Great Teacher Onizuka

Great Teacher Onizuka
	File:GTO manga.jpg GTO manga, volume 1 (English version)
Genre	Shōnen, Comedy, Drama
Manga
Written by	Tohru Fujisawa
Published by	Kodansha; Tokyopop; Tong Li ; Pika Édition ; Egmont ; Schibsted Forlagene ; Dynamic Italia ; Chuang Yi (Chinese); Waneko; Grupo Editorial Vid
Great Teacher Onizuka dorama
	12 episodes; 1 special; movie;
Anime
Directed by	Naoyasu Hanyu, Noriyuki Abe
Studio	Studio Pierrot

Great Teacher Onizuka (more commonly abbreviated to GTO) is a manga, anime and drama series created by Tohru Fujisawa. This is a sequel of lesser known series Shonan Junai Gumi (lit. "Shōnan True Love Group") where Onizuka's rogue junior high school days are depicted. Another prequel is entitled Bad Company, which tells the story of how the Onibaku was formed.

Both the anime and manga have been licensed in North America by Tokyopop.

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Story

This story is about the life of Eikichi Onizuka, a 22-year-old biker who initially has no idea whatsoever about what to do with his life.

While peeping up girl's skirts at a local shopping mall, Onizuka meets a girl who agrees to go out on a date with him. However, Onizuka's attempts to bed her fails when her current "boyfriend", her teacher, shows up at the love hotel they were in and asks her to come back. This teacher is old and unattractive, but she is so under this teacher's power that she leaps from a window two stories up and lands in his arms. Onizuka, seeing this display of a teacher's power over girls, decides to become one himself, and discovers three important things:

1. He has a conscience and a sense of morality. This means taking advantage of impressionable schoolgirls is out . . . but their unusually attractive mothers (see Kunio Murai, below) are a different matter.
2. He enjoys teaching.
3. He hates the systems of traditional instruction, especially when they have grown ignorant and condescending.

File:Onizuka004.jpg

Takashi Sorimachi as Eikichi Onizuka from GTO Live Action

With these realizations, he sets out to become the greatest teacher ever, using his own wacky brand of philosophy and the ability to do nearly anything when under sufficient pressure. One example being improving his grade from near-zero to perfect on a standardized test in one week, and taking said test in one hour instead of the normal five, all with a few bullet wounds in him from using the other four hours to rescue the daughter of a famous government official from a yakuza hideout. Hired as a long-shot teacher by a privately operated school to tame a class that has driven one teacher to suicide, one to nervous breakdown, and one to joining a cult, he embarks on a mission of self-discovery via breaking through to each student one by one, and helping each student, ranging from the busty bimbo to the oedipal rebel, to learn to genuinely enjoy life.

Media Information

Manga

The original Japanese manga was collected into 25 volumes (tankōbon) by Kodansha's Shounen Magazine Comics imprint. It has been translated into English by publisher TOKYOPOP. Kodansha released a bi-lingual version in Japan.

English Translation				Original Japanese
Name	Publisher	ISBN	Publication Date	Name	Publisher	ISBN	Publication Date
GTO Volume 1	Tokyopop	ISBN 1931514933	April 23 2002	GTO (1)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063124118	May 1997
GTO Volume 2	Tokyopop	ISBN 1931514968	June 25 2002	GTO (2)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063124363	July 1997
GTO Volume 3	Tokyopop	ISBN 1931514496	July 23 2002	GTO (3)	Kodansha	ISBN 406312455X	September 1997
GTO Volume 4	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591820286	August 20 2002	GTO (4)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063124819	November 1997
GTO Volume 5	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591820294	September 24 2002	GTO (5)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063125033	January 1998
GTO Volume 6	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591820308	October 22 2002	GTO (6)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063125386	April 1998
GTO Volume 7	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591820316	November 12 2002	GTO (7)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063125599	June 1998
GTO Volume 8	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591820324	December 10 2002	GTO (8)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063125831	August 1998
GTO Volume 9	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591820707	January 7 2003	GTO (9)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063126196	November 1998
GTO Volume 10	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591821061	March 11 2003	GTO (10)	Kodansha	ISBN 406312665X	March 1999
GTO Volume 11	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591821355	May 13 2003	GTO (11)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063126889	June 1999
GTO Volume 12	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591821363	June 17 2003	GTO (12)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063127273	August 1999
GTO Volume 13	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591821371	August 12 2003	GTO (13)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063127737	November 1999
GTO Volume 14	Tokyopop	ISBN 159182138X	September 16 2003	GTO (14)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063127915	January 2000
GTO Volume 15	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591821398	November 11 2003	GTO (15)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063128245	April 2000
GTO Volume 16	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591821401	January 13 2004	GTO (16)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063128482	July 1998
GTO Volume 17	Tokyopop	ISBN 159182141X	March 9 2004	GTO (17)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063128822	September 2000
GTO Volume 18	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591821428	May 4 2004	GTO (18)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063129144	December 2000
GTO Volume 19	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591821436	June 6, 2004	GTO (19)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063129470	March 2001
GTO Volume 20	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591821444	September 14, 2004	GTO (20)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063129802	June 2001
GTO Volume 21	Tokyopop	ISBN 1591824559	November 9 2004	GTO (21)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063130061	August 2001
GTO Volume 22	Tokyopop	ISBN 1595324100	January 11 2005	GTO (22)	Kodansha	ISBN 406313041X	September 2001
GTO Volume 23	Tokyopop	ISBN 1595324119	March 8, 2005	GTO (23)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063130738	March 15 2002
GTO Volume 24	Tokyopop	ISBN 1595324127	May 10 2005	GTO (24)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063130975	April 17, 2002
GTO Volume 25	Tokyopop	ISBN 1595324135	August 9 2005	GTO (25)	Kodansha	ISBN 4063130983	April 17 2002

