Mikami Sensei Blu-ray Box

Takashi Mikami entered Japan's education ministry determined to change the system. Instead, the University of Tokyo graduate finds reform reduced to slogans, powerful officials protecting themselves and children's futures used as bargaining pieces in adult struggles. A new secondment scheme sends him to a private high school, a move that amounts to a demotion for an elite bureaucrat.

Mikami decides that if he cannot change the system from the ministry, he will challenge it from the classroom. Standing before the 29 students of Class 3-2 at Rintoku Academy, he begins asking questions that unsettle their assumptions and draw them into the struggle. The drama connects the world of 18-year-olds approaching adulthood with the institutional pressures shaping their education, as teacher and students confront entrenched authority together.

Tori Matsuzaka stars with Riho Yoshioka. The cast includes Daiken Okudaira, Aju Makita, Airu Kubozuka, Sakura Kiryu, Yudai Toyoda, Juri Kosaka, Akari Takaishi, Rintaro Hachimura, Koki Yamashita, Omi Natsuki, Yuka Kageyama and Riko Nagase. Masaki Okada, Mayu Hotta, Kyohei Takahashi, Mitsuhiro Oikawa, Takaya Sakoda, Asami Usuda, Takako Tokiwa and Kazuki Kitamura complete the featured cast.

Roba Shimori writes the original story, with script cooperation from Junichi Hatakeyama and Mari Okada, educational supervision by Issei Nishioka and school-education supervision by Yuichi Kudo. Kazutaka Iida, Mao Nakanishi and Minami Nakazawa produce; Yohei Miyazaki, Hirono Shimada and Sakura Komaki direct. Shiro Sagisu composes the music, and ONE OK ROCK performs Puppets Can't Control You.

This five-disc box contains all ten episodes in an extended version restoring 37 minutes of previously unseen material. The main series runs 554 minutes across three Blu-rays, with 243 minutes of supplementary footage on two further Blu-rays. Extras comprise the making-of, a three-person conversation with Tori Matsuzaka, Riho Yoshioka and Masaki Okada, a special Class 3-2 homeroom, filming-wrap footage, Rintoku Academy's opening ceremony, the short spin-off drama Mikami Sensei ni wa Naisho, The Butterfly Effect and promotional spots.

A 32-page booklet and the Rintoku Newspaper featured in the story are enclosed. The programme is presented in 1080i with Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 stereo audio and Japanese subtitles for the main episodes.