Title: GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka Volume(s): 25+ Creator(s): Tohru Fujisawa Format: Unflipped; Right-to-Left Publisher: Tokyopop MSRP: $9.95 Genre(s): Action/Comedy Rated: Older Teen (16+)

"GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka" has sold over 37 million books worldwide. I know this because Tokyopop brags about this fact on the cover of the book with a big starburst. What does this fact have to do with the review? Nothing really, I just wanted to point that out.
"GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka" (which I'll be calling "GTO" from now on) is a very funny series. It's not a classic series, but (for a little while at least) it is a lot of fun to read. The story of "GTO" revolves around 22-year-old Eikichi Onizuka. Onizuka has, to be blunt, no real purpose in life. He spends his days smoking, drinking, looking up girls’ ridiculously short skirts... and yeah. That's pretty much all he does. He has no purpose for his life and no plans for how he's going to live the next day, even. One day, Onizuka decides his goal in life is to become the world’s greatest teacher. The reason? Onizuka notices that teachers get to talk to a lot of (young) pretty girls, and Onizuka believes that becoming a great teacher would be his ticket to getting a great girl. So Onizuka cleans himself up, gets accepted as a teacher in training, and gets ready to accomplish his goal. It's just a darn shame that those instruction booklets he receives don't come with warning labels on what monsters high school students can be.

When Onizuka actually starts to do some teaching, he finds out that students don't treat new teachers kindly unless they earn their respect, there are some kinks in the school system that he doesn't agree with, and he realizes (quite roughly) that several students have very hard lives they live at home, and they don't know where to turn to for help. So along with his quest to become the best schoolteacher in Japan, Onizuka ends up changing lives and learning more about himself and others than he ever learned before... however, he learns all of this in very humorous situations. First and foremost, I need to make this clear: "GTO" is a COMEDY! It may push a couple hot-topic buttons here and there, and the story may sound like a straight-faced drama, but at the heart of all this, "GTO" is a comedy, one that's played for laughs.

Onizuka may be a bit of a git at times, but he's a lovable git whose intentions may not be pure all the time, but whose heart is always in the right place. One situation has one of his students seeking shelter at his apartment because she hates her parents and (apparently) her parents don't really care for her much either (they don't even seem to realize she's gone). Onizuka gets the idea to dress up in this truly silly and stupid wolf costume, with every intention of taking advantage of her that night. Instead of taking advantage of her, though, he has a change of heart and helps her work out her problems with her parents. After he helps out this one student, he may not be a different person (heck, his personality doesn't even change all that much), but deep down inside, this whole teacher goal becomes something new to him. His goal may have originally been to meet girls, but slowly but surely he warms up to the idea of becoming a teacher, and for the first time in his life, he has a real purpose, one that makes his life worth living. Of course, since Onizuka IS rather clumsy, he makes a fool out of himself multiple times in the story, yet always picks himself back up and goes through the day with a stupid grin to remind us that he's having fun (and we truly get the feeling that he is). It's his goofy nature that makes up a good 85% of the humor in this book. Later on, several minor characters end up playing bigger roles in the series. However, this series is, at the end of the day, pretty much a one-man show, and the Onizuka character shows great strength by carrying a good portion of the series on his back by himself.

Unfortunately for him, his little series became rather popular, and his story is still being told to this day. Normally, this wouldn't be a bad thing, as long series are usually very good. However, "GTO" suffers from what I like to call "The Takahashi Syndrome." What's "The Takahashi Syndrome," you ask? As many of you people know, I gave favorable reviews to most of Rumiko Takahashi's series, yet the grades at the bottom of the page are usually relatively poor. Why is that? Well, it has something to do with the fact that most of her series are released with poor translations, flipped artwork, and other problems to start with, but it also has something to do with the fact that many of the series just become tiresome after a while. While "Ranma ½" is definitely a classic manga, the series is about 8 books too long, and the series would be even more enjoyable had it ended sooner than that. "Inu-Yasha" starts out with a very interesting story and excellent character development, but at one point in the series everything starts repeating itself, almost as if there was no more story left to tell, and yet the series is still trudging along as if it couldn't stand to let itself end in peace. This is the problem with "GTO."

For the first 15 or so books, the series is great, and then slowly but surely, the series overstays its welcome, to the point where we are past 20 books and Onizuka appears to be having the same problems he's been having since book 1. I know that some series have little hijinks that people love, but it seems a little tedious now that Onizuka is still having trouble not looking up young girls’ skirts and still having the audience think this is funny (although maybe Onizuka is still having this problem because the skirts ARE drawn rather short). "Ranma ½" and "Inu-Yasha" had these exact same problems, hence the reason I've dubbed series like these as having "The Takahashi Syndrome." One thing that is definitely unique (and will arguably be the thing that either hooks you or turns you off) is the artwork. (WARNING: Bad Joke In Exactly One Paragraph!) The artwork is definitely an eye-catcher if ever there was one. The artwork ranges from fun to ugly. None of the characters in this series are particularly pretty (except for underage girls, of course), the backgrounds and everything else are very detailed but a little rough around the edges, and some of the facial expressions Onizuka shows off... well, those you've got to see for yourself. In other words, the artwork is not a gem by any means, but it is a character in itself, and that counts for a lot in a series like this.

Ultimately, "GTO" IS a series that is easy to like and it does have a lot of appeal (especially in the main character himself); however, as mentioned above, the darn "Takahashi Syndrome" just brings this series down after a while. The series is never BAD, per se, but what starts out as a fun series starts to become rather boring after a while! I'm not going to FULLY recommend the series since the rule of thumb is that a series isn't a must-own (or even a highly recommended title) unless the series manages to stay strong throughout its entire run; however, "GTO" has enough spark in the first several books that it's easy enough to at least recommend checking those out. Just don't stay at the party too long, lest you walk away with a serious hangover (BAD JOKE! BAD JOKE!).

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -