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Dec 23, 2024
Honestly, I could rant for hours about why I hate Great Teacher Onizuka, but I think the central problem when discussing GTO is doublethink: indoctrination through two conflicting ideas. And, to be clear, this is entirely intentional doublethink. The creators are aware this show enables some pretty disgusting behaviors, and they intentionally try to cover it up with supposedly inspiring writing. Ignoring the subpar animation, art, comedy, and story writing, I think the biggest issue with GTO is this manipulation.
The most obvious example of this shows doublethink is Onizuka. There are two sides to Onizuka: a disgusting, perverse, manchild who ogles his high school students,
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and a caring and inspiring teacher. These two personas are practically entirely separate entities, but they are housed within the same garbage character. This is not due to character growth either, both Onizukas are present within the same Onizuka. One moment he’s a pervert we’re supposed to laugh at and the next he’s an amazing caring teacher we’re supposed to admire; I just don’t buy it. It feels like the show is justifying Onizuka’s perversion by saying, “well, he’s a good person anyway, just ignore it.” Which, it’s like, no I can’t and shouldn’t ignore it; Onizuka is a genuinely awful person.
Aside from Onizuka’s antics, the show works up to the most blatant support of predatory actions I’ve ever seen. Spoilers ahead for anybody braindead enough to care about this show. The final arc of the show explains why the students hate teachers so much: one of their previous teachers betrayed them by sleeping with one of the students and then leaving her when the school found out. The student then kills herself. In response to this plot point, the show tries to redeem the teacher by saying, and I’m paraphrasing here, that the teacher actually cared about the student he slept with and left for her sake. No shit, this is how they try to make the situation seem better. They presented another Onizuka who was demented enough to actually act on his perversion and then straight up attempted a redemption with the same faulty logic they tried to redeem Onizuka with. I don’t even have words for it; I’m genuinely speechless at the gall of this show.
So yeah, this show is genuinely garbage. How anybody could like it is a mystery to me. I’ve heard some stuff about it containing criticisms of the school system and bullying, but Imma squash that right now and say it doesn’t. It has bullying, but other than essentially just saying it’s bad and hurts people, adds nothing to the conversation. And it just doesn’t have any criticism of the school system, maybe other than that schools don’t hire qualified staff. But no person in GTO could ever possibly be qualified staff because they all suck. Plus, it’s all so farfetched that it doesn’t even feel real, which practically disqualifies it from being able to make meaningful criticism.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Aug 18, 2023
I hate to be that person, I really do, but the manga is better. Infinitely better. It’s hard for me to say this, because I really wanted to like the adaptation, but the manga just does everything the anime does without any of the problems the anime has. I’ll concede that most of my issues with it probably contain some bias, and that some issues might come off as nitpicks, but it nonetheless stands that they are problems not present in the original.
I suppose to start with a nitpick, I want to mention the starting song. I don’t like it (I did say nitpicks).
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Well, that’s not entirely true, because I don’t actually dislike the song itself. My main question is why this song. I guess I’m just confused as to what mood the song is supposed to establish. It has this reggae/surf vibe to it that while fitting with the relaxed atmosphere of the show, sort of clashes with everything else about the show. It could be used as a sort of adventurous track (maybe), but there really isn’t a need for that in the material they adapted. Additionally, the manga never had that atmosphere in the first place, so the song is completely out of place.
A bigger problem is our main character Alpha. She is not the same character as she is in the manga. In the manga she has this childish side to her; a slight silliness and clear social awkwardness resulting from years of isolation, but this part of her character really isn’t present in the adaptation. She definitely has a slightly awkward side to her, but it isn’t enough to support some of her reactions or dialogue that were originally a result of her somewhat childish nature. The results of excluding this part of her character are some awkward and unfitting dialogue and a character that feels a bit bland, if not somewhat shallow.
