remake me, please
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Tagged: great teacher onizuka
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Good news everybody! The sequel we’ve all been waiting for is almost here… more Onizuka-sensei! (At least in manga form.)
I really enjoyed GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka). It was one of the last anime series that I still owned on VHS, and it still resonates today. It’s one of those shows that I’ve wanted to write about over the last seven years but haven’t (Utena, you’re next!). After seeing Kanon, Fullmetal Alchemist, Evangelion, and Hanaukyo Maid (which needs a remake for its remake, btw) get remakes, I’m wondering when will the deli line finally call out Onizuka-sensei’s number?
Now… some background. GTO is fantastic. There is no argument who is the best teacher in anime– Eikichi Onizuka just vastly outguns Becky-sensei, Sawa-chan, Komoe-sensei, and Pink Supervisor. He has no equal. He applied for the job because he wanted to lose his virginity to a cute high school girl. He gave the school administrator a suplex when he initially didn’t get the job– and that suplex eventually got him the job. He bribes students to digitally create nude images of his female coworkers.
What really sets him apart is his problem solving skills. In its core, GTO is a lot like Clannad where the main character is trying to redeem himself by helping others. While Tomoya is frolicking with hawt chix0rs like Kotomi-chan and Kyou, Onizuka gets a class of delinquents. They make the class from Gokusen and Asura Cryin seem like angels. They frame him for gay sex crimes. They blackmail hims for abuse. They boycott his classes. They slander him on national TV. They drug (and almost rape) his love interest. It’s no picnic. You know what Onizuka does? He fights back in his own unique way. He uses everything at his disposal in creative ways, and he makes Tomoya look like a chump for resorting to sports so much. Sledgehammers. Playing chicken in big rigs. A huge hooker sex orgy party starring his own female students (who, of course, didn’t know it was a huge hooker sex orgy party). Just fantastic. He’s one guy Kogarashi wouldn’t look down on, and someone Taki could have a beer with.
If you haven’t experienced the joy and wonders of Onizuka-sensei, I’m just going to shake my head and point you to Amazon to pick up the GNs or jdrama land to find the live action series. It’ll be the best 13 hours of your life next month, assuming Mio doesn’t flash her rice bowl again. Just, whatever you do, don’t watch the anime. It’s horrible. GTO is sadly one of the few series where the live action is the best of the three– it rectified a lot of the shortcomings of the manga, and it presented it in ways that didn’t make me wonder, “Did they spend $100 or $120 animating this episode?”
The biggest problem was just how Studio Pierrot skimped so badly in the animation. There would literally be minutes of “animation” that were just three or four stills panned around. At the time, I was also watching Tenchi in Tokyo, and Tenchi in Tokyo‘s animation just blew GTO away. And I don’t think Tenchi in Tokyo should be blowing anything away, except maybe Hatenkou Yugi. Basically, try to imagine Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in Studio Deen’s or Gonzo’s hands right now… and then three times worse than that.
The second problem was that the manga went on for about five volumes too many. The manga is split into two parts featuring two schools, but the second school’s arc was definitely tacked on after the manga became popular. It was just bad and didn’t really offer a good conclusion (which the first arc did). It’s like the Christian Arc of Kenshin after the Kyoto Arc. The anime decided to spend its second season on this arc… and… well… you could really skip it. The live action compresses it into a side story special, and I felt it works better this way. In any case, GTO should have ended with Onizuka-sensei being the hero of the school, averting a major hostage crisis (that he started), banging the girl he kinda loves, and then walking away to be a trucker or something. Now that’s an ending.
So I want a GTO remake. Reboot the franchise like Star Trek and Fullmetal Alchemist. I want a halfway competent studio running the show (Production IG? Bones? Any interest?) with a real budget. I want L’Arc~en~Ciel to do another pantheon-class OP (Driver’s High). I want a clean 24 episode series that ends with a final scene that makes Onizuka-sensei larger than life. I want improvement, progress, and testosterone. It saddens me to see shows like Basara and Basquash get green-lighted with huge animation budgets but with a fraction of the awesomeness, story-telling, and entertainment value of GTO. What’s wrong with bringing GTO to a new generation of fans over the slop being served now?
And, if that’s not possible, I at least want the train wreck option. Give GTO to Sunrise and have them turn it into a giant mecha series. Or punt it to JC Staff and call it “Great Butler Onizuka.” Or have Shaft make Mesousa his new buddy. Or toss it to Kyoto Animation and have them somehow turn it into Lucky Star meets Clannad. Anything. Just make Onizuka-sensei relevant to this new generation of fans who never owned a VHS fansub.
