their lives and destinies in ways traditionally reserved for men. One hopes that the little girls and young women of Japan, as well as the fellows of the world, take to heart these images of tough determined young women fighting for honor and their destiny and better understand that all of us, even women, should have the freedom to express our humanity in the ways we find most fulfilling. The central premise of Majisuka Gakuen is a 'yankee' girls' school. As a yankee school, Majisuka Gakuen is run entirely by all girl gangs. The first series follows second year transfer student Maeda Atsuko as she is forced to fight her way through one gang after another, before she finally confronts the Four Heavenly Queens and the second in command of the top gang at Majijo, the wind-instrument club, Rappappa. Maeda is quiet, sullen, and looking to stop fighting because her yankee ways got her best friend killed. Still, Maeda is an experienced and skilled fighter and thus everyone must prove they deserve their position in the school by defeating her. Unfortunately for the school's existing power structure no one can defeat Maeda.
Maeda is a beautiful and strong character and she draws the viewer into the show immediately, but this reviewer fell completely in love with the series when two supporting characters emerged that have taken a much greater lead this year in the second series. First is Nezumi, played by the perfect and beautiful Watanabe Mayu. Had
it not been for Nezumi's Machiavellian plotting the powers that be in the world of yankees would likely have lost interest in Maeda quite quickly as all the quiet loner wanted was to study nursing and be left alone. Nezumi, a younger student whose intellect far out shown her ability to fight, quietly assured everyone that she was on their side and advised them of the importance of targeting one person or another for combat. Her plot is to destabilize the school so that her mouse army might arise and take control of the political situation.When Gekikara refused to stop giggling, regardless of how much of her own blood covered her face and Maeda's knuckles, I knew Majisuka Gakuen was the greatest television program created by humanity. The mentally unhinged unstoppable killer is a common character for fantastical fiction dating to well before Bob Kane created the Joker for Batman to battle. Gekikara subverts this paradigm by making the character a beautiful young woman who had been, until recently, imprisoned in a mental institution for killing a member of the Yakuza.
Gekikara is so fearsome, not so much because she is a skilled fighter but, because she simply loves violence and wont stop. In her showdown with Maeda, this Heavenly Queen of Rappappa could only be stopped with the intervention of Maeda's top allies. Even then Gekikara was the only one defeated by Maeda to walk away. As she left giggling, Gekikara declared Maeda to be the God of Death. From an anarchist-feminist perspective, these are not at all ideal characters. Most all of them embrace violence and accept the underlying logic of a social hierarchy based upon martial skills. While Nezumi rejects the notion that one's ability to fight should rule the day, she still is seeking to stand atop a hierarchy of authority over other young women. But our entertainment does not have to be politically pure to be great entertainment and provide an important positive political message.
In the real world of the idols of AKB48, Akimoto Sayaka felt she had to resign her position as captain of the Team K because of the appearance she might have done something naughty with a male guest that spent the night at her place. In the world of Majisuka, Black, formerly of the Four Heavenly Queens, had a child out of wedlock and hospitalized the last person to ask who the father was. While it is not an ideal world where women use their power in ideal ways, Majisuka Gakuen shows us that another world is possible where men do not have the power to define what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a good woman. The women of Majisuka have taken their destinies in their hands. Each of them is willing to fight for her honor, dignity, and definition of self. Not all of them succeed in their struggles, but all of them fight, refusing to let anyone define who they are without standing up for themselves. Most do this through straight-up fisticuffs, but Nezumi does it through plotting and manipulation. Not completely helpless on the field of battle, Nezumi is one of the most beautiful creatures in all of existence: a strong, determined, and brilliant woman.
Majsuka Gakuen became my favorite television program before I even knew what the words found before the opening credits, 'AKB48 in', meant. I only came to love the program more when I learned about what AKB48 was. Acting is pretending, but to portray power and strength one needs some reserve of such power and strength. Majisuka Gakuen has shown us that the young women of AKB48 have power and strength in ways most do not normally associate with idols. For this reason the show is one of the most successful exercises in feminist pop culture ever created. One hopes that the youth of Japan will take to heart the examples of Majisuka Gakuen and take more control of their lives, especially the young women.
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