Mariko, calm down, you don’t have to look that shocked that GTO 2014 is over
GTO Episode 10 had Onizuka confront his past with Sawamura, a friend he got killed, and Takizawa, one of Onizuka’s many enemies, and after Onizuka beats up Takizawa’s gang, the police arrive to send Takizawa and his crew back to jail.
Summary of Great Teacher Onizuka 2014 Episode 11
- During the events of Takizawa however, we learn that Ayuna (Mayu Matsuoka), despite insisting she had an abortion, still carried the child. And she’s determined to have the baby…whereas Kuzuki is not. At least, he’s not ready to prove he can take care of the child with her, which is why she pushes him away. Unable to understand where he’s gone wrong, Kuzuki ends up threatening to kill himself in front of his mom and Onizuka, but after Onizuka realizes that was his “determination”, he ends up getting the both of them in trouble by assaulting two officers and stealing some money. This experience — where eventually Kuzuki found out it was all staged — showcased where Kuzuki was at, and where he needed to be in order to care for Ayuna and the child properly. After the baby is born and things seem to be wrapping up, the media gets wind of their relationship and pressures the students and school for answers. Their answers were nullified once Onizuka, after giving a German Suplex to the head teacher, explained why Ayuna and Kuzuki should still stay in school. Director Sakurai, in order to take responsibility, resigns, and Uchiyamada’s named the principal. The entire class are now in their third year, Honami and Onizuka might have something going on, and who knows what’s going to happen now…
My Take
- Before I begin, I can only say this — poor checkers.
I mean damn
- I mean who knows how long he was in that position…anyways, it was nice to get another GTO nod, even though I thought it was poorly executed. Also the one nod to GTO Taiwan! Just that one with the reference to getting chased by the cops! This show…anyways, now onto the last episode.
- What does it mean to say you’ll do anything to make it work? That means managing to exhaust all your options, making sacrifices for the better of the family, etc. Obviously, Kuzuki running away from his home is not a good start, and then taking barely anything and bringing only a bag to Ayuna doesn’t really showcase you want to take this seriously. At least, that’s the point the show was trying to make. The obvious point was made when Onizuka took Kuzuki and stole, as it turned out to be later, fake money: you can’t hesitate, you can’t go half way, you need to be committed. Kuzuki obviously wasn’t committed. Now whether stealing is a good point to prove this is debatable, but it wasn’t just him having to steal to support Ayuna and the child, it was for him to understand what he has to do and what he has to give up if he truly wants to support Ayuna and the child.
- Of course, Ayuna still has a ways to go as well. Yes, she’s willing to do anything for her child, but how can you say you can do anything for her if you’re dead? So it was nice to somehow get a bit of background on Director Sakurai, who had to make a choice not quite like hers, but she understands what it’s like having a child, and how there needs to be a mother with her.
- I think what will mostly be a mystery for most of this season of GTO is these leaks — from whoever took a picture of Meiri and Kihara to Ayuna’s pregnancy spreading online somewhere, it’s really silly it wasn’t revealed who was behind some of this. Do things just happen because they can or is there a lack of confidence in revealing who did it? Either way, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth that there’s a mystery there, but it can’t be solved because the show doesn’t want t0 provide answers. It’s disappointing, to say the least.
- What continues to attract me to all things GTO is whenever Onizuka starts to talk. Sure, it’s cheesy as heck and in this case, it sure was a long speech about why he wanted to keep Ayuna and Kuzuki in school. But it was nice that he did share a bit of his past with everyone and how it helped shape him into who he was today, even though there were missteps to that goal.
Series Review
So, let me just put this out there again: I love GTO. I love the manga, the anime, and the original drama. So even with GTO 2012 and GTO 2014, even if they were absolutely putrid, I’d probably still watch them on occasion, mainly because of the lessons, and kind of how I wish I had these lessons back in high school for a chance. Well, whatever the case, something attracts me to GTO and I can’t get enough of it, so I’m already hoping for more GTO.
With that out of the way, yeah, GTO 2014 was a big step down.
The challenges were obvious: no existing content to base this current iteration on, you don’t want to leech too much off of GTO 2012 (though some fanservice in that direction would have been cool; there was very little of that in this), new students, and brand new attitudes…specifically the attitudes of the class and the teachers, which is nothing like GTO 2012. Maybe a little bit, but not nearly as much. Whatever the case, it wasn’t going to be easy…
…And boy did this show make it hard on itself. From the odd camera work in Ep 1 and 2 (thankfully it seemed to become less and less obvious as the show went on), to a lot of episodes not really being any good (I think only Ep 2 and Ep 10 I considered good, Ep 10 more because of the premise than the execution), GTO 2014 was, for the most part, average. There’s an obvious happy-go-lucky theme that you really couldn’t say happened in GTO 2012 because the class was hell bent on not having a teacher, but there’s nothing like that in GTO 2014. The only thing is, when you have stories revolving around fat shaming, stalking, soliciting, and a high school student that’s pregnant, the mix is odd. I think having happy and fun times and dark themes can work, but I found the execution to be of poor interest. Ep 3 is probably the one episode that highlights this issue — it involves stalking, yet we have an annoying student who says “Huh” and a group that was soliciting young girls acting all happy too. Oh, and we have a regular student who’s stalking that annoying student, even camping outside her house and eating food. The message being sent here is weird, and it doesn’t make it all that interesting.
I think one of the few things they got right was Onizuka, aside from Ep 3 and 10, not fighting much in this edition. Yeah, him fighting can always be entertaining, but it was necessary for him to do so in GTO 2012, and we know he’s an absolute beast. Him just talking and being with the students, students who lack support for various reasons, was good enough for me. The only thing they failed at is exploring Onizuka’s past. Devoting a whole episode to that doesn’t cut it. They made allusions to Sawamura for some episodes, but instead of bringing up Takizawa early on, they set themselves up for a letdown when he appears and he’s probably the most shallow character in the entire season. They could have done a better job of that.
Anyways, this season is probably a sign that maybe they should wait until actual GTO material comes from the author himself. Which brings me to Paradise Lost, which Tohru Fujisawa’s working on! It’s actually pretty good from what I’ve read so far, and that could definitely be worth adapting into a live action. Will probably have to wait a while before we get it though, but that can be used.
So, GTO 2014 was mostly a disappointment. It has little of the charm of GTO 2012, and unless you did watch GTO 2012 I’d have a hard time recommending you watch this version. Now the only thing to wonder about is if there will be any specials (though what could it be though?)
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Justin
Justin is the founder of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Anime & manga fan that likes to blog about anime and manga, is addicted to sports, and weak to crossovers. You can follow Justin on Twitter @Kami_nomi.
Latest posts by Justin (see all)
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