Thursday, May 5, 2011

Hammer Session! Series Review







Hey Guys, just thought i'd do a review on one of my favorite TV series, The J-Drama 'Hammer Session!'. This is the first J-Drama i have watched, but even for me it had a cast full of people i recognized, including Rina Aizawa, Masaki Suda, Ishiguro Hideo and Emiri Miyasaka. So with that said, let's get this review started, shall we?

Here's our Protagonist. He goes by the name of "Otowa YonKo". He's a con-artist, However he only steals from bad people; Such as criminals and terrorists. He's caught by the cops along with a Gangster, and is being taken to prison, only for the van they are going in to get into an accident and him set free.



However, he's now a wanted man on the run from the cops. Due to some events, for protection, he becomes a Teacher at the nearby "Hikari Gakuen" High School under the name of "Hachisuka Goro", according to a deal of  "Hammer Session" with the principal of the school.

What is this 'Hammer Session' you ask? Well, the best way i can put it as that the class Hachisuka is assigned too is full of students with problems. Then again, any High School class is, right? But because of these problems students grades are dropping and such and it's up to Hachisuka to solve this problem. 

The series follows Hacisuka having 1 student per episode (On the odd occasion two at once) a special "Hammer Session" lesson. Each one as epic as the last. However, that's not all there is to this story. Let me introduce you to someone i hate.
The one on the right.
This, is Tachibana Kouichi.Now, i'm sure you've at least watched 1 series where there's a detective who cop who's family has been killed and he knows who did it, and is totally obsessed with capturing them no matter what happens? That's this guy. EXCEPT HIS FAMILY WASN'T GODDAMN KILLED BY GORO HE'S JUST A CON ARTIST AND EVEN THE HIGHER UPS TOLD HIM TO GIVE UP ON HIM. So yeah, you'll spend a lot of this series hating on him.


 With our main character, Goro introduced, allow me to introduce our second main character:

You'll Hate To Love Her.
 Tachibana Kaede. The Daughter of Kouichi and a student in Hachisuka's class. She's meddling. She gets into everyone's buisness and never shuts up. However, it's hard to hate her. As in the end she's just trying to help. And if it weren't for her, half the time Hachisuka wouldn't get his Hammer Session's done.


Mizuki Ryoko is the third main character of this series, she's Hacisuka's assitant teacher and the principals daughter. She's kinda...Well, she doesn't do much usually. That's about all i can say on her.

Unless all Teachers do this at school.
Well, anyway. The Plot of this series may seem kinda cliche'd. "Teacher trying to help his students and ultimately succeeding one by one". However, the way Hammer Session does it is just wonderful. Goro himself isn't a teacher, but a con-artist, so he doesn't exactly act like other teachers do. He's a very funny character and is what makes this series great. He is a badass. But  not in the in the  'Cold Hearted Dark Past' Badass type, He's badass in his actions that bring about a 'Hammer Session' for his students.


Also, the characters themselves; The Students are great as well. Each one of them has a distinct personality (for the most part) and bring something to the series. Whenever a student gets a Hammer Session, at the begining of the episode you'll think "God I hate them..." But by the end of the episode, you'll have a new favorite character.

Another great thing about this series is it's theme song titled 'Liar' by Spyair. Whenever this song plays during the episode, you either won't be able to stop smiling or won't be able to stop crying. The song itself really fits in with the series too.

The Reason i started this series; Rina Aizawa

The other reason i started. Masaki Suda.

All in all though, Hammer Session! Is a great series. It is what has made me want to watch even more J-Drama.
It's a funny series when it needs to be, but is also very Dramatic when it needs to be. It's never anything too serious, however, which i like.


If you like J-Drama, or Japanese things in general, think i definitly think you would enjoy this series. As it has something for everyone, along with great characters, music and a decent plot to boot. It is a very enjoyable series, and if you're like me, you'll want to start rewatching even though you're only 4 episodes in.

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