Shonan Junai Gumi!
GTO: The Early Years

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How come people go all rampage when it's about GTO yet don't bother to read this Masterpiece of a Manga? Seriously, I don't even like Manga all that much, but this one was worth every second I've spent reading it.

This will be a rather short review because I usually tend to review stuff I hate, so I don't know what exactly to say when I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

The plot is, as you can guess, Onizuka's and Ryuuji's backstory, the lovabale delinquent-legends that no one would ever dare to mess with. They're feared by enemies, admired by their peers and were "kicked out ... of school" for their brutal deeds. Or so they say in a letter they left behind, with the truth being these two wanting to polish their image for the sake of finally getting laid in a new school.

These two are just the best duo I've seen in a Manga. You probably already love Onizuka, and here you'll learn to love Ryuuji just as much as him, their friendship is touching (in a completely manly way of course...) and hilarious and you see these two grow into young adults...that basically stay the same idiots until the very end! (though Ryuuji does mature a little in GTO).

So, if you can overlook, or even love the old art style (which I do!), you will absolutely fall in love with the the action packed comedic genius of Shonan Junai Gumi!

First off I’m going to start by saying that this is a great manga and worth every bit of the time spent on it.

Shonan Junai Gumi is about two guys Ryuuji Danma and Eikichi Onizuka, The Oni-Baku duo that have a reputation for being the most badass fighters around. While they can definitely fight they do not have the same luck in picking up chicks which is where the story starts it’s self off. The duo moves to a new school for the possibility of finally getting some ... girlfriends, however it brings them more than they asked for when soon after their life’s are filled with drama, action, romance and most of all comedy.

So the beginning plot is a bit original and a bit cliché. You can average that to being just a normal show but the thing with Shonan Junai Gumi is that it’s not one straight story line but more all the different situations that Oni-Baku finds them self getting into. That seems like it would be a bit repetitive and boring right?

That is not the case here, the manga has the unique ability to make each problem and each situation as interesting as the last, witch of course is because of the flexibility of the story line. It’s not tied down with the Idea of the characters having one goal to accomplish but instead these two hot headed high school students have nothing like an overall goal to accomplish. That lets the story line go in all different directions without it getting repetitive and boring.

Surprisingly enough character development is the biggest contributor and the back bone of the story line and that brings me to my next topic. The characters witch like most Shounen manga, Shonan Junai Gumi has many.With every situation Oni-Baku is put into, new characters arise and that person or that person’s problems are what the duo will end up beating the crap out of. Then with the thing that has always held them back extinguish by Oni-Baku’s maincharacteritis the character will change dramatically.

What we have established so far is that the story line connects all the different elements that makes a story good and that the characters are very dynamic. That all sounds good but what makes this manga go that extra mile to being great is the comedy. Shonan Junai Gumi is one of the most hilarious manga’s I have ever read, this manga is slapstick comedy at it's best.

So if you are a fan of Shounen, comedy or love GTO. I recommend you read this manga.

This review is from the perspective of someone who hasn't read or watched anything from GTO whatsoever, with no prior bias towards the characters or mangaka. Many will not have even heard of this prequel despite the success of it's follow up work and let's just say there's a very good reason for that.

Reading SJG you'll find a charismatic main duo, well choreographed dynamic fight scenes, an occasional hilarious slice of comedy and some brilliant highs along the way. Now all of that would be great if not for the extensive amount of abhorrent flaws that co-exist within the story. Unfortunately aside from the action ... scenes all the positives I've listed are completely overshadowed and in fact entirely negated within the same story. It is no exaggeration to say that while this series really did have some enthralling peak points, it also had, not just one, but several of the worst storyline and plot developments I've ever come across within fiction.

