GTO
GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka

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I've hunted this manga for quite a while but there were always problems with the order. The translation was poorly done because it had a lot of spelling mistakes in it and failed to use proper use of the English language in some scenes.

That aside, this is by far the best manga I have ever read. I am stunned, the concept is so simple but so well thought out.

Well let’s start with a quick introduction to the story. Eikichi Onizuka is a 22 year old virgin and ex-gang leader of the dreaded motorcycle gang “Oni-Baku”. He’s a street punk with piercings and bleached hair, a ... graduate from a fifth rate university and was captain of his karate team. Not exactly what you would call teacher material. Despite all this Onizuka manages to convince the principal and gets a job as a teacher, he’s assigned to class 4 who are notorious for having driven every homeroom teacher to insanity. However Great Teacher Onizuka isn’t such a pushover and he’s determined to win them over one by one. Onizuka stumbles from one mishap to another, saving kids from jumping off rooftops, reuniting them with their parents, just making a difference. Though this all may seem very trivial, this is the most amusing story I have read.

Moving on to the art, the art is very detailed and nice to look at. It’s got that 90’s drawing style that I appreciate very much. However if it weren’t for the characters different personalities you’d have trouble telling them apart. Especially the girls all have somewhat the same face, and the only way you can tell them apart is by their hairstyle, which can be a bother sometimes. Overall there are quite some scenes were someone is standing on a rooftop looking over the city at dawn. It’s these scenes that really get you into the art. Of course there are the infamous many faces from Onizuka that are just hilarious and make up for a lot.

About the characters, I really like the characters. I’ve fallen in love with a few of them. But one thing bothers me.. They’re supposed to be 14 years old, yet they’re so darn evil. I remember being 14, I wouldn’t go as far to torture a teacher as they would, then again they have their reasons. Moving on to the character Eikichi Onizuka. Quite simply he’s one of the best characters ever created. He’s an inspiration, he’s cool, funny, stays true, and above all he’s human (though this can be debated). Onizuka is one of the most instantly likeable characters you will ever read about. If I were ever to sit down and have dinner with any character real or fictional, it would without a doubt be Eikichi Onizuka. Though I wouldn’t be willing to pick up the bill.

I cannot remember the last manga I enjoyed this dearly, I hold this manga close to heart and it is definitely one that I won’t be forgetting. Hell I’ll just say it, I’m an Onizuka fan, and you could be too. Take it from me, reach deep in those pockets and get this manga, you won’t regret it. And while reading you might even learn a thing or two from the greatest teacher in all of Japan, Great Teacher Onizuka.

I can only use one word to describe this manga, OUTSTANDING! This is definitely must-read manga for all shounen manga lovers!

The story is nevertheless to say, more than great. I didn't talk this blindly, though. This manga can describes what is going wrong with the education system in this era. The story can makes you more mature by understanding the society more deeply than ever. If you are thinking 'manga should not be too realistic' right now, then you are definitely wrong. While it describes how serious the problem is, it also slips many sense of humor (most of it is perverted one :P) and ... many reckless acts in it (The main character is ex-biker anyway, so nothing to be freaked out). Its not like what you will get sleepy while read this manga though. Takes some example, Onizuka saved his student from suicide attempt by jumping off the building. While it is seems awkward at start, but if it seen at another view, would it great if we got teacher like that? I'll describe the characters lately, so we jumped to artwork for now first.

The most appealing art styles in this manga is the unique face expression of the characters itself. I can say it is unique because no other mangaka (as i know) 1used the style before. Their excessive expression will make some of readers laugh (myself too) even in some sort of serious situation. While it is unique, it is also, you know, realistic. (go and grab a copy of GTO and you will know what i mean)

I can't deny that this manga have many well done character. The reason I can't give a high score to the characters design is THEY HAVE DIFFERENT HAIRSTYLE BUT SAME FACED CHARACTER IN IT especially male character. It bothers me when I see Murai and Kikuchi have same faces and the only things that differentiate them are glasses, skin colour and hairstyle! The problem in characters is just appearance, though. But good things is all the characters has their very own personality.

The enjoyment level is really high. You can read this manga all the day without getting bored even once. For my case, I've been read this manga in front of my monitor (I downloaded it) for nearly 6 hours non stop for 2 days. All the arc are not repetitive, and the most outstanding is you can't predict what will Onizuka do. You can predict the plot but not action by the Onizuka, so it may make you laugh until drops under the floor!

My overall rating is 10 out of 10! You can download this manga at www.mangaspot.com. This is where i download the manga episodes. The server is a bit lag though but guess you have to be patient with it. If you know a better website, share it with me!

This is my second reviews for manga, so it is not really good. But I will do better jobs next time! And thanks for reading my review!

This series was a waste of time. I have to give myself a pat on the shoulder for actually sitting through the entire bullshit. Man, what was I even doing? I dropped this series halfway few years ago, so I thought I'd give it a chance again to see if I had a different opinion of it now. I was wrong.

In a sea of positive 10/10 reviews, I find it hard to believe if we are all reading the very same GTO. Ecchi has never been my favorite genre but sometimes I do come across certain series where the fan-service was done tastefully (and this ... is coming from a female). The ecchi in this manga was just outright disgusting and criminally offensive (well, isn't this every ecchi manga basically?). I think that ALL of the male characters in this manga should just get arrested and die off somewhere.

The one thing that pisses me off is the fact that there were not even ONE female character who were genuinely outraged whenever they got sexually harassed. I've never thought it was funny though. No one seems to question that these are bunch of grown ass men lusting over 14 year olds. The portrayal of rape victims were also done unrealistically. This manga- in other words, is a 101 on sexually objectifying women. It was just so uncomfortable.

I don't care if this was a manga about a guy trying to start over. I don't give a fuck about the things he's done to save his students or all the life-changing moments he had. Anyone could do that shit. I'm never reading another series from this author. GTH.

This manga, I can safely say, needs to be on everyone's "must read" list. I've been recommended this manga by a friend, and I tried it out. This was a refreshing change of pace from other popular manga out there. Maybe it was the more realistic setting, or it could have been the great arcs in each plot development. Whatever it was, I fell in love with this manga.

To begin, let's start with the story. To be honest, I personally thought it was a bit slow in the beginning. The "teacher" portion of GTO doesn't actually happen until a bit later on. However, once Eikichi ... Onizuka, the star of the show, becomes a temporary teacher for the infamous Class 3-4 of Holy Forest Academy, things start picking up. Each situation in the beginning reveals more about Onizuka's way of dealing with things; no logic, just go with it. This philosophy keeps the plot going, and every situation is eventually resolved. Class 3-4 becomes nothing for the world's greatest teacher. The struggles and bonds portrayed in the story are downright inspiring and addictive to read about.

