Yankee-kun to Megane-chan 09-10 [END]

Once a yankee, always a yankee… right?

Hello, hope everyone had a good 2010. I look forward to this new year and hope for the best. So, I’m going to head straight into this last post on Yankee-kun to Megane-chan. Thank you all who have followed through with this and please look forward to more dorama coverage.

Episode nine starts off with Daichi shopping for books with Sei. When the two depart, Sei is ambushed by some yankees. The next day at school, the student council hold a meeting with other students on their opinions of the student council. The ratings are at 50% with the other half scared of Daichi and in response the council sets up a suggestion box per Daichi’s idea. On Daichi’s way home, he stops by to see Sei in his beat up condition. Sei tells Daichi that the group was looking for Hurricane Ada and Daichi should be careful since he’s now serious about going to med school.

At the student council, the group looks through the suggestion box. Most of them (of course) are of being scared of Daichi but there was one asking for a school festival, this gets Hana riled up to work towards getting a school festival. Daichi tells Hana that she can’t play well but Hana says she can and Rinka calls Hana the Ultimate Player. All the guys have their delusions on what Rinka meant, only to find out that Hana’s good at playing kid games. Izumi’s delusion of Hana being a ‘player’ had the Gatsby BGM hah. Afterwards, Daichi tells Hana that she should be aware of her situation and calls her up to the roof to talk about the guys who are looking for her. Hana gives her “I’m not a Yankee anymore” line and Daichi just tells Hana that he’s only warning her because others won’t believe it.

I can give you Gatsby… Gaaattsuuubiii Gaatsubiii~

The student council gets to work again, they have to get about 350 signatures from the students to get a school festival to pass. Each member of the council needs 70 signatures, Daichi included but he just scares the students away while Izumi gets all the girls attention for sign up. The notion for a school festival is passed and Hana suggests to the class to hold a haunted house. Hana throws out large books of her research on haunted houses and the class agree’s to Hana’s suggestion.

The next day in class, everyone is working on the haunted house and Daichi is helping as well with less enthusiasm than Hana. Daichi gets some good reactions from the students after helping some geeky boys nail a board. As Daichi goes back to his own work, he’s surprised by a scream. We see Hana being recorded by Izumi on some scary screams that don’t sounds scary but annoying. Later that day, Daichi and Hana are carrying snacks back to the classroom, as they arrive to the room, Hana talks about being happy to work with everyone. Daichi gets a “Is this it…” moment until he hears a scream which is Hana’s cellphone ring. The call shocks Hana upon finding out that her grandfater collapsed and is at Daichi’s family clinic. Hana runs off and Daichi follows and the two arrive to find out that the grandfather just sprained his ankle. While the grandfather jokes around, Hana yells at him because she was scared and that her grandfather is her only family.

The next day at school, Daichi wakes up to Hana wearing a mask that scares him. Daichi refuses to dress up for the haunted house so Hana has him go through as a customer to test their hard work. Daichi and Rinka goes through the haunted house and Daichi gets scared by everything while Rinka tries to converse with him. Rinka gets a “Is this it…” moment about Daichi until she realizes that a kappa student is hugging her. The two continue on through and Rinka tries tell Daichi that she’ll be his partner for the last dance but is interrupted by more scares. Rinka also tries to confess to Daichi but is interrupted more by the haunted house and Daichi getting scared until he leaves the room.

Daichi the yankee scary-cat

As Daichi leaves school, he’s stopped by Sagami (from episode 1 and 6) who’s been beaten up by the people who are looking for Hurricane Ada. Sagami said he wouldn’t give Hana’s location away but when beat up he actually did and that Daichi should be careful. As Sagami finishes up, the two are interrupted by Sakai-sensei who then lectures Daichi that he shouldn’t hang out with such people and if he gets in trouble again he’ll get expelled. When Daichi arrives home, he’s surprised to see Hana’s grandfather there eating. Daichi’s mom was making food for Hana’s grandfather to take home because of his sprained ankle that he ‘can’t walk’ on. Daichi walks the grandfather home and Hana’s grandfather thanks Daichi for being friends with Hana and caring.

