Mr. Hiiragi's Homeroom (2019) - First Impressions

Drama: Mr. Hiiragi's Homeroom (English title)

Romaji: 3 Nen A Kumi: Ima kara Mina-san wa, Hitojichi Desu
Japanese: 3年A組-今から皆さんは、人質です-
Actors: Masaki Suda, Mei Nagano, Rina Kawaei, Ryota Katayose, Mio Imada, Haruka Fukuhara, Miu Tomita, Moka Kamishiraishi
Director: Naoko Komuro, Yuma Suzuki
Writer: Shogo Muto
Network: NTV

First scene we see Ibuki Hiiragi (Masaki Suda) jumping off the rooftop. Is this a foreshadowing? Will this be the ending of this drama? Is he going to kill himself? We don't know.

Ibuki Hiiragi is the class advisor for class A, a class full of problematic students. They also don't respect their teacher and he even got kicked by one of his students. First minutes in this drama tells Hiiragi a weak minded teacher.

The next scene we see him declare that he will take class A as hostages, some of them just laugh because they know Hiiragi's character is not capable of doing that. Some delinquent type of students got pissed and ganged up on him but they got beaten up by Hiiragi, seems Hiiragi is just acting like a weak teacher. The moment he made that bomb explode is the time those students were convinced he is not joking.

Hiiragi said the reason he did this is to solve the mystery about Reina Kageyama, a star swimmer, killing herself. That is all I can say for now because saying more would spoil the drama.

After the first episode we still don't know if Hiiragi really lost his mind or he is just playing mind games with the students. This is such an intense drama from beginning to end, I mean not till the very end because the ending song's vibe is a total opposite of this whole drama but you know what I mean. This is also similar to one of the best school drama Suzuki Sensei in terms of the psychological element of this drama, so don't expect anything like Gokusen or GTO because you would be disappointed. So far this is good but in terms of plot, if not handled well, this has a high chance to suck. It's a huge risk but if they pulled this off then this would be a masterpiece just like Suzuki Sensei.

The acting is also on point, the acting of the students is better than most schools dramas. Nagano Mei is a revelation here. I've only known her for her cute roles, so seeing her being this effective is awe-inspiring. If you only watched Suda Masaki in love action mainstream movies you would be surprised by in his role as a bad guy in this drama, such intensity coming from one of the best young actor in Japan. Lastly, the music is superb combination of intense music and classical music