GREAT TEACHER ONIZUKA

'''Great Teacher Onizuka''' (グレート・ティーチャー・オニヅカ, ''Gurēto Tīchā Onizuka''), officially abbreviated to '''GTO''', is a manga, anime, and live-action shōnen series created by Tohru Fujisawa. It is the story of Eikichi Onizuka, a 22-year-old former bōsōzoku member, and his quest to be the greatest teacher in Japan. GTO is a continuation of Tohru Fujisawa's other manga series ''Shonan Junai Gumi'' (lit. "Shōnan True Love Group") and ''Bad Company''. It won the 1998 Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen.
Both the anime and manga have been licensed in North America by Tokyopop.

Contents

Story

Characters

Media Information

Live-Action

Anime

Pop Culture in GTO

Notes

External links

Story

While peeping up girls' skirts at a local shopping mall, Onizuka meets a girl who agrees to go out on a date with him. Onizuka's attempt to bed her fails when her current "boyfriend," her teacher, shows up at the love hotel they are in and asks her to come back. This teacher is old and unattractive, but she is so under this teacher's power that she leaps from a window two stories up and lands in his arms.
Onizuka, seeing this display of a teacher's power over girls, decides to become one himself, and discovers three important things:
# He has a conscience and a sense of morality. This means taking advantage of impressionable schoolgirls is out ... but their unusually attractive mothers (see Kunio Murai, below) are a different matter.
# He enjoys teaching.
# He hates the systems of traditional instruction, especially when they have grown ignorant and condescending.
With these realizations, he sets out to become the greatest teacher ever, using his own brand of philosophy and the ability to do nearly anything when under enough pressure:

★ Taking a standardized test in one hour instead of the normal five, while having three bullet wounds because he used the other four hours to rescue the daughter of a famous government official from a yakuza hideout.

★ Hired as a long-shot teacher by a privately operated school to tame a class that has driven one teacher to a mysterious death, one to nervous breakdown, and one to joining a cult, he embarks on a mission of self-discovery by breaking through to each student one by one, and helping each student, ranging from the busty bimbo to the oedipal rebel, to learn to genuinely enjoy life.

Characters

Main articles: List of Great Teacher Onizuka characters

Media Information

Main articles: List of Great Teacher Onizuka media

Live-Action

A 12-episode live-action (drama) was aired on television, based loosely on the manga. Takashi Sorimachi stars as Onizuka, and Nanako Matsushima as Azusa. It is directed by Masayuki Suzuki, with music composed by Takayuki Hattori and the opening song, "Poison", sung by Takashi Sorimachi himself. There are several drastic changes from the manga to fit the 12-hour format of the live-action series, such as the following:

★ Nanako Mizuki also studies at the Holy Forest Academy

★ The character of Uehara Anko is eliminated; instead, her characteristics are merged into Miyabi Aizawa's character, thus making Miyabi the daughter of the PTA president

★ Ryuji Danma's character is also eliminated, giving some of his characters's functions to Saejima, Onizuka's police friend

★ Julia Murai, Kunio's mother, is the widow of Onizuka's biker gang idol, rather than being just another parent of one of Onizuka's students
Nevertheless, the changes in the live-action accomplishes to capture the spirit of GTO very well. According to Tokyopop, the final episode of the live action series was the most watched television program ever in Japan.^[3]
Coincidentally, Matsushima is married to Takashi Sorimachi, who played Onizuka in that series. Sorimachi and Matsushima met on the set of GTO, they married in 2001 after a long term relationship and, in May 2004, Nanako gave birth to their first child, a baby daughter.
A two-hour television special followed in August 1999, and a theatrical movie in January 2000.

Anime

Main articles: List of Great Teacher Onizuka episodes

Due to the popularity of the manga and TV series, an anime was inevitable, though strange in this case as it was produced after the other two, similar to Gokusen and Nodame Cantabile. It was directed by Noriyuki Abe and Naoyasu Hanyu of Studio Pierrot.
The anime's episodes closely followed the manga's plot up to volume 14. However, by then the anime had reached the end of the manga's storyline which forced the anime to create a new ending. The main characters in the anime are, in general, similar to their manga counterparts but the side characters are much less developed or missing entirely. Nudity, violence, and perversion were toned down for the anime.
The anime is somewhat more comically exaggerating than the manga and drama. Many odd facial expressions that Onizuka makes are modeled after Takashi Sorimachi (who played Onizuka in the drama).

