The seventh episode of the drama series "GTO" (Kansai TV/Fuji TV, Mondays at 10 PM), starring actor Takashi Sorimachi, aired on August 31st. Scenes in which Onizuka (Sorimachi) loses his temper at a student's parent and sneaks into the school at night with a can of beer in hand have become a hot topic on social media, with many commenting that they "feel like the original GTO."
◇The following contains spoilers.
Hosokawa Hiroto (Nishiura Shinnosuke), a scholarship student on the soccer team, fractured his bone during practice. After getting into a fight with his teammates over the injury, Hiroto declared that he would quit the club. Later, when Hiroto's father, Togo (Namioka Kazuki), found out about his son's departure and stormed into the school in anger, an emergency parents' meeting was held.
On that day, parents were calling for him to quit immediately, putting Onizuka in a difficult position. However, Onizuka asserted his opinion freely, saying, "It would be strange if nothing went wrong when you cram a bunch of adolescent kids into a classroom. High school students have always been arrogant and cocky, but lately they've been getting information from social media and looking down on adults more and more. It's the adults who are considerate of such kids who are also at fault."
Togo immediately yelled, "You're not remorseful at all!" Onizuka didn't back down and retorted, "You're the one being rude. It's because of a father like you that Taisho grew up to be someone who doesn't understand other people's feelings!" The situation between Onizuka and Togo escalated to the point where they were on the verge of exploding, and those around them desperately tried to stop them.
Later, Onizuka found Taisho looking dejected in the city at night, bought two cans of beer, and invited him to a toast. Onizuka accompanied Taisho to school, and with practiced ease, climbed over the gate and entered the school grounds. To Taisho's bewildered question, "Is this okay?", Onizuka laughed and said, "It's fine. I used to do this all the time. It brings back memories." Then, alone in the schoolyard, Onizuka drank the beer with relish and said to Taisho, "I wouldn't let a minor drink this."
On social media, comments included: "It was great to see Onizuka speak his mind to his toxic parents," "Onizuka is awesome for being so blunt with his toxic parents," "The way he sneaks into the school at night and gets furious at his parents, it finally feels like GTO again," "Sneaking into the school at night is thrilling, both then and now, lol," "He buys two cans of beer and sneaks into the school at night. That's Onizuka for you," and "It was great to see Onizuka trying to get them to drink and calling them damn dads, it really captured the feel of the original GTO."
"GTO" is based on the manga of the same name by Tohru Fujisawa and is a school drama about Eikichi Onizuka, a former biker gang member turned teacher who tackles student and school problems head-on with his unconventional actions. It is set in Seishin Academy, a private high school that has the philosophy of "nurturing future leaders," and depicts an educational environment where information and evaluations of students and teachers are managed as digital data.