So let's start off with my biggest gripe, the handling and overuse of rape. Rape is a tool used in many stories to evoke either shock or a strong emotional response towards a character or scene in one way or another. Now of course there are other more intricate uses of sexual violence as a device in fiction but generally speaking these are without doubt the most common. The handling within this manga is extremely lazy. Half of the story arcs in SJG follow the exact same formula of a girl being introduced, immediately used as a narrative object to vilify the enemy of the week through being raped and/or abused by them, then tossed aside for the remainder of the manga after Onizuka deals with said villain. Subsequently we move on to the next arc and repeat with a new enemy showing up. Now while that repetitiveness was excruciatingly boring at times this is still a battle shounen so it's not as if I went into this expecting much different. However the fact that this series follows the basic structure of your average battle shounen is exactly what brought upon its most glaring issues. If you're familiar with the genre you'll know that the protagonists will often forgive and then potentially even befriend their enemies later and unfortunately despite some of the antagonists raping/abusing friends of Onizuka, SJG is exactly the same in this regard. Some early highs of Onizuka smacking the faces of these thugs are completely ruined later when he, without any context whatsoever sometimes, is suddenly seen to be friends with them.

Minor SPOILERS Ahead!!

For a series completely driven by it's protagonist, events like this that make you dislike Onizuka only serve to compound the disgruntlement with how the manga begins to unfold. Sadly this only gets worse. There are several constant flimsy affirmations of Onizuka being a man of principles and ideals, albeit while also being an angry/horny teenager, such as him believing if a guy gets a girl pregnant they should support her or how he'll sometimes stop other delinquents from picking on the weak or even take other actions such as not sleeping with a girl for pleasure alone. Now you'd be hard pressed to argue against the morality of any of those points. Regrettably they contrast entirely to the behaviour of Onizuka as well as his interactions with other characters. A few examples of this would be when this one guy sold his girlfriend off to be gangbanged by a group of thugs as payment for them beating up Onizuka. Now what happened with this guy and his girlfriend after Onizuka dealt with those thugs? All was completely forgiven. Not just from Onizuka's point of view either but his girlfriend, although clearly having been through the worst experience of her life, instantly forgave him after a few panels of tears. Onizuka himself also thought it was a good idea for her to stay with the guy. Of course this isn't a completely unrealistic outcome, at least between the couple. It's no secret there are people in the world who stick with the wrong partner for whatever reason. However that doesn't make the result any less unsatisfying.

Later on there is another girl who is raped by a gang leader who forces her to be his girlfriend. As punishment when she decides to leave the gang he has his 30 men gangrape her. Or at least he was about too but at the last minute steps in and saves her along with Onizuka. Much like before this man is completely forgiven by the girl and he befriends Onizuka too despite what he'd done to the girl who was one of Onizuka's closest friends. At that point it was already getting to be almost impossible to empathise with Onizuka but that wasn't even a droplet in the ocean of dirt Onizuka would later plunge himself into. The single moment that completely ended any attachment I may have had to Onizuka or any faith in this series whatsoever comes very late on when despite everything he's preached about before, he breaks into his friends house and tries to rape her while she's sleeping. Getting as far as pulling her clothes off and swinging his body into mid thrust before she luckily woke up and kicked him away. What happened after that? You guessed it. She forgives him after screaming at and hitting him a couple of times. I can only imagine how former readers of GTO with prior bias towards Onizuka tried to laugh this scene off and push it to the back of their minds as they continued reading. But let alone Onizuka's character it's hard for me to understand why Fujisawa thought it would be funny to have the protagonist lose control of his libido and go so far to satisfy his sexual urges as to result to such a vile act.

You could go the route of the social justice warrior and talk about how the women are only used as narrative objects for the men with almost every female character being completely degraded and stripped of any dignity whatsoever in this story. Or you could even criticise any use of sexual violence in any manga which leads to a character having their clothes stripped before the viewer. I however won't be doing either of those things. As a story targeted at pent-up teenage boys from the perspective of two horny teenage boys who just want to fight and have sex with any girl who comes into view, it's not such an incomprehensible thing that the women would be portrayed in such a way. Although it's certainly uncomfortable. If that's how Fujisawa wants to set up his manga then I wouldn't begrudge him that. Violence, sex, edginess and cool one liners fired off at the right times sell after all.

