Title: 美咲ナンバーワン!! Misaki Nanbā Wan (Number One)!!
English Title: Misaki Number One!!
Country: Japanese
Language: Japanese
Year: 2011
Episode: 10
Cast:
- 能瀬香里奈 Nose Karina (香里奈 Karina)
- 藤ヶ谷太輔 Fujigaya Taisuke
- 北山宏光 Kitayama Hiromitsu
- 大政絢 Omasa Aya
- 市川知宏 Ichikawa Tomohiro
- 大野拓朗 Ohno Takuro
- 田中圭 Tanaka Kei
- 臼田あさ美 Usuda Asami
- 金田明夫 Kaneda Akio
- 戸田恵子 Toda Keiko
- 布施明 Fuse Akira
SYNOPSIS
Tennoji Misaki is the number one hostess in the Southern Sea Club in Roponggi. She is also touted as the number one hostess in the area for the year 2010.
Misaki suddenly became a high school teacher in M Academy. She is assigned to be the homeroom teacher for class 2-Z, which is composed of troublesome students. In order to teach though, Misaki has to encourage each and everyone of her students to go to school and come to class because they are all more interested in cutting classes and hanging out.
REVIEW
Misaki Number One!! is similar to the ごくせん Gokusen series except the teacher is not exactly a granddaughter of a yakuza but actually the number one hostess in Tokyo. It seems as if there's an endless fascination on teachers with unsuitable family ties and inappropriate job history.
It's amazing how the errant students are more accepting of the teacher's authority and capability after finding out her improper background. In some ways, it seems that the students are more comfortable with teachers like Tennoji Misaki. Perhaps they think she can better understand their situation compared to other typical teachers.
However, I do understand the misgivings of the society in general regarding teachers with improper backgrounds. Teachers have an image and reputation to uphold; it only makes sense for other educators to want to protect this image and reputation. I think they are taking it to the extreme though when Misaki's superiors are displeased with her clothes and make-up; she looks different from what a typical teacher would look but she still looks presentable and professional so I don't see any problem.
I think this drama is a great reminder that although it is natural to be judgmental of others, it is important to always give them the benefit of the doubt. This lesson applies to everyone: problem students, people with unfortunate histories and relations, and even people who made questionable choices and decisions in the past.
Misaki became a hostess by necessity; she could not find work after graduating from university and she had a lot of debts to pay. She worked as a hostess in order to earn a lot of money in a short period of time, but she was also able to form a lot of meaningful relationships with her colleagues and she also learned how to deal with different kinds of people. Although people looked down on her because of her previous work, Misaki does not feel ashamed about her past and she has great pride about the person that she has become due to what she had to go through.
Misaki had a lot of insights to share with her students such as "You'll never know until you try" and "Always work hard". People tend to give up when the stakes are too high and failure seems inevitable. But even in these situations, it is still important to do things and to work hard while doing so. Although working hard does not guarantee success, giving one's all efforts lead to greater satisfaction no matter what the outcome is.
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美咲ナンバーワン!! Misaki Number One!!
