Gokusen Drama Season 3 - Episode 1

Gokusen is back for a 3rd season, yay! Yankumi, who had ended up in the countryside is still there, failing as a teacher to a class of foreign students. Essentially, her English sucks, and they can't understand her crazy Yakuza Japanese :) She is fired. Meanwhile, Sawatari, the vice principal from seasons 1 and 2, ditched Yankumi in teh country and returned to Tokyo and a position at a new high school. However, this school also has an infamous class 3-D that no one there, including Sawatari, can handle. He tries, and fails miserably. His job on the line, he naturally thinks of the only person who could possibly help him. Soon enough, Yankumi finds herself faced with a new class 3-D. Each season, the students are more violent and delinquent, and this time is no exception.

This time class 3-D is actually made up of two separate school gangs who are at war with each other. In years 1 and two, they were apart, but now for their 3rd year, both groups are in the same class, so we have a class with two leaders, two sets of 'second-in-command' guys, and opposing sides. Naturally, they are not impressed with Yankumi when she shows up.

This episode reminded me a lot of episode 3 from season 1- This new school is conveniently close to where the original Shirokin Gakuin was, and the area is again being plagued by a purse snatcher. Of course, the thugs in class 3-D are blamed for the thefts and one of the class leaders, Ren, is arrested. Ren has denied being the culprit, but of course no one believes him except for Yankumi. None of 3-D believes him either, and Yankumi is rather disgusted by this class's lack of faith and friendship with each other. She is determined to prove that Ren did not commit the crime by finding the real thief! This wouldn't be a Gokusen episode without an inspirational speech and a fight in a warehouse :) Can Yankumi earn the trust and respect of another class of delinquents? Can she teach them to have faith in each other, and what real friendship is like?