Live Action

File:Fuyutsuki.jpg

Takashi Sorimachi as Eikichi Onizuka and Nanako Matsushima as Azusa Fuyutsuki.

There are live action TV series in 12 episodes (drama), a TV special and movie. Takashi Sorimachi stars as Onizuka, and Nanako Matsushima is Azusa. It is directed by Masayuki Suzuki, and the opening song, "Poison", is sung by Takashi Sorimachi himself. There are some drastic changes from the anime in order to fit the 12 hour format (like Nanako also studying at the Holy Forest Academy, eliminating Anko and making Miyabi the daughter of the PTA president, eliminating Ryuji and giving some of his characters's functions to Saejima (the cop friend), Kunio's mom is now the widow of Onizuka's biker gang idol, as well as a few minor changes) but in the end it accomplishes to capture the spirit of GTO very well. The final episode of the live action series received a rating of 35.7%, which TOKYOPOP's publicity says "was the most watched TV program ever in Japan". [1]

Anime

Due to the popularity of the manga and TV series, an anime was inevitable, though strange in this case as it was produced after the other two, similar to Gokusen. It is directed by Noriyuki Abe and Naoyasu Hanyu of Studio Pierrot. The opening theme for the first 16 episodes is "Driver's High"(also ending theme for the last episode) by L'Arc~en~Ciel and later switches to "Hitori No Yoru (Lonely Night)" by Porno Graffitti.

The anime follows the manga fairly closely (adding some new occurrences here and there) up to about the manga's halfway point, the beach trip. After this point, it quickly wraps up, cutting out many or all of the characters introduced in the second half of the manga. The characters in the anime are, in general, similar to their manga counterparts, but the side characters are much less developed or missing entirely. Many characters have different background stories. The nudity is also toned down. It also has an entirely different ending. The majority of these changes are due to the fact that when the anime came out, the manga was only half way completed.

The anime is somewhat more comically exaggerating than the manga and drama. Many odd facial expressions that Onizuka makes is modeled after Takashi Sorimachi (who played Onizuka in the drama).

Episode list (American release titles)

GTO -- the legend begins
Enter Uchiyamada!
Late night roof diving
The secret life of Onizuka
GTO -- an eye for an eye, a butt for a butt
Conspiracies all around
The mother of all crushes
Bungee jumping made easy
Onizuka and the art of war
Outside looking in
To be idolized by a nation
The formula for treachery
Only the best will do
Between a rock and a hard place
The great sacrifice
Beauty + brains = a dangerous mix
Falling for the great Onizuka
How to dine and dash
Private investigations
Love letters
Revolution everywhere
The art of demolition
Superstition
Compromising positions
Playing doctor -- GTO style
Onizuka meets his match
GTO -- agent to the stars
Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong
Studies in high finance
Money talks, GTO walks
Destination: Okinawa
The law of probability
Search and rescue
Good cop / bad cop
Wedding bell blues
Self-improvement: Fuyutsuki's transformation
Living together
Great treasure Onizuka
Alone in the dark
Matters of the heart
Confessions
Old wounds revisited
Onizuka's final battle

Movies

A two-hour TV movie followed in August, 1999 and a theatrical movie in January, 2000.

