GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka

Reviewed by Angie Quidim
May 24, 2006

Author: Tohru Fujisawa Artist: Tohru Fujisawa Publisher: TOKYOPOP Website: Click Here Review Rating: 7 out of 10

Eikichi Onizuka, 22 years old drop out of high school, still managed to get into and graduate from a third-rate college. All this won't help him in achieve a dream of a good job with a high salary, famous friends (mainly women). It's just that he's a rude slacker who spends his time playing video games, looking up skirts, fighting, running from the police, and hanging out with biker punk friends. Then one night a girl decides to ditch him for an older man that was her teacher! Eikichi Onizuka decides he's going to become the greatest high school teacher in Japan , and nothing's going to stop him! Not even the students, the parents, or the uptight administrators.

Both the art and writing are done well by Fujiwara and you never get what you expect. This is not some story about a misunderstood individual who has good intentions. Eikichi is a jerk and a rogue and doesn't care what other people think either. To think that this kind of material is what makes a good teacher is good comic material The situations that he gets into are comical in nature. It's a story about a big kid taming some little kids. Not like a Kindergarten Cop but funnier.

This manga has potential but reading a lot of it over a short period of time can get quite repetitive. It would not be a starting read but definitely something for people who have been reading manga for a while and need to laugh.