The art was not to my liking in the beginning. I can forgive that, though, because in this modern age, we have tools that could make art more better looking than the 90s. Still, the art style was really good. I was laughing so much at the hilarious faces Onizuka can make when he's in a pickle. The art also got better in quality, which shows me that Tohru Fujisawa really knows how to improve his skills. By the end of the manga, I felt that the art was nothing short of amazing for the early 2000s. To put it simply, the beginning art was a bit disappointing, but it picks up and looks really good later.

I love the characters portrayed in GTO. To be frank, I hate it when a manga uses a bunch of characters only once in the entire runthrough, because there could be more development with them. GTO does not disappoint, with nearly every character being important to the story. However, amidst the character roll call, only one stands above, and that is Eikichi Onizuka. He is the pinnacle of the "likable protagonist." Even with a violent temper and strength befitting Hercules, his set of morals and life lessons help him become the greatest teacher ever. The greatest thing about him is his view on everything. Even as a 22-year old adult, he still acts like a kid. Normally this would be frowned upon, but it helps him connect with Class 3-4 and outsiders, forming deep bonds with them as he helps solve their past problems. Whether it be suicide or massive destruction, bloodlust or trauma, Eikichi Onizuka is the man for the job. This side of him, along with the simple brain of his, makes Mr. Onizuka one of my favorite manga characters of all time.

Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed this manga. The beginning, to be honest, was a bit slow for me. I had to read through some number of pages before getting to the juicy tidbits of GTO. As I read, I got more and more sucked into the world of Class 3-4 and Onizuka. Even when I thought it couldn't get any better, it did. The second half of GTO was simply outstanding. The last two major story arcs were the highlights of the manga for me. This is just great to me, because the exciting stuff boils down in the end and not the beginning. If GTO had a graph describing its climactic moments from beginning to end, the line would rise and fall, each time getting higher and higher until the very end, settling down to a satisfying end. For the whole roller coaster rider known as Great Teacher Onizuka, I had a blast.

To recap, GTO is an amazing manga series that can be picked up by anyone interested enough. You have got to read it; it's hilarious, dramatic, heartwarming fun contained in 25 volumes. It's inspiring in many ways; the series deals with so many life lessons that you yourself could potentially use practically. Who knows what could happen; honestly, this review is my first, and I wrote it because GTO is simply too awesome and outstanding to be ignored. Who knows; by reading this manga, maybe you could get a few pointers from Great Teacher Onizuka himself.

Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO): one of the most loved and inspirational manga in existence. Some even pursued a career in teaching after reading it! A story about a man with little in the way of education finding a place for himself in the world as a teacher; teaching kids with more education than himself lessons about life. A wonderful combination of hard-hitting drama, complete with characters with realistic, easy to relate to problems and plenty of over the top comedy. As well as being meaningful, it can inject warmth into even the coldest of hearts. Like mine.

Story: 8/10

The story is centered around a man ... called Eikichi Onizuka. Like near enough every 22 year old male, he wants the easy life; a life involving lots of money, women and respect. And he is determined to get it, taking a resume with him and going to job interviews at big companies. However, there are a few minor problems: he looks like a street punk, he has bleached hair, he barely managed to graduate from a fifth rate college and he boasts about his martial arts skills on his resume, also mentioning the fact he is a virgin. Needless to say, he gets rejected every time he applies for a cushy office job.

Close to giving up on the easy life, a chance encounter with an attractive high school girl, whom is having sex with a fat and bald teacher, changes his mind. After he comes to the shocking realization that teachers are surrounded by young and pure girls, he decides to become a teacher and fulfill his dream of marrying an attractive girl younger than himself. But his goal quickly changes once again after he helps a girl solve her family problems whilst on a teaching training course, and he decides to right the wrongs of the teachers who told him he was trash by becoming the greatest teacher in the world.

While the premise is a simple one, the balance between drama and comedy and the wonderful execution makes the simplicity irrelevant. Living in the storage room at the top of Holy Forest (a co-ed private school), Onizuka helps the students in his class (3-4) in numerous ways, varying from using his street smarts to stop bullies by giving them a taste of their own medicine to simply being friends with his more lonely students. Unlike other teachers who, just like in real life, only care about their job and the money, he goes the extra mile, involving himself with his students in an attempt to make them enjoy their school years in a way he never was able to. Whether it involves saving his students from getting beaten and/or raped or helping them appreciate life by tying them to the front of his bike and driving them off an unfinished bridge (seriously), he is willing to do it. To begin with his class hate teachers in general because of a past experience, but by the end he manages to unite everyone in his class and earn the respect of all.

However, I cannot claim the story is without its problems. Some of the arcs included repeat what has gone before and appear to have only been included just to pad out the series. And, by the end, there are many subplots left hanging, and in some cases it appears that the mangaka forgot to or lacked the motivation required to finish what he had started. Although these are in truth minor problems, largely ignorable because of how enjoyable GTO is to read, I can't objectively give the story top marks when it has so many minor but bothersome issues.

Characterisation: 10/10

Nearly all of the important members of class four get fleshed out over the course of the story. Some more than others because a few get their very own lengthy arcs included, but even those who do not are usually heavily involved in the GTO proceedings. Rather than being driven by an over-arching plot, it is driven by numerous shorter stories that focus on a certain character or two, and Onizuka usually has to step in to help the character(s) involved. I think anyone who reads it would struggle not to find at least one character to add to their favourite character list: whether you are into a mommy's boy who protects his 27 year old (and often braless) mother from men at all costs (Kunio), a mentally slow but innocent and cute girl (Tomoko) or a girl with an IQ of 200 that masks her loneliness with her intellect (Urumi), there is a loveable character for everyone included.

The best thing about the cast is that they all have relatable problems real people have. Some are dissatisfied with their lives, some have family issues, some have been abused - there is something everyone can relate to. If nothing else, pretty much everyone should be able to connect with the characters when it comes to their feelings about teachers and the barrier that exists between teacher and student. And, while it is true that the solutions to the casts various problems tend to be over the top for comedy purposes, none of the meaning is lost. In fact, the addition of often hilarious humour prevents the story as a whole from being a total downer.

GTO is truly worthy of top marks when it comes to characterisation. The only possible reason I can think of to mark it lower is that not every subplot is seen through to conclusion, which is fairly bothersome for me since I became so invested in the lives of the characters.

