Gokusen 3 [Eng Subs] (Ep 01 of 11)

Notes for Episode 01
Takano Aoi accidentally refers to Sawatari as Sarutawari and he is offended. The word "saru" means "monkey" in Japanese.

Rijichou literally means "chairman of the board." In the academic sense, she is the Superintendent and we will use that title. Her primary duties are fundraising and recruitment. Akadouis a private high school.

The southern islands probably refer to Okinawa.

nametaraakanzeyo means "Don't mess with me!” It's a famous line from the movie,
Gokudo no Tsumatachi (Gotutsuma)- Gangster Wife. Gokusen (Gangster Teacher) is a spin-off.

Oyassan will be rendered in English as Godfather.

Ojou means "young mistress" in the same way botchan means "young master."

Kumiko's grandfather's lieutenant, Wakamatsu, has a given name with three potential kanji readings: Kouzou, Hirozou or Hiromi.

Iwashita Shima is the Gotutsuma (gangster wife).

Yankumi refers to the class leader as atama, which literally means "head" in Japanese.

The yen/dollar exhange rate fluctuates. As of yesterday, the rate was 1 dollar = 107 yen.

Yankumi often uses curious vocabulary that takes others off guard. Henna_Juna explained it best in one of our email exchanges. "…So the many instances where Yankumi says something in public and everyone else looks at her funny and she has to make some excuse for saying it...I don't think they're ever necessarily bad words or dirty words or disrespectful, just different, but that difference is important because it distinguishes her, and gives her identity away.”

When Yankumi meets her Romeo, she says, "I've finally arrived...the red thread." She is refering to the red thread of faith/destiny. It is the same as soulmates or a twin flame.

Senko is a negative way to refer to a sensei (teacher). We translate senko as "damn teacher."

On all levels, Japanese society is divided into two groups: uchi (insiders) and soto (outsiders). Within uchi, there are various emotional nuances. The most important being nakama. It has been said that nakama is "an almost tribal closeness, an almost promiscuous degree of intimacy." The closest English terms are probably "family friend" or "best friend" or "good friend" or "close friend" or "true friend." It also could be used as "camaraderie" or "brotherhood." We may have used all of these English words depending on context.

There are many references to facing your students head-on or running straight into them in this drama. One way to envision it is to think of sumo wrestlers and their tachiai (the initial charge). It is believed the tachiai is the meeting of two spirits. In sumo, the rikishi (sumotori/wrestlers) slam into each other and very often their heads meet with considerable force.

There is almost an entire scene in which there is no translation. This is because Yankumi is basically saying the same thing over and over again. We think you'd get a deeper sense of her emotions if you watched it free of distracting words.