Gakorak

Ah man, where to begin.  There's so much to love in this show but there's also so much... wanting.

I'll start off writing this review the way the anime-planet pros would, but with amateur flare ;D

Story: I have a personal dis-taste for older looking anime but the list of new shows to watch after hitting the 2 months total (watched 3 seasons of bleach, 100 or so naruto, and 10 episodes of One Piece) gets rather... short.  Thus, I turned to the highly acclaimed and rather old school styled GTO!  And what a ride.  This is like Cowboy Bebop meets Stand and Deliver (awesome friggin movie) but with little to do with actual education.  The show completely basis itself of the eccentric antics of it's main lead, an old biker gang leader with a devilish reputation but with a heart of gold (VIRGIN) ;P.

Having little to do with any educational at all you might think that this will hit some hard cliches of typical anime with melodramatic drama.  You'd be only 1/4 right.  It stays clear of heavy cliche moments besides the typical ecchi ones and concentrates more on the emotional growth and understanding of the students.  Having seen so many shows already where a hard-core teacher wanting to change the educational system inside out, I didn't come into this show expecting much more then simple entertainment.  And it's pretty much exactly that, A teacher who comes in with a bad-ass attitude and teaches his students a lesson of life all the while acting like a complete fool and getting out of trouble by the skin of his teeth.  What truly makes this show stand out and fascinating is how he goes about this.  Everything is fair game to this guy.  In the very first episode he takes 3 students who took a prank too far and gets a biker gang to beat them up and submerge them upside down tied in rope till they're gasping for breath.  And this was when he was a simple student-teacher, not a true teacher at all.  From Episode 1 all the way to 43 you get to watch every character in this show open up and share themselves, all the while growing from every barrier this teacher brings down in there hearts.

Another theme that comes up later on in the show is Romance!  And this is where I truly started loving this show.  Around the end of the series I was begging to see more of the romantic development that was springing up.

However, as much as it's an amazing show that blends comedy and drama perfectly it also stumbles upon itself.  The Vice-Principle is introduced as a pervert who would sniff a girls butt on the train with no self-restraint and call students garbage at the first sign of delinquency.  The show continues to show him a negative light then completely switches to give the viewer the feeling of pity towards him.  Normally that's just great scripting, but it seems shady.  All of a sudden he's a morale guy who only has perverted thoughts and would never act upon them, a complete switch from when we first met him.

The story also leaves you feeling wanting.  I don't know why they decided to end the show the way they did (Good ending) but they could of continued on easily.  The romantic development truly starts to bloom near the end, and I personally wanted to see more and more of it.  But, I suppose the show didn't feel like the romance was it's true focus... and it's a horrible shame.  They keep the best part as more of a side dish then part of the main course.

Animation: Old but amazing.  The producers obviously told the staff, "Have fun with it." And they sure did.  They drew some of the ugliest faces I have ever seen and I loved it.  The expressions are way over the top sometimes but they seem so perfect and don't take away anything from the viewing pleasure.  There's plenty of sweet movements and the characters themselves all look great.  I'm not a real expert on judging these sort of things but I over-all enjoyed it.  But I'm still the kinda guy who prefer crisp and clear images, which this show has none of.  I'd give it an 8 but I feel like I'd be lying to myself out of biased love.

Sound: They had an impressive sound track that really kept up the pacing of the show in a great way.  I heard classical pieces from a piano and songs that sounded like a choir singing some old japanese traditional music.  Havin' seen this in dub and not sub... a lot of the voices were horrible.  A lot of the voices were great.  Over-all even the worse dub voice actors were bear-able.

Characters: Ahhhh, the cast.  I love them, I love them all.  What little shits they all are at the start.  It's easy to dislike almost everybody in class 4-3 (or was it 3-4? lol) and the only guy who opens up to the teach' at the start is one of the biggest wimps you'll meet.  But they all start to open up and trust their home-room teacher and begin to really shine.  Having a rather large cast 43 episodes wasn't enough.  These kids begin to go from doing some really damned things to their teach', to helping him keep his job out of respect and love he's earned from them.  One of my favorite characters is the super-genius blonde girl.  Watching her go from being the most feared by the teachers to opening up to Mr Onizuka and helping him out was great.

Let's not forget the inter-action between all the characters, it's wonderful.  Watching all these strong personalities conflict and help each other truly brought life to the show, making each episode a watch worth-while.

Over-All: It's a hell of a good ride.  It has great ecchi, great drama, great romance, great cast, and a great big thumbs up from me.  Highly recommended to people who like Drama and Romance, but don't expect a Toradora or Clannad.  This show would hog-tie them up and beat them till they cried mercy then walk away with the middle finger flying highly in the air.