Art: 10/10

Are you tired of seeing the same background art repeated over and over, with new character poses drawn on top? If you are, then look no further than GTO, where even small objects in rooms are drawn with detail and the backgrounds rarely repeat...or at least not noticeably so. Because of the detailed drawings and the unusually large amount of text per page, the volumes take me far longer than a 180-200 page volume normally takes me to get though.

I cannot stress enough how lovely the GTO art is. The character models are so well drawn and realistic that I actually found the female characters attractive (the mangaka deserves an award for 'Best Drawn School Girls Ever'). The expressions are spot on and everything looks as close to perfection as I can imagine a weekly manga ever getting. My only complaint is that, towards the end, some of the characters start to look like those introduced previously... But, to be fair, it is very harsh to criticize an artist for that when reviewing a 25 volume series - there are a huge amount of characters and keeping them all looking totally different is impossible.

Overall: 9.5/10

In closing, GTO is a must read for everyone. It would be difficult for anyone not to be moved by the story and/or not get any laughs out of the comedy. Sure, it is perverted and a little silly at times, but that just adds to the flavour. It is safe to say the series has a little something for everyone, and that is why the series is a worldwide hit. If you do not own the series, go buy all 25 volumes, sit back and get ready for the sort of enjoyment very little in this world can provide you with.

I first found out about GTO by going through all the top rated manga on MAL, as you do. If you listen to anyone online, you'd think that GTO is one of the best manga ever written, with no doubts. I went and specifically tried to find bad reviews, and it was hard to find any. So I went in with sky high expectations, only to find myself...a little disappointed. That isn't to say GTO is a horrible manga, however. If you manage to stick through it and deal with its problems, I do think that it is a read that is worth your time.

My ... biggest issue with the manga is has to deal with the overall cynicism and bizarre feeling of the series at times. No one is a good person in this manga (except maybe Noboru). The story starts out with Onizuka wanting to become a teacher just so he can pick up young, underage girls, despite him being already 22. A lot of the series actually has Onizuka and various other characters perving on girls, with basically no punishment, which to be honest, made me quite uncomfortable. At some point, there even is a teacher introduced that spends all his free time installing hidden cameras to videotape and spy on the middle school girls, and no one really does much about it. All the kids are also straight up evil in the beginning. When Urumi, one of the main student characters, is introduced, she tries to murder an old teacher by blowing up a Molotov cocktail in their face. These characters are supposed to be 14, and many of them are already committing felonies on the daily.

Since the story is about Onizuka and how he wants to become a great teacher and reform all these troublemaker kids, the story centralizes a lot on how Onizuka is able to relate to the kids and get them to like him and school in general (from this point on I will call this process getting GTO'd). However, in the beginning of the manga I do have some issues with some of the methods. For example, one of the ways Onizuka manages to get one of the students named Noboru to stop getting bullied by other girls is to strip the other girls naked, write things on their butts, and then take pictures of their said butts.

But, despite my slight dislike of the beginning, I forced myself to keep reading. Everyone loves it, and there has to be a reason for that right? Hopefully it gets better.

And it did get better. Around chapter 130, the story suddenly starts to reach a sort of climax where many story threads that were alluded to before all begin to resolve themselves. Urumi's big secret finally gets revealed, and the fallout is massive. All the while, Suguru, Miyabi, and Uchiyamada finally get GTO'd, which is very, very satisfying. In my opinion, the arc that starts here and ends at around before chapter 160 is the highlight of the series.

And to its credit, there are many things that GTO does do well. Some chapters are just one character talking, and at these times the mangaka manages to show off some impressive writing skills. There is a chapter where Onizuka's corrupt cop friend tries repeatedly to scam him into joining various pyramid schemes, which I found it very entertaining. Certain other little secrets like Urumi's big secret, and the reason why Class 4 became such a troubled class are also hidden and revealed in a very satisfying way.

Overall, I think the manga is somewhat of a 6/10 manga, with 10/10 moments. Moments like when some characters finally get GTO'd are very satisfying, although sometimes the dialogue does become somewhat of a drag to read.

Story: 3/10
Some very good parts, some very bad parts.

Art: 8/10
Very gorgeous and detailed art. However, it can be hard to tell characters apart at times.

Characters: 8/10
Great characters in general, even if they start out as evil pieces of shit in the beginning. You begin to understand every character as the author starts to flush out their backstories.

Enjoyment: 4/10
Personally, not for me. The sexual harassment and perverseness of the series has not aged well and honestly can be quite uncomfortable to read at times.

Overall: 5/10
There are lots to praise about this manga, I value my enjoyment with a manga a lot more than how supposedly "good" it is with qualities such as art, story, or characters. I didn't exactly click with the manga until past chapter 130, when the story became very good. I think it is worth a read, but only if you get the humor. Give it maybe 20 chapters to see if you want to continue or not.

GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) is absolutely legendary. It’s about a former gang member turned teacher teaching one of the worst classes in his school & turning them around into fine young men & women. Throughout time its been hailed as an all time great & for very good reason. In this review I hope to explain what makes this series so legendary.

I’ll start with the concept. A manga about turning into delinquents into fine people, giving them a figure in their life to look up to. It’s not the most original set-up in story telling but because of this we get to see ourselves in ... a variety of different situations ranging from down to earth & realistic, to completely out-there bat-shit insanity. Below its surface, GTO is a manga with a heart of gold about teaching life lessons & finding ones place in life. I don’t want to oversell it because GTO at its core is a comedy manga. But with GTO, I come for what’s seemingly a good comedy manga at first glance, & then I stay with it for the life lessons & characters that, while I don’t necessarily relate to. I’m sure many do & I can imagine there’s someone out there who were like at least one of the characters in this manga at some point in their life that not only relate to these but Onizuka transcended just being a character in a comedy manga & turned into somebody they looked up to.

I surely look up to Onizuka as cheesy as that may sound. I really do though, while Onizuka as a character obviously wouldn’t work in a real life scenario given how many school rules & at times laws he outright breaks. At one point to “teach his students a lesson” he ties them up, dunks them in water, & basically scars them for life. Another point early in the series as a means of getting back for one of his students, he stalks the victims bullies to a karaoke bar, ties them up, takes pictures of the girls in erotic positions & threatens to post the pictures on the internet (which he doesn’t actually do). So Onizuka isn’t exactly the most orthodox, or even morally right teacher out there, but at the end of the day he’s still a man I can never the less look up to for his ability to really teach those lessons he wants to get across.

