First Impressions, Spring 2010: Yankee-kun to Megane-chan

Plot: Revolves around Shinagawa Daichi, who is a good boy gone bad, the Yankee-kun (a type of delinquent youth) of the title. He studied really hard to get into a good high school so he could get into medical school and one-up his Always Someone Better older sister and take over the family medical practice. When he finds out she managed to transfer into medical school and his father plans to let her take over the practice, he gives up trying at school and gives in to being a Yankee. Adachi Hana is a bad girl gone good and the Megane-chan (glasses girl) of the title. She was a delinquent in middle school, but her grandfather helped her turn her life around. Now she's following his advice to make the most of high school. The episodes so far seem to revolve around Adachi involving a reluctant Shinagawa in her latest do-gooder scheme.

Adachi Hana: You can tell she's a serious student because she wears glasses!

Episode 1 Recap: Shinagawa Daichi (Narimiya Hiroki, the psychopath J in Bloody Monday) is a Yankee who keeps getting into fights. However, it's not always his fault, as many of the other Yankees mistake him for Hurricane Ada, a mysterious and notoriously tough fighter. On the first day of high school, he meets Adachi Hana (Naka Riisa) after she hurts her ankle, spots Shinagawa in the same school uniform, and demands he carry her to school. He protests, but he does it. While Shinagawa skips class on the roof (in his school uniform...I will never understand why he doesn't go hang out in the arcade or something in his street clothes like American delinquents), Adachi volunteers to be class rep while everyone else avoids volunteering. However, since Shinagawa is skipping she can't get a unanimous vote for class rep. So she hunts down Shinagawa and drags him to class to cast his vote. He again protests and calls her annoying, but in the end again gives in. Later, the class has to decide on a project for the school anniversary. Adachi suggests doing a class mural. No one else is really enthusiastic, but she gives it her all. Adachi wrangles Shinagawa into participating with the rest of the class, but then a group of Yankees appear looking for Hurricane Ada and attack Shinagawa, wrecking the mural in the process. Shinagawa is then suspended from school for fighting. Adachi visits his house every day, which just annoys him. He says that once a Yankee, always a Yankee, and people will always see and treat him like a Yankee. Adachi says she understands how he feels more than he knows, and she thinks people can change. He tells her to stop bothering him. She doesn't come to his house the next day, but Shinagawa's sister sees her going off with the Yankees that had attacked Shinagawa. She wants them to apologize to the school to get Shinagawa out of trouble for the fight. Thinking Adachi is in danger, Shinagawa rushes off to save her. In the end, he finds out she didn't really need saving since she is Hurricane Ada. The next day, Adachi comes to school to find Shinagawa working by himself on the mural. Adachi joins him and then the whole class joins in and has a good time together.

Shinagawa Daichi: You can tell he's a bad boy because of his bleached hair!

Episode 2 Recap: Adachi has found out that one of the students in the class, Chiba Seiya (Koyanagi Yu) hasn't been to school for a while. He's a hikikomori (shut-in). Adachi blames Shinagawa, as sources report that he yelled at Chiba once. Shinagawa claims he doesn't remember this and it's definitely not his fault. Adachi manages to get a reluctant Shinagawa to come along with her to Chiba's place, which is a huge house. Chiba refuses to leave his room or even talk with Shinagawa and Adachi. They come back the next day, though, and Adachi tries to use a love compatibility test to get to know Chiba better. Chiba scores an 80% compatibility with Shinagawa, but Adachi only has a 3% compatibility with Shinagawa. Adachi and Shinagawa eventually find Chiba's blog, where they find out that he became a hikikomori after becoming "friends" with a group of boys who were only using him for his money. He'd never had any other friends, though, and was embarrassed that his new friends were using him. He felt he couldn't tell his parents about this and became so self-conscious he locked himself in his room (though why it's more embarrassing to tell your parents your new friends are actually jerks than to give up on life outside your room entirely, I'll never know). Shinagawa manages to give a rousing speech to Chiba that gets him to come out of his room. The next day, Chiba comes to school and tells the gang of his former "friends" that he doesn't need them anymore because he has new friends--Shinagawa and Adachi.

Izumi Gaku: Smart, but maybe evil. Future Yakuza accountant!

Thoughts: I'm really liking this series so far. It's funny and cute and there's a lot of goodness that I didn't include in the recaps. Like Suzuki Ryohei (the tall butler for the little girl in Mei-chan no Shitsuji) as Shinagawa's best friend from junior high, who goes to a different high school. And Hongo Kanata as Izumi Gaku, a possible evil genius, or at least a frenemy of Shinagawa's (he calls Shinagawa out for quitting whenever things get hard in the first ep and seems to hate him, but he helps out Adachi when she's trying to get Chiba to come back to school by finding Chiba's blog and giving the web address to Adachi). Both are good supporting characters. There's also funny fantasies of Shinagawa in both episodes so far where he thinks Adachi is going to confess her love for him (why else would she follow him around so persistently?) when in reality she doesn't even come close.As for the actors, Narimiya Hiroki is a bit old to play high schooler Shinagawa (he's almost 30!). However, it's not the worst case of Dawson Casting I've ever seen, and at least he looks more like a student than a teacher (trying to imagine him playing a teacher...and failing). I do appreciate that he looks like he's solid enough to actually hurt someone when he hits them, unlike many tiny Japanese actors who look like they'll break in half in fight scenes (aww, Kame, you're really cute but you are a bit too much on the wee side to make me take you seriously in the fight scenes in Yamato Nadeshiko). On the downside, he does tend to have weird facial expressions. As for Naka Riisa as Adachi, she pulls off both the overeager class rep and the punk delinquent scenes. I do think she seriously looks like Nino in drag, though. Less so when she's not wearing glasses, maybe because the glasses make her nose look bigger? I don't know. I had to double-check that they're not siblings and I thought they'd at least be cousins or something.

I can't be the only one who thinks they look related, can I?

The Manga: I started reading the manga after seeing the drama and am only a few chapters in. So far, the biggest difference is that Adachi is less of a spaz. She is a serious Cloudcuckoolander in the manga. She is also living with her grandmother instead of her grandfather and the plot plays out differently (as in, the drama is not just a faithful live-action version of the manga), but the general gist is the same.

Man, what the hell is that expression Shinagawa? Be careful your face doesn't freeze that way!

The Good: I like both the main and supporting characters. I'm intrigued by all the characters and am glad they are giving some reasonable motives and backgrounds for both Shinagawa and Adachi. The show kept my attention through both episodes and made me look forward to the next ep. It pretty much hit all the right notes for a high school drama.

She's a walking disaster and looks amazingly badass in her Yankee days.

The Bad: It has the potential to get into the too-silly filler that jdramas are sadly too prone to.

Aww, so cute without her glasses. Does she need them or just use them to look more like a class rep?

The Verdict: This is definitely still on my must-watch list. It's a high school drama and I love high school dramas and so far it's a good high school drama. It's a shame that subs are coming out so slowly, even on dramacrazy. I guess I was spoiled in the past. Hardsubs seem to be waiting for Timeless subs, which are a really great group who do an excellent job, but quality takes time and so releases are super slow.