Aro friendly anime

*These aren’t devoid of romance, but also aren’t romance heavy, and the romance involved isn’t flimsily fluffy. Also an engaging plot*

Kotaro Lives Alone: found family, healing, community support

Gokusen: Yakuza heiress finally achieves her dream... of being a high school teacher

Gokushufudou: Ex-Yakuza badass loves his wife so much he becomes the malewife of everyone's dreams

Spice and Wolf: how much do you care about the economics of middle age Europe within the safety of a fictional world?

Spy x Family: fake dating, accidental marriage, dual life of the entire found family

Hunter x Hunter: little dude kicks ass to show up his deadbeat absentee dad (in the most wholesome way possible)

Demon Slayer: Best Brother In The World Loses Family, Saves Sister From Damnation, Works To Save The World To Avenge His Family

Bofuri: VRMMO staring a girl that just wants to have fun

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion: tear down the state, revolution, anticolonial, Light Yagami if he wasn't such a selfish bitch baby

OGURI SHUN as Uchiyama Haruhiko Gokusen (2002)

𝗷𝘂𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗼 <3

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Mr Brain (Ep 6)

When the serial killer you're after is a pretty lady. Boys will be boys. 😂

The serial killer. Played by the actress known for her role in Gokusen.

Gokusen, by Kozueko Morimoto

photodumppp_91 Sawada Shin of Gokusen S1

Yall haven't watched Gokusen and it shows 😫

This is show is top-tier for me. Just finished rewatching season 1 and I forgot how much I love it! 💕

The plot... spectacular. Who doesn't want a teacher in the yakuza?

The cast... immaculate. Matsumoto Jun, Oguri Shun, Kamenashi Kazuya, Akanishi Jin, Miura Haruma (RIP 🙏). Like so many faves 😭

The soundtrack... amazing. All ending songs for all 3 seasons have my heart.

If you've never watched this series... please do yourself a favor and go watch it.

You (ユー) / Shūeisha (集英社) / Aug 2009 issue

CRUISIN’ 4 A BRUISIN’ (Gokusen)

by Kozueko Morimoto | 156 chapters | 1999-2007

9/10

Gokusen is your typical relatable Josei manga: The protagonist, a mousy-looking girl, embarks on a quest to find love while trying to balance work life and home life. Except in this case work life is being a grade school teacher at an all-boys school, and home life is being a Yakuza heiress. This manga balances drama, comedy, and action, and oh my god, it’s so good. I started this review several months ago and I’m just finishing it now, but is it crazy for me to say I want to go back and re-read it already?

There is an unstoppable joy in Morimoto’s characterization of the protagonist, Yankumi. It’s honestly pretty cathartic to watch Yankumi bring her Yakuza know-how to public school, because lord knows the power structure of the educational institution could use a good ass-kicking. Yankumi’s teaching style can only be described as tough love, and none of the romance drama interferes with her ability to persevere and show a great deal of love to her students, family, and friends. It is so delightfully refreshing to read a manga where the protagonist is a compassionate, loyal, unfuckwithable, cop-hating teacher practicing non-hierarchical pedagogy! Emphasis on the cop-hating. I take issue with people who complain about “weak and annoying” female characters (that just sounds like a personal diss to me, ouch), but if you really just want to watch a girl utterly and completely fuck people up, Gokusen is the way to go.

What makes Gokusen so strong is how well it sticks to our Yakuza princess’s moral integrity: Nobody is irredeemable, not even mob bosses and snot-nosed teenage boys. Despite violence being her preferred solution for any problem, Yankumi isn’t hungry for power, nor does she slap people up because she wants to eradicate them. She acknowledges that her power, be it as a Yakuza heiress or a schoolteacher, can be used to improve the world, which very much appeals to me as a believer in transformative justice. I always recall my roommate telling me, after I relayed my firm stance on nonviolence, that some people really just need a punch to the face to really make them stop acting a fool. Gokusen effectively pulls off this ethos by using its buoyant and crisp tone. This manga is about beating people to a pulp and then helping them get back up again.

The second half of the series had moments that made me explode with laughter which I think is pretty hard for a comic to do! If you like Daria or even Beavis and Butthead I think this definitely scratches that itch. Just a note that there are some jokes made about pedophilia in the story, so that’s something to beware of if you’re sensitive to it. Beyond just jokes though, the main love interest is one of the high schoolers, but I actually found that plotline pretty sweet and interesting - Yankumi shows little to no romantic interest in him and most of their relationship is about him trying to prove himself to her as an adult, which hits home for me. Does that make me messed up? Did other people fantasize about a teacher or two when they were in grade school? I found that Morimoto handled that emotional landscape with serious honesty when it could have quickly become rocky territory.

Why do I see so many people complaining about Gokusen’s artwork online? Even in the first volume, when the proportions are a little funny and the lines aren’t as confident, I found the expressions and character designs irresistibly endearing. It’s got a simpler slapstick artstyle common in these older mangas that reminds me of a mix of Stop!! Hibari-Kun! and Urusei Yatsura but with a Josei twist. Ultimately the art style works in service to the writing style, which has serious moments treating characters’ intentions with levity; but also is riddled with hilarious scenarios. The sparse backgrounds allow for the focus to facial expressions and character gestures. 

Just go read this manga, it’s so kickass and sweet and there is so much cop hatred. It’s for the kids who have bottomless amounts of both love and violence burning a hole in our hearts.

I don't need your compliments.

Gokusen (2002)

Who's interested in a Gokusen x KP crossover except with a role reversal and Chay is the Kittisawat mafia heir who has to go teach in a high school? 👀👀👀

This is absolutely a rhetorical question because I'm already writing it, you suckers LOL

Featuring rizzless, non-mafia Vegas (as an English teacher). Kinn as a regular office worker who's at his wits' end when it comes to his little brother Kim, frequently in trouble.

Expect a lot of canon reversals!

Obscure Anime of The Day:

Gokusen

Aired: 2004

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Josei, School, Slice of Life