On the opposite end, you can also understand where the students are coming from, why they’re assholes, & why they hate authority above all else. Take Nana for example, she’s a lonely girl who once lived a very happy family life in a small 5 tatami matt room. Once her father actually gained a new job & an increased level of wealth, the family became more distant with each other & see become less & less happy overtime & wished things could go back the way they were as she hardly feels like her family is a family anymore. When Onizuka learns of this story he decides to go to her house & put a giant hole in the wall with a sledge hammer. Metaphorically but also literally tearing down the walls that separate this family so that they may become reunited & learn to bond again. It’s moments & stories like that placed throughout that really make this manga into the legendary work of fiction that it’s become.

But Onizuka isn’t a manga that’s always tackling some of these heavy themes, it also knows when to lay back & just be a good comedy, & I give it serious credit. Onizuka is a pretty funny series that had me laughing at 90% of its jokes & situations. I remember one moments when Onizuka was trying to get this Yakuza boss’s kid back into school after a nearly 3 month absence. He puts on this heavy tough guy front calling out the Yakuza’s kid whilst being respectful about his situation. It actually works thanks to Onizuka treating the kid with respect, his speech convinces the kid to come back to school. Because of all the guns pointed directly at him during the speech, we then cut to reveal that Onizuka feared for his life so much that he actually ended up pissing his pants in fear. While some may look at that as juvenile I look at it as funny & grounding Onizuka back to reality because although he may be a Great Teacher, he’s still just a regular person at the end of the day, he may’ve been a former gang member but he’s still a man who values life (well, his own life in this instance) so of course he’s piss his pants out of fear of death.

I do need to bring up the art which is honestly the weakest part of the series. I don’t think GTO is necessarily badly drawn (I consider badly drawn to be art so bad that I genuinely can’t tell what’s supposed to be going on) & in that case GTO gets a pass because I can tell what things are supposed to be, action scenes don’t have too much going on to where things become a mess, & the faces are actually really well drawn a lot of the time (I should stress the comedic ones). But a problem with GTO’s art is that characters can kind of blend together from time to time, specifically the women, sometimes I can’t tell who’s who’s unless they call out the names which is very much a bad thing. I don’t think this necessarily detracts from the major character moments that I come to this manga for but nevertheless it can be pretty distracting.

GTO’s pacing is reasonably well, it’s largely a 50-50 split on text to art ratio & it took me about 40-50 minutes to read a volume give or take. I don’t think jokes overstay their welcome, beat to beat the story flows well & arcs last for just long enough as to feel satisfying but not truncated. It isn’t like Astro Boy where some stories have this problem in that they reach their climax & then the falling action happens to quickly, leading to some of the stories feeling truncated which GTO thankfully doesn’t suffer from.

It’s a combination of GTO’s absurdness, funny moments, down to earth character moments, but above all else heart of gold that turn this series into a legendary work of fiction. While it is a pretty simple manga in concept it thrives in the simplicity & uses it to create some layered-ness to its characters & story. I highly implore anyone to check this legendary series out if only for Onizuka himself he really lives up to that moniker of Great Teacher Onizuka.

This Review contains MINOR spoilers. But they dont matter, trust me.


Onizuka is a Ex biker gang member, a virgin and a 5th rate university drop out. His goal. To be the greatest teacher in all of japan. And that is precisely what he becomes in this 200 chapter masterpiece. Let me start by saying this is the greatest manga i have ever read. Do not watch it, read it and i promise you it will be one of the ... funniest things you have ever done.


The story mainly stretches on his part as a teacher at Holy Forest Academy. The only reason he could become a teacher is because of a chair lady, who believe he can pull miracles to change people. And thats what he does. He is assigned a class of Middle school kids, who is a group who have been through alot. Been betrayed by former teachers, they make it their crusade to torment all new teachers that are unlucky enough to be assigned to there class. But Onizuka aint no ordinary teacher. Most of these arcs take place with him helping individual students or groups, from saving kids from jumping off the roof (sometimes he accidentally pushes them off) and landing on the Principals Cresla (a running gag, is that he always destroys the principals cars, and its super funny because of how the principal reacts) to jumping off unfinished roads on a motorcycle or saving them from Yakuza. Another reoccurring factor is people always try to get him fired. At one point they make him take a nation wide test that his students take. Keep in mind that Onizuka is dumb as hell and another running gag is to always misuse Kanji letters on the board to spell crude words. Because he's dumb like that. And before he takes the test, he fights about 30 Yakuza, has 4 bullet wounds in him, And ACES the 5 hour test in 1 hour. Fuck you Teshigawa.


Anyway, the story is always funny and can make me cry like a baby. Sometimes i'm Babbling, and sometimes i'm literally laughing my ass off. Even though devices are used multiple times, the series is never boring or full of redundant panels. The way Onizuka gets everyone on his side, is just, so freaking mind blowing. This series made me think over on my whole opinion of educators and the education system. I am an Onizuka enthusiast to the core. His ideals and words are truly some of the most manly things ever. And he cares about his students! Even when he was framed for Embezzling money for the school field trip to some nature shithole and he had EVIDENCE that he didn't to it, he got up and told the whole school to make up for it, he'd pay for a trip to Okinawa instead. Like WTF! All because he didn't want to ruin the reputation of the student who framed him. INSPIRING!

The art is Tokyo Pop, so its bound to be solid. And it is, but the one of the best things about it is, the smallest side panels with absolutely the funniest responses and conversations ever. You will miss some if your not careful though, so keep your eyes peeled. Also, we have these 3 bonus chapters about his friend Saijami the dirty cop. In these chapters, your in first person perspective of Onizuka and you don't know what your saying, but you can guess from your friends responses. These are super funny, i can't explain, but just look out for those 3 special chapters, they are the core of GTO's comedy.

The characters to me, all feel like REAL Japanese school kids. This Ain't your fake moe shit, these all feel like real people, with real problems. Each character gets development, some more than others, but the main bunch of his kids get their own arcs or problems. Everyone is basically solid, not ground breaking, but enough to hit my heart. At least with some. Everyone's hurtin, so open up your tight asshole. But my favorite character is Onizuka. Now let me tell you a bit about my buddy here. He is fucking TOUGH. Fuck Chuck Norris, he's for tools. Onizuka can beat the shit out of anyone, no matter how many or tough. One time, he arm wrestled 100 tough shit ass men in a row. And he won. One guy was like 3 times his size too. Also, he survives falling from roofs unto cars without a scratch. Him and Goku are broski's.


I ENJOYED GTO!! Yeah hell right i did. I have gone through it about, 4 times. It doesn't bore me and i'm still chuckling. Just the craziest thing to read ever, i love it. I hope you do too.

So get ready for language you would be slapped for using, biology that would make a grown man bluss and math that doesn't add up, unless of course, your the Great Teacher Onizuka.

