Forum - View topicREVIEW: GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka DVD
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theoriginalbilis
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I have fond memories of the show overall, though I remember how crudely animated it all was, especially for a 2000's-era show. And yes, the second half did have some lame episodes, but the product as a whole is still a really fun ride if you're into extremely crass, crude, and morally questionable comedy... with a LESSON at the end. Daaawwwww....
Onizuka's antics and just him as a character are compelling and totally worth the watch. |
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28076004505531
 Posts: 124 Location: Ohio, USA |
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GTO is one of the best anime shows I've seen. It's very funny and inspiring. Onizuka plays the role I can't play in real life and it's nice seeing that and making fun of his antics and enjoying people's transformation throughout the series. He sure acts dumb but he knows full well how to make people cherish their social relationships. I remember Maya Angelou's words: People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel. And that's just what Onizuka depicted in the series.
Sure, some of those filler episodes kinda let me down but the great moments make up for it. I was also hooked on the music especially the background music (Bukiyou Na Koi No) that I even asked in anime forums what the name of the song was. Anyway I found it on youtube. When I finished watching the whole series, I wanted to buy the dvds. Alas, most dvds at regular price were sold out. (I even emailed some distributors like Funimation if they could re-license the series. They didn't respond of course.) Luckily, I was able to grab the whole thing from ebay cheap. I bought a dvd case and repackaged everything as a set complete with editor notes. To this date, I still treasure it in my collection and let my friends watch it. I even let my family watch it and they liked it. I just hope they continue animating GTO. |
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gedata
 Posts: 615 |
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Not bringing up Steven Blum's great lead performance? C'mon
Asides from him, I did like the comedy way more in the dub, the extremely stereotypical performances helped a lot (like Kikuchi's supernerd voice and Anko's superb**** voioce). It makes up for the fact that it does bulldoze some of the drama, oh well. Also, the soundtrack to this was pretty shallow as in it only has like 4-5 tracks, good tracks, but could've used a bit more variety. Also didn't dig the ending, the last arc could've gone on an episode or 2 longer. |
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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After years on end now where the bulk of series have been computer-animated, low-detailed, gaudily-colored moeblob fests the wonky cel animation and style of GTO is a welcome respite IMO. I enjoyed the dub of this, though I will admit that I saw it after trying to see the infamous Tokyopop dub of Initial D. Next to that, everything sounds great. On a side note, has Steve Blum gotten out of his "Ain't gonna sign any 'David Lucas' roles" position? I've seen this on display and, like every Great Eastern/Discotek release, it looks like a bootleg. It's not as bad as their bastardized rerelease of ADV's classic Goldenboy but it's not too far removed form that. |
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CrownKlown
 Posts: 1762 |
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I don't think that is quite fair. I dont go around saying Metropolis, Astro Boy, the shoujo style shows like Utena look like garbage because I understand they came from different era.
I mean the shoujo art is so bad, its used as a joke in pretty every show when "romanticizing" character in some characters vision, and you can see just how bad it looks. Plus I generally like the character design, same person who did Tokko and Rose Hip Zero and a few others. Its been too long since I saw it, but I don't remember it being anything close to bad, which is what I would rate something like shin chan art-wise. |
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Chicken-kun
Posts: 6 |
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This is just my opinion, this show can and should be enjoyed by nearly all audiences, flaws and all. I have seen very few series as memorable and funny as this one.
Addressing the complaint of GTO being part of the wave of "inspirational teacher dramas", I think that GTO takes that concept and does something very fresh and real with it. Onizuka is a violent and impulsive moron who needs saving almost as much as he is saved. This removal from the typical boy-scout archetype normally seen in this type of movie or show makes the whole experience feel very unique and visceral. Regarding the dub, it really is awful. However, it's that endearing kind of awful, and has a genuine charm to it that only complements the show further with it's goofiness. |
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Banken
Posts: 1280 |
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I know this is how it's been done forever, but shouldn't SUB score be the review score for the series, while the DUB score should simply be a note on the overall quality of the dub, rather than a judgment of the quality of the show as watched with the dub?
You might as well judge a movie based on it's DVD extras. Or a manga based on scantilations by someone with two years of college Japanese and a week-long homestay. FWIW the second half diverges somewhat from the manga. But the anime still kicks the shit out of the (old) drama, even though the drama was still good. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14761 |
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I love radish!
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publicenemy333
 Posts: 563 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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Honestly I love the dub for this show. Is it "good"? No. But it is so much fun, and you can tell the actors and writers are all having fun with it. JesuOtaku's review of it had a pretty good explanation of what makes the dub fun, but I dont just wanna steal all her quotes on here and pass it as my own
Great show regardless, I got the OOP Tokyopop singles a couple years back at a pretty good deal. Those came with translation notes in the DVD cases, which were actually very helpful in understanding a lot of the cultural significance of the jokes and just whats happening in the show. Sucks that those dont seem to be on here. But Im glad the show got rereleased. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4079 |
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It's the rating of the performances, not the show. You know, acting, acting and, on occasion, acting. And I agree, not mentioning Steve Blum's performance on the dub is a rather large omission. And a Tokyopop dub has a multitude of Wendee Lee voices; How ... how... Brigadoon. Where was I? Oh right, I loved her performance as Miyabi; Screechy, whiney, self serving, it was a great counterpoint to Michele Ruff's Urumi. Who gets a mention on the Japanese track, Ayako Kawasumi? Right, it's the incomparable Ayako Kawasumi. I myself usually compare her to a block of wood; solid performer, kind of stiff. Oh, and boring. Kotono Mishuishi, the Japanese performer of Urumi, now where have I heard that name? Have I? If she was any good, she would have gotten a mention, right? Well ... no, guess not. So, good character, well composed in either language yet not worth name dropping? 'K... |
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Banken
Posts: 1280 |
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Huh?
The Dub score AFAIK is a score for the series as experienced with the dub, and I am suggesting the dub itself should be rated (separately), not the show as watched through the dub. Kind of like the way you shouldn't review an imported video game and give it two scores based on whether you if understand the language or not. It would be unfairly biased. |
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trilaan
 Posts: 1054 Location: Texas |
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Well I liked both halves of the show. Very sad there was no sequel, Onizuka vs. The American Educational System
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chronoclast
Posts: 97 |
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The big issue I have with this release is that it's a complete port of the Tokyopop DVDs with the extras removed. Discotek did nothing to improve it. A lot of it is because of the materials like the video which still looks terrible but I assume that's all they could obtain. That's not their fault.
What annoys me though is the subtitles which are exactly the same too. They could have at least updated those. The placement, font, and colors all really needed to be improved. After Discotek initially said they were going to make improvements but then they did nothing in the end, it just feels lazy especially since they normally do better work than this. |
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gedata
Posts: 615 |
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Reason why I'm assuming it stopped is because the show caught up with the manga, thus we got a filler end spoiler[Onizuka teaching in America was that ending] |
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Banken
Posts: 1280 |
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Technically there is a manga sequel.... well, an interquel. |
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