GTO - The Test (Vol. 4)

Rating:
Summary: Onizuka can't be stopped!
Review: And who would want to stop Onizuka except Uchiyamada (vice principal). Uchiyamada hates Onizuka with a passion. Even in this volume the rage continues especially about his new beloved Toyota Cressida. Onizuka is amazing. He saves the foot fetish girl from kidnappers who want ransom. Onizuka gets seriously injured in this one folks so try not to have a heart attack. I truly enjoyed watching this volume just as much as the other ones.
I love GTO!!! This is a spectacular series that I plan on owning. I plan to buy every volume I can get my hands on. Action, plenty of comedy, and drama with lessons all packed into one powerful punch from Onizuka!!! Class dismissed.

Rating:
Summary: GTO keeps getting better!
Review: GTO is the best anime series I've seen in a long, long, long time, and the quality hasn't diminished in this fourth volume. Onizuka continues his hilarious quest to redeem the rat-scum students of his junior high class. What results is the usual hilarious battle of wits (???), and although the resolutions might seem a little sappy, that's okay. A little sappiness can be good sometimes, especially in a show without giant exploding robots or a "jiggle-counter". My one complaint is that the show's opening and ending themes (Driver's High and Last Piece) have been replaced with new ones as of this volume. The new themes are okay, but for me nothing beats the end of each episode when the screen goes white and "Last Piece" begins. Ah, well, if life was perfect it'd probably be illegal.

Rating:
Summary: Great Teacher, Great Anime, Great Fun!
Review: The popularity of this series is rising, as DVDs sell out in retail stores around the Bay Area. In this fourth installment of the Great Teacher Onizuka saga, Onizuka chases after a kidnapped student, putting at risk his own future career; achieves fame at the expense of his skin; and encounters Urumi, the "teacher-eater," and comes up with a special therapeutic class for said student that most definitely does NOT come recommended by the PTA.

As in previous DVDs of GTO, the strength lies not in the animation so much as it does in the storyline. There's an urban look to the animation, which concentrates more on storytelling rather than aesthetics. CGI makes its first appearance here in the body of the Vice-Principal's fourth Cresta, but the use of what could be a jarringly inconsistent medium is oddly appropriate given the object in question and frenetic quality of the animation.

Once more, the real strength is in the character of GTO, that off-beat, off-his-rocker gang member-turned-teacher. His unique ways of caring for the damaged goods that are his students would give most people pause. For all his wild, reckless and seemingly irresponsible ways, he's somehow exactly what his students need. The characters and storylines constantly remind us that there's a lack of innovative, enthusiastic teachers in the schools. In the magical world GTO lives in, reprecussions are, if not absent, at least avoidable. The stories seem to suggest that the situation in the schools has become extreme, thanks to well-intentioned but blind parents and indifferent administration and teachers, and that only extreme measures have any chance of success.

As in the previous disks, the writer mostly avoids the trap of stereotypes and cliches. There are no bad people, just damaged ones; children are not inherently evil, they're simply misdirected, misunderstood, or overburdened with parental baggage. In short, humans are human. GTO's erratic maneuverings through the shoals of teenage cliques, antagonistic administrators, jealous colleagues, and self-righteous parents are a joy to watch. If his activities are disconcerting at times, they're also entertaining, and more than once the viewer gets a suspicion he's a caricature of himself.

I heartily recommend this one, for those looking for something more than big-eyed, big-boobed babes. Be warned for a lot of unsubtle sexual innuendo, some pointedly fuzzed-out anatomy, and Onizuka's ongoing hunt for a bit of honey. ("Over the age of 19, a pity about that inconvenient law...!")

Rating:
Summary: The Best of A Great Series
Review: This fourth volume in the extremely addicting GTO series is by far the best, having watched the subsequent volumes.

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.

Just like standard fighting animes, Onizuka has to deal with various opponent-students during the course of the series. By now you'll have been introduced to bully Aizawa Miyabi, super smart Kikuchi, ditzy Tomoko, and fierce Kunio Murai.

This time, Onizuka must face super-hot super-genius Urumi Kanzaki, a blonde-haired, brown-and-blue eyed angel, who gets special treatment from the school, knowing that with such intelligence, her future success means tons for the school's reputation. Her thing is to "ask a question" from the teachers--traslating into humiliating them by showing them she knows more, far more about their subject than they do.

The sub-story line includes a girl from another school with a foot-fetish, who also has sway in getting Onizuka possibly fired.

This volume is great for so many reasons: the introduction of Kanzaki, the extremely fast pace and top-notch level of humor, as well as the ending...guaranteed cool.

The art is on a par with Dragonball Z, and watching this series in Japanese is *necessary*! Not only are their numerous word jokes (that a student is suffering a trauma, pronounced "tora-uma" evokes an image of a giant tiger-horse animal in Onizuka's mind), 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.

This volume is what GTO is all about, why the series is as good and addicting as it is. Great story, side-splitting humor, good action, well-felt tension and sadness as well. If I could own only one (which isn't possible) this would be it.