GTO: the Great Teacher Onizuka

I couldn't help myself and I had to compare to. Not only to the anime (hardly at all, actually), but especially with the 1998 live-action series where Onizuka was played by Sorimachi, and I have to say that the Onizuka of the time was many times better. This one also fought and was different, but he had a mouth full of pathetic bullshit that you hear all the time in school shows. And he just kept hammering it into you over and over and over again. He wasn't so cool anymore, and I felt sorry for that, because Onizuka is just the sort of character that Japanese TV (and not only Japanese TV) needs to freshen up. Unfortunately they stuffed him into slightly different clothes and made him a talking thug. The pseudo-moving scenes failed to move me, instead I was smirking at them. It just wasn't right. Even if I didn't compare and they hadn’t called it GTO, it still wouldn't get a better rating. It lacked sparkle and a certain uniqueness. Plus the acting was not great, the best of it was Tayama Ryôsei, a.k.a. Deputy Director Uchiyamada. Basically, there's nothing I can call out here. But if you're not over-saturated with Japanese series from the school environment, if you want to see bullies fighting and shitheads getting it..., then check it out. You might like it. Because not everything was bad, and not all the scenes were far-fetched. (2012.09.17)