I'm Kishi Knight: Your Private Tutor – Series Review

Toru is a 17-year-old delinquent who doesn't care about school. Studying? Nope. Attending class? Only when he feels like it. He'd rather hang out with his buddies, Minoru, Ryosuke, and Yuki. These four troublemakers spend their days singing karaoke, playing mahjong, and occasionally picking fights with students from rival schools. Their teacher is fed up with them. Whenever something goes wrong at school, he immediately blames Toru and his friends. Sometimes, they didn't even do anything! The teacher declares them guilty by default anyway.

Unsurprisingly, Toru's grades are a disaster. His latest test scores are basically zero, zero, zero… His teacher warns him that he'll probably have to repeat the year. Toru's mother is horrified. Ever since her husband died, she has raised her son alone. She refuses to watch him flunk out of school. Mama has a plan. She's hiring a private tutor! Toru protests because getting tutoring doesn't fit his cool delinquent image. What would the other bad boys think!? Too bad. His mother orders him to be home by 7PM twice a week. No excuses.

On the night of his first lesson, Toru reluctantly meets Kishi. Oh hello, handsome tutor! This guy shows up in a formal suit, looking elegant and immaculately groomed. Kishi is also ridiculously polite. At the beginning of every lesson, he gives a deep bow and announces, "I'm Kishi Naito, your private tutor." It's like his catchphrase. Of course, Toru isn't gonna make tutoring easy. He conveniently "forgets" all his stationery and textbooks before their first session. Kishi comes prepared with extra supplies. Nice try, delinquent boy. Your ass is studying tonight.

Toru expects Kishi to be another strict authority figure who bosses him around. That's what adults always do, right? Yet, this tutor is surprisingly gentle. Toru can complain, misbehave, or deliberately make things difficult. Kishi never loses his patience. Instead, he calmly works around every problem and tries to make learning comfortable for his student. He even takes detailed notes after each session, figuring out what worked and planning what to try next. Damn, this man takes tutoring seriously.

Kishi will do almost anything to help Toru understand the material. Somehow, one lesson ends with them both lying together in bed, reading a textbook. Toru becomes self-conscious and demands they return to the desk. Kishi's unconventional methods may be bizarre, but they actually work. He's also one of the first people who believes in Toru. Instead of dismissing him as some dumb delinquent, Kishi recognizes his student's academic potential. Little by little, Toru starts learning. Languages, proverbs, history… Wait, is the tutoring actually working!? Now, he's picking up knowledge and paying attention.

There's just one teeny-tiny complication. Toru has developed a crush on his tutor. Suddenly, studying becomes a lot more exciting when your teacher is hot. Toru's mind wanders during their lessons as he fantasizes about Kishi returning his feelings. They keep ending up in suspiciously intimate situations. Sometimes, Kishi holds Toru's hands. Other times, he leans in way too close to his face. Toru short-circuits whenever this happens, but he's too nervous to make a move. Meanwhile, Kishi seems oblivious. As far as he knows, their relationship is strictly professional.

I'm Kishi Knight: Your Private Tutor is hilarious as hell. Everyone in this series is such a goofball! The characters pull the dumbest faces and give exaggerated reactions, like they're living inside a cartoon. The comedy is constantly looking for ways to make a ridiculous situation even sillier. Many over-the-top moments look like they belong in a reaction GIF. Even better, the humour never loses steam. I'm Kishi Knight stays consistently funny from start to finish. Every episode leaves me grinning from ear to ear.

The story is entertaining because Toru and Kishi come from opposite worlds. Snarky Delinquent meets Sophisticated Tutor is an odd combo that you don't see every day. Put them in the same room, and we all wanna see how this unlikely couple interacts. Toru looks like a tough guy, but this hilarious dumbass has the silliest thoughts. Kishi takes good manners to an extreme, conducting himself like he was raised in a royal palace. I love how the series has created two unique main characters. They aren't generic leads copied from a template. Both are lovable weirdos with colourful personalities and memorable little quirks.

Some jokes get lost in translation. During Kishi's lessons, he teaches Toru about historical figures, languages, and proverbs. As a non-Japanese viewer, I don't have the cultural background to understand everything. A few scenes fly right over my head. I'm staring at the subtitles like… huh!? Thankfully, you don't need a PhD in Japanese culture to enjoy the physical comedy. The characters constantly make big gestures or exaggerate their mannerisms. I laugh just by looking at their ridiculously expressive body language. Even Toru's posture or walking style can be funny to me.

Holy baloney! Toru's actor (Koki Tanaka) is so damn amazing! He crushed all the jokes. He killed every scene. His over-the-top expressions look hilariously absurd. Koki brings so much energy to the series that an ordinary line becomes funny because of how he delivers it. This performer is always switched on. He's pulling stupid faces, changing his voice, or doing something so random that I'm laughing my ass off. His co-star (Rei Sawamura) also impresses me as Kishi. Look at that big smile! Look at that ridiculous strut! He nails all of Kishi's weird little habits.

Toru has a secret crush on his tutor. He gets flustered when they accidentally end up in some intimate position, which happens more often than you'd expect. Despite these close encounters, there's never an actual romance. Toru's feelings stay one-sided. That's for the best since Toru is still a teenager, while Kishi is clearly older than him. I'm glad the story doesn't try to make an adult-teen relationship seem cute. Kishi keeps his professional boundaries intact. The only BL moments come from Toru misunderstanding innocent situations or letting his imagination run wild.

After Toru graduates, the finale hints that he might pursue Kishi someday. The epilogue special makes his feelings crystal clear. We're one step closer to the Toru-Kishi endgame, but it never officially happens in canon. Personally, I don't want them together. Their tutor-student dynamic makes the relationship too messy for me. Yet, I feel unsatisfied because this series has so little BL content. As BL Watcher, endorsing a drama without any BL goes against my brand. Even though I'm Kishi Knight: Your Private Tutor is entertaining, I wouldn't really consider it a must-watch.