| Synopsis | GOGO! Female CheerleadersMitsuboshi Gakuen、 which had been an all-male senior high school、 made a fresh start as a coed institution、 newly establishing a girl’s division and an art course. The lead character Mayumi Ichinoki transferred to this school. With her energetic personality、 she invites her friends Mitchiko Katayama and Aya Nomura to form a cheerleading squad for the purpose of inspiring the rather timid boys. This is a youth drama series about how Mayumi involves all the people of the school、 sometimes clashing with students from rival schools、 in order to grow the cheer squad together with her fellow girls and how she gradually learns what it truly means to be a cheerleader and what it means to cheer for others. This drama series was broadcast between November 1980 and October 1981. Produced by TBS and Toho、 the scriptwriting team included Kozo Taguchi and Takeshi Shudo、 the latter of whom would later distinguish himself as an anime scriptwriter. The drama became so popular that it helped popularize the terms cheer and cheerleader—the concepts that had been unfamiliar in Japan—among TV viewers nationwide.Another key factor behind its great popularity was the appearance of many outstanding idols and actresses. Junko Mihara、 who played the lead role of Mayumi Ichinoki、 had already gained significant attention for her role as Reiko Yamada in 3 Nen B Gumi Kinpachi Sensei (Mr. Kinpachi in Class 3B). At the time、 she had also enjoyed such great popularity as an idol singer that she had been recognized alongside Seiko Matsuda as one of the major idols of the 1980s. In addition、 Kaho Shimada、 who is now a renowned musical actress、 was cast as Aya Nomura. Despite their grueling schedules、 the cast members who played the cheerleaders performed their own cheerleading routines without using doubles to shoot the drama、 training themselves intensively to master the choreography themselves. |
