I recently watched GTO again and loved it a lot (as I did in the past), but I've always heard that it's quite different from the manga, so now I've decided to venture and see what the differences are! I also added my opinion on what I thought was nice in the anime or better in the manga but yeah~ this is gonna be longgg!
Opening/Beginning
Opening/Beginning
Initially, in the manga, it opens with Onizuka at a job interview with the interviewers reading out his resume (him being a karate black belt etc) and telling him how ridiculous and inappropriate he looks with his black and blonde hair and his clothes making him look like a punk from his younger days. It then changes to Onizuka sitting by the escalators (just like in the anime), but the manga gives more reason and background as to why he was sitting there rather than just making it seem like he's a pervert there to stare at the girls' underwear. He's dejected over the overwhelming amount of rejection letters he's received from jobs and wonders if he'll just become an old man that looks up girls' panties and that's when those two guys come along and try to extort him for his actions. Also, at this moment, Onizuka still has his punkish hair (blonde top, black bottom and sides). He definitely doesn't look like he's prepared for a professional job at all lol. In addition, the anime skips over a little bit of Onizuka taking their money and making them buy new shoes for him + him then having to run and hide from the police that appear b/c of it, and then Ryuji appears to pick him up.
It appears that the anime took some parts, shortened and rearranged it in the anime, since Ryuji and Onizuka's talk about wanting to do something great in Tokyo and how Ryuji is already on his way by owning his own little shop is shown right here to establish background to their reasons for being here in Tokyo. In addition, in the anime, Onizuka has already been accepted as a student teacher at a school, whereas in the manga, he is still working at the construction site to pay his bills whilst looking for employment in a long term job, he also does not know what he really wants to pursue as a career and hangs out with his college buddies trying to meet girls as he wallows in his sorrows of not having a proper full time job he can be proud of.
One day, he meets a beautiful high school girl by the escalators and they start talking about themselves at a restaurant. To impress her and not disappoint her expectations of him, he lies that he's loaded, has a great paying job as a scriptwriter and owns a Porsche. They eventually exchange their pager numbers and Onizuka can't help but keep thinking about her and how pretty she was. Then, she really does end up paging him to meet up, when he decides to come clean about who he really is, he ends up seeing her at their meeting place in tears, so he forcefully exchanges his crappy sneakers with some guy's BMW LOL and ends up driving her to a love hotel/karaoke place for her to sing out her sorrows of fighting with her boyfriend. As he tries to tell her to be his girlfriend instead, the girl receives a message from her boyfriend that he's outside and she proceeds to jump out the window into his arms, and then it's revealed that her boyfriend is her teacher! Not only is he a teacher, but he's a short and bald old man that the girl is totally in love with and she quickly leaves with him, shocking Onizuka. Later, Onizuka relays this crazy story to Ryuji, and Ryuji tells him that this kind of thing is pretty common and that he should just find another older girl instead or whatever. But no, Onizuka's got something else on his mind, he's decided that he'll become a teacher! And that's the gist of the first chapter that is pretty much completely cut out of the anime,
I think I can see why it was cut out of the anime if there was a limited amount of content they wanted to shove into the first episode and still make it impactful (since I really do like the long first episode of the anime), the background in this first chapter of the manga fleshes things out much better and shows how difficult it was for Onizuka to find a proper goal and job, whilst showing how ridiculously simple, silly and one track minded Onizuka as a person is. I think it gives him a better first impression as a simple person that likes girl rather than a pervert that just wants to chase after girls that the anime makes. It's a similar impression I guess but the latter is more creepy loll. I do enjoy Onizuka's more thorough initial development through the manga, especially when it showed how highly regarded Onizuka was towards his hairstyle and yet after he decided on his career path, he actually cut it to be more presentable to school authorities.
