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GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) Volume 2

It’s not every anime series that grabs my attention, makes me laugh, and makes me squirm all at the same time. The style and form of the first volume carries over to Volume 2 with the most of the same characters reappearing. (Please read Mr. Nash’s review of GTO Volume 1.) The five episodes that make up the second volume have Onizuka up to his usual hijinks trying to be “the best teacher in the world!” which usually amounts to slacking off and trying to be friends with his troubled students (even though they have a tendency to hate him).

Lesson 5: An Eye For An Eye, A Butt For A Butt

This may be the most perverse and disturbing GTO episode yet. A group of girls attacks a male classmate – beating him up, stripping him, drawing on his genitals, then taking pictures of the results – as they think he’s getting too buddy-buddy with their hated teacher Onizuka. It’s all perfectly normal for 14-year-old girls. When the male student takes a dive off the

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school roof, Onizuka saves him by using the vice principal’s new Cresta car as a cushion. (The vice principal’s relationship with his Cresta is hilarious.) Once Onizuka finds out the reason behind the attempted suicide, he’s all for revenge. The form of the revenge had me shifting uneasily in my seat. It does, however, set up the next episode.

Lesson 6: Conspiracies All Around

Because of Onizuka’s punishment methods, the

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head of the PTA comes down hard on him. (Her daughter was one of the bullies.) He narrowly misses being fired throughout the episode – once because he’s at the hospital having his broken arm looked after. (“It’s not swollen. I do 1,000 push-up a day!”) But the final confrontation is inevitable and Onizuka gets help from an unlikely party.

Lesson 7: The Mother Of All Crushes

Onizuka meets with one of his student’s mother. This episode is almost a place filler (but it still has some laughs) and feels almost like a place-filler – a setup for Lesson 8.

Lesson 8: Bungee Jumping Made Easy

The funniest episode so far – had me laughing out loud. Onizuka’s relationship with the student’s mother “blossoms.” Specifically, they go bowling. He has a showdown with the student and winds up with bowling balls stuck to his hands. The fight scene leading up to it is hilarious but is topped a few minutes later when Onizuka appears as Doraemon – a cat-like robot from the future with spherical hands who starred in his own magna and anime series in the ‘70s – to bail out the same student when he gets in trouble with some local toughs. This episode is capped with a car chase in which the vice principal’s Cresta gets trashed once more, and a bungee jump that pays homage to ancient rights of manhood.

Lesson 9: Onizuka And The Art Of War

Another uneasy feeling episode. It starts with the creepy-as-hell gym teacher reprimanding female students. Onizuka manages to piss off said gym teacher and the two agree to settle things by having a swimming competition. The competition itself is very amusing with Onizuka winning each heat with enough time to light up a cigarette as he waits for the gym teacher. Unknown to Onizuka another plot to get him fired has been hatched by the bullies from Lesson 5. Their nefarious scheme: put all the girls panties into his locker then report that some pervert has stolen them. (Obviously, they have learned nothing – Onizuka is coated with Teflon, everything just slips off him.) They enlist the help of an F-cup 14-year-old to plant the evidence. (At one point she asks Onizuka if he wants to touch her breasts. If it had been a Swedish exchange student it might have been funny, as it is I just felt dirty.) Only problem is, she may or may not have put the evidence in the wrong locker.

Across the 5 episodes of Volume 2, it’s a mixed experience. Some aspects skirt uncomfortable subject matter, but still manages to hit outright hilarity. The continuation of the story – one episode introducing the next – makes for some elaborate comic setups, mostly involving the vice principal’s Cresta. If the first GTO volume got you interested – it should have – you definitely want the second.

- Omni