Following a failed confession to her first love, female high school student Mikoto Ochiai contemplates jumping off the roof of the school building. However, her thoughts are interrupted by the arrival of Jin Haiba, the physics teacher known for being a slacker and the butt of students' jokes. Rather than dissuade her from killing herself, he makes a request—will she enter into a romance with him before she dies? Together, the two gradually ponder why they should keep living and why they should not love each other in earnest.
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Contains minor spoilers to Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi!
When I tell people outside my circle about this drama and how it’s my current favourite J-Drama at the moment, eyebrows are raised. The number of times I’ve debated on the morality of the drama too that it even went for 2 days during lunch with my colleagues back when I was interning.
I totally get them. I was at their position as well, when I first discovered Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi in Viki on a random day in August. The poster of Ryo Hashimoto and Akari Takaishi as Jin Haiba and Mikoto Ochiai was featured on the front page of Viki. I’ve always enjoyed content centring around teachers (like 3-Nen A-Gumi!) but never in a romantic light.
Hence reading the synopsis, I was conflicted about whether I should watch such a morally grey drama revolving around that. Before then, I had no knowledge of Ryo Hashimoto and the agency in general, so I didn’t know what to expect from Ryo’s acting. However, my curiosity got the best of me and I decided to watch it without any judgement.
If only I knew that was the start of everything, how I became a Ryo Hashimoto fan.
Ryo Hashimoto as Jin Haiba
For starters, Ryo is from HiHi Jets, an up-and-coming 5 member junior group with a unique trait; incorporating roller skating as part of their image. Known for their chaotic energy and close bonds, HiHi is the true definition of ‘Work Hard, Play Hard’, where their performances will always leave fans and outsiders in awe as they sing and dance, while also doing stunts mid-performance without breaking a sweat.
If you’re like me who first discovered Ryo through the drama, getting into HiHi Jets afterwards and seeing his idol persona was honestly the most wildest moment I’ve experienced in my whole fandom life. Because of his silly and laidback personality as Haijin, I didn’t expect him to be an idol who’s not only crazy good at fan service, but is known as the ikemen of HiHi for his aura and gap too!
So if you have been giving Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi a miss due to its plot, give the drama a chance still and see a different side of Ryo!
I am very happy to have the opportunity to play the role of Jin Haiba in “Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi“. This is a live-action drama based on a manga, which is a dream come true for me as I have loved manga since I was a child.
Jin Haiba is a teacher who is a bit out of line with the norm and usually messes with his students, but in fact, if you know him, you will definitely fall in love with him.
He is a character filled with such charm!
Ryo Hashimoto about his role
Let’s talk about the plot. Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi follows Mikoto Ochiai (Akari Takaishi), a gloomy and depressed high student who has no friends and stays alone at her home; after getting rejected by the one and only person who acknowledges her existence, she contemplates suicide at the school rooftop. A figure was then seen next to her, and it was none other than Jin Haiba (Ryo Hashimoto), a physics teacher who’s known to be lazy and perverted by his students and teachers around, which got him the nickname “Haijin1” (but don’t tell him I said that!)
As an attempt to get her mind off from suicide, he asked her a question;
“Do you want to fall in love with me before you die?”
A teacher said what now!?
From then on, we see Haijin attempting to stop Mikoto whenever she thinks of suicide, whether it’s purposely averting her attention to another place or even jumping over a bridge for her. Every episode feels like a guilty pleasure as we see their relationship develop; not to mention the amount of romantic scenes that got me falling off my chair by the end of every episode.
Despite the heavy dark theme, the drama is classified as a comedy where it doesn’t take the teacher-student trope too seriously. With the amount of fourth wall breaks the drama does, it never gets boring every single time, as if they’re self-aware that the relationship is wrong realistically. And it’s all thanks to the amazing acting done by Akari and Ryo.
Their chemistry is amazing- the drama’s intro that shows them playing around in the school already got me hooked to the drama for the first time, and they killed it in their roles. Due to the small cast of just 3 main characters, 95% of the scenes in the drama mainly consist of them though there were never an awkward scene between them.
