Anime 1913 Shonan Junai Gumi Reviews Filter Check 2

I, as many who found themselves watching this, must've surely at least enjoyed Great Teacher Onizuka to give this prequel (even tho, it's not really, since it came out earlier) a try. I suppose in all respects it can be considered GTO's younger brother. With GTO taking all of the spotlight and attention and also having a stronger narrative and cast of characters.

Whereas, in Shonan Jumai Gumi, the only two characters that I gave a damn about other than Onizuka were Ayumi and Ryuji. The Humor was all consistently funny, however, Story-wise this OVA instantly falls apart. With the Exception of Episode 3, this ... felt really mediocre (story/character wise). Not bad however, some of the amateurish lowbrow humor, from time to time would catch me off-guard with its hilarity.

After finishing watching it I couldn't say that I disliked it, nor could I say that it was very good. Perhaps it was an entertaining shit-show that can reasonably be called a guilty pleasure. Had the last two episodes continued off from Episode 3's plot in a way that if it were vaguely related to it, or even if it ended with 3 Episodes I could've left satisfied with the story.

Alas, the OVA's last two episodes focus on plot points that were vaguely brought up again in GTO, however, it hampers the OVA's quality overall. Since those plots are never really resolved in the OVA itself. It gives it an abrupt ending. Perhaps they planned to do more, however the cliffhanger style ending only really left me a bit confused by the end. Since there was not really any clear direction that the story seemed to want to go into – Switching between Episodes, the Narrative seemed to lack a great deal of focus, there was never any clear direction for the story, which is why although I was hooked on GTO, Shonan Jumai Gumi however: failed to hook me.

If you are a hardcore GTO fan, you'll definitely love this, as the humor holds this OVA together and makes it entertaining overall. And the fights are pretty well done and set-up. Making it enjoyable even despite its lack of overall substance.