If you have ever thought that your teachers are odd, then it’s unlikely that you are familiar with Onizuka Eikichi. In the manga, anime, and television series GTO, Great Teacher Onizuka, Onizuka-sensei, a former motorcycle thug who aspires to teach, is called Onizuka-sensei. In 1997, KC Magazine Shounen Comics released GTO. GTO, which Fujisawa Tooru wrote and illustrated, gained popularity quickly. It has been published in many languages, including a bilingual manga in English and Japanese that Stuart Atkin and Yoko Toyozaki translated. Later, GTO was turned into both an anime and a TV drama series. Takashi Sorimachi, a singer, played Onizuka-sensei in the Fuji TV television series. SPE Vision and Studio Pierrot, the animators of the anime series, also aired it on Fuji TV.
One of the best-known anime comedies in the West is Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO). It debuted at the same time as Trigun and Cowboy Bebop but hasn’t aged as well as those two. Over the years, I must have begun this anime countless times, but I always gave up after a few episodes. I’ve only ever finished a book that was imposed upon me for review since it was so well-liked.
In its day, GTO was a much better program. Now that I’ve seen a number of anime with humor comparable to GTO’s but better in practically every way, I found the show’s forty-three episodes to be a bit of a drag. Sure, it’s enjoyable, but not as funny as it would have been when it first came out.
GTO centers on a teacher named Onizuka, a former criminal with an unusual approach to instruction and a passion for being addressed as “sensei” by young ladies. When it comes to teaching his students a lesson, he isn’t hesitant to play practical jokes on them or humiliate them. Importantly, he doesn’t hesitate to shame himself while doing it, and his values are sound. Unlike some teachers, he does not think of himself as superior to the kids. He’s a
Onizuka-sensei is presented as a vulgar high school student teacher in the first episode of the anime. He hopes his class will be full of lovely girls as he begins his day. He discovers that he must teach the “O” class, much to his chagrin. The “O” class, which is nothing more than a collection of criminal men and women who dress like males, shatters his perverse ambitions.
He was surprised to find out that his class included a particularly attractive girl. He befriends her only to discover later that she and the other students are blackmailing him for money or trying to have him fired using his perversion and her attractiveness.
There are around a dozen short stories in the series where students try to hurt him or get him fired. These pranks rarely bother him because he has less shame than everyone in the school combined, and he often turns the situation around by showing them his sincere character and concern for them. He deals with arrogant people, who want to be thugs, mean girls, and delinquents.
I will admit that the first few times I found this formula enjoyable, but soon the predictability got to me. The introduction of the “genius” character, a blonde girl who supposedly knows everything and drives teachers crazy, made me lose interest. That, it is thought, is the main issue. Despite the claims of several people that she is a genius, she rarely shows any sign of intelligence, often acting downright foolishly. If played for laughs, this would have been okay, but instead, we are expected to accept it as fact. It is obvious that the author had no concept of how to construct her.
Anyone who watches the anime feels at peace and in harmony, and Onizuka’s casual demeanour makes anyone feel at ease and prepared for the next day. The program has a secret characteristic. With the exquisite art of storytelling, it imparts so many lessons that every episode teaches the viewer something new about themselves.
This anime is for you if you really want something that makes you think about life and dream, is realistic but also upbeat in Onizuka’s comedic style.
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Writer:
Risalat Rahman Hridoy
Intern, Content Writing Department
YSSE