One drama that I thought I would not be interested in, but then kind of fell in love with is Taiyou to Umi no Kyoushitsu. I decided to pick up the first episode when checking ratings on it and saw that it was around 20.5% viewership. A lot of times, I choose to watch drama that I know nothing about based on ratings since I rather not waste my time on one that doesn't appeal much to me. For instance, I tried to watch Lotto and Ando Natsu, but both have failed to keep my interest after two episodes so I'm going to have to let both series go. On the other hand, I'm glad that I picked up this series because it has such a nice mixture of stars and the story has a nice, light touch to it. Basically, if one enjoys school dramas then this series is something to consider.
The cast has a nice mix of younger and older actors from series like Proposal Daisakusen, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, LIFE, Ashita no Kita Yoshio, Mop Girl, Hana Yori Dango, Bambino!, Binbo Danshi, Liar Game, etc. We have Sakurai Sakutaro (Oda Yuuji), age 39, who comes to a high school on the beachside to become the homeroom teacher of class 3-1. He acts a bit like an idiot and the students -- all whom are top students of the school and seniors preparing for college -- do not really take him seriously at all. Shadowing behind him is young teacher in-training, Enokido Wakaba (Kitagawa Keiko), age 23, who is very attractive and does like Sakurai that much as well. Her mother works in the higher-ups of the school and managed to help her get a job there, but because of her disapproval of Sakurai's teaching methods, wants to quit. However, her meeting of Kawabe Eiji (Yamamoto Yusuke), age 18, changes her mind and she decides to stay in order to convince him to come back to the school.
The main character is Sakurai Sakutaro, the main supporting character is Enokido Wakaba, and their group of students are the focus of the story. Sakurai spends time trying to get his students to figure out what they really want for their futures and about life -- which is kind of Gokusen-ish and very typical of teacher-student dramas, and Enokido Wakaba wants to learn how to become a good teacher while working on one troubled student and getting him to come back to school. We have a nice mix of students who are very smart, have lots of goals, loves their friends, and come from very different situations. The first episode focuses on the main student pair, Negishi Hiroki (Okada Masaki) and Shirosaki Riku (Kitano Kii). Hiroki is the ace swimmer for the school's swim team and the deciding factor for the win at Inter-High competition, but a bully forces him to promise that he will lose the competition between their schools since Hiroki's father is in debt to the bully's. Riku does what she can to get Hiroki to not give up Inter-High, but the bullying gets worse until Sakurai steps in. Meanwhile, Enokido may find herself in a compromising situation as troubled teen, Kawabe Eiji, probably may fall for her.
In any case, though the drama is nothing that special, it's still a nice series to watch. At least I'm still feeling hooked to keep watching. The feel of the drama reminds me a bit of the seriousness and touching light-hearted-ness from Bara no nai Hanaya, a little of Galileo, and the student part reminds me a bit of the group of friends from Proposal Daisakusen -- except we have all smart kids in this one. I think this drama possesses the ability to become the next Bara no nai Hanaya, though in a different manner.
So far, no one's performance is especially striking to me, but I like the story.
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