GTO

Background

With a teacher who is little older than his charges, GTO traces a line through Slow Step to Soseki Natsu-me's Botchan, though its true success lies in the conservative media's need to sanitize subculture thuggery-and what better way than by showing that even gangsters and bikers can rejoin the system? GTO has a convoluted pedigree that also stretches back to the meteoric success of the Bomber Bikers of Shonan, which inspired manga author Toru Fujisawa to create his own version, the Shonan Pure Love Gang, in 1990. Featuring the school and street-gang activities of Onizuka and Danma, it was adapted into a four-part anime series in 1996 by Katsumi Minoguchi. A second prequel, the same year's Bad Company, detailed the first meeting of Onizuka and Danma.  
   
Inevitably, the series was also lampooned in an erotic pastiche, GTR (G-cup Teacher Rei), a four-DVD set about a schoolteacher with unfeasibly large breasts and her adventures with her similarly well-endowed colleagues and pupils. The following year, began GTO as a sequel in Shonen Magazine, with Onizuka announcing his intention of becoming a teacher so he can chase girls. The series also spun off into a live-action TV version and theatrical outings, starring heartthrob Takashi Sorimachi as Onizuka. It is this live version that is the quintessential GTO, with its handsome loner fighting injustices on his motorcycle like an educational lawman, but the anime incarnation still has considerable bite, mainly because its cartoon origins allowed for slightly more violence and menace than its prime-time live-action counterpart. It also features unobtrusive use of computer graphics that add realistic cloud and water effects to lead the viewer's eye away from the cheap TV animation, and a moody monochrome opening sequence that sums up the series' sardonic attitude, playing the sound of a revving motorcycle while showing the handle of a toilet.  
 
During the GTO Manga Onizuka had disappeared for 14 days when he was sent to the hospital for the second time. This spawned the new Manga GTO: Shonan 14 days. This will explain on his whereabouts and what he got up to during a hospital visit, late on in the manga. Currently being released as of 2009. 

Theme Music

Soundtrack