Product Details

• Actors: *
• Format: Animated, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Tokyo Pop
• DVD Release Date: November 1, 2007
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005UQ9O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,859 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "GTO - Great Teacher Onizuka (Vol. 1)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Ex-biker gang leader Eikichi Onizuka wants to become a teacher--so he can ogle 16-year-old girls. In the first episode, Mizuki, a girl from his class, puts him in a compromising position so three thuggish students can take embarrassing photographs; their blackmail scheme falls apart when Onizuka and a gang capture the trio and torture them. Later, Onizuka helps Mizuki with her family problems--and is rewarded with her panties. The tone of this outré series shifts abruptly from puerile to maudlin to pseudo-inspirational and back. The animation is simple and often grotesquely distorted to symbolize Onizuka's extreme moods and spasms of barely restrained lust. Japanese audiences may find a comedy about a leering teacher acceptable, but the growing concern over abuse makes it a tough sell in America. Unrated; suitable for ages 17 and Up: Sexual humor, profanity, violence, tobacco and alcohol use, grotesque imagery. Contains the first four episodes. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Once You Pop, You Can't Stop, June 7, 2003

By 

Chon-ny "Your Sensei's Sensei" - See all my reviews

This review is from: GTO - Great Teacher Onizuka (Vol. 1) (DVD)

It may not quite hang with its bigger, badder, shoot-em-up, slash-em-to-pieces, giant robot anime bretheren, but when it's all said and done, Great Teacher Onizuka may end up being the most addictive anime series ever.

The plot is simple enough: Eikichi Onizuka, a former bike gang member, college karate champ, 22 years old and a bachelor, has taken it upon himself to be the world's greatest teacher. with little or no qualifications, he somehow gets accepted into a prestigious school, is assigned the worst class of delinquents ever, and proceeds to work on taming the adolescent beasts.

Simple plot, complex protagonist. Onizuka is the definition of "man-child," the battle with the man and the child within him always in conflict. This is key as the series plays up the ongoing battle between the students and adults, be it teachers, administrators, parents or politicians. Onizuka is into videogames, internet porn, costumes, launching bottle rockets and ogling schoolgirls. At the same time he has a better sensitivity toward the real causes of the students problems, be it parental conflict, bad past experiences with teachers, money or bullying. Then again, he likes to deal with his problems in the most unorthodox methods, i.e. beating up students.

This volume shows Onizuka first getting used to his methods as a student-teacher. A group of students pull a clever prank, and blackmail Onizuka for a million yen. With the help of some biker gangs and a midnight dipping/drowning at a nearby pond, Onizuka manages to "win over" the males of the group. He take a more subtle approach to Nanako, whose problems stem more from a declining parental relationship, which he creatively remedies.

With that phase over, Onizuka next has to tackle the task of getting into prestigious Holy Family Academy and Class 2-4, the angel-faced, snake-hearted delinquent crew he must deal with for the rest of the series.

The art is on a par with Dragonball Z, and watching this series in Japanese is *necessary*! Not only are their numerous word jokes (Nanako says "Yoo-poo" instead of "yoo-hoo" and Onizuka ridicules her), or that the English teacher struggles with and forces English, the story has pretty significant differences from the English to the Japanese version. The Japanese vocal cast is far superior, and the vocal intonations better match the facial expressions; the storyline and what they say are far more risque and naughtier than the English dub as well.

A great, addicting series, that has up to Vol. 9 (at this point) released in the US. There are only 43 episodes in the set, so it should be coming to a close. Very few extras other than stills and previews on this disc.

Also recommended are the 12-episode GTO Live Action Japanese Drama, a loose approximation of the anime and manga, and the live action movie that takes place after the series.

Not recommended if you can't afford to get the whole thing; no sane person can handle the cliffhangers at the end of each disc.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Teacher with heart of gold and ...attitude, March 30, 2002

By 

Joe (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GTO - Great Teacher Onizuka (Vol. 1) (DVD)

Intended for a mature audience able to deal with blackmail, and sexual concepts, GTO is the story of blond, ear-ring wearing pretty-boy Grand Teacher Onizuka. His mission in life is to become a 22 year old school teacher and hook up with 16 year old school girls, following an honorable profession and leading a lecher's life.

