Great Teacher Onizuka

Twenty-two-year-old Eikichi Onizuka—ex-biker gang leader, conqueror of Shonan, and virgin—has a dream: to become the greatest high school teacher in all of Japan. This isn't because of a passion for teaching, but because he wants a loving teenage wife when he's old and gray. Still, for a perverted, greedy, and lazy delinquent, there is more to Onizuka than meets the eye. So when he lands a job as the homeroom teacher of the Class 3-4 at the prestigious Holy Forest Academy—despite suplexing the Vice Principal—all of his talents are put to the test, as this class is particularly infamous.

Due to their utter contempt for all teachers, the class' students use psychological warfare to mentally break any new homeroom teacher they get, forcing them to quit and leave school. However, Onizuka isn't your average teacher, and he's ready for any challenge in his way.

Bullying, suicide, and sexual harassment are just a few of the issues his students face daily. By tackling the roots of their problems, Onizuka supports them with his unpredictable and unconventional methods—even if it means jumping off a building to save a suicidal child. Thanks to his eccentric charm and fun-loving nature, Class 3-4 slowly learns just how enjoyable school can be when you're the pupils of the Great Teacher Onizuka.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Onizuka, Eikichi Main

Takagi, Wataru Japanese

Kanzaki, Urumi Main

Mitsuishi, Kotono Japanese

Uchiyamada, Hiroshi Main

Cho Japanese

Kikuchi, Yoshito Main

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Nomura, Tomoko Main

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Fuyutsuki, Azusa Main

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

Yoshikawa, Noboru Main

Okano, Kousuke Japanese

Murai, Kunio Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Aizawa, Miyabi Main

Noda, Junko Japanese

Danma, Ryuuji Supporting

Chiba, Isshin Japanese

Katsumata, Hideo Producer

Hagino, Ken Producer

Abe, Noriyuki Director, Storyboard, Recording Engineer

Date, Hayato Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Nov 6, 2025

Impala

Recommended

Let's get this out of the way: Great Teacher Onizuka is a stone-cold classic, and it absolutely earns that title. But when you sit down to watch it today, the experience is a bit like finding a beloved, slightly scuffed-up mixtape from the late 90s. The energy is infectious, the heart is absolutely in the right place, and it has moments of pure genius, but you also can't ignore the occasional hiss of a worn-out tape or a track that cuts off a little too soon. That's why, for all its legendary status, I'd firmly place it at an 8/10—brilliant, but with a few undeniable ... scratches on the surface.

The undeniable, roaring engine of this entire show is Eikichi Onizuka himself. To call him a "breath of fresh air" is an understatement; he's more like a tornado that smells of cheap cigarettes and delinquent ambition. A 22-year-old ex-biker gang member who becomes a teacher primarily to get a shot at dating high school girls? It's a premise that should be catastrophic, but the magic of GTO is how it completely subverts your expectations. Onizuka's perversion and goofiness are just the outer shell. What makes him one of anime's most iconic characters is his shocking, almost primal, sense of justice and his street-smart empathy. He doesn't quote from textbooks; he connects through shared pain, understanding, and, when necessary, utterly ridiculous and over-the-top stunts that involve hanging from a bridge or pretending to be the world's worst undercover cop. His solutions are never realistic, but they are always, always in service of a real, raw problem his students are facing.

And boy, does Class 3-4 have problems. This is where GTO shows its teeth. Beneath the signature 90s animation style and the hyper-exaggerated facial expressions lies a show that fearlessly tackles bullying, sexual exploitation, systemic hypocrisy, and even teen suicide. The show has an incredible talent for swinging from a scene of pure slapstick comedy—like Onizuka attempting to score a date—to a moment of gut-wrenching drama that leaves you feeling genuinely angry at the world these kids have to navigate. This tonal whiplash is one of its greatest strengths. It makes the lessons learned feel earned and the emotional victories land with real impact. You laugh with the characters, and you cry for them, too.

However, let's get to those scratches I mentioned. The most obvious one is the animation. Look, it's a product of its time, and it shows. While the character designs are full of personality, the actual motion and background art can feel static and dated compared to modern standards. It's not a deal-breaker, but it does require a small adjustment period.

The more significant issue, and the one that keeps GTO from a near-perfect score for me, is the ending. Without diving into spoilers, it's widely known that the anime caught up to the manga and had to craft its own conclusion. The result feels rushed and anticlimactic. After a series of powerful, student-focused arcs, the final stretch introduces a new, broader conflict that gets resolved a little too neatly and quickly. It lacks the nuanced, character-driven depth of the earlier stories and leaves you with a sense that the show, while ending on a positive note, didn't quite stick the landing. For the full, complete journey, you simply have to read the manga.

