Money Is Evil, Kids

This episode, we focus on Chikako Oshima (Minami Shirakawa), one of Miyabi Aizawa's cheerleader "posse". You know the kind; they are the girls who would follow the "mean girl" around in high school drama. Unfortunately, Chikako isn't originally from the manga, so she's an original character. I suppose that, to fill up the 12 episode slot, they needed to take time to focus on non-manga characters every once in a while (much like in episode 5). This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can often lead up to mediocre writing when they don't have a source material to guide them.

The theme of the episode focuses on money, including Miyabi and her posse's attempt at conning men of their money in compensated dating, as well as Chikako's father being forced into an illegal financial situation. Initially, I had assumed that the first situation was going to be resolved in a less than tasteful manner, considering how the previous episodes dealt with the subject of sex. But fortunately, as opposed to Chikako conning a bad man she shouldn't have (and giving us a predictable storyline), Onizuka was the one she cons (or tried to) instead, and he offers her both the cash and wise words about the superficiality of money.

Personally, I did feel that this episode was a bit mawkish about the value of money, especially when they brought up the subject of recession in Japan. I understand why they tried to frame the story that way, but it just felt... awkward, and fairly unrealistic at that. Not only that nobody would throw away such a large amount of money (teenagers especially), it just seems like a stupid thing to do, regardless of what your point about money is. It all feels like a Saturday morning special on Sesame Street is all I'm saying.

On one hand, I could understand why Chikako is as infuriated as she was about her father's actions, considering that Japanese have such stringency about a tarnished reputation. Being caught in a crime, no matter how petty, can be very embarrassing for the Japanese people, so they are especially sensitive about that, even the children.

On the other hand, it's still quite a mediocre episode. I just feel that the message this time isn't as well-written or powerful as the previous ones, treading schmaltzy territory. Much like the other "original content" episode, episode 5, this is yet another weak episode.

That being said, the ending does leave much anticipation, as Onizuka is finally confronted by the president of the PTA we've all heard so much about previously in the show: Miyabi's mother, Reiko Aizawa.

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