With a MAL score of 8.89, I figured GTO was a sure thing. I wish I could have those hours back. Now I'm left to try to make some lemonade out of this rotten and moldy fruit.

GTO is the adolescent fantasy of a mangaka and editors who hate women, and are comfortable selling rape fantasies to an audience that gets off on the torture and abuse of teenagers.

There is nothing redeeming about this trash. If you really want to know more, read the other negative reviews. I wasted enough brain cells on GTO.

Never trust the MAL score.

I read many reviews praising this manga and speaking on how it changed them, well, I'm very sorry then, but as an adult reading this it was too flawed to enjoy any of it.

I guess I'll start by talking about what, I guess, most people find appealing about GTO, the messages. Now, some of them are nice, not all of them, some of them. "Face up to your past mistakes." Great! "Everyone has their own problems." Very true. "If somebody sexually attacks someone, sexually assault them in return." Uuuuuuuuuuuum, no.

About the art, it's not good. It's not so bad (for the time), but it's also ... not impressive and it doesn't really improve throughout the series. There were so many unmemorable character designs I confused everyone with anyone and it became unbearable as more characters joined in.

If I'm on the subject of characters, it's a weird one. Most characters are boring and dumb and everytime I saw them I sighed. But some of them, I liked, until they sexually assaulted someone, or tried to get someone raped, did terrible things in general. Now, if the series addressed these terrible actions as terrible, it might find ways of redeeming it's characters, but most of the horrible things people do just come off as funny or quirky, and that just grossed me out thinking the author might agree with these actions.

The plot, I'm not sure how to talk about something that's just not there. There are only two types of arcs in GTO, someone tries kicking onizuka out of school, and onizuka stops someone from killing themselves. That's it! And it repeats itself and repeats itself and repeats itself, Everytime a character declared they're about to get onizuka fired I wanted to die, Everytime someone jumped off the school roof and onizuka jumped after them (for someone who's so good at helping people an awful lot of them actually try and kill themselves) I started pulling hairs out. I know it's a comedy, but still. And the ending, it just ended! The last arc didn't feel all that special, was it cancelled or something?!

And, worst part of all, the humor. I did not laugh once, I sometimes wasn't even sure where the the jokes tried to go. Onizuka looks up his student's skirt after she tells him she's depressed, it's an old series, it's fine. Onizuka makes a funny face all the time, it's for children, they like funny faces, it's fine. She wants onizuka to like her so she dyes her hair blond and tans, where the fuck is the joke?!!

Overall, it might save been a 2/10 if I didn't think the treatment of women and rape in this series was terrible. I really hope no kids ever read it again and especially not taking any life lessons from it.

GTO is the story of Eikichi Onizuka, a former gangster who seeks to become the greatest teacher in all of Japan. Not because he matures and wants to redeem himself, or that actually cares about teaching. He does it because wants to be around a bunch of high school girls and look up their skirts. Yeah. And while that may sound like a really silly or dumb premise, GTO is one of the most soulful, genuine, and unexpectedly mature stories I’ve ever read.

When Onizuka starts off as a teacher, he’s assigned to Class 3-4 at Holy Forest Academy, a class infamously known for how ... much they hate teachers, having forced several of their previous ones to be fired or to quit, and they intend to do the exact same thing with Onizuka. But Onizuka is no ordinary teacher. He’s not there to teach them out of a textbook - he’s there to teach them life lessons. One by one, he gets more familiar with the students of the class, and begins to learn about their personal problems and why the class acts the way they do. As he gets closer to them, he helps them resolve their problems and inner turmoil. One by one, he slowly manages to win the class over, and in his own unconventional way, ends up becoming the greatest teacher they ever had.

GTO doesn’t have an especially amazing, intricate, or well-written plot, but it is FAR from mundane. In fact, most of the time, it’s completely insane. Believe me when I say it has some of the most wild and crazy situations imaginable, to the point where you wonder how the author even managed to think of it. I’ve literally never read anything quite like it. It’s like the author was given free reign to make whatever the hell he wanted, and it’s an absolute blast. You can just tell how much love and effort he put into this story and how much he didn’t care about keeping to conventions.

In a strictly technical sense, Onizuka is probably the worst and most unqualified teacher in the world. He’s a thug, is more immature than his own students, and doesn’t even teach anything to his classroom half the time - yet he manages to be one of the most amazing and lovable characters ever.

Teachers have one of the most important jobs in the world. They’re literally educating the generations of kids that are supposed to be leaders and workers of the world in the future. But I’m sure you and I have had our fair share of terrible teachers that never actually care about their kids, and just read from the textbook in order to collect a paycheck without actually caring about what they’re teaching. Onizuka is the antithesis of that. He’s that one teacher or figure we all wish we could have had in our lives.

Onizuka might not be very book smart, but he’s Einstein-level at street smarts. He’s a true and genuine free spirit. He doesn’t care about what others think of him, and lives life exactly the way he wants to without taking shit from anybody. People always try to get him fired or tell him how he should live his life, but purely by being his true self and trying to reach out to his students, he manages to do more for them than anybody else ever has.

All of this comes together to form the main point of the story. Onizuka doesn’t just teach his students, but he teaches the reader about life and how it should be lived. It’s legitimately one of the most inspiring stories I’ve ever read, and taught me a lot of valuable life lessons. How to take responsibility, how to be there for others, and how to keep going forward and never give up.

I honestly can’t believe that more people don’t mention this manga. Sure, it’s up there on MAL rankings and whatnot, but I never actually see anybody talk about it. It takes so many risks and does so many things that you literally cannot find in modern manga. It has so much heart and soul compared to so many cookie cutter stories that all try to do the same exact thing nowadays. It’s an amazing breath of fresh air that feels so real and personal at the same time.

I so genuinely admire it for what it tries to do and accomplishes. It's the most unconventional masterpiece I've ever read.

"Fuyutsuki, sometimes violence is the only way to get the message across." seems not like a line any teaches should say ... But not for our protagonist hes little different if i might say...

So Another manga is in my hands i have read it quite a few times its about School life which is seen trough this one Teacher who is kind of different from what we call a teacher Bad manners , rude and violent is what i would call him but hey he has quite a few sides to him and dealing with all kinds of students calls for having all kinds of ... sides to you.
Great Teacher Onizuka or other name GTO tells a story about an Teacher Onizuka who is something like a kid himself thrown himself into a world he knows nothing much and trying to change everything how it seems fit for him like trouble students or lonesome students ... preventing suicides or persuading is everyday life for our Teacher which makes us want to read further on... and this comes from a person who hated school so much hah one of a kind Teahcer indeed.
While going on with the story we see how much Onizuka himself develops in being an teacher or being an friend his dumbness remain but i would call it the charm point here and with him every single student changes from being Closed up in their worlds they start to open up to him to the point where it becomes hard to live for them when hes not around or even the events that occur during the story makes you shiver but Most of the things in this Manga is indeed from real World ... Because such students exists all around the world Cruel , rude , violent and so much more to it than anyone can see.
Helping us to understand what kind of hard Work is teachers doing in order to teach us new things this manga brings in a lot of comedy here and there even at the most tense moments writer drops a Bomb that makes you crack and laugh...
Great Teacher Onizuka is an one of those mangas that aren't found anywhere around even if we have quite a lot of other teacher mangas its still unique and worth reading alone to see this Man in action.

