Ike! Danshi Koukou Engekibu (Movie)

So, as I said before, I'm really interested in J-Drama (which is really helpful for my Japanese), which is why I want to introduce some stuff I watched and liked to you guys.

We're starting out easy-going, with a 2011 comedy movie called "Ike! Danshi Koukou Engekibu", which translates to: "Go! Boys' High School Drama Club". It's based on a manga (that I haven't read), but not too well-known outside of Japan, as it's really hard to find (I had to buy the DVD because I couldn't find it on any drama streaming site. Luckily, it's not THAT expensive on amazon.jp), but if you're into Japanese comedy and/ or like any of the actors in it, then it's absolutely worth a watch.

Speaking of the actors, here's a list of the most important characters:

Ogasawara Genki (Oga)- Nakamura Aoi (known as Sano Izumi in the 2011 version of Hana-Kimi)
Owada Kaji- Ikematsu Sousuke (will appear as Private Investigator Ryuzaki in the upcoming Death Note Movie)
Tamura Seishiro- Kawahara Kazuma (used to play Aoi Kentarou in TeniMyu, appeared as Kuroba Mutsuki/ Kamen Rider Leangle in Kamen Rider Decade and Yamada Tatsumori/ Aries Zodiarts in Kamen Rider Fourze)
Ueda Yu- Tomita Keisuke (appeared as Jimmy Nakata in Kamen Rider W)
Joushima Junpei (Jou)- Kaneko Naofumi (appeared as C/ Cockroach Dopant in Kamen Rider W)
Hashimoto Shun- Inaba Yu (best known as Shijima Gou/ Kamen Rider Mach in Kamen Rider Drive, also played Ozu Satoshi in Clone Baby)
Mr. Kanda- Ikeda Tetsuhiro (known as Kataoka Osamu in Himtsu no Hanazono)

These are just the club members and their advisor- so if you're a Tokusatsu fan, you might have seen many of them before. You can find an extended list on Asian Wiki.

The movie was written by Ikeda Tetsuhiro and directed by Hanabusa Tsutomu who was also in charge to the romance movie "Heroine Shikkaku", which came to Japanese cinemas last autumn.

So, what is this movie about? Let's have a closer look.

The Story

The girl is a lie!

The movie starts out with Ogasawara "Oga" Genki and his best friend Owada Kaji, who just enrolled at an all-boys high school. As in most Japanese high schools, there are plenty of club activities the school has to offer, so the two friends have a look at the clubs. None of them really catches their attention, until they stumble upon the performance of the school's drama club. The play is Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and Oga falls head over heels for the pretty Juliet. Enthusiastically, he enrolls in the club, only to be reminded that he's at an all-boys school and Juliet is played by one of his seniors in drag. But if that wasn't enough, Oga learns that the seniors are all leaving the club which means the end of their activity if the remaining members don't encrease their numbers up to five within the next few days. So Oga, who is now in charge of the club and his fellow club members Ueda Yu and Joushima "Jou" Junpei start a rescue operation...

Three lame guys in their lame club room.

Oga sacrifices himself for his comrades.

First of all, they need to find an academic advisor to legitimate their activity. Oga quickly decides on Mr. Kanda, an idol otaku who joins under the condition of Oga becoming a fan of his favorite girlband.
Kanda brings in the aggressive Tamura Seishiro, who actually just joins the club because he got in trouble with the school rules before and is indebted to Kanda.
To get some reference and inspiration, the boys go to an all girls-school famous for their drama club- dressed up as girls because that was their only way in (according to Kanda). The girls' drama club is led by the strict Chiba Masako, who allows no failure. Watching the girls perform, Oga falls in love with the pretty Mai and promises to show her how much fun drama can be.

These girls are also a lie.

This is what happens without adults and smart people.

Finally, Oga somehow persuades Kaji into joining the club, and despite promising his friend he doesn't have to do anything, Kaji actually ends up being the vice leader. However, being busy with studying, Kaji hardly ever takes part in the club activities, as well as Mr. Kanda, who prefers to go to idol concerts instead. With those two missing, the remaining boys go on a summer trip to the mountains... and get lost.



After returning to civilization, the club actually gets a request to play by someone who saw them on

Hey, I hurt my adress tendon, can I join you?

TV. As he asks for something easy to understand, the group decides on the famous story "Momotaro", but they still lack one actor. This is when the former soccer team member Hashimoto Shun comes to the rescue. Due to an injury, he ends up looking for another club and as he's basically too stupid for clubs like Shogi (Japanese chess), tea ceremony and other intellectual activities, the drama club is his last option.

Peach boy.

This is called a script. You can read it.

