GTO: Paradise Lost
GTO Paradise Lost

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It's two years after the original events of GTO and this time Onizuka is teaching in a high school. Specifically, a class full of celebrities. But, like always, it's the problem class of the school. In true GTO fashion, Onizuka has to reform his delinquent students individually in unorthodox ways that can only be described as "LEGENDARY".

It's still GTO. Whether you dislike or like the original GTO is going to determine your enjoyment of this one, because the series didn't trip a beat in terms of really anything. I personally find it kinda disappointing that we don't have any of the Class 3-4 people returning ... (other than tomoko at some points), as there was a lot of character in Kanzaki, Yoshikawa, Uehara, etc. but the new characters introduced in the class serve pretty well, just don't be surprised if you don't find yourself as attached to Class G as much as Class 3-4 from the original.

Other than that, there's nothing I could say good about this series that couldn't also be said about the original. It's pretty great.

I want to preface this review by saying that GTO is one of my favourite manga. The reason for that is that I want to explore what Paradise is lacking compared to GTO. After all, it has the same style of writing, same humour, same premise. So what is it lacking? After thinking for a while I came to understand why I like it soo much less.

It lacks a growth element, Onizuka already faced every possible challenge imaginable. He was a teacher of bullies, sociopaths and crazies and faced every challenge imaginable. So how can he even grow beyond that point? Every problem Onizuka comes ... across in paradise (as far as I read) doesn't challenge Onizuka. He comes up with a crazy unethical solution and solves all the life problems for all offenders. He is like a perfect being, unlike the flawed character he was in GTO in which he failed at many things and always tried his best to overcome even with help of students which at some point tried to fail him.

Another problem I noticed with Paradise that it doesn't introduce many good characters. In original GTO you had a cast of over the top and fucked up characters, but likeable. All of them were contained within the school and often interacted with Onizuka. You could see them change slowly by hanging with Onizuka. In paradise soo far they just orbit around the Onizuka, most the conflict comes from the outside Onizuka classroom which I find personally not as engaging. Also, most of the characters just stop being of any importance after their arc end.

So the points I found were growth and characters. Those were the points that made the original Great Teacher Onizuka amazing. I hope that in future Fujisawa tries to work with formula and come up with exciting arcs because what I read so far is pretty average.

Onizuka is back but this time he's in jail!!! We expected it at some point but still. This gives the story of how he found himself there and possibly what will happen to him afterwards. A must read for all GTO fans. The same characters...ok not really. Onizuka's is up to his same antics but his students from the main series have graduated and he is now in charge with a new class. Only thing is that this class is "special". He's in charge of an idol class where the students are stuck up.

Great art work that gives plenty of character and ... personality to the actors and a story that although may not be all that original, is still very interesting down to every last detail.

Let us follow Onizuka as he tells his story of how he's where he is now with all the twists, turns, drama and comedy that we have come to know and expect form this iconic character and the series he appears in.

Before writing this review i just want to say that the original GTO is my favourite manga of all time, and that this sequel is a disgrace to it's name. SPOILERS

The storyline in paradise lost is abysmal. While it follows the same blueprints from the original GTO, it executes them in a very poor manner. The arcs themselves mostly feel like stand-alone stories which contribute next to nothing to the overall plot, especially the arcs involving the students. The long running storyline is all about the mysterious Mr. Araragi and how he's the don of showbiz, except half the arcs have nothing to do with ... him at all. Leaving them feeling like unimportant filler to the overall storyline. Even the arcs which mention Mr. Araragi usually have nothing to do with school or being a teacher at all, and take place outside of school which takes away the greatest aspect of this story: Onizuka's unique teaching style. The prison aspect is interesting, however it feels like the author is making up plot-lines as he goes straying from what this manga was originally going to be. The whole plot is a clusterfuck of meaningless story arcs mixed with few plot points that actually progress the story.

Art: While the art isn't terrible I found the characters lacked the original designs present in the original GTO. The students in particular had no defining features and looked very similar. Another thing (this is personal preference) but I found that the bodies were extremely wide with very broad shoulders and I didn't think it matched the vibe of highschool kids. Overall though the art does look nicer as an aesthetic which is an improvement from the original.

