GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka

Initially, GTO is a shonen manga where an ex gang leader, Onizuka Eikichi, is given an opportunity to become a teacher. While it's hard to say what he teaches, he spends much time helping out his students with their personal problems.

He is chaotic, politically incorrect, pervert and violent at times; he shows no fear, drives fast and hits hard. He is also a master in reading souls and dumb at reading minds. He values friendship, courage and dream pursuing.

The story is the same in the manga and in the anime. The viewer can clearly see the cartoon origin: I could even feel the *crows of shame* in several occasions, even if there were none on screen.

It's all overacted, girls are sexy, dialogs are funny, love and death are often at stake. What more would you want from a shonen?

Frankly? more tits... Tomoko sadly lost her original D cup

It was a great pleasure to subtitle this series. What is most striking is the careful choice of actors and the maturity and experience of so many young talents. Entering into the details of each scene with a technical eye reveals a particular attention to timing and balance of themes for successive scenes; the alternating of action/philosophy/romance/laughter etc. Only today i went on Youtube to watch Akira's (Onizuka's actor) interviews and he is such a charming, simple person; noted also the naive sexiness of actress Miori Takimoto, always fresh, always perfectly into the scene; not to forget the impressive performance of Urumi Kanzaki, young actress Tsubasa Honda (20) paying in most episodes but taking the lead in episode 07 with a historical scene that may be remembered as "Honda on the Wheel" (on the ferris wheel) for generations to come. If you don't like the youth drama genre, just check ep07 and see the creativeness and the potential of such cultural niche. Eric Paroissien