Pop Culture in GTO

Attempting to be a realistic work of fiction, a great number of cultural references abound in the course of the GTO series:
'People & Places'

★ Eikichi Onizuka shares his name with musician Eikichi Yazawa and Challenger astronaut Ellison Onizuka.

★ The school where Onizuka teaches at, ''Seirin Gakuen'' (Holy Forest) is probably based on the high school of Seikei University, a part of a wider educational institute which teaches from elementary school right through to university level, located in Kichijōji.

★ Mrs. Sakurai refers to Onizuka as "a young Karl Gotch".

★ When Murai makes Onizuka set his hair on fire, he laughs and says "He went up like Michael Jackson! Do the moonwalk!".

★ Onizuka calls Principal Maruyama "Francisco Xavier".

★ Munakata gives away Tomoko's address so that "she'll be as well known as Anna Umemiya".

★ When Onizuka warms up for Fukuroda's swimming contest, he tries to do several clumsy figures in water, including "The Michelle Kwan".

★ Murai, Kusano and Fujiyoshi try to break into the school wearing masks of Yasuhiro Nakasone (with "unsinkable aircraft carrier" written on it), John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Mikhail Gorbachev (the birthmark on his head being shaped like Asia), respectively. When they are breaking in, they say they have the "heart of Lupin", and sing part of its theme song. Then Murai states, "Let's go Kennedy. And bring Gorby.", while Fujiyoshi says, "Roger, Perestroika!".

★ During the revision for the test, Azusa asks Onizuka which Mongolian warlord conquered China (Kublai Khan). Instead, an exhausted Onizuka mistakenly names famous Japanese wrestler, Killer Khan, and singer-songwriter, Chaka Khan.

★ In the chapter title page of volume 12, Onizuka asks Urumi: "Who is sexier: me or Sorimachi?". He is directly talking about Takashi Sorimachi, the actor who portrays Onizuka in the live-action television series, based on the manga.

★ Right before they leave for Okinawa, Asuza is mistaken for albino singer Sonoko Suzuki, due to the excessive amount of white makeup she used to cover up her botched makeover.

★ In Okinawa, Anko meets Onizuka, Murai, Fujiyoshi and Kusano disguised as masked punks, and they bring her to a van which has a giant portrait of Seiko Matsuda painted on it.

★ When Onizuka competes in an arm wrestling match against a hundred opponents, he faces the following:

★
★ A mis-shapen and obese Suzunosuke Akao, whose throat is "thicker than Kazushige Nagashima's". An unnaturally muscular and red-skinned man, he resembles the monster ''Red King'' from the classic tokusatsu series, ''Ultraman''. When Onizuka defeats him, Onizuka shouts, "Look at my Ultraman's power!"

★
★ Heihachi Mishima from Namco's 3D-fighting game franchise, ''Tekken''.

★
★ A man with the facial features of a sphinx and screws on its face, resembling a mechanical man, with a boy in the background wearing a round white helmet screaming "Go! Robo!", is a homage to the classic tokusatsu series, ''Giant Robo''.

★
★ A tall, muscular student wearing an ice hockey mask called ''Jason'', in reference to horror film character, Jason Voorhees. Onizuka antagonizes his opponent by mistakenly calling him ''Freddy'', in reference to another horror film character Freddy Krueger.

★ After Onizuka wins the arm wrestling matches, Mayu faints and is sent to the hospital, where a chestburster explodes out of his stomach. It is revealed to be nothing more than a hand puppet, all thanks to Mayu's trickery.

★ When Onizuka wrestles with a dummy depicting Mayu, he crushes it and stands in a wrestler outfit, saying he is Antonio Inoki.

★ In both the manga and anime, Onizuka's claims his favorite actress is Nanako Matsushima, who portrays Azusa in the live-action television series.

★ In episode 4 of the live-action series, Onizuka briefly considers having Nanako (played by Kirari) sign up for a teen idol competition, but quickly changes his mind after she sings horribly off-key. Ironically, Kirari sang one of the ending songs for the anime.

★ In volume 24 of the manga on page 185, 186 and in volume 25 of the manga on pages 52 and 54 , Urumi is wearing a University of Notre Dame top.
'Manga & Anime'

★ In the first anime episode, Hidero Ohsawa sees Onizuka's eagerness to date teenage school girls. He tells Onizuka, "Take it easy Golden Boy."

