GTO

(Tokyopop, 2002-2005)
™ and ©2002 Tohru Fujisawa
Reads right to left; adult; b&w

Every so often while reading manga, American readers will stumble over a cross–cultural speed bump that’ll make them stop dead in mid-sentence. In GTO, that happens with the premise: 22–year–old, going nowhere tough guy Onizuka decides to become a high school teacher—so he can sleep with underage girls.

But, if readers can get their heads around the morally repugnant situations, they might enjoy this send–up of the “idealistic young teacher reaches a class of misfits” (see any movie from Stand and Deliver to From Sir with Love) genre. Nowhere near as depraved as it seems to be on the surface, all the crude leering and gratuitous panty shots are just “outrageous” window dressing, covering up the moral core that’s at the heart of this comedy/drama. In the first volume, Onizuka manages to suppress his baser instincts long enough to actually care about one of his students and use questionable “extreme” teaching methods to help her—so it’s a fairly safe bet he’ll mature as the series progresses. One thing you can say for GTO: it’s unlike any other manga on the market.

— S.A. Bennett

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