Overall I wouldn't recommend SJG anyone at all. If you enjoyed GTO and can overlook the sketchy moments in this manga then I'm sure you'll be able to at least enjoy seeing a younger Onizuka. Towards the end there are also some better arcs you'd likely love. One of them even has no rape scenes whatsoever! If only that hadn't been an anomaly perhaps this manga could have gone somewhere.

So only two people Review this Masterpiece of Manga? In my opinion this manga should be very well known among the Fans. Before i start, English is not my Native Language so it might contain mistakes i apologize.

Shounan Junai or Oni-Baku might not be for everyone, but who wants to have enjoyment and tears in the eyes while reading should start with this Manga. The Story has a good plot and it follows a line, so there are no cliffhangers. Its also a lot about True Friendship, Gangs, Love, etc. Some Great Life Lessons too!

I started first watching the Anime, GTO, and i was ... sad at the end because there was no second season. I evan didnt know there is a Manga too, and im glad i found it out. And Onizukas Adventure still continues.

So i can really recommend this Manga to everyone.

Alright, I'll get straight to the point. If you're a fan of GTO this is defenitely a must read for you. It is also for you if you like comedy plus action.

Story - 9

The entire plot was really well made. It can make you cry and laugh at the same time. For me, the first 100 chapters had no problems. Midnight Angels arc (92 - 129chps) I found to be too long and sometimes confused. Second part of the arc picked up nicely and it was a blast to read. Also, Chasing Elieen arc was a bit underwhelming compared to others. My favourite was defenitely ... the Yokohama Cavalry arc as it was plain brutal and had high stakes. Overall the story was amazing and should be read if you're a fan of deliquent manga or GTO or if you just wanna read something that's full of comedy and seriousness.

Art - 10

Nothing to say here. Just outstanding and completely fits in with the 80s vibe.

Character - 8

Author throws in so much relatable characters and their chemistry is fun to read. Side characters gets spot light and their own times to shine. I had a problem with two or three side characters as they werent memorable at all and felt unecessary. They looked similar to the main cast so that kinda threw me off sometimes. Also I felt like so many characters didn't get enough closure by the end.

Enjoyment - 9

I have mostly enjoyed the manga except one arc which was underwhelming. Then half of another arc that felt dragged out. But that's just me being picky. When you're sucked into the manga, you would barely notice these things.

Overal - 9/10

A hidden gem that is buried under all the other popular mangas. I would recommend it highly. I personally enjoyed the first 100 chapters, but if you dom't enjoy the starting, keep reading around 30 chapters. This is the start of Mad dogs of kamakura arc. From there I really understood why this manga is a hidden masterpiece.

I think that this manga should be upper in the top, i think it's better also than his sequel GTO, shonan junai gumi is a gorgeus manga, and everyone should read it.

In a few words, the story tell about danma and onizuka, two bōsōzoku who want to have a girlfriend, but the manga is more than this.

In shonan junai gumi we can find every emotion that a teenager can feel, we can go to the sadness to happines in one page, we can be anxious and excited at the same time, or we also can laugh in the funny scenes.

I would write about 1000 paragraphs ... about shonan junai gumi, every page is beautiful and it give to me a lot of emotions, but I'm not very good in english and I should write short lol.

For me, this manga should be read, as an indiependent opera, obliviously after shonan junai gumi there's GTO, that is one of the best shonen ever, but we should appreciate this opera without thinking at the sequel, btw after shonan junai gumi, GTO must be read

Concluding, I'm sorry for my bad english and for haven't explained a lot about the manga, I would say so much that I can't do it in a review, I only want to say: read it, trust me, you will not regret.



