To talk about Denpa Kyoushi, you need to talk about Great Teacher Onizuka first. GTO was an incredibly popular manga about a delinquent named Onizuka who became a teacher. Its popularity derived mainly from two qualities: one, it’s hilarious. More importantly however, it was well-received because it managed to properly capture the relationship between student and teacher that many readers could relate or aspire to. More so than being a manga just about Onizuka, it was a manga about how students who have suffered from their own individual problems could improve themselves and be functioning members of society on their own merit. The classroom isn’t just about the raw content you learn, but the lessons you retain. Great Teacher Onizuka managed to convey *teaching* very well.

So that brings us back to Denpa Kyoushi. It basically follows a similar premise. Kagami, a genius-level otaku and NEET, is forced to become a high school teacher. The setting is pretty much identical albeit Kagami being basically the opposite of Onizuka. So what makes Denpa Kyoushi different? Instead of using Kagami as a means of teaching students, Kagami serves more as an idolizing figure. If there’s ever a bully or conflict, he almost always solves it through his own skill set. This aggrandizes the character and is only meant to glorify Kagami; it doesn’t properly convey any form of teaching. It’s just a way of Kagami exerting dominance over the antagonists. There’s one arc where Kagami teaches a student a lesson by basically outsniping him in an arcade game. Where is the lesson here? It’s fairly non-existent, nor is it even a conceivably realistic scenario or a scene that can parallel a real life lesson. There’s not much readers can actually relate to other than having meaninglessly flashy scenes. As I said before, GTO was a manga that wasn’t just about Onizuka, but Denpa Kyoushi is a manga that is almost wholly about Kagami. There isn’t a conflict, nor are there any strong subtle themes about teacher-student relationships. It occasionally does try to go out of its comfort zone in that regard and does occasionally bring interesting ideas to possibly flesh out on, but most of the chapters really just highlight how good Kagami is at strategizing and at video games. It’s hopelessly boring and borderline pathetic; it feels more like escapism glorifying NEET and otaku culture than an attempt at a coherent and interesting plot.

Hopefully you feel differently about Denpa Kyoushi than I do since I can’t see Denpa Kyoushi past a poor attempt that completely misunderstood why GTO was so popular. That’s not to say GTO was flawless, but it at least had a consistent and well-executed theme that could extend into the real world. That only exists in small, tiny portions in Denpa Kyoushi if at all.