Characters

Trivia

Attempting to be a realistic work of fiction, a great number of cultural references abound in the course of the GTO mangas:

File:Onizuka003.jpg

Eikichi Onizuka

Onizuka's given name Eikichi was based on rock star Eikichi Yazawa. At one point, when Onizuka is in a big celebration party in his honor, he sings a song by Yazawa himself: "I Love You, OK". Onizuka also shares much of his name with Ellison Onizuka, the Japanese-American astronaut who died in the Challenger space shuttle disaster.
The school where Onizuka teaches at, Seirin Gakuen (Holy Forest) is most probably based on the the high school of Seikei University, a part of a wider educational institute which teaches from elementary school right through to university level, located in Kichijoji.
In one of the first anime episodes, Hidero Ohsawa sees Onizuka's eagerness to date teenage school girls. He tells Onizuka, "Take it easy Golden Boy."
When Kunio tricks Onizuka into wearing bowling balls stuck to his hands with superglue, he calls him "Doraemon", due to his round hands, which make him look like the earless robot cat. Later, Onizuka later completes this look with "Doraemon" written in Kanji on his forehead, painted whiskers on his cheeks and a helicopter fan (Doraemon's trademark gadget) on his hair as he goes rescue Murai, Kusano and Fujiyoshi from punks. He later changes his whole disguise again, impersonating Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, with the same Ursa Major shaped scars (drawn with a marker) on his bare chest, "Kenshiro" in Kanji on his forehead and swollen veins painted on his face.
When Onizuka investigates a female teacher, who joined a cult after her students bullied her, he discovers her overweight, eating junk food, and watching Speed Racer on TV.
After Onizuka and gang escape the police in a big carchase, Fujiyoshi says it was "just like in Speed". Onizuka adds that "the best drivers always get away. Don't you read Initial D?"
When Fujiyoushi and Kusano are looking for Onizuka in the movie theater The Ring can be seen playin on the screen.
Another reference to the Ring is when the Gundam Otaku's find and watch the one tape.
When Murai makes Onizuka set his hair on fire, he laughs and says "He went up like Michael Jackson! Do the moonwalk!".
Onizuka calls Principal Maruyama "Francisco Xavier".
When Onizuka warms up for Fukuroda's swimming contest, he tries to do several clumsy figures in water, including "The Michelle Kwan".
Onizuka disguises himself as Devilman in a class session.
Onizuka puts on a Godzilla costume to amuse some of his female pupils.
When Onizuka is confronted into an arm wrestling match against a hundred opponents, he faces:
- Misshapen and obese Suzunosuke Akao, whose throat is "thicker than Kazushige Nagashima's". Unnaturally muscular and red-skinned man, he resembles the monster Red King from the classic tokusatsu series Ultraman. He is said to be insulted by his teacher calling him that (in the Tokyopop version, he says his teacher called him "Big Red"). When Onizuka defeated him, Onizuka shouted, "Look at my Ultraman's power!!!"
- A man called "Heihachi" from the "Mishima financial empire" who looks just like Heihachi Mishima from the Tekken fighting games.
- A man with the facial features of a sphinx and screws on its face (he looks like a mechanical man), with a boy in the background wearing a round white helmet screaming "Go! Robo!"; this is a homage to the classic tokusatsu series Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot.
- A tall and muscular student wearing an ice hockey mask and called "Jason", an obvious nod to Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th horror movies. Onizuka calls him "Freddy", which further antagonizes him.
After Onizuka wins all the challenges, Mayu faints and is sent to the hospital... where a xenomorph busts out of his stomach in blood, which reveals to be just a hand puppet and a trick by Mayu.
The ex-students attending the tournament say that Onizuka is like "Cyborg 009", like "Space Apeman Gort", adding "so where the hell is Spectreman?" (Gort is a villain from the sentai Spectreman series) and "anyone read the old Tetsujin 28 comics?"
In the chapter title page of one of the volumes, Onizuka asks Urumi: "Who is sexier, me or Sorimachi?". He is talking about Takashi Sorimachi, the actor who portrays Onizuka in the live tv show.
In one of his rests at the hospital, Onizuka rolls on a hospital bed on wheels and screaming, "I am Ultraman!"
Murai goes to watch a Jaws movie with a young girl called Fukada.
Urumi tricks Miyabi and her two friends into being seized as sexual maids for horny masked sadomasochistic clients. The clients wear masks of different color mimicking the visors of the Sentai series Himitsu Sentai Goranger and call themselves the same names as this series' heroes.
When Tadaaki Kusano shows up tired at class, he claims he played Onimusha all night, although he doesn't "even have a PlayStation 2".
There are several references to the Evangelion anime:
- Noburu has several posters of Evangelion in his room.
- When Onizuka mysteriously wins the swimming contest against Fukuroda, he says he wants to buy Evangelion trading cards with the award money.
- After shaking hands with Fuyutsuki-sensei (maybe Azusa last name was taken too from Evangelion), Teshigawara wears white gloves and glasses, like Ikari Gendo, and also fixs up his glasses on his nose and grins like this character.
