SUMMARY
Eikichi
Onizuka is a foul mouth, arrogant, borderline psychotic, lame brain, ex-biker
punk who wants to be the greatest teacher ever. Problem is, he has no confidence
in his abilities, and expects to be fired at any time.
However, the Chairperson at Holy Forest Private School (Ms Sakurai) sees
great potential in Onizuka, and hires him to tame the wildest elements in
the school. While Ms. Sakurai sees a great teacher, Vice Principle Uchiyamada
sees him as a huge pain in the ass. It
becomes his job, his personal crusade to find a way to rid Holy Forest and
himself of Onizuka Sensai.
So, with a class that hates
him and a VP that wants him out, you'd think there wouldn't be anymore room in
our beloved hero's life for one more problem. But you'd be wrong! How to get his
fellow teacher, the beautiful Fujiyuski, to like him.
No problem for Great Teacher Onizuka!
DVD VISION TEST
VIDEO: The video is excellent.
No pixels , color bleeds or rainbows to be found. The video is so good that
it shows the moderate quality of the source animation. This is a very nice looking
release, at least on the technical side.
AUDIO: The 2.0 audio on both versions is quite well done. The English track
has a fuller sound to it, and better surround sound bits. The center speakers
have voices with the sides the music.
The Audio on the Japanese track sounds better than the original broadcast version,
but it's not very rich nor is there a lot of directionality. Most of the audio
is center speaker based.
EDITS: Using clean
animation, they have replaced the Japanese titles with English ones, as
well as adding their own GTO symbol. Episode titles have been replaced
by English. No edits to any of the episodes have been made.
EXTRAS: The original Japanese broadcast opening (not clean opening, the
ones with the Japanese staff), a collection of GTO's greatest blow ups,
and some character designs are the extras.
WIDESCREEN
REVIEW
STORY: Based off the manga
by Tohru Fujisawa, this series pretty much follows the first few volumes of the
manga, with a group of staff writers keeping things on track. It is very well
written, and the dialogue may not be sharp, it has some power to it.
ACTING: Excellent job
on the Japanese cast. Wataru Takagi is perfect as the super strong, super kinky,
wack job that is GTO. When he yells, screaming that he wants to kill people,
you believe it.
The same goes for David Lucas. His GTO is exactly what you expect, although
he occasionally ventures into "Spike Spiegel Cool". All in all, he manages to
keep up with his Japanese counterpart.
The rest of the cast on both sides do a good job, although some of the English
cast voices are a little mismatched.
FAN SERVICE: Wall to wall fan service. Most men are like the lecherous GTO,
and so the anime is full of panty shots, girls in their underwear, and other
surprises.
CONCLUSION
It is good that most members of the American audience have not seen
the live action TV series that spawned this animated version. Japanese actor
phenomenal Takashi Sorimachi's portrayal of GTO is hard to shake, leaving the
viewer making comparisons between the two However, TOKYOPOP's GTO really has
the chance to go where the 12 episode series could not. With over 40 episodes,
they have more time to flesh out story lines and characters while sticking closer
to the manga. Not to say that it is picture perfect, but like those who read
"Ghost in the Shell" before seeing the movie, you can see where they drew their
ideas for the episodes.
These first four episodes
introduces us to Ekichi Onizuka, a former biker gang leader who wants to follow
his dream and become a teacher. In the first episode, Onizuka in the last stage
of Student Teaching, and has just been assigned to Class O for two weeks. However,
the class is full of juvenile delinquents, and they have their own lessons to
teach.
The next three episodes
cover Onizuka's new job at Holy Forest Academy. Since he missed the government
teaching exam, he is not allowed to work in public schools. Fortunately, Ms.
Sakurai, the chairperson of the Holy Forest Academy (a private school) has a
feeling that Onizuka is exactly what she needs to clean up the rougher elements
of her school.
Onizuka, with his boundless
optimism, arrives at Holy Forest Academy He is placed in class 3-4, the worse
class in the school. Despite the rumors of their reported badness, he firmly
believes that he can make a difference. Totally underestimating them, he quickly
learns that to be a Great Teacher, you have to make your own rules. That is
not a problem for him, but it is for Uchiyamada, who wants to kick out this
blond dye job, pierced ear, freak out of his school. Now, the battle lines have
been drawn. Things are going to get interesting!
This series may be a little
hard for folks with limited knowledge of Japanese pop culture to understand.
Obsessions with school girls in short skirts, the butt sniffing incident, and
the crap the students pull on their new teacher (as well as some GTO's reactions)
may leave some American viewers wondering exactly what goes on in the Japanese
education system. What may look and sound extreme (and a bit nasty) to us is
part of the everyday life of teens in Tokyo!
The art style is
very similar to the manga. Lots of bizarre looks, over the top gags, and
the use of a rougher look. Those expecting high detail animation like
that of "Rouoni Kenshin" may be disappointed.
Disc wise, TOKYOPOP has done a very good job. Their video quality is excellent.
The extras are different than other releases (the opening with Japanese
credits and the advertising bumper is a first for us), and their own rating
system goes a long way to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned
with.
GTO is a fun and
entertaining look at a part of Japanese culture most
of us never get to see. With
it's over the top action, strong writing, and down right insane circumstances,
you will watch this series over and over.
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