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I prefer this to the recent version. Maybe it's because the 1990s version is so different from the current trends in schools where you wonder if there's any limits on students at all in many cases. I agree with the other reviewer that Onizuka's character is based on an amazing bond with his students, admittedly larger than real life. My usual lament: if only teachers were like that in the real world! Mine certainly weren't. Yes. it's sometimes over-the-top (on one occasion definitely surreal), but mostly during the course of the story the background is believable and GTO's remedies may be bizarre but not absolutely impossible. I personally prefer my school dramas to have realistic backgrounds, not twenty-somethings dressed in school uniforms. Their problems are different from school students'. This is fun but also not avoiding some serious issues. Despite the fantasy, there is no quick fix to solving the problems during the course of the series. So this GTO pushes and leads but it's the students who make the decisions in the end. But there's plenty of comic relief in the continuing battle between the stuffy professionals and Onizuka. It's great when he gets the better of them despite their constant plotting. You almost feel sorry for Uchiyamada and his co-conspirators trapped in their small worlds. Can't say much about the ending for fear of spoilers. Let's say it goes back to its manga roots in terms of fiction departing from real life. The particular twist which is what really brings things out right is frankly unbelievable. But that's manga. The ride is probably better than the arrival.
I agree it can lift the spirits, yes it's corny as someone else said, but there's no harm in that sometimes. the tendency these days is for these dramas to get way too heavy. GTO is a positive force, I like the passion of his character. Sorimachi Takashi is also not only an attractive character but a charismatic person to my mind.
Story not that original but with plenty of twists and turns so you don't lose interest - I watched it right through, with no "on holds", so it must be good. Acting very good, with larger than life Onizuka and the others performing good character acting, not to mention the kids. Music OK for the background. Re-watch definitely. There's enough in most of it to attract without the ending being important.
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Up to Episode 5 nice, feel good drama with cute leads and sufficient plots to keep interest going. Lee Sung Yeol's haircut certainly does him no favours. Is he trying to disguise his good looks??? Right, at ep. 8: Some people mention cute, fluffy romance, but around eps. 8 and 9 this gets really heavy……around eps 11 and 12 etc my feeling is a) why the heck are people so unkind/nasty to each other? and b) why don't they explain what happened instead of minds just going into overdrive based on false assumptions due to others' silence? - well I suppose then there'd be no excuse for 20 episodes, silly me. I put it on hold around the middle as, like others, it did not seem to go anywhere. Went back as I liked the lead actors and side stories of the others. Liked Mrs Ahn too, but maybe that's my bizarre taste. At ep.17: after some going round in circles around the middle, interest picks up. I've decided I really like this series and care about what happens to the characters but it certainly is not a laugh a minute, it can get quite depressing if you are in the wrong mood. Also the supernatural theme is there but is irritatingly background and not developed. Finally having reached the end and the denouement is certainly cleverly thought up. It's really not a spoiler to say nicely done, sweet. harmony and bliss descends. Better haircuts and appearance (within its limitations) virtually all round. As others say, it's quite emotional (I'm so happy (cry, cry where's that tissue box?) )HOWEVER, since most of this series from episodes 8/9 to near the end was more like tragedy or melodrama and after the contortions of the plot and characters, the transformation in one single, final episode was really a cheat. The trouble is the series went on in the middle for far too long. If there were fewer episodes, the ending would have been more in proportion and credible. Still it was a nice ending and I enjoyed it overall and am glad I didn't drop it half way through. Music OK but too sentimental, not so great you wanted to continually hear it to the point of depression. Re-watch - probably not for me, it's too long a slog, with too many episodes going round in circles. For the good bits (generously overlooking the bad bits) 9/10 overall.
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Ep 1 When I saw these mean-looking guys walking around with thick wooden sticks I thought at first I'd pressed the wrong button and this was a prison drama, but no, it was School 2017. So anyone still in hi-school should probably give K. a miss. Eun Ho character especially good, Kim Se Jung has vitality and looks and so far the best storyline. From ep.3 whew this is drawing me in, not just the usual hi school tropes. Tae Woon becoming much more interesting as a character beneath that boorish exterior, but the sensitive Dae Hwi driven to crisis of values is an important character in a different way. The principal with the gorgon glare who looks like a cross between a pit bull and a vampire but with brain of Daffy Duck is hilarious, while the idealistic young teacher (Han Joo Wan) is attractive. This is really cutting to the heart of some important themes as outlined in the reviews. It stretches believability that such corruption really operates in schools, but it does in business organisations, so are school administrations any different? TBH I find some of the romance verging on soppiness but I suppose that's what the audience likes. The other weak spot in the story, which a lot of the plot centres around to keep the story going, is Eun Ho's relentless self-sacrificing mindset which in the real world would appear nothing short of masochism to the point of being abnormal. For this reason I liked her at the start but my interested faded. The boys, on the other hand, grew in my estimation. Others have commented on the totally unrealistic nature of the story. But if you come to a fictional drama, you have to suspend disbelief, don't you? Whether you are willing to invest time in doing so for any given drama is a matter of your particular taste. I don't think it's in any sense a spoiler (because this is so predictable) to say that as usual with even good dramas the ending is what in my universe I term a "flop" - a neatly-wrapped sentimental package. Can't go into detail unfortunately. Music jolly, typical school drama, nothing special. Will re-watch to catch some of the strands possibly missed in the opening episodes (which seemed a struggle) but for me the interest ends at the penultimate episode. Was this review helpful to you?
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Love Place: Hakanaki Kata Omoi - Gaiya no Koi
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comments on the ending
?: just having seen the epilogue I think I can fairly see that my imagined ending reflects this and my disappointed review should be read in this mind as referring up to episode 36〜 I feel they could have included this ending somehow with the main final episode at same time though which would have made the series ending much more satisfying: still I am glad they made this epilogue though it could have been longer and shown more of how they came together again and their life together afterwards✳️✳️This review is only about the ending〜 I hardly know where to begin in reviewing the whole superlative drama〜 as it was for me!〜 especially how it captured the relationship of the two men (especially using your own imagination)in spite of the restrictions within which the producer had to work。 I have put off watching the last episode for some days as I did not want it to end.。The last episode very neatly resolved the various strands of the plot though the endings are rarely totally satisfying。 It was not exactly unexpected in terms of the ”quest” being an anticlimax like many similar stories or Cheng Ling as an adult being the ”heir” of the heroes、although the specific manner of the ending for Zhou Zi Zhu and Wen Ke Xing was unexpected。Of course I was very disappointed particularly as the closing song always promised they would be together for ever!The ideal of self-sacrifice is very noble but does not Wen consider it would be even more painful for Zhou to recover only to find Wen was no longer alive for him?? I suppose all you can say is that if Wen did not use the Six Combined Cultivation method it would be a case of him losing Zhou eventually 。Of course I hoped ーas seemingly promised at earlier points in the storyーZhou could be healed and they could both live together away from the pains of the World〜however I see them united in spirit in the Afterlife and maybe Wen even present in spirit with Zhou in this life and eventually coming together again as soulmates in a new incarnation〜for me however the ending of 「The Untamed」 was much better and happier although I found the relationship between the two during 「Word of Honor 」closer and more appealing to me than 「The Untamed」〜 but now with the epilogue 「Word of honor」 and 「Untamed」 are my joint favorites but I still feel the Word of honor better at suggesting same sex relationship as in original novel??
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