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 ====== Great Teacher Onizuka ======
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 [[#Onizuka Eikichi]], //ni-ju-ni-sai//, a bachelor, has recently become a teacher at a well-renowned private school in Tokyo. Prior to his teaching career, he worked odd jobs and before even then, he was the infamous leader of a bōsōzoku (Japanese biker gang). While the idea of a gang leader becoming a teacher may be scary, you'll find that once you get to know him, you'll wish he were your teacher; and real.\\
 Despite coming out in the 90s and early 2000s, the story of GTO is still just as Great today as it was then.\\
 Alongside this article, there's another dedicated to the [[lb:gto:adaptations]].
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 [[lb:gto:aizawa]] • [[lb:gto:fuyutsuki]] • [[lb:gto:kanzaki]] • [[lb:gto:kikuchi]] • [[lb:gto:murai]] • [[lb:gto:nomura]] • [[lb:gto:onizuka]] • [[lb:gto:saejima]] • [[lb:uchiyamada]]
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 ===== Reviews =====
 ==== GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka - Manga ====
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 The series also seems to criticize the Japanese education system, which is too concerned with test scores and appearances and not enough about the students themselves. I'm not sure if the critique can apply to other school systems, as I went through a largely apathetic system in comparison. Besides this, the series concerns itself with what a teacher should or should not be.\\
 Now to move onto stuff I found... off.\\
-I explain this in the [[#Kanzaki Urumi goes through the same arc twice|speculah]], but I have a feeling [[#kanzaki_urumi|Kanzaki]] <wrap spoiler>goes through the same character arc twice</wrap>. This confused me and still confuses me, because I didn't notice anything else like this happen. It's a bit off, but doesn't bother me too much... as I believe the arc it was a part of is one of the best in the whole series; it being <wrap spoiler>the climax of the [[#Uchiyamada Hiroshi|Principal]]'s arc</wrap>, a development in <wrap spoiler>[[#aizawa_miyabi|Miyabi]]'s arc</wrap> and has some of the highest tension in the whole series. It's definitely one of my favourites, but [[#kanzaki_urumi|Kanzaki]]'s <wrap spoiler>second character arc</wrap> definitely degrades the quality.\\
+I explain this in the [[#Kanzaki Urumi goes through the same arc twice|speculah]], but I have a feeling [[#kanzaki_urumi|Kanzaki]] <mark spoiler>goes through the same character arc twice</mark>. This confused me and still confuses me, because I didn't notice anything else like this happen. It's a bit off, but doesn't bother me too much... as I believe the arc it was a part of is one of the best in the whole series; it being <mark spoiler>the climax of the [[#Uchiyamada Hiroshi|Principal]]'s arc</mark>, a development in <mark spoiler>[[#aizawa_miyabi|Miyabi]]'s arc</mark> and has some of the highest tension in the whole series. It's definitely one of my favourites, but [[#kanzaki_urumi|Kanzaki]]'s <mark spoiler>second character arc</mark> definitely degrades the quality.\\
-Besides that, I have only one other issue that I care about:<wrap spoiler>  Mayu</wrap>. I never really... got... what<wrap spoiler> his </wrap>point was?<wrap spoiler> He </wrap>always felt like a <wrap spoiler>male version of [[#kanzaki_urumi|Kanzaki]], but not as smart.</wrap> I assume<wrap spoiler> he drops out of the story after his arc because Fujisawa-sensei didn't know what to do with him</wrap>.\\
+Besides that, I have only one other issue that I care about:<mark spoiler>  Mayu</mark>. I never really... got... what<mark spoiler> his </mark>point was?<mark spoiler> He </mark>always felt like a <mark spoiler>male version of [[#kanzaki_urumi|Kanzaki]], but not as smart.</mark> I assume<mark spoiler> he drops out of the story after his arc because Fujisawa-sensei didn't know what to do with him</mark>.\\
 I also feared I'd be disappointed by the inciting incident of Class 3-4's terrorism; fearing it would either be too unrealistic, too contrived or too weak a reason. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to find it was actually handled fairly well (something the adaptations seem to universally fail at). However, it took a bit of thinking before I concluded it //was// good.
-I remembered a very specific thing that I dislike about Onizuka in particular: when things that are immoral are portrayed as good or neutral. The one example I can think of is when Fuyutsuki <wrap spoiler>gives a few students some alcohol, which they then drink together with her. The surrounding context is that this is her attempt to get closer to the students in her own way, copying Onizuka in a way. I don't think I specifically need to explain why this is a morally bad thing, but the manga doesn't treat it as morally wrong</wrap>.