Mizuki Nanako
In the manga, when Onizuka brought Nana back to his apartment, she never really talked about what her family does and that she'd cook sukiyaki for him, he just gave her some water or whatever, asked her what problems she had, and then she immediately stripped and told him to say cheese for the photos. So the whole thing with Onizuka in his fur dog suit preparing the futon whilst she was cooking kinda just amped up Onizuka's perverted tendencies, and I guess it was kinda funny but I did think that it was pretty uncomfortable seeing him do that tbh, so I kinda prefer the manga in this sense where he had thoughts about how this might go but he never did anything to show that he really wanted to make a move on her. Also, Onizuka tried to clean his place before inviting her in but she went inside herself, so yeah I do admit thinking in the anime why did he have a room that was actually quite clean already loll. Also, it was Onizuka who brought the gang to deal with the guys who took the photos and were now hanging in the park thinking about what to do with the money they'll get from him, the guys didn't anger some neighbourhood gang group and then needing Onizuka's help. I guess the anime's interpretation shows how renowned and strong Onizuka is in a different way, whereas for the manga, I actually find it more in character for Onizuka to lead a gang against them since he had finally lost his shit against these brats he's been hating and wanting to kill for a while haha.
I was always kinda confused why they suddenly went on a drive after Nana threw the sushi away in the bin, like why would Onizuka take her on a drive when she was already home? Anyway, in the manga, after dumping the sushi, Nana said she'd make him a nice dinner at his place, which ended up being fried croquettes. She even made a whole pile LOL, and it was then she talked about how she enjoyed having this warm cheap food her family always had compared to this cold sushi. She also talked about how Onizuka's small apartment reminded her of the old days and how cosy the family was in it compared to her big house, which kinda makes more sense as to why she's so insistent on sleeping over at his place. She didn't want to leave his apartment and it was only when he dragged her out and tried to drive her home did she jump off the bike, which imo definitely makes much more sense and flows much better. He also let her stay at his place to sleep after that, whilst he slept outside on the porch, which shows how much of a gentleman Onizuka actually is even if he is a pervert. That other student teacher is definitely even more trash than the anime though to suggest that Onizuka take photos of Nana and make her be at his beck and call because of it, disgusting! Nana also had already stayed over for like three days. Ahh, it was after that disgusting teacher's opinion that Onizuka wore that wolf costume and even thought about attacking her, but then she started talking about the memories she cherished with her family when they used to eat sukiyaki all the time (that's where the sukiyaki came from!), then he stopped and told her to go home since this was his apartment and not the one room apartment with her family back then, of which she complied. I'll admit that in terms of the wolf costume part, I did like how the anime kinda toned it down because it was pretty over the top and I could see how problematic it would be in an anime. However, I think they should have kept the part where she slept at his place and he slept inside, since it establishes the kind of pure character Onizuka is even if he's a pervert, since he doesn't take advantage of others when it comes to serious stuff. It also didn't take as much effort for Onizuka to break a hole into the wall as it did in the anime, but I can understand why the anime decided to extend it tbh, because as a person who watched the anime first, every strike from Onizuka's hammer to the wall resonated with me as much as it did for Nana, it really touched me how he was so insistent on destroying this obstructive wall in her heart and in her home. I really liked the impact and the music accompanying it.
So really, even though some things were different and some things were omitted, I still like both. I just think that reading the manga helps to make things make more sense, however even if you don't read it, you kinda get the gist of it anyway, so it's fine. So, I think if you want a better background of things and to have a more coherent recount of events, the manga is the way to go, but I have to admit that Onizuka's VA and the OST is so great that I think it would be nice to watch the first episode and then read the first 7 chapters for a more properly developed story. The emotional impact probably hit me harder in the anime with the music and everything, but the manga definitely develops and shows the story better.
Interview
It was nice to see that the manga actually introduced Saejima as a dodgy cop properly, and that Onizuka didn't suddenly land the chance to get an interview at the Holy Forest Academy so fast and easily, he got rejected numerous times. The Vice Principal is also a much bigger pervert in the manga, instead of enjoying "accidentally" rubbing his face on Fuyutsuki's butt in the anime, he blatantly grabbed her ass. Also, Fuyutsuki had a tear in her pants and he lends her his jacket to cover it, not that this is very important so I guess it's understandable why it was cut out of the anime lol. On the other hand, after his German suplex of the Vice Principal, I'm kind of sad that the anime cut out the little part where the "bad" students (that wanted revenge) felt bad that they ruined Onizuka's chances of becoming a teacher there for them, I felt that it showed that Onizuka was right, that despite what things they did, they weren't trash. I would have also liked to see Fuyutsuki shout to him that he can't leave because his words were so inspiring and she thinks that he would be a great teacher. You could feel that she felt that way in the anime, but seeing her verbalise it like that in the manga (especially right after they met) was refreshing and gave her more character, so now I'm a bit bummed that it was cut. As for Fuyutsuki telling Ryuji about the final interview, it didn't happen in the manga, all that happened was Ryuji calling him about it, so I guess that was a nice addition. The anime also cut out Ryuji, Onizuka and Azusa (Fuyutsuki) drinking in celebration of Onizuka landing the job, and he mentions that he's going to be living on campus despite Azusa saying she never got such an offer.
