Rape Makes For Lazy Writing

Summer has arrived in this fifth episode, and that means even in a J-drama, we need to have an obligatory summer episode. However, this episode isn't anything like your fanservice summer episodes you'd find in an anime. Instead, things take a more creepy turn as the spotlight turns on the math teacher, Yuu Teshigawara (Kunihiko Ida), who's revealed to have a dangerous obsession with Azusa Fuyutsuki.

Unfortunately, things become predictable from there. This is easily the weakest episode of the series thus far. Aside from the majority of the episode being a bore with nothing interesting happening, the writing can be summarized with the word, "lazy". Whenever the subject of sexual assault comes into play, it's a well-known fact that many writers handle the subject poorly and in a lazy fashion. This is one of those cases, especially when Azusa is presented as a victim who needs to be saved. This pretty much nullified all the prior strong writing tackling women's issues in Japan, especially when Teshigawara here is not arrested for his crimes, and it really shows how dated this '90s drama really is.

That said, there is some (very little) decent character development going on. We have more funny banter between Onizuka and Azusa, showcasing the great chemistry between Sorimachi and Matsushima. The conversation ironically involves Onizuka calling out Azusa for using men like playthings, and this becomes more relevant later, when he criticizes her for comparing all men to her friend's high-status boyfriends, claiming "Love isn't just about status!" Even though I felt that it was bad writing to use Azusa's victimization to present Onizuka in a positive light, I have to admit that it is kinda nice to see that even Onizuka, despite being a massive pervert, has proper standards as a gentleman. I just wish it could've been shown some other way.

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