I want to be a teacher

Yes i wanted myself to be one before but this guy who would think he could be an Teacher ... when you look at his back ground you will think the same and ask Why? it just seems funny and well his methods ar just mind blowing ... Sorry i laughed here.

Students

Students that are shown here are all trouble makers or lonesome or misguided which has something to do with school problems or having problems at home still is no problem for our Onizuka he will break the walls to change their life's he will help everyone of them even if it costs his life developing in every step of the manga changing feelings and changing hatred to admiration is an nice view.

Overall

Manga is overflowing with all kinds of strange feelings its like a escalator seems everything is going the way it should but they drop you down and then throw you up again and down and up and so goes until the point when its time to do critical decisions still the manga is great and is nice to read i would to call it Brilliant.

Art

Oh this is an aspect that i wasn't to fond of but well it was great indeed so serious at times so dumb at times and SO UGLY at times but i laughed and well can't say much anymore ^^

Great Teacher Onizuka is one of the greatest (no pun intended) mangas I have ever read. Reading it has made me actually introspective about myself, what I want to do in life and what I'm like as a person, something that no other piece of media has EVER done before. I've always had this thought 'How do people connect so much do a story, it's just a story', but holy shit I completely gained that feeling now with this manga.

The story is so fun and satisfying, just seeing annoying authority figures being put into their place by this loveable ... ape that is so asinine about teaching actual schoolwork and so genius in teaching people how to be people is incredible. And if it's not that it's Onizuka teaching his students how to learn to value themselves or deal with life. It's just this ongoing thing of here is this new person that either has a problem or is a problem and here comes our main man, all hands on deck, ready to solve it. He puts people in their place, but not in a way that makes the character look like a dumbass, but in a way that shows their humanity. Onizuka finds their flaws, lays them flat out in front of them, says 'Hey motherfucker wipe yourself off and get to work fixing this' while also always actively helping fix those same flaws. Not a single arc in this story is boring, I had to constantly slow myself down so I wouldn't binge the whole manga in 3 days, and I still read it really quickly.

Onizuka himself is a very interesting fellow. He is impulsive, childish and a pervert. His perversion is comedic but it seems like a trait of both the time the story was written but also Japanese culture, as you can still see very perverted characters in todays anime/manga. I'm not a fan of perversion as a comedic trait, I don't find it funny 90% of the time and it makes the character look like a dick. However, Onizuka does shows time and time again that that perversion is just a comedic trait and not actually who he is. Several times in the manga he shows that he is able to put peoples wellbeing in front of his sexual drive, most prominently this is seen (*very minor spoiler here*) in his conversation with Ogi during the final arc of the story. (*end of spoiler*) He is a majorly flawed person, but still his overwhelming amount of good traits always come through. Onizuka is simple and straightforward, he doesn't complicate when it comes to solving problems, there is no beating around any bushes, he just gets to the point. I mentioned before his method of helping people. It's hurtful what he says to people but it's to the point, it's the purest Onizuka way. But what I always like about every character that goes through the Onizuka life class is that there is no judgement from Onizuka himself. No matter if you tried to hurt him, embarrass him or hell, even tried to kill him he forgives and forgets because he puts other people before him every time. Every person that Onizuka 'teaches' has a very well done character arc, Onizuka himself doesn't change much during the story, he fluctuates but ultimately stays the same person he was at the beginning, to me that makes sense, because he is 22 years old, he is well past his character defining years while the majority of the cast are highschool students in their formative years, yes people can change throughout their entire life but it gets significantly harder for those changes to appear once you cross into your twenties as you become pretty much completely developed as a person. I could keep talking about this man forever but I want to talk about other parts of the manga.

I want to touch on the other characters a bit. As I said earlier I feel like everyone has a nicely done character arc, I like where each of the characters stories go. Especially Urumi, Anko, Fujiyoshi and Noboru. Some are there just for comedy (prime example is Uchiyamada), but even some of them get a bit of development.
One character that I changed my opinion on drastically is Saejima. He has 2 or 3 chapters that are just Onizukas conversation with him, but it's just him talking and nothing else, and I wasn't a fan of those. The chapters he appears in, including the few that are JUST him, make Saejima seem like this douche that only thinks about money and he does the worst possible scams to get some cash, he's a just corrupt, greedy cop that wants to get rich quick and I didn't understand why Onizuka was a friend with this dude as I felt that Onizuka could judge him well enough to realize that. However, his last appearance flipped my view of him completely. (*again minor spoilers for the few ending moments*) When he came to see Onizuka in the hospital in the final arc and the one panel of Onizuka laying in bed with Ryuji and Saejima sleeping right there on the corners of the bed barely fitting there just made me stop and think 'Holy shit, Saejima is just as much a real friend to Onizuka as Ryuji'. I don't know how I didn't see that sooner but it made me appreciate Saejima so much more. (*end of spoiler*)
I'm not going to go into much more detail with the rest of the cast as I feel that what I said earlier applies to everyone, I just wanted to touch on Saejima because of the flip I had. I like the cast, A LOT, they are all flawed people that needed help and I love them all.

A brief mention of the art is now in order. It's not great, Tooru Fujisawa isn't some god artist, but it works really well for a comedy manga. Comedies don't ask for super realistic drawings, you want them to be goofy and simple and Fujisawa accomplishes that nicely. A lot of the time for art it's not about just being good it's about context. Does this style fit this type of story, that question is just as important as does this look realistic or does this look good. I'm not saying Fujisawa is a bad artist, far from it, I like the art, it fits a comedy perfectly but it's not gonna get any awards. I don't think anything more than that is necessary.

All in all, GTO is genuinely one of my favorite manga I have ever read. It's marketed as a comedy everywhere but it's so much more than that. It's this amalgamation of great characters that you can empathize with and understand their pain, but also laugh with and at them when you should. It is incredibly funny but knows exactly when to drop the jokes and get serious so it can tug on some heart strings. You will laugh, you will be emotional and you will fall in love with the cast. I fucking love Onizuka and I fucking love this manga. It spoke to me on a level that nothing ever has and I will be coming back to it for the rest of my life.