The school festival has finally began, Daichi scares away customers that Hana brings and the two argue until Sei arrives with a girl (I think Sei is supposed to have weird taste in girls). Sei is surprised to meet Hana and Daichi tells him that Hana’s identity is a secret. Sei and the girl enters the haunted house and we hear their screams as Daichi is outside laughing. Later on Daichi is approached by the boy who requested for a school festival and is thanked. As the boy leaves, Hana pops out of nowhere to praise Daichi for their approved ratings. The class gathers to take a picture and afterwards they are interrupted by the gang looking for Hurricane Ada. Daichi stops Hana from stepping forward and as Daichi is about to go up the stairs, Izumi tries to stop Daichi because he’ll be expelled but Daichi just punches Izumi out of the way. Daichi claims that he’s Hurricane Ada but the gang leader knows that isn’t true, so Daichi just says that he’s asking for a fight. Daichi engages in a fight with the gang and Sei joins in which causes a ruckus at the festival.

Episode ten continues off with Daichi and Sei fighting the gang that’s after Hurricane Ada. The fight is broken up by the teachers and Daichi is expelled in meanwhile Sakai-sensei will work hard for Daichi to not be suspended. When Daichi arrives home, he’s yelled at by his father who’s upset by Daichi’s actions. Meanwhile Rinka talks with Hana about doing something but Hana says that Shinagawa covered for her, so she’ll do what she can as a normal girl.

The next morning Hana is fixing her hair in braids and her grandfather comments on if it gets tiring to braid her hair. The grandfather talks about Hana covering up her true self and it’s about time to show it to others but Hana goes on about Daichi covering for her so that she could keep on being a normal girl. At school, the student council works more to get signatures for the petition but fails. Daichi at home has Sei over to visit. Sei gives Daichi booklets about other schools he can go to or to get his SAT. Hana arrives at Daichi’s house but isn’t let in and leaves sad. Sei asks why Daichi won’t see her but Daichi just ignores it. Daichi then talks about Hana might be blaming herself and might go get into a fight which will make his efforts meaningless. Daichi says how he’s grateful towards Hana and that she’s a sort of savior to him.

Two guys having a brotastic time

The next day as Rinka and Hana are leaving home to school, they are approached by the gang. Hana says that she’s not going to fight and as she leaves with Rinka, the gang leader says that she won’t get away. As Izumi arrives to school, he’s approached by the gang leader about Kagami (from episode 4) and Izumi runs to save Kagami who’s being beaten up. Hana, Rinka and Chiba arrive but are told not to interfere, the gang leader appears behind Hana saying who will be next and the fight is broken up by the teachers. Later on Izumi calls Daichi to apologize for getting busted and expresses his feelings of realization in having friends. As Izumi leaves school he tells Hana to remember what he told her.

In class, the students are already gossiping about Izumi and are against him when they all admired him at first. Later on Hana is alone writing on the back of a picture of the class from the school festival. The next morning Daichi is forced to go out to buy bread and Hana appears from behind to talk with him. Hana talks about why she’s friends with Daichi, which was because she thought he was like her and that she could understand Daichi and share their similar feelings. Hana then talks about being envious of Daichi for being able to be his true self. Hana then gives Daichi the letter she made earlier and leaves.

One might mistake that as a love letter~

At school, Hana talks to the school over the intercom. Hana tells the school the truth about her feelings of being a normal girl, her secret and that Daichi and Izumi should not be blamed. Meanwhile Daichi at home opens up the letter which is a thank you post card, in realization Daichi runs towards school. As Hana is about to say that she’s a yankee, Daichi enters the classroom asking for Hana and then runs to the broadcast room to yell at Hana who can’t stand Daichi being expelled and covering for her. The two are interrupted by noise outside from the gang, Hana makes her resolve saying to Daichi that a yankee will always be a yankee and goes out to face the gang. Daichi follows after taking Hana’s request for school resignation.