★ When Murai tricks Onizuka into wearing bowling balls stuck to his hands with superglue, he calls him Doraemon, due to his round hands, which make him look like the earless robot cat. Onizuka later completes this look with ''Doraemon'' written in Kanji on his forehead, painted whiskers on his cheeks and a helicopter fan (Doraemon's trademark gadget) on his hair, as he goes rescue Murai, Kusano and Fujiyoshi from a group of misfits. He changes his disguise again, impersonating Kenshiro from ''Fist of the North Star'', with the same Ursa Major shaped scars (drawn with a marker) on his bare chest, ''Kenshiro'' in Kanji on his forehead, and swollen veins drawn on his face.

★ When Onizuka investigates a female teacher who joined a cult after her students bullied her, he discovers her overweight, eating junk food, and watching ''Speed Racer'' on television. That same cult is shown with its members praying to a shrine to the SDF-1 from ''Macross''.

★ Onizuka makes Tomoko dress up as Cutey Honey for a talent audition.

★ Onizuka cosplayed as Devilman during a class.

★ When Onizuka tries to cheat at the pachinko game, the machine he uses has a ''Lupin III''-theme.

★ When Onizuka suggests a way of making money for the Okinawa trip, he suggests to go to Mount Akagi and dig the lost treasure of the Tokugawas. His students reply "What do you think this is, the Kindaichi Mysteries?"

★ There are several references to ''Initial D'', a manga based on street racing:

★
★ After Onizuka and his students escape the police in a frantic car chase, Fujiyoshi says it was "just like in ''Speed''". Onizuka adds that "the best drivers always get away. Don't you read ''Initial D''?"

★
★ When Onizuka drifts the Mercedes-Benz SL that Mayu gave him as a gift, he wears a headband labelled "Onizuka Tofu Shop (For private use)" , similar to the sticker on the side of the main character's car in the ''Initial D'' manga.

★
★ When Mr. Uchiyamada was chasing Onizuka, he was drifting with his Toyota Cresta. Onizuka remarked, "You're too old to play ''Initial D''!".

★
★ During the chase with Onizuka, Uchiyamada passes a Nissan Skyline GT-R, whose driver comments that they have just been passed by the "Phantom Cresta", another reference made to the main character's car in the ''Initial D'' manga.

★ There are several references to ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', a popular science-fiction anime:

★
★ When Onizuka rounds up a biker gang to scare a student straight, he is wearing a mask with a swastika and the symbol of the SEELE organization from ''Evangelion''.

★
★ Noburu has several ''Evangelion'' posters in his room.

★
★ When Onizuka wins the swimming contest against Fukuroda, he says he wants to buy the ''Evangelion'' trading cards with the award money.

★
★ After shaking hands with Azusa, Teshigawara wears white gloves and glasses, like Gendo Ikari, and also fixs up his glasses on his nose and grins like the character.

★
★ When Miyabi dyes her hair light blue, Onizuka believes she tried to look like Rei Ayanami.

★
★ In the story involving Urumi selling Myabi and her friends to a group of older men for sex, one of their bondism toys has the SEELE mask painted on its headrest.

★ There are several references to ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', a vast Japanese franchise of anime, models and games:

★
★ Upon visiting the Nerima Ward, while searching for Ms. Kahara, he bears witness to "alien prayer verses" which cultists chant a stream of Gundam references: "Dom-dom-murick-dom" (in reference to the Dom), "Zaku-zaku-bigu-zom" (in reference to the Zaku and Big Zam), "Zogock-zogock-agga-ii" (in reference to the Z'Gock and Acguy), and "Azunaibel, azunabiel, sha-sha-sha" (in reference to the Char Aznable character).

★
★ In Okinawa, Urumi is forced to share her room with three Gundam otakus. They talk non-stop about it and even call Urumi Sayla Mass, one of the characters in the anime. They even point out that their room number, 0080, is a reference to ''. When Urumi confronts Onizuka about her room assignment, she complains that she had dreams about a boy named Heero, the main character from ''Gundam Wing''. In the "haunted house" game, they impersonate ''Gundam'' characters and wear Gundams V-fins, where one of them even dressed himself like the Turn A Gundam.

★
★ Coincidentally, in the GTO anime, Kikuchi's seiyuu is Hikaru Midorikawa, who also did Heero Yuy's voice in ''Gundam Wing''. Kotono Mitsuishi, Urumi's seiyuu, has appeared in three Gundam series herself: ''After War Gundam X'', ''Mobile Suit Gundam SEED'' and ''Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny''.

