Season 1
Here is something I noticed while watching episode 11 of Gokusen: Yankumi walks by her desk in the teacher's office, and knocks over a stack of books. There is a quick shot of the pile of books on the floor, and hey, LOOK! It includes the Gokusen manga! No wonder Yankumi is such a great teacher. She reads ahead!
One of the main stars of Gokusen is Matsumoto Jun (MatsuJun) who plays Sawada Shin. Jun is a member of the singing group 'ARASHI'. Other members of Arashi have also tried acting and have appeared in their own dramas. One of these guys is Arashi Member Sakurai Sho, who starred in the drama 'Yoiko no Mikata' about a guy who follows his dream to become a nursery school teacher in spite of the prejudice against him because he is a male in a female-dominated workplace. Anyway, other members of Arashi had brief cameos in 'Yoiko no Mikata' including MatsuJun, who showed up towards the end in character as Shin from Gokusen. Actually, both Matsujun as Shin and Tomohiro Waki as Kuma show up for a scene. Shin sees Sakurai Sho's character, Taiyo-sensei, and comments that it's unusual to see a male nursery school teacher, but that he has an interesting teacher at his school too. All the little nursery school kids nearly knock over Kuma! Hahahah :D There is also a random scene at a coffee shop in 'Yoiko no Mikata' where V6's 'Feel Your Breeze' is playing in the background. Anyway, here are some screencaps from the cameo scene!
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Yay, season 2 is here, and again we have an in-joke cameo of the Gokusen manga! It happens in episode 4, when Tsuchiya is at a book store. Take a look at that magazine he's reading... it's "YOU" which is the magazine that the Gokusen manga runs in. And of course, he is reading the Gokusen manga! (Heh, I need to see what chapter that is... it looks like the Feb 2005 issue... I wonder if he's reading about Sawada Shin :P )
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