On a more personal note, the anime isn’t really as scenic as the manga is. I don’t really want to fault the show for that, though. It’s hard to match the beautiful and intricate line work of the manga, but overall I was never really left in awe of a visual like I was in the manga. Similarly, I never got quite the same emotional feeling from the anime. The atmosphere wasn’t the same. I don’t know if it’s because of the beginning song, or that it’s not black and white, or perhaps just the specific chapters adapted never had that feeling, but the manga always had this melancholic or nostalgic mood. Where if you weren’t already feeling somewhat introspective, it would make you feel that way. There was also always this slight emptiness to the world, even during scenes with character interaction. But none of this ever felt as present in the anime. They did try, with lots of wide scenic shots that were clearly trying to imitate what’s present in the manga, but it never felt the same to me. Like I said, these are more personal points, and are most definitely not going to be the same for every viewer, but they definitely affected my score and perception of the anime.
I also just don’t understand why YKK was adapted in the way it was. Minor spoilers ahead, if you hadn’t read or watched it already. Ok, so the first episode is based around Alpha and Kokone. A little weird, considering that Kokone is introduced in chapter seven, but still fine. And this makes you think that Kokone is going to be important for the rest of the adaptation, but she’s not. She is important in the manga, but not in what season one adapts. Additionally, episode two follows completely different characters that would’ve been better off introduced in episode one as there’s events and dialogue in episode two that are clearly supposed to be emotional, yet have no effect since we have hardly even seen them on screen, let alone having meaningful interactions. The only connecting point between episodes one and two is the camera Kokone delivers to Alpha, but that could easily be explained by just showing the camera as an object in Alpha’s house in episode one and Kokone would no longer be needed to deliver the camera. With Kokone not delivering the camera, and it no longer being an object of significance, episode one could be spent introducing the characters and relationships that would be important in episode two. The choice to make YKK only two episodes was idiotic in the first place, but then to not make every second of those two episodes count is just odd. I’ll give props that the scenes are well adapted and meaningful, but that doesn’t really make up for these failures that clearly come from not having enough runtime to accomplish everything they wanted to accomplish and not being able to decide which content to include. Either that or YKK was adapted with the thought that Alpha was the only character that mattered and all the others were just unimportant side characters; but not only does this seem unlikely, it would be even more baffling than the first conclusion.
With that aside, I don’t actually think this is bad (I still gave it a 7 after all). Aside from comparisons to the manga, there’s plenty I appreciate from the adaptation: the art (which is still pretty even if I don’t feel it's as impactful), the sparing (if not nonexistent) use of background music, the character design, the color palette, the fact that it’s actually a well made product (other than some animation bumps). This is not a bad adaptation or a bad show. I just think it could have been better and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think there’s much value in choosing to watch this over just reading the manga. And I guess that’s my point. Just read the manga. You’ll be left with a much more worthwhile experience.
Thanks for Reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 13, 2023
You know, I’m generally a heartless person. I carry an apathetic facade, and it’s a struggle to break that facade through anything other than reminding me of my own patheticness. But Takagi-san did it. I cried, it wasn’t a hard cry (those only happen on emotional breakdowns), but there were tears. I watched the whole movie both scared and happy. It was hard to watch; it was hard to come to terms with the fact that this show would be over. I’ve been deeply in love with it since the first season—it was one of the first seasonals I watched, and now it’s over (presumably).
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It was incredibly bittersweet.
Take this information as you will, I feel it sufficiently speaks on the quality of the show. A boring blob about all the quality of the show would not do my feelings justice, and so I shall not write one. I will just leave saying that I wholeheartedly recommend this series. I’ve heard some say it’s boring and repetitive, but I can only feel sorry for those people.
So, Takagi-san, it was long, but thank you. Thank you for providing me a glimpse into the happiness I will never have and making me cry. Thank you for making me realize I’m not emotionless, even if only for a short second. Thank you for being so beautifully crafted. And goodbye for now. I will definitely rewatch you again (at least assuming I don’t commit suicide after watching K-On again) and I look forward to it.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 10, 2022
I finally got around to watching Evangelion, and I must say, I was not disappointed. I don’t think I have ever been more genuinely interested in a cast of characters. Nor do I think I have ever related with a character as much as I did with Shinji. His depression and the way it’s portrayed felt like a mirror of my own issues. The only problem is that he goes around wearing his depression like a crown, constantly shoving it in the face of the other characters. My experience with depression, and generally the way I think depressed people are, is the complete opposite: you
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don’t show much of your issues for other people to see and your thoughts constantly torment you while you stay quiet. You don’t get depressed by letting people know your issues so they can help you, that’s how you cure your depression. While Shinji had the torment part, he didn’t have the quiet part. Otherwise, he’s a well written character.
