 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 4:3 FULL SCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH AND JAPANESE DD 2.0 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 625 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | TV MA | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 09/18/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 10/09/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | DAVEY C. JONES |
SYNOPSIS:
Former juvenile delinquent Onizuka finds himself thrust into a role of high school teacher, facing students who behave just as he used to and an administration that doesn't trust him. Using the brash and unorthodox methods he picked up in his youth, Onizuka manages to reach through to his kids and help them with their problems.
Contains the first season, all 23 episodes on 5 discs. REVIEW:
Onizuka comes across as a degenerate right out of the box. The first time viewers see him, he’s trying to peek at girls’ underwear. This anti-hero doesn’t stop there, he goes and turns the table on some bullies and steals their money instead of the other way around! And that’s just the first couple of minutes of this whole first season of delinquent comedy anime goodness! Onizuka wants to be the greatest teacher, and this guy goes to any extreme to teach his students the lessons they need. His first challenge as the new teach isn’t the fact that he’s stuck teaching a class of delinquents almost as bad as he ever was, the real challenge is the sweet and lonely girl who’s runaway from home and looking to Onizuka for some extra curricular plans! He keeps turning the tables because he’s such a bad ass who’s barely reformed his delinquent ways. Those reprobates don’t realize they’re dealing with the king of bad boys – Onizuka! His teaching techniques are so far outside the box, they orbit Jupiter! He’s the most unconventional cool dude in school ever. He’s got to deal with extreme bullies, and then those bullies have to chase him for fear of him dating their leader Kunio’s single mom! Onizuka is one cool cat. He saves the life of a suicidal student and then gets a little revenge/ lesson time on the girls who did the bullying on the timid guy. And that’s how the series goes. He tries to be the best teacher he knows how, and with his degree in delinquent ways, he has some wacky ways of getting the job done. He goes up against the worst of the hard cases. But it works and it wins him friends like the cutie teacher Azusa and some of his students, and enemies like the vice principal and his other students. Some of the kids and the teachers and vp are willing to play dirty to try to get Onizuka off the bench of the teaching team. They try to frame him, oust him and just plain fire him but he bounces back every time. One of Onizuka’s biggest challenges this season is the new transfer girl Kanzaki. She’s a genius level student who’s up to no good and seems to have a death wish. Can Onizuka turn the tide? You bet, but he might just find himself having to suffer a little along the way as Kanzaki fights back! She’s not the only girl giving him trouble. The slow girl in the school, Tomoko, is a sweetie but she wants to hang out with the brat Miyabi. It all goes badly for the girl until Onizuka takes her under his wing. But not all the students get reformed, like that nasty Miyabi. I can’t wait to find out if she gets hers in the second season. This show is a riot! It’s all sorts of crude jokes and crazy ways. Onizuka uses insane methods to teach his kids the value of things. But he backs it up with his life – for real! When one of the girls gets kidnapped because she’s a politician’s daughter, he puts his life on the line to teach her to treat others better and save her life at the same time. He’s just that cool. One of the funniest episodes is the very last one of this season when Onizuka gets a cursed chain letter and might just meet the reaper! The shows all good fun and hard rock good times. The animation is off the hook! It’s all over the map in the coolest way. It’s got this really rough texture which goes back to the art from the original manga by Tohru Fujisawa. It morphs style at a blink of an eye to highlight atmosphere and mood changes let alone to get more laughs (always a goal in this anime and they win them every time). EXTRAS:
All sorts of goodies are packed into this box set! There’s trailers of other Tokyopop anime titles, textless songs, GTO moments video clips, character design galleries, GTO eye catches, outtakes, and a video interview with mangaka and GTO creator Tohru Fujisawa. IN SUMMARY:
GTO is about the craziest most delinquent teacher you’ll ever meet and love! It’s non-stop laughs with heart. |
