be the ones helping students through the puberty and all this high school life, but a lot of times they are lacking in needed skills and motivation, or they taste of money is just so good that they become corrupted by it. It is sad to see that this situation is actually representing the situation in our real-lives.

I am so happy I am out of studies now, but I do feel sorry for all the students who are stuck and have to face teachers who spend more time bringing students down and crushing their dreams than actually motivating students to find their passion in life and teaching how to make living out of it. I understand that teaching in school is not easy and to look after all the children, but sometimes just small things matter to children and it is important to notice them.
I am out of words now, if I missed something then let me know in the comments below! Looking forward for your opinions on it ;)