After watching this show, the portrayal of depression in Kotoura (https://myanimelist.net/anime/15379/) came to mind. The show has never really left my mind for whatever reason, and my biggest gripe has always been how they wrote Kotoura herself. When you compare the two characters, you see just how badly Kotoura’s depression was written. For Shinji, his depression has made him anti-social and completely incapable of regular, not awkward, human conversation. His own thoughts are a constant torment to him that he cannot escape. Whereas Kotoura’s issues only present themselves when the plot finds it necessary: when there is some big issue and you need her to blame herself and appear super sad or when the show mentions it. Other than those instances, she is completely normal. She never had any issue conversing with her friends and her backstory ultimately comes off as manufactured and nonsensical. Shinji’s backstory is something with real life parallels and, due to the state of the world in the show, is hard not to believe. The world and all the characters are all so incredibly messed up that none of the backstories for any of them feel fake and manipulative.
Asuka is probably the second tsundere character I have really ever cared much about (the first being Taiga). Tsunderes generally come off as annoyingly overbearing and unlikable, but Asuka completely avoids this. Don’t get me wrong, that type of tsundere can work as a character, just not in a serious show. Asuka’s tsundere personality is treated more as a symptom of her mental state and childhood than it is as her personality. You could never get a character that feels real and understandable, that feels human, without treating something like this as an actual issue because her personality is something that a human would only have if they had some sort of trauma or insecurity to cover up.
That reasoning ultimately deciphers how the characters all feel so human, they are shown to be flawed and their flaws, personalities, mental struggles, and actions all link back to what they have experienced in life. Nothing about them is just completely random for the sake of being there.
My only issue with the characters, or really the show’s writing, is the complete focus on Shinji. It just gets kind of tired after a while. Especially since at the end Asuka gets really interesting as her character is developed. I also would have loved to see more development of Ritsuko since her feelings towards Gendo weren’t even hinted at until minutes before she stated them. Rei also could’ve been more interesting. I know she’s supposed to be deadpan and emotionless, but she just never had enough character development. I can tell they tried a little, but it wasn’t enough. She’s the weakest of the main cast.
Other than the characters, everything else about this show is pretty solid. For the most part, the animation is wonderful. Other than the last two episodes everything is pretty solid and the color palette is amazing. The fact that this was made before everything was on computers also adds a nice gritty feel to the scenes that you just can’t imitate with a computer. The directing was amazing. Even I could tell how vital the directing was for some of those more despondent scenes to work as well as they did. There was one moment specifically where I think things could’ve been handled better, and that’s the scene where Asuka is having a breakdown in her Eva and they just blared Hallelujah. It made me laugh and I don’t think that was the goal there, so maybe that should’ve been done without the Hallelujah.
To no surprise to anyone, I love the OP. It’s pretty well known as far as OPs go so I don’t need to sing it praise, but it’s a joy to listen to. The ED really surprised me though. I really love smooth jazz like that, it was one of my favorite parts of Durarara, and the first episode came out of nowhere with it, immediately drawing me in and demanding me to listen to it. In other words, I loved it. I also felt it was interesting that the person singing the ED was different each time, but it had no effect on my enjoyment of the ED.
I haven’t mentioned the last two episodes yet, and to be frank I don’t have much to say on them. They’re an absolute mess; made mostly of reused animation and powerpoint slides of words and some flashing lines. While they fit tonally with the show, they are rushed and fail to properly conclude the show. There are reasons for this, but I don’t feel like going into them and others can explain them much better than I could. Since these are the last two episodes and there’s The End of Evangelion movie, I can still easily recommend this show and say it’s one of the better anime ever created. In some shows the last two episodes being a mess might be a reason not to watch it, but this show is definitely not one. And for anyone going deep into anime, this show is a must watch–if not for its fame, for its infamy.
Thank you for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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