19 Responses to “remake me, please”
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Jason, Repeat after me
The Kenshin tv anime ended with the kyoto Arc. Any reported anime after the kyoto arc is a just a rumor and a figment of someone’s nightmare.
When you mentioned that he wanted to lose his virginity to a High School girl, my Johnny smiled. Then you mentioned the huge hooker sex party with his female students and it exploded the same way Oharuhi-sama made fanboys explode when she returned (myself included). Now to see if I can find this miolisciously delightful GTO.
Jason, you shame me.
I own the Animated series on DVD, and enjoy throwing it on in the background while I game…
A remake would be good.
Great Butler Onizuka? Sounds like a plan.. Although I have a feeling Great Meido Onizuka would be much better amirite?
Kenshin TV did not have a third arc. Also Mahoromatic S2 didn’t have a final episode and there is no Tsukihime anime. And I’m not sure how they can be remaking the GTO anime when it was never animated in the first place.
>:(
I’m gonna have to go with the Sunrise mecha series remake option.
Uchiyamada-sensei can be the evil overlord, wreaking havoc on the countryside in his formidable Cresta-bot. Fuyutsuki-sensei would serve as the hawt jumpsuit wearing ace pilot. Kanzaki would fill the role of crafty rebel faction leader.
Bonus points if they also play basketball.
i actually liked the anime, not as much as the live-action, but it was still good imo.
GTO was great. :)
I laughed so much, and felt so much of it!
Truly one of the greatest works!
Wow. I’m amazed by the timing of this. I have, to my own admitted shame, not spent the time to track down any GTO stuff until recently. As in the beginning of this week. Then I marathoned the live series, special and movie included, in…oh…3 days, and I am currently trying to hunt down the anime and manga. Though it seems to me that the best of the three is what I’ve already seen, which is a shame.
tl;dr version: Remake yes!
“He applied for the job because he wanted to lose his virginity to a cute high school girl.”
That line alone made me lookup the manga. Read the first 6 chapters, and Holy Shit. This is amazing. Needs HD NAOWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I’ve watched the anime, live-action, movie, and the manga, and ended up liking the anime the most actually. If anything, the voice acting, soundtrack, OP and ED made up for the stone age animation. The manga was hilarious in its over-the-top way I must admit, but I thought the anime really helped breathing a soul into each character. Maybe I just lack imagination, but when it is animated, with sound, it just delivered that much bigger of an impact to me. I still remember the anime was the only version that made me shed a few man’s tears to. On the other hand, the live-action wasn’t bad, but unfortunately I’m comparing it against some of the best Japanese dramas in the past 13 years.
Wait, there was a GTO anime? No such thing. Only a live-action version was made, period.
Be that as it may, a proper anime adaption is welcome.
> Or punt it to JC Staff and call it “Great Butler Onizuka.â€
No,no – Great Meido Onizuka,with cameos from Kogarashi :-D
So this anime is sort of like Galactica 1980 in status?
I actually like GTO’s second OP, Hitori no yoru, better. I wouldn’t mind a GTO remake as long as they keep the same style or at the very least Onizuka’s hilarious facial expressions.
wait two schools? I thought the story stayed in the same school for the entire 25 volumes of the manga, and the story goes arc by arc that covers each students/teachers problems. Unless there was some additional volumes that I missed.
Personally I thought the story for the manga was well paced and structured, although a little over the top. The gradual growth of Onizuka from each arc and slow built up and revealing Miyabi’s problem was greatly executed. The climax was very well and the manga ended in a nice conclusion.
I would rank the Manga over the live action version.
^ Probably referred to the school where he helped a student’s family from the brink of divorce. First (or first two?) episode of the anime.
Anyway, this is my favorite anime of all time. Everything’s awesome, from the OP to the ED. My only problem was that things got a bit stale in the middle of the last few episodes (fortunately, the last two episodes fixed this). That, and the ending.
Pierrot version of “Why Miyabi is so evil” made me facepalm especially because I read the manga before, and the manga version just stomp over it.
GTO really needs a remake. Some improvement to its animation will be good. And hopefully the remake should stick to the story of the manga. The ending of the anime series just pales in comparison to the ending of the manga. And there so much part of the story and characters that was hacked away from the manga storyline. They can actually remove some fillers that was placed in the anime version to be honest.