So, why an 8/10? Because even with its dated technicals and a finale that fizzles more than it roars, the journey there is so entertaining and impactful. Great Teacher Onizuka isn't just a comedy; it's a rallying cry. It’s a show that believes in second chances, in judging people by their actions and not their past, and in the idea that the best teachers aren't the ones with all the answers, but the ones who are willing to fight, bleed, and make absolute fools of themselves for their students. It's flawed, a little rough around the edges, but its heart is so massive and its message so enduring that you can't help but be won over. It’s not a perfect anime, but it is, without a doubt, an essential one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 26, 2024

bruhmanlmao

Mixed Feelings

Okay so after completing the 43 episodes I had a lot of mixed feelings, the first 23 episodes were absolute gold nearly 10/10, after the 23rd episode it felt like there were many fillers and the story took a really bad turn.
As for character development, Onizuka had relatively the same mentality and personality which, was entertaining to watch in the starting. I get he is not the brightest tool in the shed but, him just doing dumb random shit and it somehow working out in the end just felt repetitive and ridiculous, especially towards the end of the anime. The perverted/sex maniac side of him ... got really annoying towards the end, it felt like they were cranked to the max in the following episodes which just made it nearly unbearable to watch. For any average person, the humor and the concepts in the anime would've been very weird, having watched even more bizarre shows, I can understand that the anime was from a different era where these jokes were considered standard humor.

ART (9/10):
Since the anime was made in the 1990 and start of 2000's it has great animation for its time. It brought back a lot of nostalgia, overall the sound and design were also great.

MUSIC (10/10):
The music from that era was really something else. Just the music alone would make this anime a 7/10 disregarding all the other components.

Story (4/10):
Could've been better, took a bad turn towards the end.

The only bit of character development for Onizuka was, him thinking he is a bad teacher to - him actually building confidence in himself. Finally, the first 23 episodes make it absolute gold hence, the rating of 7/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 31, 2013

Polyphemus

Not Recommended

Great Teacher Onizuka had some potential, but all of the humor is repetitive and juvenile, while unrealistic dramatic scenes dominate the plot more and more as the series drags on. It basically fails on both fronts. Plot points and devices are reused to the point where they become dull, and they get increasingly ridiculous as the series progresses. Not in a good way, of course. Holy melodrama, batman! This anime is chock full of bullshit backstories that are supposed to make us go “awwwwww, they’re not a bad guy/girl after all!” by the way. Yeah, it’s definitely as irritating and ineffective as it sounds.


Character ... development is unfortunately absent from the personality of our bland douche of a protagonist, and he is pretty much the same annoying dumbass for the whole duration of the plot. His way of solving issues with students is completely unrealistic, and while this is sometimes acknowledged and played for laughs, it takes itself seriously far too often. He’s pretty much just there for wish-fulfillment, plain and simple. As for his students, all developments in them come off as completely forced and contrived. Plus, almost all of them are blatant archetypes, who have some deep-seated reason to “bawww nvr trust a teacher again!” to boot. Why should we care about anything bad that threatens to happen when we already know that the Mary Sue genius cool handsome hacker boy can fix all problems that come up easily? Another telling issue with the characterization is that just about all men above the age of twenty are, for whatever reason, portrayed as disgusting perverts. This may be a reflection on Fujisawa himself, given the large amount of poorly-placed fanservice. All antagonists in this series start off completely one-dimensional and unrealistically evil, but they then get some sob-story tacked onto their character and their personality changes completely. That is simply not proper character development.


The art is easily the weakest aspect. Almost everybody has the same exact face; you know, that one face that Fujisawa Tohru recycles endlessly in everything he does. The only face he knows how to draw, basically. Great Teacher Onizuka largely depends on visual humor for its value as a comedy, but all of the "hilarious" facial expressions were used over and over again, when they were never really funny in the first place. At the same time, they contribute heavily to my inability to take Great Teacher Onizuka seriously. The rest of the visual humor is just somewhat lame and, man, I hope you like seeing Onizuka’s ass, because you’re going to be getting a lot of that. The animation is nothing special, and any flaws with it are completely overshadowed by the horrendous art.


All of the claims made by Great Teacher Onizuka’s rabid defenders about its “societal commentary” are completely untrue. Bullying is not dealt with much better, more interestingly, or realistically than in many other works I have seen. Furthermore, I failed to see what it actually criticized about the education system, other than the fact that not enough teachers are violent gangsters. This theme continues with just about everything else it supposedly comments on. It either just features these things in a cliché manner or does not really say much about them at all. There is no depth to Great Teacher Onizuka; it is just a simple drama and comedy. This would be fine did it do either of those things right, but, alas, it did not.


I have no idea as to why this anime is so highly regarded. It is just not very good, plain and simple. I get second-hand embarrassment when watching all of those sentimental scenes about teaching, and then I have to wonder why Great Teacher Onizuka didn’t just stick to comedy. Then I remember that it wasn’t funny and I think to myself “ah, that explains it.” GTO started out as a decent parody of all of those stupid shows with a super-teacher who helps his students work out all of their problems and wins their hearts in the process, but it eventually fell victim to self-indulgence and became a stupid story in the same vein. It contributed nothing new nor anything of real value to the genres of school life, comedy, or drama. It never made me laugh out loud, and it never evoked any kind of physical or emotional response. Not in a good way, at least. At its best, it’s okay. At its worst, it’s goddamn painful.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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