Ringrazio Dario Moccia per avermelo fatto scoprire, e Gian che lo ha comprato sotto mio consiglio

what can i say,the best manga iv read in my life,i smoked the 267 chapters in 10 days,where i cant start?
well if you watched the anime you will alredy love eikichi,but knowing his past..his real power as a man,as a biker,as a gang leader is outstanding.
The character development on this manga in 10/10. Every gang/gang leader who is beated up by the Oni baku duo ends ups being a good allie of them or at least good frens.
This manga has everything:Comedy,Romance,Fights,FEELINGS,life lessons.
You should read "bad company" too.and watch the 5 ovas of Shonan junai Gumi,Its worth every second you spent with it.
I would read this ... again 40 times,its just Gold,pure gold.
I cant say anymore honestly,you should read this

This is my first review on any kinds of manga. I wanted to make a review on the original GTO series but I can't express in the words how much I love that manga, how much it taiught me and made me the person I am now. So I will try to make a review on Shonan Junai Gumi!

It's a great manga. I was reading it for about half of a year. There were a lot of good arcs (for example, Return Of Midnight Angels was one of the best), where we discover about reckless life of Onibaku, their friendship, their delinquent lives. The manga ... depicts a pure and true friendship between Ryuji and Eikichi. It's interesting that the chpater 53 of the junai gumi has parallels with the chapter 43 of GTO (Much the same analogy, only the roles have changed)

The plot is good but there were a few boring parts. Although Fujisawa knows when and where to add more epic scenes so you feel hyped

The humor is on top-notch level for sure. I was lauging my ass off of first chapters. Then around 200s chapters Fujisawa started adding classic Onizuka Faces (they are hilarious too). The arc where Ryuuji's dick stuck in the wall is one of the funniest shit I've ever read

I found myself liking Ryuji more because in the original GTO he is kinda like a side character(which I don't like). But in junai gumi he is as main character as Eikichi. And when I see him in other series I can't help but smile

Also I liked Abe character, he was a unique one. It's sad that Fujisawa gave up on him during manga. It's also sad that characters like Shinomi, Tsukai, Katsuyki, Makoto, Kamata, Nakojo and ect hadn't appeared in the original GTO. It would be great if like Kamata came from US and helped Oni with money or something hahahaha. I also hope that in future Shinomi would take Eikichi's virginity because in the last chapters there was something going on between them

So to conclude I recommend everyone to read this manga. I think I'll reread it in future, but I want to read in paper because it sucks reading it online (the quality of images is so bad). So I need to buy all oh the tankobons

when i first look at the cover of this manga i thought it was going to be boring and trash and all about them losing their virginity but when i read the manga i find out would have my ideal and mindset change about life. this would be apart of my life as the manga that change me and made me grew as a person forever. the character i felt related to me and made me fell like i was in that manga riding, fighting, and enjoying life with them need less to say this is my top 10 manga. and the reason ... why i won't give it a 10 is after then midnight angel arc it gotten to fast to the the point where i couldn't keep up and didn't remember the character that appear in chapter from the previous arc that are apart of the onibaku group are forgotten or written of completely

(SPOILER FREE)

STORY 10/10
Getting into delinquent manga I never expected to read such a dang good Story I feel stupid having watched Great Teacher Onizuka before reading this. It shows the entire history of oni baku. Love how realistic it flows through out from start to finish and the fighting on fighting fighting on fighting Was good, crazy and funny. There was a surprising amount of good romance involved some having me on the floor laughing. A problem I find in many manga is the ending doesn’t work with the build up but with Shonan it felt good yet not completely finished which is perfect ... because it got its sequel.

ART 10/10
Holy shit! cool ass bikes everywhere! What can I say the art is so good and old school and the scenes aged very well for a 90s manga You can really feel the yankiis, sukeban and bosozoku culture everywhere. I loved how the author can do both goofy funny art and detailed fighting art also giving Focus on scenery and very nice ladies designs.


CHARACTERS 10/10
The oni baku flowed so good with the entire story and I liked how the author gave side characters time to shine instead of just using them once and never Showing them again. Showing personal life of side characters was a very good touch making it even more realistic something you don’t see very often and made me understand them better even if it was a classmate or a villain.


OVERALL 10/10
If you read this far man you gotta read it what are you waiting for
There’s a ton of other delinquent manga so don’t worry if you binge it in a week.