Now the most appalling part of the story: The characters themselves. In the original series the characters were what defined the story as a masterpiece. The interactions between Onizuka and his students such as Kanzaki and Miyabi were brilliant and you could see the growth throughout the 200 chapters. In paradise lost characters come and go through a revolving door. After their specific story arc most of the characters disappear and never return. Remember the girl who's apart of women's wrestling, or the guy with daddy issues? Because I sure as hell don't. They were thrown away after their arc and never played any role in the story again. Compare this to someone like Kanzaki from the original series. After her personal story arc she plays a role in nearly every other portion of the story and is kept around as either part of the plot or for interactions between the characters. I could talk all day about how the students themselves are unimportant in this series but I'll move on to the travesty that is Onizuka in this series. Volume 11 (Kirishima arc). This volume completely ruined Onizuka's entire character through the one action of attempting to have sex with a highschool girl. Why include this? Throughout the whole series Onizuka controlled himself (sort of) because he wanted to be a respectable teacher, but in this one panel he's essentially become the very thing he punished for the whole series up to that point. On top of this he gets one-upped by Kirishima in nearly everything this arc ruining the whole unique aspect of his teaching and showing that somebody else can walk in and do everything he does but better. The only saving grace in terms of characters is the vice-principle Uchiyamada (sorry for spelling). He actually gets decent development and his personal arc was my favourite one of the series. In paradise lost he's seen as a respectable educator and human rather than the stingy human failure seen in GTO.


My enjoyment of this series is still a 5 simply because I loved the original so much and this one still provided some enjoyable and comedic moments. However I cannot give it higher than 1 simply because it trashes on the foundations of my favourite manga.

Overall this is a stain on the greatest manga ever written and i urge GTO fans not to put yourself through this hell.

This is my first review,i am not good with writing so please don't mind the gramatical mistakes if there are any
Onizuka is back and now he is in jail.GTO paradise lost start with onizuka telling his jail inmates how a high school teacher ends up in jail.
Onizuka is 24 now and still a VIRGIN. All of onizuka's previous students have graduated from middle school.New school year has started, The vice principle is aanouncing the classes to the teacher they are assigned to but his name is not on the list , then he thinks he is fired and starts thinking about looking for new job ... and the principal calls him in her office and tells him to look after class G of their high school. As soon as he heard high school he only thinks about young girl and his dreams of screawing one of them and the class G is also one of the idol class. He accept the offer without thinking twice.Class G is a class full of idol student and they are very hard to handle the principal also sent him to investigate how her grand daughter ended up at hospital.
Thus, the great teacher onizuka's new life start at highschool meeting new student,problematic than before, crazier than before.How onizuka will handle the high school student and what are the adventure ahead of him.
i am really enjoying the GTO paradise lost, as a onizuka's fan I am greatful for the series. The story have a good starting and still going great, onizuka is crazy as always and helping his student by risking his life at the line.
The art is really good as well, the art is better than before
IF you are a fan of Onizuka this is a series you should read

This is my first review, so please be gentle on me lmao.

Disclaimer: I loved the original GTO, I genuinely think that it's a top 10 manga of all time. Hell, even I REALLY liked 14 days in Shonan. I think writing reviews is a waste of time, but reading this pissed me off so much that I feel like it'd be a sin not to.

Story: 4/10
Onizuka is now in prison and is retelling everyone how he got there. Simple story, nothing too serious and complex. However, I feel like it really lost its "heart"-- that certain something that really made GTO special.

Art: 6/10
Was never really ... a fan of GTO's art in the first place, but I grew accustomed to it as I read more and more.

Characters: 4/10
This is my main problem with this story. The characters in the original were assholes to a degree, but they were pretty likable. The student-teacher interactions between Onizuka and the students were great and wholesome. You could really feel them changing and slowly warming up to Oni. However, they scratched everything away in Paradise Lost. It seems like the only thing Onizuka has to do is solve one life problems for these students and they magically just love him. There are barely any interactions between them, too. It's like they get an arc, then they're kick out the story. Onizuka's likableness is still there, but he makes some moves that made me question, "Is that really how Onizuka would act?" Everything built in the original was thrown out the window. They added more time with Uchiyamada (which was surprisingly fun), but kicked Azusa out the story. Like wtf happened? Overall, biggest downgrade from the original.

Enjoyment: 5/10
Humor is the same, but suddenly became explicit. I mean, I'm kind of a degenerate too, so I don't mind ecchi and smut, but the transition was pretty weird. However, just because some parts were pretty funny, it doesn't really mean that I enjoyed the whole ride. There are some pretty boring arcs and sometimes they focus on unlikable characters.

Overall: 5/10
Would I have picked this up if GTO never existed? No. Do I appreciate GTO still being published? Yes. However, I can't lie that this is a downer compared to the original. It lost the charisma of the original GTO and it would be an understatement to say that I'm just a little disappointed. I'm VERY disappointed. This won't really affect the original's place in my heart, though. I WILL always love it and will re-read it within a few years' time.

