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Thursday, 24 April 2008

Gossip Girl? Yawn. My idea of a good TV show is Queen's Classroom, from Japan. It's about an incredibly intimidating teacher, like a superpowered Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca, who imposes a merciless hierarchy on her students. Those who obey her without question and get good grades will be rewarded. The others? Their lives won't be so pleasant. The teacher explains that this is what real life is like. If you want more than a job in the service industry, you had better start dealing with it.

The main character is a friendly, kind-hearted girl named Kanda, who is like a Gandhi- or Christ-figure to the teacher's imperial rule. With only a very few exceptions, her friends and fellow students turn on her in their zeal to conform to the teacher's new world order.

In the episode I watched this morning, Kanda stayed up all night writing letters of friendship to all her classmates. She got to school early and put the letters in the students' desks. Their response? They rip them up and throw her through a plate-glass window.

That's my kind of show.