First Day at Holy Forest Academy
Instead of tearing his teaching licence in two on stage during the morning assembly introducing the teachers, in the manga Onizuka and Azusa met up with each other to excitedly show each other their respective licences, but Onizuka tore it in half. When he painstakingly sticky taped it back, the waitress in the restaurant spilled coffee all over it lmao. It also shows Azusa and Ryuji in a truck helping Onizuka move all his belongings to the school. Something I would've really liked to see in the anime would be Azusa and Onizuka both stepping into the school grounds together and calling each other a teacher. It felt like a really special moment and it was very heartwarming to see how many interactions between them that we probably missed out on in the anime. The anime also skips over the guy showing Onizuka to the rooftop as his new room. It was hilarious when Onizuka takes out his futon and sleeps in it, saying something like "you mean for me to sleep here?!" As Onizuka complains about his living space at night, he hears a girl giggling and a shoe drops next to him on the rooftop, of which is just a couple making out that he starts peeking on loll. He goes around the teachers' office and thinks of the positive aspects of living in school, and then sees some students in the courtyard trying to communicate with UFOs and kicks them out of the school hahaha. Then they start spray painting about UFOs on the wall, so Onizuka has to clean up hahaha. It is after this that Onizuka finds Yoshikawa tied up in a locker and listens to him talk, He asks Onizuka to get revenge for him, but Onizuka tells him to do it himself, which then leads to Yoshikawa going to the rooftop saying he's going to kill himself. As he tries to convince him to come back, he accidentally pushes him off instead. Thinking of what the news headlines would be like the next day, Onizuka reaches his hands out to catch him whilst using his slippers to latch on to the floor on the rooftop. Yoshikawa ends up standing on a windowsill safely, whereas Onizuka's feet slips out from the slippers and he falls on to the car below. The principal sees him and asks if he's okay, she ends up bandaging him up too and says that she got him to live up there so he can see everything that goes on in the school and become the superhero for this place, and if he does that, she will make him become a real teacher.
So really, there's no Onizuka nearly crashing into the Cresta with his truck full of stuff and no Onizuka telling Yoshikawa to carry his belongings whilst he carries the pillow upstairs and they don't discuss about games on the Playstation etc. The things he encounters at night are different from the anime as well. Otherwise, the opening ceremony/morning assembly and cherry blossom viewing happened after the Yoshikawa event so I guess the anime kinda rearramged some stuff. In the manga, they directed Onizuka to where they could find the previous homeroom teacher rather than merely talking about her at the cherry blossom viewing. He found her at a questionable place where members would channel their "negative" energy to space or something to cure their psychological wounds and this teacher was one of them. Onizuka saw how much weight she put on here. He was also shown her class diaries which were scribbled on and she was sitting in a room with graffiti all over it, probably highlighting all the stress and trauma she had been dealt with by her students. The cherry blossom viewing happened after this reveal, and it was Onizuka who told Azusa what happened to the previous teacher. The anime also omits the appearance of a lady that works in the infirmary called Naoko who gives Onizuka pills for all kinds of problems since she thought he would need it as the new homeroom teacher of that troubling class, and she tells him about how the past three teachers of this class ended up either attempting suicide, disappearing or bringing gasoline to school trying to put the classroom on fire.
As usual, the manga gives a bit more detail on the teacher side of things imo, whereas the anime seems to want to focus more on the comedy. Despite that though, I think the biggest thing that anime watchers are missing out from is the scene of Azusa and Onizuka stepping into school together as teachers for the first time. Otherwise, everything else is kinda like minor changes or rearrangements, but I do prefer the pacing and the flow of the manga more since it feels more coherent, and of course detailed. The impact of how frightening this class really is was probably better in the manga as well, but I think you kinda get the gist of it in the anime. I did enjoy the anime originals of Onizuka carrying his pillow and stuff like that though, it was pretty funny, but at the same time I do feel like the anime focused a bit too much on his silly side.
