Kunio the Bad Boy

After that previous "very special episode" of GTO, we (thankfully) return to the usual formula of Onizuka tackling his student's problems in this episode. This time, it's rebellious cool boy with a knife's edge of a death stare, Kunio Murai (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi).

When I first saw this series as a kid, I remember that Kunio was the second toughest student Onizuka had to crack, right before Miyabi the head honcho. IIRC, Kunio won't fully reform till the final episode. And throughout the episode, we learn why this is so: Kunio's father was a biker like Onizuka, and more importantly, he has a past tragedy involving a teacher, which increased Kunio's mistrust of teachers in general. Things don't get better for Kunio this episode when Onizuka started to become close to her mother, even going out on dates with her.

One thing I realized about Onizuka (or at least this live action version of him) is that he likes to push his students' buttons to understand them, and this whole "pervert teacher" shtick is just a facade. In fact, the more I watched this series, the more I couldn't picture him as the stereotypical dirty old man from the manga. He just comes off as way too street smart for that, someone with years of wise experience on what it means to be at the lowest points of life. And it's made me respect him a lot. Previously, I had assumed that this is just a comic character who accidentally solves his students' problems, but of course, I was wrong, and perhaps he does truly live up to the title of the show - a great teacher indeed who planned from Day One to aid his students.

Much like a lot of the past episodes, this one treads into rather heavy subjects as well, particularly the Japanese's idealistic views on bikers. It's common knowledge that bikers and gangsters in Japan were sometimes worshiped as antiheroes who protect the weak. Kunio in this episode, however, calls out on his father's selfishness in playing biker instead of caring for his family. And to be honest, I kinda wish they gave Kunio's argument more of a platform to stand on. I know a lot of these Japanese shows are going to end up praising these bikers and calling them heroes who were in the right, but it would be nice to see the other side of the argument once in a while, to ask the hard question of whether if they were merely glorified criminals. But this episode didn't go somewhere like that and ended up being quite predictable. The way the "problem of the day" is resolved isn't as powerful as the previous episodes either.

But that isn't to say I dislike the episode. Kunio did make some strong arguments about how Onizuka and his ilk are just foolish thugs wasting their lives away, and Onizuka did prove (in a way) why men like him and Kunio's father are respected and looked up to, especially when he later risked his life to protect Kunio. And honestly, I like Kunio's character in this. Initially, I thought he looked like someone who could kill you if you stare at him the wrong way. But it turns out he's just a kid with baggage like the other students. A talented kid at that.

This episode also sheds light on P.E. teacher, Hajime Hakamada (Masahiro Kobayashi), who attempted to reach out to Kunio to make himself look better in the eyes of Azusa. At the start of the episode, I was initially going to call him a "lovable jock", but by the end of it, when he did something quite appalling, I just lost all respect for him like with the other teachers. It's annoying though, that all the teachers here aside from Azusa and Onizuka are either morally questionable, selfish, or just plain unlikable. It makes for a very boring cast of characters, leaves very few reasons to care about them, and not to mention making the story rather unrealistic.

That being said, I do like that the episode isn't wrapped up cleanly with a bow like the others, and Kunio's problem remains unresolved. It's still sloppy writing, but at least it's somewhat different this time.

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