WARNING: Tonight’s Showcase contains swearing and a couple scenes of brief upper female nudity, though not by our characters. You’ll understand when you see it. This one is NOT for the kiddies, folks!
In an article earlier this week I mentioned an anime series called Gokusen, the rare case of a story involving gangsters–specifically the Japanese Yakuza–I actually enjoy. Remembering that sent me searching for a place this was streaming. It doesn’t appear to be streaming anyplace legally, not even behind a paywall. I can find the movie and a recent live-action series, but since I was talking about how animated productions can be good and not just for kids, that was the version I wanted to check out. It’s also the one I was introduced to the franchise with when it aired on Starz many years ago. Deciding more eyes should be on this show, I decided to make this tonight’s Showcase.
Based on the manga by Kozueko Morimoto, Gokusen follows the story of Kumiko Yamaguchi, a rookie teacher and one of two assigned to an all boys school of delinquents from the looks of things. She comes off as a bit of a bubblehead, but it’s an act. Yamaguchi is the “ojou” (translates to “young lady”) of her family business…which just happens to be a Yakuza clan. Her dream is to be a teacher, but she tones down the fact that she can kick your butt into next Tuesday if you mess with her students. Her clan is supportive, her classroom and the vice-principal not so much. Also she has a dog that doesn’t necessarily talk but we do hear his thoughts.
Tonight I bring you episode 1 in two forms, as I like to do because some people prefer the dubbed to the subtitled. The dubbed is up first, but you can watch the subtitled version (that’s the second video down) to get a handle on the text that isn’t translated later. Either way, it’s Yamaguchi and her fellow teaching lady’s first week at the school. With a vice-principal who clearly spent too much time in the defense force, a teacher with a sexy side, her issues at home as the ojo as her brothers want her to take over when grandfather dies (the parents passed away), and a bunch of upper classmen run by an expelled student wanting to beat up one of her students, can she keep her identity a secret from the school, when one of them is already suspicious? Enjoy.
BW Media Spotlight 
Star Trek’s Prime Directive Vs Real World Cultural History
Let’s be honest: Starfleet General Order #1 is nothing more than a cheap plot device, a way to restrict the writers and cause moral drama. As we’ve gone over in previous explorations (which sadly did not include the above novel as it really didn’t cover it, and I found that depressing in my Chapter By Chapter review), there are two reasons listed for the Prime Directive to be ignored: the needs of Starfleet, which can be interpreted in different ways to work around the spirit of the Directive, and the safety of the ship, which suffers the same problem.
In universe and in the mind of Gene Roddenberry, the goal of the Prime Directive is to push back against a colonialist action, intentional or otherwise. Colonialism may not have been the best thing for the indigenous people and in some cases didn’t do the colonizers much good, either. In practice, however, is it possible that in fact the Directive is part of an outdated view of culture and other civilizations based on a self-interested view of culture and our own hubris?
This is the argument made by the host of YouTube channel Trekspertise in the following video. By looking at the actual history of colonialism in the real history of the real planet Earth, the host goes into why the Prime Directive is based on outmoded views of human culture and cross-cultural interaction in the past…and might be a bit racist, or at least culturalist, as well.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on May 2, 2024 in Television Spotlight and tagged commentary, Prime Directive, Star Trek, Trekspertise.
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