The gang and Hana change locations and the class with Daichi watches from behind a locked fence. The gang attacks Hana who takes every man out until it’s just her and the leader. The two go at it until Hana jump kicks the leader through a post. As Hana leaves the fight, the students and Daichi stares at her. Later on we see Daichi thinking to himself while looking at the post card from Hana.

Daichi finds Hana at the place they first talked to at the end of episode 1. The two talk about their previous conversation before she did the broadcast and Daichi talks about peeling the label off of being a yankee which Hana told him to do earlier. Daichi then talks to Hana about her dream of being with everyone and that she should peel of her label and do something about it. Hana goes to class with Daichi trailing behind. As Hana enters the class, she’s approached by Chiba with their petition signed by the students who said that Hana fought for her friends so that they should too. Chiba shows Daichi the petition and is touched by it and is then pushed into the classroom by Chiba to thank everyone.

The morning after Daichi’s suspension is over, he comes downstairs asking for food but Sei appears eating Daichi’s food. Sei is the walk Daichi to school and as Daichi leaves, he’s cheered by his family to study hard. Meanwhile Rinka and Hana leave for school and the grandfather see’s that Hana didn’t wear her glasses. At school Daichi is devouring a onigiri, he’s greeted by students and then by Rinka a girl who seems to be the one from his entrance exam. Daichi stops the girl (which we know is Hana), gives her the pencil and then confesses.

Is this finally it?!

Daichi has his “Is this it…” moment and in it he asks her name and is hit into reality when the girl replies, Adachi Hana. The two are then swarmed by other male students complimenting Hana on how she looks. Daichi is pushed to the side stupefied at his realization. As the student council group walks towards class, Daichi grabs the pencil back from Hana saying that it wasn’t for her. When they ask Hana for a response to the confession, they’re interrupted by Sakai-sensei who leave off in a rush. Daichi then asks Hana her response but Hana brushes it off not answering. The end~

Fin~

Final Thoughts: While I don’t have a favorite episode in this series, I do have favorite scenes. My first favorite scene is from episode 4 when Sei is on the phone with Daichi, kicking peoples butt. I think Sei, even though he’s a side character, by far is my favorite character. He’s just random, carefree and funny. I also liked Daichi’s mother, how she’s devious and can backhand Daichi to the floor. As well, I liked the haunted house for episode 9. Didn’t expect to see a scared Daichi and to add to the comedy, Rinka was trying to confess to him. Poor Rinka likes Daichi when we know that most people are rooting for Hana.

All of the conflicts in the series are interesting and at least not as extreme as some doramas. I’m glad that even though this is a dorama, you really get the feel that it’s based off of a manga or anime. I’m definitely going to try to read the manga when I get time. Another good dorama that really gives the feel of an anime/manga is Nodame Cantabile, one of my recommendations hehe. But anyway, I think that Hana’s past history could have be elaborated more. I believe in the manga, Hana is only living with her grandfather because of family problems and Hana actually has some siblings. As well, I think Daichi was originally a smart person but changed through some events. But I suppose not everything can always be accurate to the original story and there’s so many bad examples of that heh.

As for this final episode, it was bound to happen. Hana telling everyone the truth and I expected Daichi to get in trouble by covering up for Hana. The enemies this time though were week, Hana is just too overpowered but I guess that’s just fine. As for the ending, it was satisfying even though Daichi ended up concluding that the girl from the entrance exams isn’t Hana upon finding out that he just confessed to her. I think Hana is just pretending to be naive when brushing off Daichi’s confirmation of Hana’s feelings to his confession.

Well, it’s finally over and I enjoyed this series. Hope those who followed this series actually liked my coverage and thank you. This was quite an experience to review a dorama series, it was a struggle to summarize 1hr episodes but I somehow managed and will work on improving in time. Please look forward to seeing more dorama coverage on Metanorn~