Yukan Club (JDrama Review)

Welcome to St. President Academy, one of the best and most prestigious schools in all of Japan. Well, it would be, if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

The Yukan Club is more of a clique than a club, really, and at first glance, you might wonder how these six people who couldn't be more different became friends in the first place.

The drama isn't so much plot-driven as it is character-driven. It's the characters that drag you into ultimate attachment to the drama. They're colorful characters, exaggerations of their respective personalities, and that's what makes them amusing and funny.(clockwise from top left: Miroku, Seishiro, Yuri, Bido, Karen, Noriko. medyo obvious naman who's who from the pics. :D)

First of all, there's Shochikubai Miroku (last name, first name) who's the main character of the series as it concentrates most on him than on the other characters. He's street smart, tough, and brilliant when it comes to mechanical stuff. He's also the son of the (ridiculously useless) police commissioner and probably for that reason, has a lot of connections, including gangs, triads, and his own personal minions. He has a strong sense of loyalty towards his friends and even his parents. He also happens to be a great fighter and rides a motorcycle. The best thing about him though is that he's an extremely sensitive guy and is easily driven to tears. Don't you love him already? (Played by Akanishi Jin of KAT-TUN, another reason to love this character. Some say it wasn't well casted but I haven't read the manga on which the drama is based so I wouldn't know. Some say Jin can't act. Are you kidding me? NO COMMENT!)

Kikumasamune Seishiro (Yokoyama Yu of Kanjani8) is the student body president who's both smart and good in fighting. He's a serious guy (Yu himself is a funny man though) who knows his priorities. His family also owns a hospital, so he regularly rides an ambulance to school. >.<>.<. He's also supposedly a playboy and has a lot of female admirers. He's also a bit of a narcissist. Bido is actually pretty useless when it comes to fighting. Now the girls! :D Kenbishi Yuri (Minami) is the only daughter of the really really rich Kenbishi Corporation which his dad owns. She eats a lot and is a tomboy, and she also fights really well, with her trademark move, the "Flying Kick". She's very athletic and has a lot of female admirers who give her food as tokens of their admiration. She steals the other members' food. >.<

Hakushika Noriko (Kashii Yu) is the manhater who instinctively slaps any guy who touches her (but probably only those with romantic intentions toward her). Seishiro is a childhood friend of hers and they are really close, often seen playing chess together (and Noriko DOES beat Seishiro despite his intelligence). Noriko has a lot of male admirers but doesn't care about any of them. She can also perform traditional tea ceremony (because her mother comes from a family that performs tea ceremony) and her dad is a famous Japanese painter.

Kizakura Karen (Suzuki Emi) is a bit like Bido, only female. She isn't as narcissistic though, and her goal in life is to be married to a rich successful husband. She really takes care of her looks and also hates having less love letters than Noriko.

And there you have the 6 awesome people who make up Yukan Club. It's not only fun to watch them, it's also great to see how close they are and how they stick together through thick and thin. They aren't static characters either, throughout the 12 episodes they face challenges, change and mature.

The plot is unrealistic, ridiculous and out of reach, but these characters bring the whole thing together and that's what makes "Yukan Club" special.

"Turning impossibilities into possibilities... that's what Yukan Club is about."