Ranked #9

Great Teacher Onizuka (Manga)

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. read more

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! read more

Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO), one of the most loved manga (and anime) titles in existence. 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. The story has a wonderful combination of hard-hitting drama, complete with characters with realistic, easy to relate to problems and over the top comedy. As well as being meaningful, the story can inject warmth into even the coldest of hearts.

Story: 9/10

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, who 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, 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 everyone.

However, I cannot claim the story is without its problems. Some of the stories included repeat what has gone before and appear to have only been included just to stretch the story out. 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. It is a pity because, if not for my issues with the story, it would have been awarded a 10/10 score.

Characterization: 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 stories 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 who 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 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 characterization. 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 usually 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 over the top 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. read more

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.

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