★
★ When Urumi makes her first run of school vandalism, she is confronted by a trio of female upperclassman, who are collectively known as the Black Stars, an obvious play on ''Mobile Suit Gundam's Black Tri-Stars, while having their respective names (Gaia, Masha and Ortega), their dark skin and their notably wide loose socks, which are described as Dom-styled.

★
★ When he and Noboru set out to rescue Urumi from her attempted suicide, Onizuka is wearing a t-shirt with the text "Mono-Eye Series" and a Zeon cross etched in.

★
★ Among Onizuka's belongings that were trashed by Daimon is an action figure of Char Aznable's MS-14S Gelgoog Commander Type, complete with its trademark beam naginata and shield, and a ''Sailor Moon'' figurine.

★ The ex-students attending the tournament say that Onizuka is like Cyborg 009, like "Space Apeman Gort", adding "so where the hell is Spectreman?" (Gort is a villain from the sentai ''Spectreman'' series) and "anyone read the old ''Tetsujin 28'' comics?"

★ When Murai suspects his mother is going to marry an elder man with balding curly hair, he nicknames him Professor Elefun, a character from the ''Astro Boy'' franchise. Later, Kusano even makes fun of Murai, saying that if his mother married "Professor Elefun, that would have made ''him'' Astro Boy".

★ In one of his rests at the hospital, Onizuka rolls on a hospital bed on wheels screaming, "I am Ultraman!"

★ Shun Oguri, the actor who played Noboru Yoshikawa, also played as Uchiyama Haruhiko in Gokusen. In ''GTO'', he is the one being bullied but in Gokusen, he is one of the bullies in class.

★ Nao Kadena's nickname, the Queen of Hakosuka, was derived from the car she used to race: a Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R, which is called ''Hakosuka'' (ハコスカ) by fans. ''Hako''（ハコ）means 'Box' in Japanese, and ''suka''（スカ）is short for 'Skyline' (スカイライン; Sukairain). She retired as a street racer when Eikichi beat her in a Last Signal race.
'Film & Television'

★ In episode nine, Onizuka wears the same jumpsuit that Bruce Lee wore in ''Game of Death''.

★ When Fujiyoushi and Kusano are looking for Onizuka in a movie theater, ''The Ring'' can be seen playin on the screen.

★ During the "haunted house" challenge in Okinawa, when the Gundam otakus find and watch "the tape", Azusa, disguised as Sadako, scares them. Incidentally, the actress who plays her in the live-action version of ''GTO'', Nanako Matsushima, played the reporter Asakawa, in ''Ring'' and ''Ring 2''.

★ Murai goes to watch a ''Jaws'' movie with a young girl called Fukada.

★ Urumi tricks Miyabi and her two friends into being seized as sexual maids for horny masked sadomasochistic clients. The clients wear masks of different color mimicking the visors of the Sentai series ''Himitsu Sentai Goranger'' and call themselves the same names as this series' heroes.
'Video Games'

★ Murai is seen playing an arcade fighting game against a bear named Kuma, who constantly wins. Kuma is also a bear and fighting character that was first introduced to the popular 3D-fighting game series from Namco, ''Tekken''. Kuma is also apparently Onizuka's favorite character in Tekken.

★ When Tadaaki Kusano shows up tired at class, he claims he played ''Onimusha'' all night, although he doesn't "even have a PlayStation 2", Onizuka is also seen playing ''Ape Escape'' without an analog pad.

★ When Onizuka brings a mentally beat-down Miyabi to Tomoko's house, Miyabi overhears Onizuka and Tomoko yelling in a way that leads her to believe Onizuka is forcing Tomoko to mess around against her will. But Miyabi's distrustful assumption is put to rest when she busts in the room to find them wrapped up in a game called ''Biohazard'', which is none other than the Japanese name for 'Resident Evil'.

★ Several references to games in the Final Fantasy series are made in the manga, including Onizuka "borrowing" a copy of Final Fantasy VII from someone's desk in the faculty room of Holy Forest in chapter 13, and a cameo appearance of Selphie Tilmitt, one of the main Characters of Final Fantasy VIII, on the title page of chapter 136.
'Music'

★ Punk rock music is sometimes referenced throughout the series. At one point, Onizuka sings the Ramones' "Rock & Roll High School", and later, Ryuji sings the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks".

★ Onizuka is depicted wearing an Atari Teenage Riot t-shirt.

Notes

1. . Accessed 2007-02-12.
2. . Accessed 2007-02-12.
3. Tokyopop, http://www.tokyopop.com/S-1034/. Retrieved 2007-02-11.

External links

★ Tokyopop's GTO section