+I remembered a very specific thing that I dislike about Onizuka in particular: when things that are immoral are portrayed as good or neutral. The one example I can think of is when Fuyutsuki <mark spoiler>gives a few students some alcohol, which they then drink together with her. The surrounding context is that this is her attempt to get closer to the students in her own way, copying Onizuka in a way. I don't think I specifically need to explain why this is a morally bad thing, but the manga doesn't treat it as morally wrong</mark>.
 ==== GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka - Anime ====
 The anime is a (mostly) faithful adaptation, I'd have to go through it again to see where it differed from the manga.\\
 There are 3 main issues with it though.\\
-The first is [[#Nomura Tomoko|Tomoko]] and her character arc, which is changed. I suspect this is due to influence from the Drama. At the <wrap spoiler>idol contest, [[#Nomura Tomoko|Tomoko]] doesn't do improv acting. Instead, she talks to [[#Aizawa Miyabi|Miyabi]] through a phone, about how she misses being her friend</wrap>. I find this to degrade her character and it makes her resulting popularity feel contrived. As I saw the anime before the manga, I didn't realise what a great girl [[#Nomura Tomoko|Tomoko]] was until I went and read it.\\
+The first is [[#Nomura Tomoko|Tomoko]] and her character arc, which is changed. I suspect this is due to influence from the Drama. At the <mark spoiler>idol contest, [[#Nomura Tomoko|Tomoko]] doesn't do improv acting. Instead, she talks to [[#Aizawa Miyabi|Miyabi]] through a phone, about how she misses being her friend</mark>. I find this to degrade her character and it makes her resulting popularity feel contrived. As I saw the anime before the manga, I didn't realise what a great girl [[#Nomura Tomoko|Tomoko]] was until I went and read it.\\
-The second is the Teshigawara related stuff, which only includes his <wrap spoiler>first arc and not his second</wrap>. This isn't as bad as [[#Nomura Tomoko|Tomoko]], but it makes his story feel incomplete.\\
+The second is the Teshigawara related stuff, which only includes his <mark spoiler>first arc and not his second</mark>. This isn't as bad as [[#Nomura Tomoko|Tomoko]], but it makes his story feel incomplete.\\
 The third issue is the biggest. The ending.\\
-The ending arc takes place over the course of the 3 last episodes. The arc is centred around the <wrap spoiler>reason class 3-4 started their terrorism and focuses (a little) on [[#Aizawa Miyabi|Miyabi]]</wrap>. It isn't done as well as in the Manga... and the way it was written basically guaranteed no (easy) sequel series. The ending is also fairly obviously rushed.\\
+The ending arc takes place over the course of the 3 last episodes. The arc is centred around the <mark spoiler>reason class 3-4 started their terrorism and focuses (a little) on [[#Aizawa Miyabi|Miyabi]]</mark>. It isn't done as well as in the Manga... and the way it was written basically guaranteed no (easy) sequel series. The ending is also fairly obviously rushed.\\
 Besides that, it's a fine piece of work.
 ==== Great Teacher Onizuka 1998 - Drama ====
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 The more //risqué// aspects of GTO have been toned down. I assume this was done because TV. I consider this a positive and a negative.\\
 On the one hand, it isn't full GTO, so viewers don't get a feel for the full experience. On the other, I don't have to hesitate about recommending it to my more innocent compatriots.\\
-The show's biggest disadvantage is the length. It is made up of 12 45ish minute episodes. Compare this to the anime, with 43 24 minute episodes. This essentially forced the writers to condense everything as much as possible (that, and they didn't have as much to work with as the anime). However, the condensing is done... //really// well. The drama doesn't suffer from the issues of the anime, because it essentially does its own thing. I assume some decision making went like this: "We only have <wrap spoiler>the first half of Teshigawara's arc and its clear Fujisawa-sensei plans to do more with him</wrap>, but this is all we have and not much time. Let's make some small changes here and there to make the arc complete."\\
+The show's biggest disadvantage is the length. It is made up of 12 45ish minute episodes. Compare this to the anime, with 43 24 minute episodes. This essentially forced the writers to condense everything as much as possible (that, and they didn't have as much to work with as the anime). However, the condensing is done... //really// well. The drama doesn't suffer from the issues of the anime, because it essentially does its own thing. I assume some decision making went like this: "We only have <mark spoiler>the first half of Teshigawara's arc and its clear Fujisawa-sensei plans to do more with him</mark>, but this is all we have and not much time. Let's make some small changes here and there to make the arc complete."\\
 Unlike the anime, which is pretty faithful, but falters near the end... the drama feels like a complete product. I truly admire the writers here, they really knew what they were doing (most of the time).\\
 There is, however, one rather big contrivance: the reason class 3-4 starts the class terrorism. It doesn't work very well at all. The anime at least //made// sense, even if it wasn't as good as the manga... this one doesn't make any sense to me. It takes jumping through a few illogical hoops to get it to work. It was written clearly just to keep the story going.\\
