I have heard so many great things about the Great Teacher Onizuka, more commonly known as GTO, manga series. While I am a big fan of the anime, I like many people find myself having more time to watch than read nowadays. So finally I took the time to check out this series for myself, and now I can’t believe how much I too am a fan, so much of a fan, I am still shaking my head over it.
Reading the first volume, I felt a little uncomfortable liking the main character, Eikichi Onizuka. A 22-year-old loser, who dropped out of high school, manipulated his way into a fourth-rate college, graduated and spends time in malls looking up high school girls’ skirts. With no aspirations, Onizuka decides one day to become a teacher, not to help others, but to get with young high school girls and become a dirty old man married to a 16-year-old girl. A theme of pedophilia runs oddly through the tale until Onizuka finally takes over a class as part of a training course. Fooled by a young female student and blackmailed by unruly high school teens, Onizuka must rely on his biker gangbanging ways and torture several students, actually turning their lives around in the process and becoming a great teacher in the eyes of the school.
Still a pervert, Volume 2 begins with Onizuka helping the young female student who fooled him, to go home after running away. Using some highly unorthodox methods involving primarily a sledgehammer, Onizuka completes his mission and discovers he actually might have a purpose in life-to become the world’s greatest teacher! However, now that his training course has ended he must find a real teaching job. Of course, that is easier than it sounds, even for the Great Teacher Onizuka.
The slacker that he is, despite his best intentions, Onizuka does not take his final teacher exam that he needs to get a job, thinking his work in the training course will guarantee him a slot at a public school. But all is not lost. Onizuka could still become a private school teacher and he goes after the job, overcoming obstacles like another police chase, a run-in with the vice-principal of the school he wants to get a job at and doing poorly on the interview that could change his life. Still, Onizuka’s unorthodox ways win out, earning him the position and a home on the roof of the school, looking over the students below.
This is a great tale. Onizuka’s actually becomes a person as the story progresses. He has many layers he is not just a pervert! Onizuka may be making strides, but being 22, he is still a kid at heart. For instance after setting up house on the school’s rooftop Onizuka hears noises and discovers that two students are making out nearby. Instead of kicking them out, he actually lifts up the girl’s dress and examines the situation up close. He gets the job done because the students never return again. Good job!
Yes, there are some serious undertones, but the tale is also absolutely hilarious. The tale even starts to get romantic, despite Onizuka’s perverted ways, he finds himself defending a fellow female teacher against the actions of another pervert. The two seem linked now and it looks good to see him finally find a girl closer to his age. He goes from a perverted slacker with no meaning to a perverted slacker with direction. Onizuka may strangely be the most realistic character in manga today.
Add in exceptional artwork that truly brings out the emotions of the characters and you have a goofy tale that still manages to make you feel good about life. You have to read it to believe it!
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