Man, they really know how to liven up a special.

This special has everything I love about specials, in that it adds meaningful content to the main series. Usually, I'm bothered by specials because oftentimes, the writers don't know what to do with them and thus turn them into superficial fanservice episodes or fill the screentime up with dumb comedic moments. This special, on the other hand, brings back together all the supporting characters and shows us how they are leading on with their lives. And it's not just Onizuka's students from Seirin Academy either, as the new character development also extends to the teachers. In a way, it's almost like a continuation of the series, which is nice, because I did feel that the last episode of the main series was in a bit of hurry to tie up all the loose ends.

I love that the whole gang of students we know and love from the main series have come back - including Tomoko! There are some very interesting developments among these older students' love lives, making this special a definite must-watch! Unfortunately for Onizuka, his own love life is facing crisis in this special, and he stumbles a lot in his attempt to please Azusa's father.

Meanwhile, with Onizuka being assigned to another school, we get to see him tackling new students and their new problems, specifically a student with a past affair with an ex-teacher, Rika Yamaguchi (Nana Katase). There's yet another attempted sexual assault scene here, which hardly surprises me anymore, and it's even more intense than before. Fortunately, it didn't last long and was barely the main focus.

The central theme of the episode is about love, and what it takes to achieve happiness in a love life. Instead of throwing around mawkish platitudes like how true love conquers all, the subject matter is handled quite realistically by the writers this time round. I also like how the writers subverts Onizuka's style of solving problems in the main series. Without spoiling anything, let's just say Onizuka's recklessness doesn't produce ideal results this time. From these good points, you could feel that this is truly a special episode, and that the writers put in extra effort to make it just as good or better than the main series.

But in spite of the solid writing for the new students, I still feel that the best part about the special is still the character growth the older supporting characters go through. There's just a warm feeling seeing Onizuka finally getting along with all of his Seirin Academy students who used to mistrust him. We didn't get to see such light-hearted moments near the end of the main series because it was too focused on wrapping the story up, especially where Miyabi is concerned since she was the last student Onizuka helped.

Worth mentioning is two special actors from the live action Death Note movies I love - Nana Katase as Rika who would go on to play Kiyomi Takada, and Shigeki Hosokawa as Takeda who would go on to play Raye Penber.

Ironically enough, more than the last episode of the main series, this special has reignited my interest in GTO more than ever! It's a shame this is the only special of the series, as I wouldn't mind seeing a slice-of-life spin-off with just Onizuka and his Seirin Academy students, just having fun together. That was a delight to watch in this special.

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There is a concern I always had about movies adapted from a TV drama - it's rarely good. I think this is especially true among Japanese drama, like Liar Game, another disappointing movie that's an embarrassment to the TV series. I don't know the reason this is so, I could only presume. I presume that they needed an excuse for a movie (because every popular thing needs a big-screen something), so they just came up with whatever. Going into GTO, while I was pleased with the main series and the special in spite of their flawed writing, I had that same concern about this movie being bad... And boy, did it live up to my cynicism.

But first, let me get this straight - this isn't a terrible movie. It's just very blend and average, much like many movies spun off from TV series. I had to stop watching halfway and take a break because I got so bored. If you are aware of GTO in any form, then you pretty much know how this movie is going to go down. Onizuka comes into town, cause some trouble, helps a select few students with their problems because he doesn't have enough time in the one and half hour movie to help everyone, and then everyone would realize what a nice guy and a great teacher he really is, the end.

What usually made the formula interesting in the TV series is how the students' problems were relatable issues we would care about - bullying, death of a friend, being discouraged from pursuing your dreams, betrayal by your loved ones, etc, etc. This time round, however, the hard-hitting sob story just didn't really do anything for me emotionally. It's about a girl, Ayano Katsuragi (Rena Tanaka) whose father's bad reputation got all her classmates to ostracize her. On paper, this has potential for a nice story, but Ayano is just so unlikable and self-entitled, practically whiny - and this is in comparison to the rest of the rotten eggs we've seen in the TV series! And the way the problem was resolved is just so anti-climatic and boring. Being a big-screen movie, you would think that the solution to the problem of the day would be on a bigger and more dramatic scale.

There were also some subplots about supporting characters I could barely care about either. A timid student, Raku (Hideyuki Kasahara) who is bullied (which is resolved quickly) falls in love with Ayano and struggles to confess his feelings, and Kaoru (Norika Fujiwara), a reporter in pursuit of the next big scoop misidentifies Onizuka as a serial criminal on the run. Both subplots are uninteresting and lead to predictable outcomes. The acting of these new stars isn't the greatest either.

