Great Teacher Onizuka

Okay, when I got my friend to send me some more Toku (he doesn't like Toku, but he was nice enough to download it for me), he also sent a crapload of anime as well as my first J-Drama series: Great Teacher Onizuka. (I'm sure most of you guessed from the title.) I wasn't sure what to expect since this was my first J-Drama, but I'd seen the first 10-12 episodes of the anime a couple years back so I thought I'd try it.

I fucking love this show. As I watched I was seriously expecting a retread of what was in the anime (well technically it would be vice-versa since this came first but you know what I mean), but it quickly proved me wrong. In the first eight episodes, they managed to tell a similar, but different enough to be interesting story, and do it even better than the anime. The characters are far more developed, and even though you don't care for the people who oppose Onizuka, you can sort of see their motives a little better as well. However, what I'm REALLY shocked at is the treatment of Azusa Fuyutsuki. From what I remember in the anime, she was a very...."typical" anime female and incredibly two-dimensional character, but just like every other character in the show, she's evolved into someone you might know and even want to be friends with. (Or date, since she's REALLY hot. :laugh

At the start of episode nine, I'm sort of wondering what they're going to do with the remaining time, since most of the students have returned to Onizuka's class after the summer boycott except Miyabi (who again I feel sort of sorry for but don't totally care about since she's been such a bitch), and the whole PTA thing has been resolved, but I'm sure they'll think of something awesome to keep my attention for the next 3 hours. :anime:

My only gripe is the unfair way they keep trying to fire Onizuka, but ignore the conduct of the other teachers. Teshigawara almost raped Fuyutsuki, but no one's brought this up. He ALSO basically told the kids he didn't give a **** about them and then left in the middle of class while what I'd guess were some very important people were watching. This guy would have been fired in America, nevermind Japan, so that's sort of unbelievable. Then there's the gym teacher that beat the **** out of Kunio Murai. WTF man. WTF. Corporal punishment is a spanking, not slugging and headbutting a kid. And there's also the guy under the head teacher (Nakamata, I think his name is), who took a kickback. Of course, that sort of stuff is done all the time, but someone should tell him that they know what he was up to, just to scare the **** out of him. :laugh:

But aside from that gripe, I think this is a fantastic show, and right after I finish this, I'll probably watch the anime. Great.
 
Short-term teachers are a dime a dozen, teachers who have probably reached their tenure are difficult to replace, especially a teacher like Teshigawa who graduated from Toudai(Such a thing is like graduating from a top Ivy League school in the US) he's too much of a pull for students.

The actress who plays Fuyutsuki(Matsushima Nanako) is actually married in real life to the actor who plays Onizuka(Sorimachi Takashi). They have amazing on-screen chemistry. Also giving Matsushima Nanako a ditzy role is kind of a waste of her talent, she is considered one the most talented actresses in Japan.

I also like the drama over the anime, the anime seemed a little too perverse for my tastes, and I enjoy a good story. The series has a great cast, some of the members end up with bigger and better roles like the guy who plays Kikuchi picks up a bunch of starring roles in several movies.
 
I never really finished the anime, so I could be wrong about the other teachers all being super two-dimensional, but I somehow doubt it. One thing I like about the anime over the J-Drama though is that Onizuka isn't so "pure", and in fact his first goal upon arriving is to score with high-school girls. But instead he ends up choosing his conscience over his libido and doing the right thing.



Yeah I guess Todai U. was probably equal to Harvard or Yale in America, but still...you can't call what he did anything less than attempted rape so how come Fuyutsuki didn't say anything? And near as I can tell, the gym teacher is just a regular teacher, so him smacking Kunio around was...yeah.

Is it true that episode 12 of GTO was the most watched TV show ever in Japan? I can sort of see why, but that's still insane...
 
Is it true that episode 12 of GTO was the most watched TV show ever in Japan? I can sort of see why, but that's still insane...

It did get ridiculous ratings, it's possible but I can't really confirm I don't access many ratings numbers. But I do know it was one of the most popular Jdramas of its time.
 
I seem to remember that one of the main reasons (if not the only one) for it's huge popularity was that the actor playing Onizuka (forgot his name right now) was very in vogue with girls then. Almost everyone that watched it told me it's because he plays in it (they were all girls for the record)
 
i love this show, only seen the anime but i really want to see the Live action version but its hard to find:redface2: cosplaying as Onizuka next week since in victoria,Australia were finally having our BIG BIG Anime convention hes a great character:anime:
 
the live action one rocks. it remains at the top of my Most Rewatched Series list with 8 rewatches to date, beating Kuuga, which had 4.

Oh yeah, I also have both the Original Soundtracks on CD as well as the Movie Soundtrack (the movie wasn't that good though)
 
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