The play starts out as a disaster, but ends up being rescued by Hashimoto's stupidity. (This is something you should see for yourselves, so I won't go into much detail here.) The group then decides to join a drama contest (in which the famous girl's school drama club will also appear). Kaji writes a script based on O. Henry's short story "The Last Leaf" and the boys train hard to create a very unique version of this dramatic story...

We're gonna need a montage!

 

 The characters

So, as you might already have noticed from the summary, the cast consists out of pretty eccentric characters, that are all comedy-typically reduced to a minimum of traits and not the brightest.

A guy who lives up to his name.

Our hero is Ogasawara Genki, nicknamed Oga, who is easy to excite, somewhat naive and an airhead. However, he somehow manages to motivate his team to do their best at any time and his peppy character (that goes well with his name's meaning, healthy or lively) is kinda loveable.

He's actually too smart for this shit.

His best friend and the vice leader of the club is Owada Kaji, who is the smartest of the bunch. He is pressured to study hard by his family, especially his father, and actually doesn't want to have anything to do with the drama club for that reason. However, as soon as he takes part in the club activity, he ends up being kinda into it. He takes the role of the writer, technician and director.

 

"On the pursuit of (his own) beauty"

Joushima Junpei, nicknamed Jou, is a pretty arrogant guy who considers himself incredibly attractive and loves to look at his reflection. He's mostly interested in getting the girls and joined the drama club before Oga.

"No presence, wants to change"

Ueda Yu has also been in the club for a while, but no one really notices him. He is so incredibly shy that he tends to just disappear completely from time to time. He gets more confidence while the boys are lost on the mountain.

There is a good reason why he's at a boys' school.

 Mr. Kanda is the club's academic advisor and a pretty lazy teacher who basically turns all his lessons into self-study so he can sleep or do something else. He is also obsessed with idols and his office is stuffed with merchandise such as posters of his favorite girlband (which he tends to talk and make kissy faces to). He gets the group in trouble with his hobby from time to time, but in the end he gets his act together and tries his best to help everyone out.
 

"He likes... drama... probably."

Tamura Seishiro is the 4th member of the club and only joins them because Mr. Kanda forces him to do so. He's kind of a trouble-maker and pretty aggressive, but after watching the girls' drama rehearsal, he kinda develops a passion for drama and gets along better with everyone.

"Because he's an idiot."

Hashimoto Shun is the former star of the soccer club and has many fangirls. However, he basically has the intellect of a loaf of bread. He gets easily distracted by small things, can't even properly say the names of the other clubs he tried to join and is always eating fast food. However, for some reason, he always manages to save the day.

They're actually kinda good BECAUSE they're idiots.

While the movie has more characters that are important to the plot, most of them are so flat that it's hard to even describe them, so it's best to just see them for yourself.


The humor

It's unclear who he wants more: The lady or the food.

Okay, so here's the important thing: If you're not into Japanese comedy (random shouting, super goofy and stupid characters, crazy faces), you won't like this movie. Because this is everything this movie has to offer.
From all the characters being complete idiots that are sometimes really embarrassing to a weird mini-romance plot between the lunch lady and a student that is always hungry, this movie is crazyness and blunt jokes galore.

There are some things that we do not need to see.
God bless censorship.

Also, it has quite a lot of jokes on gender stereotypes that mostly boil down to: Boys (especially our protagonists) are stupid, loud and kinda gross and girls are smart, pretty and smell good. The boys tend to get super-excited when girls are around and they tend to scare away fangirls by dressing out- with Hashimoto overdoing it again.
And there are some jokes that include a little knowledge of the Japanese culture and language, such as Hashimoto getting the Kanji readings of the clubs wrong. (It's always Hashimoto. Get used to that)

But to me, this is also what makes it so charming. While everything is really over the top, there are some relatable things in it and some things that are just funny because they're so weird and unexpected. It's an unusual take on the "newcomer saves the club" kind of storyline, which is a classic plot for especially sports anime and it will entertain you for almost every minute of its runtime (1 h 25 min, including credits).

As a foreigner, I find this extremely relatable.
(He says "Chadoubu", but the correct word would be"Sadoubu")

 So... Is "Ike! Danshi Koukou Engekibu" a good movie? 

At least they're having fun

Probably not, but that really depends on what you want from a movie. It does a lot of things right for what it wants to be, a blunt comedy movie with a rather flat, common plot and it also has some pretty neat jokes on the plot and the tropes that come with it. The characters are somewhat memorable in their weirdness and actually kinda likeable. Also, if you're a drama enthusiast, you can relate to the story and characters quite a bit at some point.

But overall, it's far from being something thought-provoking or jaw-dropping in any way. It's entertainment for when you're down and bored and I think it does pretty well on that. If you like Japanese comedy and/ or have been a drama club member yourself, then I recommend to give it a chance and watch it for yourself. I found it to be kinda fun and I enjoy watching it from time to time, especially on a boring, rainy day.

Can you say no to those faces?