Guess who is on TV right now~!
Since Onizuka resigned from Meishu School, Headmistress Daimon decided to make sure that Onizuka will never step foot in her school again and asked the man to not contact his former students or else they will be expelled. Onizuka just agreed with that condition. Back at Meishu School, the school is undergoing massive restructuring... by watching every single student's activities via a tablet.
I don't remember an instance in the original manga or in the anime that Onizuka had a moment of slump. He's just that energetic teacher that does everything for his friends and for his students. In the case of the 2012 drama, we saw him in a state we least expect him to be, in a state of depression since he can't do anything to help his friends thanks to the condition he agreed with Headmistress Daimon. Even though he tried his best to evade his students, he can't help it especially when he accidentally met Kusano thanks to his part-time job.
Kusano is having relationship problems as his girlfriend's mother doesn't agree with his relationship with her daughter since he only dreams of becoming a pro boxer and not attend any prestigious university. To be honest, I can understand the concern of the mother since having a boxing career is some unsure career as you put life inside the ring and it is unsure what will happen after a match. But after learning that the girl's mother only wants her daughter to date the elite, this is when I started to raise an eyebrow. I mean, if it is for the sake of your daughter's happiness, and then let her decide who she wants to date!
As I didn't expect, Onizuka didn't help Kusano with his problem thanks to the promise he made with Daimon. I didn't expect it for starters since I know that Onizuka is a type of guy who wants to help a friend in need. If he can't help Kusano as a teacher, then at least help him as a friend! Because Onizuka accidentally met Kusano, Daimon has no other choice but to expel Kusano. As expected, Class 2-4 is angry about this decision, especially after learning Daimon's lame excuse that the reason why she expel Kusano is because she was "harassing" his own girlfriend! The class tried their best to reverse the decision only to fail thanks to Daimon threatening them that it will affect their credentials.
They tried asking Onizuka's help but it didn't work as Onizuka can't convince Daimon to reverse the decision and her threat that if he tries to contact his former class again, they will all be expelled from the school. Because he can't do anything, he just ignores his former students and went on with his life before meeting them. Even if he tried his best not to act like he didn't met them, his actions speak louder than his words and Ryuji noticed it. It was all thanks to Ryuji that Onizuka got his groove back.
If there was one thing that caught me off guard in this episode was that Ryuji not being his calm self. I mean, throughout the entire series, he was always that calm and charismatic cafe owner who happened to be an ex-bike gang member and that's about it. Granted, we saw his gangster side once but how he scolded Onizuka was something different. He sounds like a mix of his old gangster self and a concerned friend who sees that his friend suffering who thinks that he can't do a thing to help his former students. This was when Onizuka realized via Ryuji that his students are not just his students, but his friends.
Onizuka then went with his former students or should I say, friends to help Kusano convince his girlfriend's mother that there is nothing wrong with their relationship. Onizuka's plan was simple, Kusano will protect them from a thief (Onizuka) and as I expected, his plan failed as he ended up landing on the wrong room! He ended up in a room owned by an international gang! As for Kusano, he's having a hard time to convince his girlfriend's mother and that his girlfriend plans to kill herself! Thankfully, Onizuka arrives just in time to give her a lecture that suicide will not do anything good. This made me realize one thing, for the past 3 episodes, most of the plot has something to do with suicide! Seriously, what's with this show and the love for attempted suicide plots?
After the lecture that suicide will not do anything good and that titles have nothing to do with love and that crap about dreams, the mother of Kusano's girlfriend is starting to understand her daughter and that the couple will do their best for everyone to accept their relationship. Anyway, what happened to the gang that Onizuka met? As expected, he beat the crap out of them and national TV will cover this story! Not to my surprise, he used national TV to throw his tantrum over Daimon and as expected, Daimon did what every single cunning villain will do, she decided to re-hire Onizuka.
Now that Onizuka is back in Meishu School, the final battle between Daimon and Onizuka begins! As for Ryuji, he noticed that there's something wrong with Onizuka and to those who read the manga, Onizuka discovered that he has brain aneurism and one more strong blow in the head will cause his death or if he lives, his body will become limp or simpler terms, a vegetable. Since this is Onizuka we are talking about, he just ignored the doctor's advice and went on with his life like it didn't happen.
For some things that I missed earlier, Headmistress Daimon in the drama has the same traits of the original Daimon in the manga less the fact that she is not as beautiful as the Daimon in the manga wherein Onizuka and some of the students gave her a nickname Double D Cup Chick due to her bust size. Unlike in the manga, as far as I can remember, she is not Kikuchi's mother. Her methods in reconstructing the school were similar to her methods in the manga except that she went a bit more extreme. In the manga, she has a group of students who keeps watch over the student body and that she occasionally checks the student's e-mails. As for the drama, she did one thing I least expect a teacher will do, invade her student's privacy.
Her method of restructuring the school also affects the teachers as she devised a method wherein their salary increase is based on the student's performance. This caused the teachers to think more on their reputation and their salaries over the welfare of the students and I find it cruel. Much to my surprise, Kikuchi was the complete opposite of the Kikuchi in the manga and in the anime in which he is a total bro that will do everything for his friends and that includes hack the school's computers to foil Daimon's plan and my personal favorite, steal Principal Uchiyamada's car just to follow Onizuka who will do something crazy and since they don't have formal driving training, he just relied on his Gran Turismo skills!
Kikuchi's problem with Director Sakurai since her original teaching methods was one of the reasons why his parents had a divorce. Kikuchi's actions in this episode were something I didn't expect him to do, I mean, he stalked some of the students and send anonymous messages to some parents! His rather disturbing actions made me conclude that he'll end up becoming a mix between the original Kikuchi and Sho Shibuya, a student with psychological problems who thinks of Daimon as his own mother that he is willing to go extreme just for her. In short, during the duration of the episode, I was expecting that Kikuchi will show some signs of being a psycho that is until Sho Shibuya appeared at the end of the episode.
With Onizuka's life in danger thanks to his head problem and that Daimon released her ace in the form of Sho Shibuya; the series is set for its final episode. Can Onizuka's odd teaching methods win over Daimon's by the books way of teaching?