Great Teacher Onizuka is one of the best Mangas there is. Why? Because it's very simple and it relates to other peoples lives. (Spoilers maybe included)

GTO's doesn't really have a straight story on it apart from stories of other peoples lives divided into each part in the Manga itself. There are stories of Betrayal, hurt, distrust, and many more things that have happened to peoples lives but what's so brilliant about this is how GTO changed people's views on how to live. For example: Urumi, she distrust teachers because she has been betrayed before. But then after knowing Onizuka and Onizuka teaching her one of ... his "lessons" he started to trust teachers again, he started going to school again. or Fuyutsuki, Fuyutsuki you could call her a teacher that "reads out of a text book" kind of teacher but is prooved not effective in controlling the Class, Onizuka just had to say about 2 sentences and she made use of that and apply it to her students. The Manga itself is fictional but you know what? The situations are real, Rape/Betrayal/Bullying all those things are true and there are people who suicide/despise things over those. That's what's so brilliant about it, you can relate to it, because you USE/ARE a student you know how it feels like, you know how it feels like to be betrayed maybe not rape but something similar.

The Art of GTO is, I must say, pretty decent, with some bits being scattered or blurry. But Overall it's decent. The characters faces are somewhat unique to the typical "manga eyes" or "manga hair" But they are mostly the same. I like their facial expressions though :D

The characters of GTO are what makes it such an epic Manga. different emotions different stories different personalities. Those are what makes GTO, but just that isn't a masterpiece, the way they go from a person who wants to die to a person who wants to live the rest of his life are what makes this a masterpiece. GTO teaches us something, how to live your life, how to face pain, how to almost do anything.. really. For example: Betrayal: Ai Tokiwa has been invited to his Boyfriends House just casually, but then was rape by 5 guys. Anyone would think that that was a sick thing to do, now she goes and beats up everyguy because she THINKS every guy is like that. But then Onizuka change her mind about guys. I'm sure those kind of things happens, GTO teaches you how to get over it, how to leave those things behind, how it's bad to judge people. GTO is about Morals and how it was portrayed in the story is the best thing about it.

I enjoy reading GTO at first I read it casually but then I started reading it more often as the story was getting interesting. GTO is not at all a serious Manga or rather it IS a serious Manga with Comedy bits on it. I won't say that GTO is just comedy with serious scenes on it because it's just not that. I mean most of the time GTO is seen goofing around the school, peeping at girls panties, all those are also, you may say, a way to make a point, live your life to the fullest! "If you always worry about the past it's your loss because you won't be able to enjoy the present." - Eikichi Onizuka. Yes! those quotes as well. I remember hearing one: Give a kid a smoke, he'll be happy for a day. TEACH a kid to smoke, he'll be happy for the rest of his shortened lifetime. - GTO. Really GTO is reality with Fiction on it.

Overall One of the,if not THE, best manga's I've ever seen

completely and utterly uninteresting. GTO really just isn't funny, and for a aeries which relies heavily on humour, that does not bode well.

onizuka as a a super-teacher that teaches life lessons to his students does not work. not that it isn't plausible but the way that it's done is just uninteresting. it's the same ridiculous formula every single time, and there's only so many times i can be excited for the same thing in a different skin. the rest of the cast really don't help either

GTO takes on a somewhat darker tone in the later part of the story, while trying to maintain the ... usual brand of humour, but it's all still the same anyway. The darker tone and the crude humour don't really mix well either.

i'm certainly in the minority here and humour is subjective, so try it out for yourself, but it definitely isn't worth your time in my opinion.

Ah, Great Teacher Onizuka. The manga that changed my life. I remember being 17 years old with the latest volume of the manga, walking home as I'm reading it and laughing like a maniac while doing so. Since I left for the military and returned 4 years later, my 25 volume collection has pretty much disappeared. Now my only chance of reminiscing Onizuka's adventures involves me picking up a volume at the nearest Barnes and Noble, while trying not to distract other readers and shoppers with my guffaws.

Story: 8
The plot in Onizuka starts off very strong and continues throughout. It shows no signs of ... slowing down until the final arc of the manga where the crazy stories are now more like WTF with a few unresolved plot lines. But even Onizuka at its worst is several times more entertaining than most shonen manga.

Art: 9
From beautiful to crude to downright ugly, Onizuka's illustrators definitely give each character (and reaction) a distinguished look. The overall art style is definitely a step above the manga/anime archetypical look and fits the tone of the series.

Character: 10
GTO has a huge cast of characters, owing in part to the large classroom, school staff, and even returning characters from Shonan Junai Gumi. Many of them have screen time, and seeing them develop as the series goes is one of the most fulfilling moments of the series.

Enjoyment: 15
If only I can rate it higher than a 10. GTO's raunchiness and over-the-top humor will entertain you to no end. I cannot count the number of times I had to catch my breath from laughing so hard. And yet among the hilarious scenes, there are some heartfelt moments to be treasured as well as real life lessons to be learned.

Overall: 10
GTO is a manga unlike any other. Despite its few flaws, it has since become a classic and one of the most revered series from Japan. There's been an anime and live adaptations, but believe me when I say they are tame, Disney G-rated versions when compared to the manga. If you want to get the most out of this series, do yourself a big favor and read the manga. You won't regret it!

Where should i even start

The story is good, it had a slow start, if you compare it with the action that comes packed in the later chapters of the manga.Then it picked up the pace when the students and other teachers started plotting against onizuka then it ends with a happy ending for everyone.

The art is good. the backgrounds had a lot of detail into it, although the one major down point is the character's faces overall it's fine.

Character, whew don't get me started on this one. The characters are perfect. Most, if not all had very intense characteristics. Now i don't wanna give off ... a spoiler but if you ask me my favorite character is Urumi. She's a genius but she's also a bitch to her enemies, but she's also really really sweet to Onizuka to the point of actually trying to elope once.

I really enjoyed this manga and by enjoyed i don't mean that it's all "AHAHAHA LOL FUNNY", it's mostly funny but i have cried 32 times because of this manga in all my 5 re-reads of this manga. Hell, i even cried in my cousin's birthday party because of this

Overall this manga deserves a 10/10 and it also receives my XLRBP stamp

A friend recommended this to me and after seeing it's score on MAL i didn't hesitate to try it. I was surprised to find a dogshit manga that thrives on making jokes out of sexually harassing/assaulting fucking 14 year olds.

