... with or without romance. Any genre is acceptable, except hentai!

The reforming/healing of this problem child should be the MAIN FOCUS of the manga. Not just a side theme.

And I say "child," but I mean anyone under 21. (In some countries, you have to be that old to be considered a legal adult! Until then, you are only a juvenile or at most a young adult.)

Examples of problem kids: delinquents, violent teens, abused kids with tragic pasts, thieves/pickpockets, neglected orphans, street kids, gang members, prostitutes or those who "date for compensation," promiscuous/damaged teens who sleep around a lot, smokers/druggies/alcoholics, pregnant teens, depressed or mentally unstable kids, suicidal kids, bullied kids or misfits, lonely or socially isolated kids, frustrated geniuses, absolute academic failures with no hope for the future, apathetic emo kids with no interest in school/life, spoiled rich kids with serious attitude problems, kids from a "bad neighborhood," kids with criminal records, etc.

Whoa, that was a depressing list. @_@;

As for the teacher/guide, they can be: a professional teacher, a casual tutor, a parent/guardian/relative, an older neighbor/friend/acquaintance, a doctor/nurse/shrink/counselor, a "role model" of some sort, a sports/entertainment celebrity, a cop, a martial arts instructor (e.g. boxing coach), a social worker/volunteer, a nun/priest, etc.

Basically any older person that tries to take the situation "in hand" and does so sincerely and with enough genuine persistence and dedication to actually reform the kid. (Or help the kid, if the problem was not reformatory but was more along the lines of being damaged/depressed/hurt.) The sort of guide that, when the kid grows up to be a functional adult, will inspire the statement: "I owe everything to them. They made me who I am today; without them, I would have been a lost cause."

Said teacher/guide may end up romantically involved with the young person, but it isn't necessary at all - it could even be a purely platonic bond. The main thing I'm looking for here is the guide HELPING the problem kid fix his/her life.

Looking forward to this! Thanks in advance!

Hmm..I don't know about manga, but there's this korean drama that fits the description very well. It's 'Master of Study'.

-_-" Sorry i'm not much of a help.

Whoa, no, that's great! A TV series! And I have a thing for hot Korean men, lol.

Any idea if it's fansubbed? (NOT asking for DL links, just wondering if you know if it's subbed, so I can go find it myself.) Otherwise, I may not be able to watch it, as I'm sadly Korean-illiterate...

Edit: Just realized that Gokusen kindasorta fits! For some reason your mentioning a TV series made me remember that it was the Gokusen TV series that got me into the manga.

how about gto?it doesn't focus on one kid but it's about reforming kind of

on chia-anime.com I got somehow to a list with many asian real life dramas.subbed ones.maybe you can find it there...

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GTO is great. I haven't read the manga or seen the drama but the anime is one of my favorites. You can also try Kodomo no Jikan. I think that one also fits your description rather well.

Veins might fits a little with your requirements o.o
It fits a little because it thus have the element you want, a problematic child is helped by a dedicated teacher. Though the problem itself is caused by the child because she fell in love with the teacher... so the problem started because of that. She refused to play right so yea ^^;; the problem isn't actually as serious as you might wanted... sorry about that.
Gotta gives point for pretty art though XD

lol, never heard it call Master of Study. It's God of Study!!

You can look at them here. Cute Jiyeon. ♥

And it was based on the Japanese drama Dragon Zakura.



For manga recs:

Evil Heart



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*pants* THANK YOU for the eye-candy, Dr. Love, much appreciated as usual. <3

I'll look at God of Study as soon as my bandwidth recovers enough to allow me to download eps! I've already used up most of this month's meager bandwidth and can't afford any more. I'm poor... ;_;

Thanks also for the manga recs, everyone! Keep going!

Now for my own (rather dodgy) additions to my own thread:

Speaking of romance with a yaoi twist, there are two titles I recently recommended thru another thread, Dekiai Rule and Borderline. Both have damaged, promiscuous young men with self-esteem issues finding guidance (and, eventually, love) under (and "under") their older male teachers. Kind of morally dubious, but both stories are really sweet. Plus, the teachers resist their students' sensual onslaughts very manfully as long as humanly possible. Lol. And there's no question that their influence on their students' lives was life-changing in a positive way, since they were living totally crazy and self-destructive lives before, but are now normal and (it seems) happy.

As for straight romance in which a teacher also helps/guides a student, you could argue (although it would be a flimsy argument!) that The World is Full Happiness and Faster Than a Kiss have this scenario. The teacher in the former manga basically helps his student deal with classroom/socialization issues (she was isolated and also heartbroken after a pretty bad romantic experience), and the latter literally saves her and her brother from a life on the streets (a more convincing case for this thread).

Ah, this scenario is hard to find in a convincing format in shoujo...

More from any genre, plz?

Rookies kind of fits, except it isn't about one 'problem child', but rather, a lot of deliquents who are reformed by their new baseball coach.

Ashita no Joe as well.

Funny- sports manga seem to have this format more than others. Hope you don't mind that genre... most girls don't like it.

Last edited by calstine at 7:03 am, May 15 2010

@calstine: I love sports manga, never fear! The key thing is if it's got interesting characters - I'll read anything with interesting characters. Lol.

Seishun Shiteru Kai! - very lighthearted, though, and the teacher is the same age...

...Tartufo, I'm officially in your fan club. ;D

Kamen Teacher.


SeeYa

Gorath

Second GTO, it was the first one that came to mind, even though I have only seen the anime.
Cat Street is what you're looking for as well, I think.