Check out the intro of the drama!
Despite the questionable dynamic, Akari’s character is not your typical MC in such genres- She’s the Tsukkomi2 between her relationship with Haijin where his countless flirting always gets a rebuttal from her. She is firm with her decisions, and is actively aware on how wrong her relationship with Haijin is. Seeing their bickering every episode and how she looks so done with him all the time never fails to make me laugh.
Throughout the drama, we see the two main leads grow as they find reasons why they should keep living, and come to realise that they’re one another’s push to live. We also get a glimpse of Haijin’s backstory, despite his happy-go-lucky and “my pace” personality, has an air of sadness and mystery around him—Ryo’s portrayal of Haijin captured the audience’s heart, and exceeded expectations even for his first leading role.
Compared to his other members from HiHi who are more seasoned in acting characters with significant roles, this drama was his one shot to showcase his acting without his other members around to support him. It was his time to finally shine as an actor and he went all out, to the point I even thought he was a full-time actor at first!
For a character who hides his backstory with a smile and a playful attitude, he acted such a complex character so well. Not to mention his ability to swoon Mikoto and even us viewers in romantic scenes!
With the drama only having 9 episodes, I watched it in one sitting and my heart felt full after watching. Seeing their relationship blossom, accepting each other’s backstories and flaws, and becoming each other’s reasons for living were the most beautiful parts of the drama. They waste no time developing their relationship, with the first episode already having scenes that gives you butterflies in your stomach!
Besides the two leads, the drama features Kazuma (Kairu Tamura), a popular but foul-mouthed student who’s called an “idol” by his classmates and is portrayed as unapproachable by them. On top of that, he’s met with nasty remarks from his male classmates who are jealous by his appearance, so he’s ostracized and left alone.
Kairu Tamura (Shonen Ninja) as Kazuma Takamine
But thanks to Haijin who noticed his loneliness, Kazuma made his first friend with Mikoto and shares a close bond with her. While we see a slight romance developing on his side, the drama still stays strong with Mikoto and Haijin’s relationship; so to those who dislike love triangles, this drama is for you. I see you. I feel you.
I hope that despite the age gap, people will still give the drama a shot and discover the love story between Haijin and Mikoto, two people with their own stories and struggles who found comfort and solitude with one another. Haijin constantly keeps a look out for Mikoto (literally, he also stalks her) and genuinely cares for her, so I wholeheartedly recommend Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi to those who enjoy relationships that are strictly fluff- No angst here.
It’s my comfort show for now, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve rewatched it. I also bought the DVD box and their merchandise so the brainrot is here to stay as of now.
It’s a plushie of Haijin as his black cat Miko- Monroe! So cute!
Though the bad news is that the story ended with a cliffhanger and no plans of continuing at the time of writing this. Even Ryo and Akari hoped for a Season 2 as well, so one can dream.
But in the meantime, this drama is adapted from a manga with the same name written and illustrated by Sora, so if you’re deep in the Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi hole you can read the source material while waiting for news on Season 2 as well.
The drama skipped a few arcs and left out a few side characters, as well as changing its approach to the ending compared to the manga. Nevertheless, it’s still ongoing and has the same essence as the drama so check it out as well!
Akari and Ryo with Sora, the author and illustrator of the manga!
Until then, “Do you want to fall in love with me before you die?”
Anything for you, Ryo Hashimoto.
Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoshi is available to watch at Viki!
Check out more about Ryo Hashimoto & HiHi Jets!
YouTube | X (Twitter) | X (Twitter) (English) | Instagram | TikTok | Official site
- 廃人 (haijin) means “crippled” or “disabled” in Japanese. ↩︎
- 突っ込み (tsukkomi) literally translates to ‘straight man’, someone who deflects a ボケ (boke) jokes and remarks with a rebuttal, commonly seen in comedy skits.
In this case, Mikoto is the ‘straight man’ (tsukkomi) while Haijin is the ‘funny man’ (boke) ↩︎