The knottiness of classroom dynamics has been the topic of many series and films. If you’re a fan of Japanese dramas, I’m sure you’ve heard of NTV’s remarkable Mr Hiiragi’s Homeroom (2019), for instance. If you’re more of a K-drama fan, you might remember OCN’s Class of Lies (2019) instead. Following in their footsteps, you’ll find Nippon TV’s The Greatest Teacher, a 2023 fantasy mystery that has just been added to Netflix.
Directed by Suzuki Yuma and Ninomiya Takashi and written by Tsubaki Masataka, The Greatest Teacher is a 10-episode series that follows chemistry teacher Kujo Rina (Matsuoka Mayu). After the graduation ceremony at Horai High School, Rina gets pushed off the 4th floor. As she falls to the ground, she notices that the culprit is one of her senior students and wonders why that would ever happen. Suddenly, she finds herself back in the previous year’s opening ceremony. Aware that, in a year from then, one of the students in front of her will try to kill her, she decides to do whatever it takes to change her fate.
The Greatest Teacher may often fall into the formulaic and overly rely on long-winded expository dialogues, but it offers a relevant and stirring coming-of-age story populated by fierce characters. Rina’s journey bursts with courage, optimism, and resilience, never shying away from exploring a range of heavy themes that haunt teachers and students nowadays.
This review is spoiler-free, so don’t worry if you haven’t watched the show yet. If you’re in a rush, why don’t you save our pin to read this later? It’s at the bottom!
The Thematic Core of The Greatest Teacher
Earlier this year, NHK World reported that 527 children and teenagers died by suicide last year in Japan โ an all-time high among young people. Just last month, the news outlet also reported that “Japan’s education ministry has found that bullying at schools across the country hit a record high in fiscal 2024 for the fourth year in a row.“
That’s exactly the universe in which Rina lives. The Greatest Teacher eschews the rose-coloured glasses of sweet high school rom-coms and dares to look at Japanese society as it is โ with all its pressure, demands, and idiosyncrasies. This is a gritty portrayal of contemporary classroom power play in which students aren’t just victimised by the bullies, but also by the bystanders. They need to stand out, but never too much as to stop them from fitting in. With social media and the illusion of political correctness, teachers struggle to establish their authority.
Even though the depiction of actual violence is minimal, The Greatest Teacher can still be dark. However, its darkness is constantly counteracted by Rina’s utmost faith in her students. Even if its devices aren’t always completely realistic, The Greatest Teacher fully invests in the development of its characters, allowing them to blossom throughout its run into more empathetic, confident, and self-aware versions of themselves.
Bittersweet and hopeful, The Greatest Teacher is an idealistic campaign against bullying and suicide among young people. It chooses to believe in our ability to change, evolve, and genuinely connect with the people around us. This thematic consistency permeates the narrative and all its character arcs, never straying away from its core message: Be who you want to be. Stand up for what you believe in. Respect everyone’s uniqueness. And live on โ because things can always change as long as you’re alive.
Assigned to be class 3-D’s homeroom teacher, Rina is faced with 30 students whose lives are marked by bullying, loneliness, and anxiety. During her second attempt at life, she realises that she once turned her back on her students’ struggles. How could she ever encourage her students to be more compassionate if she isn’t compassionate herself? She decides to see through the masks and personas they adopt at school. She wants to know them, sincerely and without preconceived assumptions. Most importantly, she bets that they can and will recognise their mistakes and let go of their selfish perspectives.
Beyond their dramatic sorrows, every episode of Rina’s story illustrates how adolescence is marked by an almost uncontrollable desire to be accepted by others, even if that means forgoing your own identity. It’s all about fitting in, avoiding being seen as “weird”, and finding a place where you belong.
Rina’s students are a reflection of a society that appreciates conformity. But, as their homeroom teacher, she decides to break the vicious cycle they live in by showing them that the concept of “normal” is nothing but a fallacy. You don’t need to fit in. You just need to embrace who you are and be proud of it. There’s nothing wrong with being different.