But what really drove the final nail in the coffin is the overarching plotline of the school being at risk of getting torn down - again! Isn't this the same plotline from the final episode of the TV series? In fact, we've seen this premise countless times even in American teen movies! How the evil corporations threaten to tear down the poor children's school and they rally together against the mean money-grubbing adults! Hell, there's even a clock tower (also getting torn down) thrown into the mix here! A clock tower! How many clock towers getting torn down have we seen already in these kinds of movies?

You know what I said in my episode review of the TV series, about how the problems with the writing were made up with the charm and the warmth between Onizuka and his students? That warm feeling was the result of 12 episodes of build-up, something this movie unfortunately could never achieve. I wouldn't have been bothered so much if this movie was about one of the older Seirin Academy students from the TV series getting in trouble again. That would at least involve characters I could care about.

It's unfortunate that the end to the 1998 GTO adaptation is so uninspired and lackluster instead of going out with a bang. Here's hoping the 2012 remake (which I am going to watch some time in the near future) will bring something new and refreshing to the table.

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Little Noboru from the 1998 GTO drama, Oguri Shun, has grown up to take on the role of our favorite samurai lazy-bums, Gintoki Sakata! I've also seen him as Shinichi Kudo from the live action Detective Conan movies, but his acting chops have definitely improved here in Gintama.

The Benizakura Arc was the first major story arc for the Gintama anime, and it has now been made into two movies, an animated retelling and live action. Personally, I feel like Benizakura isn't the most amazing arc compared to the later ones (especially the Shogun arc), but it's understandable that as a live action film that's seen by many newcomers, this is the most accessible story arc for them. There's a lot of familiar humor for old fans of the anime as well, along with some new ones. In particular, the meta-humor stands out the most, including self-mockery about how the movie needed to appeal to newcomers as well and thus requiring an obligatory origin story at the beginning. The funniest jokes I found were the references to other anime and the characters' fear of being sued for copyright infringement, including a hilarious cameo by Nausicaa.

Unfortunately, the humor can fall flat sometimes in this live action format. Humor in anime (or just animation in general) rarely works as effectively as live action. When you try to imitate the kind of exaggerated comedy in anime, it can come off as lame and contrived. For example, the (lackluster) special effects of Shinpachi being punched stand out more than the unfunny joke itself, and that gag got old after the first time. Some of the characters attempting hyperbole (like Tetsuya Murata shouting) also look really awkward in real life. These comedic moments just don't work well outside of anime, and that's the same problem I had with Scott Pilgrim when it tried to emulate such cartoonish effects in live action. Henpeita Takechi also looks nothing like his anime counterpart because of his eyes, but that's something live action is incapable of adapting, so that's inevitable (though I'll bet Marvel Studios would go above and beyond to keep such aesthetic details faithful to the source material in some shape or form; shame that Japanese studios couldn't do the same).

Some of the actors do manage to pull off their gags relatively well. Oguri's "straight man" retorts work well enough (though definitely never surpassing the brilliant Tomokazu Sugita). Nakamura Kankuro as Kondo was not bad, but that had more to do with him being a good sport, letting himself get covered in honey (or whatever that golden sauce was) than his acting chops. The other casting choices, however, were kinda iffy. Domoto Tsuyoshi as Takasugi just looked weird, as his face was too chubby for the role, and his attempt to act stoic just came off as dull and lifeless. Also, why is Shinpachi shouting all the time? And why is he so violent in this movie? Totally out of character.

And finally, we have to talk about those cheap special effects. I don't know many anime adaptations in Japan have such low quality CGI. The Japanese just don't seem capable of matching the Americans in realistic-looking CGI for some reason, and Gintama live action is no exception. They even used blatantly fake masks in place of the Amanto... I wonder if that's intentional as some form of satire, but I highly doubt it since they didn't address these cheap props.

Finally, there isn't that much important information about the Gintama universe to make this a must-watch for newcomers. The sword-fights in live action do look cooler than the anime, that's the movie's one saving grace, but other than that, it's not really an impressive retelling for you to go out of your way to watch this. Watch the animated telling of Benizakura instead - it has the awesome "Bakuchi Dancer" by DOES playing in the final fight whereas this live action version just has some forgettable score.

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