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 This one is a bit of a mixed bag. This one improves many of the aspects of the '98 version, like the fight scenes... and it isn't shot like a soap opera anymore.\\
 This one tries to be more faithful to the manga, avoiding merging characters together. It doesn't work as well as it thinks however. The writing is built on a quite a few contrivances. I noticed one, //in the first episode//. Different from the '98 version, where I only noticed near the end. The [[lb:gto:adaptations]] article goes into more detail.\\
-Like the '98 version, it also fails to provide a good enough reason for class 3-4 to start the class terrorism. However, I didn't finish reading the manga before watching this, so I didn't realise it at the time... but they were //trying// to be more faithful. Explaining it here a bit: (and note this spoils the manga) <wrap spoiler>In the manga, the class terrorism starts because Miyabi, in a childish fit of jealousy, claims her teacher (who she had feelings for) had raped her/had her raped. One of her classmates, Takumi, took this so seriously he bashed the teacher's head in, getting expelled in the process. This essentially scared Miyabi into not revealing the truth. The rest of the class, being disgusted by the claim of rape, started the class terrorism. Miyabi then took the lead as a way of running from the truth.</wrap> What happens in the drama: <wrap spoiler>Mizuki Nanako was a member of class 3-4 who was responsible for collecting and keeping her class' money for the cultural festival, ends up losing it, through the actions of a burglar. Her teacher accuses her of stealing it for herself and the rest of the class starts doubting her innocence too. This, apparently, is too much for her and she commits suicide in front of her classmates. Miyabi then finds a note from her, explaining she just wanted everyone to trust her. Miyabi, feeling guilty, rewrites it to make it say she wanted the //teacher// to trust her, kicking off the class terrorism</wrap>. <wrap spoiler>Miyabi's part in kicking it off is kept faithful - that being her lying -</wrap> but the rest of it feels contrived (and <wrap spoiler>her reason for lying is also contrived</wrap>). It seems like none of the adaptations can get this one quite right. In the original, it was a <wrap spoiler>slightly malicious prank that went out of hand really quick</wrap>, but here it feels... bad. This isn't even the only example of this kind of thing happening in the show.\\
+Like the '98 version, it also fails to provide a good enough reason for class 3-4 to start the class terrorism. However, I didn't finish reading the manga before watching this, so I didn't realise it at the time... but they were //trying// to be more faithful. Explaining it here a bit: (and note this spoils the manga) <mark spoiler>In the manga, the class terrorism starts because Miyabi, in a childish fit of jealousy, claims her teacher (who she had feelings for) had raped her/had her raped. One of her classmates, Takumi, took this so seriously he bashed the teacher's head in, getting expelled in the process. This essentially scared Miyabi into not revealing the truth. The rest of the class, being disgusted by the claim of rape, started the class terrorism. Miyabi then took the lead as a way of running from the truth.</mark> What happens in the drama: <mark spoiler>Mizuki Nanako was a member of class 3-4 who was responsible for collecting and keeping her class' money for the cultural festival, ends up losing it, through the actions of a burglar. Her teacher accuses her of stealing it for herself and the rest of the class starts doubting her innocence too. This, apparently, is too much for her and she commits suicide in front of her classmates. Miyabi then finds a note from her, explaining she just wanted everyone to trust her. Miyabi, feeling guilty, rewrites it to make it say she wanted the //teacher// to trust her, kicking off the class terrorism</mark>. <mark spoiler>Miyabi's part in kicking it off is kept faithful - that being her lying -</mark> but the rest of it feels contrived (and <mark spoiler>her reason for lying is also contrived</mark>). It seems like none of the adaptations can get this one quite right. In the original, it was a <mark spoiler>slightly malicious prank that went out of hand really quick</mark>, but here it feels... bad. This isn't even the only example of this kind of thing happening in the show.\\
 Besides that, a few characters aren't done well either. I'd say the students are (mostly) fine, but the teachers are completely shafted, with the plot barely focusing on any of them, besides Fuyutsuki. The '98 version kept a balance between the teachers and students, with some episodes being about specific teachers. [[#Uchiyamada Hiroshi|Uchiyamada]]-sensei is especially done dirty, with him basically having nothing besides a few jokes at his expense. This //also// leads to contrivances! Since there's no reason why [[#Uchiyamada Hiroshi|Uchiyamada]] and the rest of the teachers would side with Onizuka at the end. This is so bad in fact, that I'm tempted to call it a plot hole.\\
 The show is also //shorter// than the '98 version (admittedly by only one episode) leading to, //shockingly//, more contrivances. Unlike the '98 version, which only had about 6 volumes worth of material, the 2012 version had 20 //and// the spin-off ｢GTO Shonan 14Days｣. The writers then tried to fit //as much as possible// into those 11 45 minute episodes... but it didn't work... leading to contrivances.\\