GTO Anime Review

GTO - Great Teacher Onizuka
/ TV Series / Comedy / 16-up
Bottom Line
Bawdy, creative, by turns dramatic and silly, and all-around fun.
It’s Like...
...Shonan Bakusozoku meets Sakura Diaries.
Vital Stats
Original Title
GTO
Romanized Title
GTO
Animation Studio
Studio Pierrot
US Release By
Genre
Punk-Teacher Comedy
Series Type
TV Series
Length
43 25 minute episodes
Production Date
1999-06-30 - 2000-09-17
What's In It
Categories
Look For
- Suplex!
- Evil Schoolgirls
- Motorcycles
- Slapstick
- Parody (a couple of minor ones)
- Just Plain Stupid
Objectionable Content
- Violence: 2 (moderate)
- Nudity: 2 (moderate)
- Sex: 4 (heavy)
- Language: 3 (significant)
Plot Synopsis
Onizuka Eikichi, Age 22, is a former biker gang leader who came to Tokyo six years ago with his best friend in the hopes of making something of his life. He hasn't gotten very far yet, but he's fresh out of college now and has found his calling: Becoming the greatest high school teacher ever--Great Teacher Onizuka. Of course, there are a couple of minor problems to work out--he's foul mouthed, has a problem with authority, major anger management issues, and he's more interested in the students' miniskirts than in passing along his hard earned wisdom to them. But Onizuka doesn't give up easily, and his in-your-face way of getting things done might just make him a better teacher than he has any right to be.
Quick Review
Switch to Full ReviewGreat Teacher Onizuka effectively mixes raunchy humor with a bit of an edge, a huge amount of hilarious scenes involving Onizuka's unstable lovable-loser-with-attitude persona, a collection of wild situations that any prime-time comedy would be proud to sport, and a stiff shot of hard-hitting commentary on the frightening issues surrounding modern youth and their education. The result is sometimes touching, occasionally eyebrow-raising, and always very funny. Add to that clean, effective art, quality directing and writing, and absolutely spectacular Japanese dialogue, and you've got yourself an instant classic. My only complaint is that the dub, though not bad, is a bit dirty and somewhat of a letdown when compared to the sub.
Highly recommended to anyone who's not overly sensitive to mature humor and unflinchingly harsh portrayals of the grown-up-too-fast nature of many kids, GTO is uproariously funny and still manages to say something serious quite often.
Related Recommendations
The first series that comes to mind as having a lot in common with GTO is the mature comedy Sakura Diaries. That series, however, has a much more consistent sexual theme, more overt mature content, and is also more dramatic in general. As far as the young, unconventional teacher thing goes, The Gokusen is very similar with a female yakuza boss replacing Onizuka--the result is less clever, more violent, but also fun. I Me My, Strawberry Eggs also has quite a bit in common, though it's much cheesier. The little known Shonan Bakusozoku is also worth mentioning as the only other biker gang anime to make it to US shores; it has a somewhat similar take on not-what-you-were-expecting bikers who really aren't that bad (and Onizuka's old gang was also in Shonan).
Notes and Trivia
GTO is based on a comic by Tohru Fujisawa, also available in English from Tokyopop. Fans of the comic (or those interested in checking it out) might be interested in knowing that the stories in the TV series are mostly abridged versions of the comic stories, but generally faithful to the originals. The character designs are almost shockingly accurate when compared to the originals.
The GTO anime, like the comic version, was tremendously popular; so much so that a live action TV series was produced not long after the animated version. Though it hasn't been translated into English outside of fansubs, it is also quite good, and was very popular in Japan, though the in-the-flesh version of Onizuka has a cooler demeanor than the animated and manga versions.
Although the translation (in the subtitled version) was mostly quite good, there were a few oddities. Most notable was in the fourth volume (though apparently not subsequent ones), where there seemed to be quite a bit of fansub-style Japanese included. Nothing inherently wrong with this, but it wasn't consistent and seemed unnecessary in some cases, for example writing "Ganbatte--(Good luck)" in the subtitles, or leaving Onizuka's trademark phrase "Yoroshiku" untranslated (not that it's an easy word to translate, but they only subtitled it as "Yoroshiku" once or twice, and did so without any explanation).
The other things I noticed throughout the series were more subtle, but also seemingly unnecessary--for example, some of Onizuka's more colorful dialogue could have been translated almost directly into English and still made sense, but a blander, more toned-down version was often used in the subtitles. This is all nitpicking, though--the subtitles were very good, particularly with parenthetical mentions of things like "Oh-toro" being the fatty part of tuna.
Also of note is that the series is full of (very funny) Japanese cultural references and jokes, most of which will be missed by the average non-Japanese viewer. Many are explained in the liner notes included with the DVDs, but here's at least one that wasn't: In the scene in the first episode where Onizuka abruptly changes into a pair of wolf-shaped pajamas, the music playing in the background is a well-known (in Japan) song about how men are all wolves.
US DVD Review
The DVDs, though the look and content of each is pretty much the same, are impressive productions. To start with the video is sharp and cleanly encoded, as is the two-channel audio. The subtitles are well done, with soft-titled sign translations that the menus even give the option of turning off (though you'll miss a few jokes if you do), although it'd have been nice if they had used a couple of different colors to distinguish. The creative animated menus (which look like paraphernalia from Onizuka's school) offer access to well indexed episodes, plus a selection of goodies: Character sketches, the Japanese language opening, and a selection of scenes of The Teacher going nuts (in both languages, no less). In addition to these standard extras on every disc, 4 and 5 also include an original video interview with the original creator of the manga. There are even full dual-language credits (the English credits are toward the end). The sole flaw is that the discs default to Tokyopop's preview set when you first play them, but at least you can skip that. The DVDs also include some very handy notes on the case insert about cultural jokes, puns, and other things that don't translate well that are well worth a look.
Parental Guide
There is a lot of mature humor, but a relatively limited amount of graphic content; Tokyopop's 16+ rating is appropriate.
Violence: 2 - There are plenty of people being beat up, but it's mostly very exaggerated.
Nudity: 2 - Some underwear, Onizuka's tastefully shadowed frame in the intro, and his much less tastefully portrayed body elsewhere.
Sex/Mature Themes: 4 - Borderline pedophilia and visual jokes involving bondage, plus a variety of other mature humor.
Language: 3 - The sub is surprisingly clean, but there is some coarse (and just gross) language in the dub.
Availability
Available in North America from Tokyo Pop on 10 bilingual DVD volumes as well as two 5-disc sets. Was originally also available on 10 dubbed VHS volumes.
Looking to buy? Try these stores:
RightStuf (search) |
AnimeNation |
Amazon