The Start of Teacher Bullying - Kikuchi Yoshito's arc
Not too different but in the manga, Onizuka's wooden horse photo was plastered all over the walls in the hallways rather than on the school noticeboard, either way though, it was pretty much to the same effect with the same reactions. However, when Onizuka goes back to the staff room, it's a different reaction. The anime seemed to want to play on the comedy effect with Onizuka being silly thinking he really might have done it, alongside the Vice Principal strangling him for the Cresta, but in the manga, many of the teachers told Onizuka that this was the students' ways of doing things making composite photos, and that they had done it to the previous teacher as well. Tbh it also kind of highlights the toxicity of the teachers as well, since a few of them would talk about how they still had those photos of the female teacher (Kihara) in "implied" compromising positions and how they thought some of them were probably real. So really, there isn't much of a misunderstanding about the photos on Onizuka's part, so he never really went berserk over the photo of him and the Vice Principal on the class chalkboard, instead, it was right then and there that he asked who made this photo, Kikuchi admitted it thinking Onizuka would make him reflect with the usual punishments by teachers, but instead he took him to the side to ask him to make more for these girls he liked lol. With his silliness, he quickly recovered momentum for teaching the class too. Murai is also shown to physically bully his (no name) classmates for enjoying Onizuka's class. Fujiyoshi also reveals his plan to Murai and the others (Aizawa etc) to get Onizuka eat a female cockroach so that it'll lay eggs inside him and kill him (he saw it happen to someone on the news). HAHAHA, and of course it backfires during lunchtime, because of how much a glutton Onizuka is and pours back his curry (with the cockroach in it) into the pot and gets a larger serving, in the end, Murai ends up nearly eating the cockroach because Onizuka bumps into him lol. Due to this incident, Murai sets up a trap wire in the doorway to the classroom to make Onizuka trip and fall face first into a pair of opened scissors, but as usual, Onizuka pushes him and he nearly gets killed instead lol. You can say that, Murai is probably so much more malicious in the manga. It is also then that Murai goes to the game centre with the others (but gets left alone) and fights Onizuka in that game and loses tragically.
So really, most of episode 4 with Onizuka going berserk, Fuyutsuki and others misunderstanding, and then Onizuka going to clear up the misunderstanding doesn't really happen in the manga at all, since Onizuka was informed from the beginning what those photos were by the teachers (he was never interfered with listening to the story by the Vice Principal), and so he didn't need Yoshikawa to tell him that Kikuchi did it. Overall, I think the anime portrays Kikuchi's shock and acceptance of Onizuka better with his talk with Yoshikawa and how he expresses himself afterwards, since in the manga, after Onizuka requested those composites, it doesn't really show much of why Kikuchi thinks it's boring to do these things to Onizuka, it's more implied. Also, unlike the anime, Kikuchi isn't shown to be thinking of making more composite photos before being confronted by Onizuka to make some for him lol, but I guess I liked that addition following the "story" of the anime haha, anime Kikuchi seems better for now haha. Although, I do think that Onizuka knowing from the beginning that the photos weren't real was more in line with his smart but silly kind of persona, and I think I do prefer it in the sense of developing his character to the audience, but I also really enjoyed the comedy of the misunderstanding in the anime. It was a bit draggy in the anime though because the misunderstanding took up most of the episode, I think they could have shortened it, even though I did really like Onizuka's crazy reactions to the photos lol. In addition, instead of Onizuka having to clear up the misunderstanding with Fuyutsuki first and cheer her up, she instead goes to his room and apologises after realising her mistake, and offers to cook him dinner.