And like most dreamers, his plans go awry - in a very strange way. In reality he has a heart of gold under his muscle-rippled ab's; when a young student weasles her way into his home, and he nervously but eagerly sets up a seduction scene, but reverses it when realizing how serious it is, and yet she doffs clothes and then doors open and blackmail camera's flash (smirks light up), his true nature comes out. His blackmailers are caught in the park by motorcylce gangs. Which wouldn't be all that bad if the pretty-boy teacher didn't happen to be the meanest, most ... gang member there was. He applies the use of water to castigate them; expecting to be fired the next day for excessive use of corporal punishment on a student, he is surprised to find he's been hired on full time. His black mailer's were students in the nastiest class in school (his class) who just needed to learn to respect "teachers" and his object lesson definitely made them respect him! (And set up his future teaching career plans, to his dismay...)

From then on the events continue to unroll; his particular no-holds barred brand of tough love. Is there a wall in your life? He has a sledge hammer to fix it! "Don't worry, I have a lesson plan for them," is a classic quote to be.

This series will appeal more to the general audience than any other audience; it is about people, set in modern day, and fairly clean cut, sometimes comical, occasionally silly, often very soft hearted, and sharp as glass when need be, usually intending to convey warmth and sometimes sympathy. You have to be able to appreciate the humor of a wanna-be lecher who's stutters and blushes when faced with the real thing, and yet can open a six-pack of ... when need be (i.e. embodying the concepts of innocence and strength at the same time). If you only prefer high maturity (married people and love triangles and who's sleeping with who plots), or violent blood-slinging ninja and samurai action, or military action and hero-saves-the-world plots, nudity and/or porn sex, or monsters and people with special psychic powers, you'll probably think it's boring trash. A general audience looking for a tough nice guy should definitely give it a rent and probably buy it (if you have fickle morals rent it; it's not nasty but there are some very mature and 100% real feeling situations that may spoil it if you are irked by excesses, like homosexual inferences - even when they prove definitely mistaken, part of a psych-out plot.)

The only reason I didn't rate it 5 stars was because I save 5 stars for movies I think everyone should look at. And I usually rate honestly; most shows are 3 stars at best. This is an excellent flick, not perfect, but very good for the audience it aims at.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly an education., March 23, 2003

By 

Stewart Methven (Falkirk, Scotland United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GTO - Great Teacher Onizuka (Vol. 1) (DVD)

Onizuka is a man with a dream. A no good biker punk with a hatred for authority, he united all the gangs in the city under his iron will. Yet that was not enough for the man Onizuka, and so his thoughts turn to more honorable pursuits.

Schoolgirls.

And so GTO begins, and if the story was as simple as that then I'd cut the review short here. But it isn't that simple, and neither is Onizuka, who divine brilliance is only overshadowed by his all too human failings and cravings, as he falls for, and overcomes, every trick and plan set against him.

Employing a "tough love" policy on everyone he comes across, he may seem the world's greatest imbecile who has no business even being a janitor, but as events go by, the students, parents, teachers and even Onizuka himself learn the hard, yet entertaining way, that teaching doesn't end in the classroom and learning doesn't end when you're out of school. Even we, the viewers, learn something when normally taboo topics of bullying, suicide and violence come up and are confronted, perhaps not in the way that many people would rationally accept or even condone, but in such fantastic ways that make you think "maybe that's the way things SHOULD be done".

Of course GTO can't make it on his own, and with a whole host of personalities to bounce off of, like disciplinary teacher whose dream of an ideal home life fades a little more with every one of his cars that Onizuka wrecks, the class tough guy with a soft spot for his young mom, the easy going bimbo with a hidden talent, and of course all the old gang members who can be persuaded to help Onizuka "educate" any troublesome students. They aren't just filler characters either, but those who develop as well, and we see the fruits of GTO's teachings in how they act in the future.

GTO is basically the anti-thesis of Irresponsible Captain Tyler. The hero here gets through amazing scrapes not by innaction and ambiguity, but overaction and sheer force of his personality. Yet the feeling you get from both is the same, that despite the seriousness of situations you find yourself in, and despite the constant pressures you face to do things a certain way, sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind and follow your own path.
After all, that's the only way you're gonna learn.

All in all, a great show and highly recommended to anyone, schoolgoing or not, as we could all benefit from a little more wisdom in our lives of dull order. Just remember though, if you ever find yourself in a situation that looks tough, just ask yourself, "What would Great Teacher Onizuka do?" and if you pull a terrifying face and screech like a howler monkey, then congratulations, you're halfway there. ^_^