GTO Episode 11

The School is Unbelievably Corrupted. Literally Unbelievable.

It all comes down to this, the penultimate episode. All the build-up has led to this moment!

After being injured due to events in the previous episode, Onizuka is hospitalized. Meanwhile, great forces are once again trying to get Onizuka fired - and this time, they might actually be successful. With their hands tied, Onizuka's allies are forced to watch as the corrupted bureaucrats finally dismiss their beloved GTO.

This episode was once again a tear-inducing one, with all the love Onizuka poured onto his students bearing fruit. It's a heartfelt moment that even has the usually stoic and emotionless Kikuchi crying out for his teacher. As heartwarming as those final moments were, however, it's unfortunately burdened with those same one-dimensional caricatures playing villains. The system is so corrupted and their ability to get away with it so unbelievable that the story comes off as sloppy and hackneyed. In fact, it recycles the same tired cliches as many high school drama - morally bankrupt teachers with agendas of greed, sociopathic bullies who are either rapists or murderers, and mean girls with a heart of gold deep inside. I know what I said about corruption being existent in Japan, but this is really pushing the envelope.

But if I can be honest, there's a side of me who just don't want to care about all of those problems, good writing or otherwise. GTO, Onizuka and his students have this charm that make me simply root for the hero beating the bad guys. And sometimes, I guess that's enough. It's easy for me to call out on the structural problems of the story, to call out on its political incorrectness, to just criticize all those things for criticism's sake... but frankly, I still enjoyed the show in spite of those problems. So does that make it a bad show, if I still enjoyed myself?

In spite of his occasional disturbing behavior around women (Azusa included), I have a lot of respect for Onizuka. I love his interactions with his students, and I love seeing those students express their gratitude for all that this great teacher has done for them. And I love to see Onizuka's allies like Azusa and that one soft-spoken literature teacher I still can't remember the name of, the good guys, fighting for what is right. There's a lot of things to like here in this episode in spite of what I said earlier.

In the future, I'll probably look back and said, "Eh, this series could have been written better." But I highly doubt I would hate this adaptation. I think I would remember it fondly.

Read More