The thing is, I try my best not to review a series unless I've seen the whole thing. But this thing I've hopped though 12+ eps so I guess I've acquired a taste for it.
The anime is GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka). This anime is about a 3rd rate college student age 22 (virgin) trying his best to become a high school teacher. Though fate is smiling, he has problems. BIG ones. And not to spoil any, let's just say through all these problems, he DOES get to be a teacher. Just not a high school teacher...
[this happens on dvd one so no major spoilers...] The first dvd is a whopping 5 eps with the first ep being ONE HOUR LONG!That's the major plot for this thing. Of course, it would be dull if his [middle school] students made life easy for him wouldn't it? So, let's jump into the points of interest...
As a plot and story, this thing is HUGE! The only other teacher anime I know of are Hell Teacher Nube (fanservice demon comedy) and Onegai Teacher (based off of pc Hentai Game "Onetei" I think...). This pretty much puts it REALLY different from other anime in my opinion. A person's trials and mishaps on his journey to become the ULTIMATE teacher in Japan? How many anime do you know that REMOTELY come close to this? Yes, I can't think of any.
The dvd itself is quite clear, however, this is one of last few remaining anime dedicated almost exclusively to the old school "cell painted" style anime so CG fx and such found in Onegai Teacher and Inu Yasha are practically non existant here. The menu for the domestic dvd [this review is on domestic] is creative, but for my fav of menus, Real Bout High School is KING... All in all, an old school technique for all of you Studio Pierrot animation company lovers. [Fushigi Yuugi, Ayashi no Ceres, Kimagure Orange Road, and other anime...]
How's it sound? Well, I'm not a fan of the opening and ending. Heck, the opening sequence has him flush his toilet and leaving his bathroom naked. X_X Ladies may get a kick out of this because there's quite a few scenes of Eikichi Onizuka in his birthday suit. [some of which are fantasy modes ala 'Love Hina' where he's with another scantily clad woman...] The bgms and other themes that play during the eps are "standard". Nothing as catchy as, say, NOIR. [the bgms for Noir, though repetitive, are my absolute favs] The Seiyuus are quite good too, though we'll discuss this in the Lip Synch dub section...
Actionwise, this is a TEACHER anime. NOT... There's some scenes of violence and parody. Some of them are blatant parody such as Initial D and Fist of the North Star, which by themselves are quite funny, though Excel Saga fans will definitely scoff at me. [I agree with them though, Excel is the best Parody style anime I've seen to date...] Due to Onizuka's background, [which I won't spoil] there's quite a few wild scenes to be had. Gang wars, mobbing, car chases, falling off buildings, crazy stuff. This anime presents HUGE problems for our would-be sensei. I wish him luck! ^_^
And now, what the dub/sub hates have been waiting for, the DUBBED LIP SYNCH! Ok, this thing is [bleh] for dub. I wouldn't say you'd hate it. [Love Hina, HATE THAT DUB...] but some voices you'll like while others you'll stab. Onizuka himself is played by Dave [Spike Spiegel] Cargyle (I think that's how it's spelled). Yes, his acting in this one is again quite on par with the GOOD acting crowd. The other adults, such as Onizuka's crush, sensei Fuyutsuki also have memorable voices you'd have probably heard from other well dubbed anime. The prob is the student's voices. And since this is a teacher anime [does that genre really exist?] there's LOTS of little kids who sound WAY too old... This is MIDDLE SCHOOL. Not High School. Some of the male students sound like rejects from Saved by the Bell and have really tasteless "California Surfer" accents. [I'm not against , "yo dude" style phrases, but they just sounded WRONG...] The Seiyuu's [Japanese Voices] are great and my preference is the sub. You Dub Lovers probably won't be disappointed if you can stomach the middle school students sounding like they belong in college... Some of the dialogue though is MUCH funnier in English:
comparison: "Oh, he's covering his genitals with perfume..."
Japanese sub translation...
"DUDE! He's spraying pheromone perfume on his nads!!!"
English... ^_^
yes, that's how goofy this anime is...
Digital FX: None, this anime I guess is 99.9% cell-painted...
For effort, I'd say this anime tries VERY HARD and gets the job more than done. It also features my favorite male Seiyuu, Hikaru Midorikawa. [Tamahome, Might, Ein, Hayate, Migeya and other badass heroes] There are MANY voices for the Seiyuus, but for the dub, some of them are recycled.
Being an old-school cell anime, I'd have to definitely say this wasn't easy to make. By far. High effort was made for this anime and I'm sure you'd notice it too.Overall I'd say this anime delivers awesome twists and turns which rival Ai Yori Aoshi. It has some hilarious and sometimes fanservicey moments. [with well endowed middle school girls. oh the humanity!!!] But when you least expect, you may notice a much deeper and more intelligent side to the characters themselves, which I believe is quite a feat in itself to endure. First your laughing hysterically, then your fascinated by the awesome emotional development and relationships that grow between the characters. This anime is in my top 10 list for a reason, and I can't possibly list all of them here...
As for people who like to come back, the gags alone are enough for me to come back. I never get tired of Onizuka's weird facial expressions. Many of which are saved for posterity in the DVD extras which I forgot to mention. The extras include his facial disfigurations along with character design pics. [standard stuffers]
So, I'd say this is an anime for almost all ages. Some of the underwear gags are quite much and the dialogue can get quite confusing for the Pokemon and Yugi-Oh lovers. [I'm referring to the little kids.] If you want something comic and fresh and different, this IS THE ANIME TO GET! Do you have a thing for Middle School Girls with F-Cup undies? Again, this IS THE ANIME TO GET! Do you want anime where you'll get hooked to the problems these characters experience and solve? Once again, THIS IS THE ANIME TO GET!
Well, for people who don't want these things, I'm not sure what to say. ALL OF MY FRIENDS [yes, those who hate anime as well] love this one for some odd reason. The design reminds them of some American shows [yuck] but the plot is purely the imagination and creativity of the anime creators we all know and come to enjoy.
This is an AWESOME anime and is second only to Onegai Teacher in my list of anime...
So, as far as I'm concerned, with 4-5 eps a DVD, you can't go wrong with this series.
Get it now! If you rent it, you'll wish you saved those bucks for owning your own!