After this, the anime seems to mix up the sequence of events, the anime goes into Anko's part of firing Onizuka in episode 5-6, but the manga continues on with Murai's story, which is kinda depicted in episode 7. I'll go through the differences in episode 7 then loll. (more about this in next paragraph with Kunio)
Murai Kunio and his Mother
After losing at so many games against Onizuka in the arcade, like in the anime, Murai shackles Onizuka to the sumo wrestler game. However, their purpose in being there was different, since in the anime, Murai didn't want his mum to go on a date with Onizuka and that's why they played the games, whereas in the manga, they just coincidentally met there and he wanted revenge against Onizuka for nearly killing him (with his own traps lol). Whilst he's running away on a bike from the enraged Onizuka, he nearly crashes into his mum, and that is actually when Onizuka finds out that Murai's mum is really young and pretty. So really, there was no intended home visit by the homeroom teacher to start all this and I'm not sure why the anime decided to change it. And there was no dramatic saving the mum from a truck by Onizuka to show how reckless of a person Murai is. But the truth of the matter still remains, whilst Murai is constantly thinking that Onizuka is vying for his mum, going to karaoke etc, they're actually talking about Murai's future and his school results. The manga pauses Murai's story with Murai saying he can't trust teachers anymore because of what happened in the past, and then it goes back to Yoshikawa and Anko. I guess the anime wanted to keep the stories isolated but flowing, so it pushed forward the Anko part. In terms of episode 8 with the bungee jumping etc, it's mostly faithful to the manga, but I did enjoy the little spin the anime made, which was that the stolen car they rode in was the Cresta haha, I feel sorry for the Vice Principal but it's just hilarious hahaha. I guess, in terms of the latter half of Murai's story, I enjoyed the anime more because of the music and the Cresta part lol, I also loved how the anime shows more of the police chase on Onizuka so it really highlights the comedy of it. And I think the anime shows more of the friendly relationship between Onizuka and Murai's mum, which is kinda sweet since they are kinda fun, but not necessary I guess, since most of it is strictly talking about Kunio haha.
Anko bullying Yoshikawa
The anime seems to like to highlight Onizuka's perverted aspects and the comedy loll, but yeah, instead of Fuyutsuki playing games with Onizuka, in the manga, that's when she apologises for her mistake about the photos, and then Yoshikawa comes along and plays games with him. Although it's shown in the anime briefly that Fuyutsuki is happy that Onizuka is getting along with one of his students, I think the manga puts more effort into her character by verbalising her thoughts to the infirmary teacher (that doesn't exist in the anime) that she thinks compared to all the other teachers in this school, Onizuka is probably the closest to his students. I think it's also nice to see Fuyutsuki have a girl friend in the school, so it's saddening to not see that in the anime. Yoshikawa also admits and apologises to Onizuka that he knew what Kikuchi and them did, but didn't tell him because he was scared they'd pick on him again, which I'm glad the manga talks about! I always thought it was kinda weird (but whatever kinda thing) that he would tell Onizuka about Kikuchi in the anime like he was beginning to want to improve for himself, and yet go backwards with his other actions. I think this is more in line with his character. Not relevant but dang, Anko looks prettier in the manga haha.
I always wondered what happened to Kikuchi after Onizuka saves Yoshikawa from suiciding, like it doesn't make sense that he just goes home, you know?! Lol! So I'm glad to see that in the manga, Kikuchi is the one taking the photos of Anko and them loll, team spirit you know! It's also kinda amusing that Yoshikawa actively participates for this revenge in the manga, whereas he's more reserved in the anime about it. In this sense, I think the anime lends to his personality more considering how fearful he's always been, and I kind of like how it felt eye opening to Yoshikawa that the girls could be so vulnerable, and that they could be weak too. Whereas, in the manga, he was just rather satisfied that Onizuka helped him get revenge. So, I think in terms of the teaching theme, I did enjoy the anime more. Also, Moritaka (infirmary nurse) was the one to discover Onizuka's arm was swollen and broken, instead of Fuyutsuki. In addition, in the manga, Onizuka never went back to the school to try and fix things with his monkey suit etc, Yoshikawa just went to the private meeting held with Anko's mother and undressed, whilst Kikuchi played the tape, and she backed off. I'm glad about that tbh, because I always thought that monkey suit thing by Onizuka was ridiculous lol. In addition, Onizuka never talked to Anko saying there's more fun things than bullying and she'll come to realise that, like I know why the anime wanted to put that, but it really doesn't make sense when in the end, Anko doesn't change in later episodes, so I thought it was really...awkward? But yeah, Onizuka did run away from the hospital to go play games at the arcade, but that was after everything had been resolved by Kikuchi and Yoshikawa, and it shows Yoshikawa beating him at the game lol. Personally, I liked the way the manga did it because even though it was less dramatic, it made more sense, but either way, it reflects how much Yoshikawa and Kikuchi have been influenced and moved by Onizuka to help him out, so I guess the gist of the story stays the same.
And that's it for episodes 1-8! That was honestly more work than I thought loll, more to come soon? Haha.
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