These acts are often portrayed as jokes and constitute a good portion of the "comedy" within the manga. The rest of the comedy elements come from Onizuka making weird faces and fucking 14 year olds acting cartoonishly evil throwing molotov cocktails and shit getting people raped and sexually assaulted. If this shit is supposed to be funny or endearing i am concerned with the mental ... capacity of these fucking GTO readers praising this shit to heaven and beyond. The worst part is that these unhinged situations are played off as something normal or funny when almost all of them are criminal behavior. The characters cannot be redeemed if their actions are not instantiated to be bad.

Art is mid at best, character designs are unintelligible from each other most of the time if not for their hairstyles. It is just servicable, though telling characters apart becomes more painful as the series goes on and makes the reading experience horrible.

The plot is nonexistent, a random psycho 14 year old tries to get Onizuka expelled by doing god knows what and through very questionable means Onizuka somehow handles the situtation and gains the respect of his student. Saving someone or himself during the process. It's fine the first couple times but it gets very repetitive when all the side characters are boring as fuck. Just as some of the characters are becoming likeable they do some unhinged shit again and you remember they were just human garbage all along.

Just when you think Onizuka himself is fine , he openly sexually assaults 14 year old girls or lusts over them like a pedo. How do people find this garbage human being likeable or inspiring in any way?

The worst part is that if it were funny I could overlook most of these things and enjoy it for what it is. Unfortunately it is not and even if it was i wouldn't be able to enjoy my time as im constantly reminded of the countless sexual assaults and harassments the 14 year old girls go through in this manga. I respect myself just enough to not enjoy this shit.

Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time reading this. If you are going to read it, try to not turn a blind eye to the things i mentioned. Normalization of these things are horrible for the readers and the japanese manga in general. People will try to tell you it is just how japanese manga culture is, but that doesn't fucking justify the overt showcase of unhinged sexual behavior and normalization of it. Just because these things are a part of the japanese manga/anime culture doesn't mean they shouldn't be criticised. Some ecchi shit and fanservice is fine, it sometimes adds charm to the series it's in but there is a line where it's too much and harmful.

At first i thought that this is another try-to-be-fun manga , with panty-shots and stuff , but as the story develops it tends to get more "serious" .
The story is concentrated around Onizuka but , other people get center stage sometimes.
I liked the level of realism of the problems the people are faced in the series , and though Onizuka`s problem-solving is somewhat exaggarated , it`s only to ilustrate a point , and this manga does that in great fashion.
Story is fun stuff (maybe since i encounter this kinda story for the first time)
Art .. i`m no critist to judge art, but it was ... kewl for my taste
Characters are a bit stereotypical, but they interact well.
Overall , i`ll give it a 7.

I fucking love/hate Tohru Fujisawa. He's capable of the best but also the worst (ehem, Paradise Lost). And this is probably my favorite manga ever, but it's admittedly NOT the best (there are many issues with the story). However, GTO left such a mark on me that no other work has ever come even remotely close to it.

SPOILERS

It has a lot of flaws, I HATE the repetition, the simplistic way to address complex problems the teenagers have. He saves the students by fighting somebody like 4-5 times (first school, Murai, feet fetish girl, Miyabi, Tokiwa), a very cheap narrative resource. Also, there are 2 chapters ... with the same title and revolving around the same metaphor ("metamorphosis", for both Teshigawara and the English teacher). I also hate the plotholes and how weak the final arc is (Angel's saga), or surreal characters like Mayu which felt like the worst type of filler and didn't add anything at all to the story. And some parts of the dialogue, specially the "tough guy" speech doesn't really get to me, maybe a teenager in the 90s might find it cool. I hate action-based manga and Fujisawa uses that a lot. I don't like any of the other Fujisawa's works, not Bad Company, not Shonan Junai Gumi, GTO prequels that are basically about fights, girls and action (well, SJG is a 50/50, arcs like Onizuka's relationships with Misato or Shinomi, or Ryuji's romance with Ayumi, were done tactfully, but I didn't like the general tone of the series). And I absolutely despise Paradise Lost, the continuation of GTO which features none of the original characters except the MC, whose personality is not even close to GTO's Onizuka. 14 Days in Shonan is slightly different because it features the 2 best Onizuka love interests together, Urumi and Shinomi, but I didn't like the overall story either and their development is scarce.

So it comes as a big surprise, that this writer who specializes in more "teen", overly sexist and action-based narratives, would be able to come up with something such as GTO. As someone else said here, GTO could be "a 6/10 manga with 10/10 moments". It has its flaws as I already mentioned, and they are not few. But it also has some stuff that I absolutely loved. And most importantly, it has a SOUL.

I enjoyed the Urumi-Onizuka relationship. She is lovable from the start, and her backstory and development after meeting Onizuka were the highlight of the series for me. It may not be the best written relationship ever, but it has something special in it, these two touched me on so many levels. Their chemistry throughout the whole manga is undeniable, too bad the anime never got to show this. Despite Azusa being depicted as the main love interest, Urumi had a deeper connection with him. After reading SJG though, I have to say that Shinomi's chemistry with Onizuka is just as good, and she also knows him to an extent that no other female in the GTO universe can dream of, since they practically grew up together during their teens. In GTO, Tomoko herself tells Shinomi (during her brief cameo as Tomoko's hairdresser) that she reminds her of her teacher and that they seem to think the same way. If we ever get a happy ending for Onizuka, I hope he winds up with one of these two.

However, despite the romance being nice, it's the feeling of human connection what made GTO for me. But not just with Urumi. Miyabi's arc is also great, and so are Tomoko's or Yoshikawa's. All of them feel real and relatable. You get the feeling that a small family is beginning to form, something that becomes most apparent during a scene where some of the students are having fun in the pool with Onizuka after playing paintball together. He's winning them over and you get intoxicated with their happiness and growth as the story goes on... Urumi says so herself during the pool scene:

"This lightness of being...I wonder how long it'll last"

And Kikuchi knows the answer:

"...as long as he stays here with us".

The comedy is an important part too, and despite not making me openly laugh (OK, it might have), I found it witty and fitting most of the time. Some people seem to have a problem with the "pervert" theme of the series, I didn't really since the MC, when really conflicted, always remains pure at heart and his maturity prevails (specially when he displays superhuman self-control to reject Urumi's kiss).

This is an honest and fulfilling work, something I've very rarely found. And I have a special spot for it, I read this during a terrible time in my life and it brought out emotions that had been buried for years, it took me back to the good moments (albeit few) of my teens, when my future was filled with possibilities and everything was new and fresh. This story made me feel hope again. Innocence. Inspiration. It made me feel part of something, as if I were another member of Onizuka's family.

And for that, I am immensely grateful.