GTO Lost paradise is the logical sequel of GTO. We had the latter with a classroom of kids still not in high school. Now we tackle high school and more specifically : artists.

Overall the story is more less "slice of life" than the original GTO because the idea was to recreate the saga and to make it different while keeping the good elements.

While in GTO Onizuka was facing unbearable lost children, it had a sense of daily routine, it was almost realistic because those kids were just everyday kids with troubles. A random teenager could relate to the story because we've all known ... a bullied boy because he was a weird gamer, we've all known a bored genius having excellent grades and so on... It's a part of why GTO worked that well with people.

GTO lost paradise is a little bit different. It's about an classroom of artist high schoolers thus they've got a lot of different issues we cant relate to. While the manga is great if you're into the kind of comedy GTO has always been, i can understand why some seem to be skeptical.

First of all, the story is less "slice of life". We dont follow the everyday life of onizuka and his teens. Onizuka is already locked in jail because he meddled in a big story with some bad guys. It means that we know that the main element of the story isnt about resolving high schooler anymore but it's now about some deeper issues related to those kids in a messed up industry. The story is now about how Onizuka got locked in a jail (thus it gradually shows what kind of issues he had to deal with) and it's also about how is he going to flee to resolve his ultimate task, the task that brought him in jail. We can say that every issues with the students are minor, a sort of side story because everything that matters is that "big task" that brought him in jail.

Now, Onizuka isnt your weird funny teacher anymore, he doesnt help normal students anymore. He's some kind of hero going against the whole industry, the whole yakuzas of Tokyo only to help a student. Issues are deeper and it didnt disturb me.
GTO lost paradise is basically a mix between GTO and young GTO.
Some feel lost because everything feels so grand here. First of all ppl cant relate anymore to the manga because students here ar artists with artist issues and then, those issues are superhero issues in a totally corrupted industry. You're free to start the manga to make an opinion.

Despite that, comedy is still the same and Onizuka just does Onizuka things. He hasnt changed a bit. For me, it definitely worth a try.

If im being honest GTO is maybe one of my favorite series of all time, without a doubt. It managed to convey so many emotions into the original 200 chapter run that i just had to end the manga on superspeed. The point is obvious, i love the original work and i think that many of the strenghts of that one don't translate that well into this one.

Story 6/10
The concept of GTO is not that complicated he is a tough guy who is brought up to teach problem kids for a bigger plot. He bails them out/fixes/resolves on so many situation and he makes ... sure that they see what went wrong. He befriends these kids, they stay close to him and help him from time to time. All while he behaves like a pervert with a good heart.

The concept got some things reworked here and there and i believe that a lot of stuff is just not good. Now his students appear on one arc and moving forward are literal background characters. Students from his class are introduced 100 chapters in. Im not that bothered by the fact that there are not a lot of returning characters but i feel that some of them are just wasted oportunities (Azusa, Urumi, Tomoko). And my main bother on new guys, Akasaka who basically is just Noboru but much less important.

The plot of the prison is very interesting, the majority of arcs get to be enjoyable on their own, characters that are constant turn out to add a lot to the story (Kagetora, Nana, Fumiya, Natsu). And i think the comedy has become really strong but there's not a lot of drama or stakes as much as it used to.

Art 6/10
I hope that im not the only one noticing this but i feel that the artsyle has got a massive drop in quality. It's not bad as much as it is inconsistent and in comparison to the OG work it's not on the same level.

Character 7/10
Onizuka's still a guy full of flaws that's willing to go the extra mile for his people. Aside from him the recurring cast is OK, Uchiyamada being the MVP having moments of brilliance here and there. Nana for some reason appears very scarcely and yet she's still the main heroine despite that. Saejima and Ryuji have become much more recurring and i feel that was a good move.
Main recurring guys are pretty good but the students are only explored on their arcs and some only exists on those, and then go on to not be featured anywhere else.

Villains are a little more extravagant mainly because the mayor theme is the show business and celebrities. There's still a lot of mistery surrounding those areas but i believe it's going towards a good path overall.

Enjoyment 8/10
It's very enjoyable, many of my problems come form the fact that the big picture and the characters that surround it are not consistent enough. However to say that it's not fun ride, an exciting one or that is boring would be to lie. It's Onizuka after all, what's not to enjoy.

Overall 7/10
Is it good, yeah. Is it great, nah not quite there. Since it's ongoing a lot of stuff can be worked as it goes on and while i recommend it i wouldn't say that it reaches the levels that the original did. Since it's story and characters have so many lowpoints i gotta say that if you're going into this one go with an open mind and willing to see a fun work about a really dark world, after all he can only change how you see it, the rest is up to you.