Great Teacher Onizuka and Shonan Junai Gumi

I'm going to review GTO first, which is actually takes place after the Shonan Junai Gumi OVAs.

Eikichi Onizuka (GTO as he likes to call himself) is an ex-gang leader that's determined to be a great teacher. Onizuka starts working at a public school, but has to quit after he fails a civil service exam (meaning hes only able to teach at certain private schools), but is given a 2nd chance by the Principal of Holy Forest Academy. He is made the home room teacher of class 3-4, a troublesome class that in the past literally drove teacher's insane (or completely screwed up their minds) where he slowly gains his student's respect by teaching life lessons rather than what he's supposed to.

I'm going to be honest here, at first I wasn't getting into this show at all. I almost didn't watch the 2nd episode and on, but I gave it a chance because of how good I've been hearing it was. So, if you decide to watch this, please watch to at least the 3rd or 4th episode and if you aren't intrigued by then you probably won't like it I guess, but at least give it a chance. This show was really good actually, and I wouldn't bother watching Shonan Junai Gumi first, because it's no where near as good as this (and you really aren't missing anything).

I probably missed some of these because I watched the dub, but there apparently are a lot of pop culture references in this show, although one you might notice right off is that all the hard hats are the same ones the Metool enemy on mega man wears, but there are a lot. Also for some odd reason Onizuka loves to dress up in costumes (most of the time as animals) randomly and sometimes at inappropriate times.

Onizuka is a nice guy despite being the leader of a gang in the past, most of his life lessons are really touching, the guy really does care about his students even putting his life at risk to protect them. During the course of the show Onizuka is sort of a horn dog, he's always trying to get a date (since hes 22 and still a virgin) which usually sets him up as an easy target to be tricked by tempting him with such situations. Also through most of the show someone wants or is trying to get the poor bastard fired (the vice principal HATES this guy so much) usually over petty grudges or generally stupid reasons.

The life lessons that Onizuka teaches his students typically flips their lives around and many of them make you wonder if he's just acting stupid. Along with this, he seems to be able to get out of any situation (usually something that will prevent him from teaching or living) and in many cases seems indestructible. The music in this show was just awesome, I really liked the 2nd opening and many of the songs they use during the show.

In closing, I really loved this show and I recommend you give it a try, if you rather read the manga and wish to start from the beginning, start with Bad Company then read Shonan Junai Gumi then finally Great Teacher Onizuka (I apologize if I missed any).

8/10

I decided on a 8 because of how hard it was to get into at first, don't hold it against the show, it really was good.

I'm going to make this one short, This a OVA sequel to GTO and there are 5 parts. This was no where near as good as GTO though, In fact I really didn't like this too much.

It follows young Onizuka and Ryuji as they go around trying to get laid and get into fights, this sums pretty much all 5 of them up, some are more serious than others though (which i thought were probably the best parts). The 5th and last part of this OVA was probably my favorite (which is probably contradicting me when i said the serious ones seemed like the best out of the 5), but the way it ends leaves you expecting a 6th (they could have easily ended this at the 4th one), the reason I liked it was because it seemed closest to GTO's style out of the 5 parts.

I'm probably being very vague about this, I really don't know why I'm reviewing the OVA, I just generally thought it was boring but not horrible, I just wasn't into it I guess. Despite this I will try to give it a fair rating though, if you liked GTO you might like this or you might not.. I would just skip it though.

6/10