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.

Helpful

read more

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.

Helpful

read more