J Drama Review : 3 Nen A Kumi

Title : Class 3A – All of You Are Hostages From Now On, Mr. Hiiragi’s Homeroom, 3 Nen A Kumi: Ima kara Mina-san wa, Hitojichi Desu

Episodes : 10

Genre : Suspense, Drama, School, Tragedy, Bullying, Cyber Bullying, Hostages, Teacher, Students, Friendship, Mystery

Story : 8 out of 10

Characters : 8 out of 10

Cinematography : 8 out of 10

Mr. Hiiragi’s Homeroom, an ambiguous drama, managed to win over its viewers and score one of the highest audience scores.

Story

It is a normal day for class 3-A, who are preparing for their graduation in ten days. It is evident that the students don’t really care about school or their teacher, as they don’t even pay attention to him as he enters the classroom. However, everything changes when he, the weak looking teacher Hiragi, announces to them that they are all his hostages. At first, the students think that he is messing with them. But when the first bomb explodes, isolating the classroom from the rest of the school building, fear takes over. That’s when teacher Hiragi announces the reason why he planned everything: he is going to keep them, hostages, until the truth behind their classmate’s suicide it revealed.

Poster of the Japanese Drama Class 3A – All of You Are Hostages From Now On

The story took many twists and turns until it eventually revealed the real story behind it all. At first, we are introduced with a weak, ill-looking teacher who is the definition of a pushover. His students don’t respect him, neither do his co-workers. That first impression soon changes when he goes crazy and sets his master plan into action. You can’t help but reason with his actions, at first. He was the unappreciated teacher who snapped and just gone mad. Then, his motives become clearer, as the story of the student who died starts getting revealed slowly. And the teacher starts killing his students. But nothing was what it seemed in this drama. Finally, the ending was quite satisfying, but really sad as well.

So, overall, the story is fast-paced and full of suspense. It doesn’t give much breathing space to relax between the action and mystery scenes. Though, towards the end, it felt like some twists were being repeated.  And, the story kind of reminded me of the anime Assassination Classroom. But, as a whole, it was not boring and it was quite entertaining.

Characters

Hiragi is an ill-looking teacher who is not highly regarded by his students. At their final days before graduation, however, he locks the doors of the classroom and announces that he takes them all as his hostages. He has set bombs all over the school building, which he controls by his watch, and he threatens to kill everyone if they don’t reveal who is the culprit behind their classmate’s suicide. Hiragi was an enigmatic character, fascinating and the kind of character that gives you a roller coaster of emotions. Suda Masaki was just excellent as Hiragi. I admit that I couldn’t see the reason for the excitement for this actor before, but I do now. He even lost weight for this character (talk about commitment!!).

Main poster of the japanese drama 3 nen a kumi

Sakura is a girl who was close to the victim. She feels remorse for what had happened to her friend and thinks that it was her fault for not helping her. Even though all the students were involved, Nagano Mei’s character was the closer teacher and one that concluded the story. Her performance, as well as the rest of the cast’s, was really good and emotional.

Cinematography

The execution of this drama was really good, especially with the bombs that were involved and the back and forth when the mystery of the student’s death was being investigated.

Overall

My overall rating is 8 out of 10. The story was fast and exciting, and the performances powerful. However, the story was a bit overloaded.