GTO
GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka

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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.

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.

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.