As she teaches them the importance of respecting these differences, all the while recognising that we all feel the same joys and pains, Rina fosters a sense of responsibility in her students for their actions and the effects they will have on others. She encourages them to be more self-confident and stand up for what they believe in. She shows them that vulnerability is strength, that opening up takes courage, and that actively listening to others is the only way forward.
The Greatest Teacher never “forgives and forgets,” however. This is a story that believes that our wounds remain even in the face of the most sincere apologies. It’s the memory of our failures, of the ones who are gone, and of our sorrows that make us who we are and prompt us to keep evolving.
Establishing Solid Character Arcs
It goes without saying, then, that The Greatest Teacher excels at establishing solid character arcs. The students from 3-D go from unbearable, self-absorbed to humane, determined individuals, leading to a fairly cathartic experience. It’s actually heartwarming to see these kids change. Rina is a fascinating protagonist who goes from a gullible and meek teacher to the persistent, fearless leader of a revolution. At work, she learns her purpose as a teacher, a journey that allows the series to explore the reciprocal bond between teacher and student. At home, she reassesses her role within her relationship with her husband, the marvellous Kujo Ren (an extremely charming Matsushita Kouhei).
Ren and Rina receive an exceptional romantic subplot, which reflects the show’s themes within their marriage. As a couple, they need to reconnect and strengthen their bond โ and their scenes together make up for some of the series’s best. Ren believes and supports Rina, without ever playing the role of the ultimate saviour. Spoiler alert: Ren might be one of the best husbands I’ve seen on TV in the past decade.
Besides the excellent portrayal of a healthy marriage, The Greatest Teacher also balances the painful friendships of Rina’s students with Rina’s incredible best friends, Kaho (Kadokura Saaya) and Tomomi (Morita Misato). Ren, Kaho, and Tomomi aren’t just props or meaningless secondary characters โ they are given active roles in the narrative that clearly support Rina’s character development.
Where The Greatest Teacher Stumbles: Pacing & Dialogue
With all these elements standing out as the show’s strengths, it’s important to mention that The Greatest Teacher also has its fair share of weaknesses. While the mystery itself is excellent and full of nicely placed twists and turns, the narrative structure is fairly repetitive and the pacing can be sluggish too. For the first five episodes, the series relies on the same framework: one student shares their woes (usually through narration), so Rina tries to get to know them. She then uses her knowledge from the future to influence their actions, and that somehow starts bringing these students together and dismantling their fears, complexes, and prejudices.
Halfway through episode 5, that structure changes. After all, Rina is assiduously changing the future. Her actions then start having unpredictable results, which shakes off a bit of the show’s repetitiveness and leads to a more dynamic second half. Even so, pacing continues to feel slow with the script’s overuse of flashbacks, recurring lines, and (way) too many monologues.
The Greatest Teacher‘s greatest weakness is its dialogue. The script is drowning in expository dialogue that often feels contrived and sermonic. This is why the show’s alluring mystery ends up weakly executed: The Greatest Teacher is composed of several long sequences in which characters are kept monologuing for what seems to be an eternity. Everything is explained to us, word by word, all the time. Camerawork is often static, which stops it from attracting attention to itself and gives these monologues an even greater theatrical flair.
Should You Watch The Greatest Teacher?
If you’re patient enough to sit through these characters’ pleonastic conversations, The Greatest Teacher does offer a profoundly rewarding journey. Its sorrowful tone never becomes overwhelming, thanks to a group of compelling characters whose dynamics and personalities are always evolving.
Fearless and confident about its themes, this is a story that uses fantasy as an effective device but never allows it to steal the spotlight. How and why Rina is able to travel back in time is of little importance for the show โ after all, this is about what she does with this opportunity. Letting go of science fiction lore to focus on the coming-of-age drama of Rina’s students and the mystery that guides her life, The Greatest Teacher knows exactly what story it wants to tell (even though it stumbles in its execution).
Despite its shortcomings, the show counts on a talented cast, an excellent plot, and an incredibly positive message. All in all, The Greatest Teacher is a rare example of a drama that dares to explore the harshness of adolescence without sensationalised violence, offering it a healthy dose of hope that things can always get better instead.
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