- When Miyabi dyes her hair light blue, Onizuka is aroused and believes she tries to look like the Evangelion female lead character Rei Ayanami.
There are also several references to the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise:
- In Okinawa, Urumi is forced to share her room with a three boys obssessed by the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise and talk only about it, their spin-offs, their trading cards and they even call Urumi "Sayla Mass". In the "haunted house" game, they impersonate Gundam characters and wear Gundams V-fins (one of them even dressed himself like Turn A Gundam).
- When Urumi makes her first run of school vandalism in the manga, she is confronted by a trio of female upper classman who are collectively known as the "Black Stars". They are an obvious play on Mobile Suit Gundam's Black Tri-Stars ace team, from their names (Gaia, Masha and Ortega), their dark skin and their notably wide loose socks, which are described as Dom-styled.
- When he and Noburo set out to rescue Urumi from her attempted suicide, Onizuka is wearing a t-shirt with the text "Mono-Eye Series" and a Zeon cross etched in.
- Among Onizuka's belongings that were trashed by Daimon is an action figure of Char Aznable's MS-14S Gelgoog Commander Type, complete with its trademark beam naginata and shield.
When Onizuka suggests a way of making money for the Okinawa trip, he suggests to go to Mount Akagi and dig the lost treasure of the Tokugawas. His student friends reply "What do you think this is, the Kindaichi Mysteries?"
When Onizuka tries to cheat at the pachinko game, the machine he uses is Lupin the 3rd-themed.
After Onizuka supposedly resigns, Mrs. Sakurai says that Onizuka was like "a young Karl Gotch".
When Onizuka wrestles with a dummy depicting Mayu, he crushes it and stands in a wrestler outfit, saying he is Antonio Inoki.
Onizuka, after saving Hitomi from a yakuza hideout, is interviewed by a reporter. During that interview, he mentions that he is waiting for Nanako Matsushima to send him a letter to be his penpal.
- In Okinawa, during the "haunted house" game, Azusa disguises herself as Sadako from Ringu. Incidentally, the actress who plays her in the live-action drama of GTO is no other than Nanako Matsushima, the one who plays the reporter Asakawa, in Ring 1 and 2.
- In the anime version, Onizuka's favorite actress is Nanako Matsushima, who plays his love interest in the live action dorama version. Coincidentally, Matsushima is now married to Takashi Sorimachi, who played Onizuka in that series. Sorimachi and Matsushima met on the set of GTO, they married in 2001 after a long term relationship and in June 2004, Nanako gave birth to their first child together, a baby daughter.
Right before they leave for Okinawa, Asuza is mistaken for albino singer Sonoko Suzuki due to the amount of white makeup she used to cover up her botched makeover.
In Okinawa, Anko meets Onizuka, Murai, Fujiyoshi and Kusano disguised as masked punks, and they bring her to a van which has a giant portrait of Seiko Matsuda painted on it.
Murai, Kusano and Fujiyoshi try to break into the school wearing masks of Yasuhiro Nakasone (with "unsinkable aircraft carrier" written on it), John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Mikhail Gorbachev (the birthmark on his head being shaped like Europe), respectively.
When they are breaking in, they say they have the "heart of Lupin". and sing part of its theme song. Then Murai says "Let's go Kennedy. And bring Gorby.", Fujiyoshi says "Roger, Perestroika!".
When Murai suspects his mother is going to marry an elder man with balding curly hair, he nicknames him "Professor Elefun", a character from the Astro Boy manga/anime. Later, Kusano even makes fun of Murai saying that if his mother married "Professor Elefun, that would have made him Astro Boy".
Onizuka makes Tomoko dress up as Cutey Honey for a talent audition.
Munakata gives away Tomoko's address so that "she'll be as well known as Anna Umemiya".
Onizuka has a Sailor Moon figurine among his belongings when they get trashed away by Miss Daimon.
Murai is seen playing an arcade fighting game against a bear named Kuma, who constantly wins. Kuma is also a bear and fighting character that was first introduced to the popular fighting video game series, Tekken. Kuma is also apparently Onizuka's favorite character in Tekken.
In the scene where Vice Principal Uchiyamada meets Onizuka at the urinals in Volume 5, look closely at Onizuka's shirt and you'll see the names of his students written in very small font, along with Shonan Junai Gumi written on the last line.
At one point in the latter half of the manga, Miyabi makes a reference to Mt. Pinatubo, a volcano in the Philippines that erupted back in the 90's.
When Onizuka drifts the Mercedes-Benz SL that Mayu gave him as a gift, he is wearing a headband that has "Initial O" written on it as a sort of spoof reference to Initial D.
When Mr. Uchiyamada was chasing Onizuka who was on the way to a skiing court (he was chasing Urumi), he was drifting his Cresta. Onizuka remarked: "You're too old to play Initial D!"
Apparently, Uchiyamada's Cresta has been in enough adventures that is has become a legend in its own right. During the chase with Onizuka to save Urumi, Uchiyamada passes a Nissan Skyline GT-R whose driver comments that they have just been passed by the "Phantom Cresta."

External links

Tokyopop's GTO section