Great Teacher Onizuka

Great Teacher Onizuka (グレート・ティーチャー・ オニヅカ, &# 39;'Great Teacher Onizuka''^? ), also known as GTO (ジーティーオー, ''GTO''^?), is a spin-off-sequel to the manga Shounan Jun'ai Gumi by Tōru Fujisawa, in in which Eikichi Onizuka's character was a delinquent along with his best friend, Ryuji Danma, who was also the narrator of the story. In this manga, the author decided to cast Onizuka as the protagonist and put him in the least expected role, professor. He was awarded the Kodansha Award for Best Manga in 1998 in the shōnen category. It also has a sequel called GTO; Shonan 14 Days, which tells the story that occurred in the 14 days after the incident with Professor Teshigawara, which did not appear in the original manga. The story has adaptations to anime series and two series shot in real image.

Plot

The story begins when Eikichi Onizuka, an ex-biker straight out of a third-rate university with a conduct report so bad he can't find a decent job, meets a girl named Erika, a high school student. He has never had relations with a woman, so he does everything possible to impress her, telling her all kinds of lies. When he finally tricks her into taking her to a love hotel, Erika tells him that she had a fight with her boyfriend, so Onizuka doesn't miss the opportunity to try to seduce her through the consolation of she. At that moment, a bald, fat, short, forty-year-old old man appears on the street who, crying, asks Erika to forgive him, she immediately throws herself into his arms saying Sorry, professor, I was very bad!

Onizuka seeing that incredible scene, decides to be a teacher; the reason is simple: he will be able to seduce a lot of young and beautiful girls. To do this, he cuts his hair, begins to wear a white suit and decides to take the practical exams for teaching aptitude. There the students of the class where he should be for a few weeks try to humiliate and extort him, so when they end his patience they discover why he was one of the most feared gang members in Japan, first out of threats and then out of respect, he manages to direct his students thus obtaining the title of teacher.

The plot from that moment (point where the anime begins) is based on how Onizuka, despite not having the necessary knowledge to be a teacher, manages to enter the private school Seirin Gakuen thanks to his German Suplex, a wrestling hold with which he knocks out the vice principal of the school for calling his students trash. The principal, who was secretly watching the scene, decides to hire Onizuka as a teacher because of his ability to reach out to the students and make people see reason (a bit violent), on the condition that he move to live at the school. and being the tutor of the most conflictive and antisocial course in the school, which is responsible for the retirement and retirement due to stress of a large number of teachers.

The animated series omits the beginning and begins from the moment Onizuka begins his professional practice, for the same reason that during the development of the series different situations that can only be seen in the manga are eliminated or smoothed out. since some scenes and stories were considered inappropriate to broadcast on television (the one that Onizuka tries to sleep with minors, that he removes their underwear to hit them or that they undress to try to seduce him).

Characters

Academic staff

Eikichi Onizuka ( 英 oriented, Onizuka Eikichi^?)

Seiyū: Wataru Takagi, Takashi Sorimachi (live-action)

The protagonist of the series. An ex-biker, gang member and street fighter; he is a fan of video games, manga, cosplay, etc. He is the teacher in charge of class 2-4, the most dangerous of the Sacred Forest Academy. He is a pervert in every expression of him, and he doesn't care to hide it. Totally disorganized and lazy, rather than teaching social sciences (which is his subject), he organizes parties in his classroom, or directly insults and provokes students by urging them to vent their problems. His main defect is that "he does not think about the consequences of what he does", he does what his heart dictates, at the time and place that arises, but in the same way face and fix any consequences you have created without hesitation.

His dream is to become not a teacher, but a GREAT TEACHER, not to teach, but to help, and he is determined to dedicate himself to it all his life, whatever the cost., and show everyone that it really is the GTO. As he himself discovered during his practice, he does not identify with the teachers, but with the students, which is why he knows that he can help them. During his adolescence he was a member of the Onibaku (demonic explosion), a motorcycle group that he formed together with Ryuji, his best friend. Although they were feared by the people and their teachers gave them as hopeless cases, for Onizuka it was the best time of his life. After leaving the University of Eurasia and even before becoming a professor, although he did not show it, he longed for the days of motorcycling since his life had lost all meaning; but when he was given the opportunity to be a teacher, he not only took it to become someone, but to prevent students from being belittled as he was with his teachers, in reality, it is very easy for him to become violent with anyone who insults a student for very bad behavior that he has.

Azusa Fuyutsuki (月 月 Русский さ, Fuyutsuki Azusa^?)

Seiyū: Fumiko Orikasa, Nanako Matsushima (live-action)

Fuyutsuki is a young, beautiful, disciplined, classical, and kind teacher. Before the appearance of Onizuka in the same school where she works, she will distrust him at first. Although there are many aspects of Onizuka's way of being that she doesn't like about her, she has a great appreciation for him, ever since she helped her after an incident where Vice Principal Uchiyamada harassed her. Every time she is going to be fired, she does everything she can to help him, although many times when Onizuka is framed, she is the first to believe that he is guilty and one of the last to be convinced otherwise. She is very popular among her male students, but this has led to the enmity of the women in her class, who have attacked her on more than one occasion, accusing her of not being a true teacher and of purposely provoking the students. As the series progresses, it is seen that Fuyutsuki has special feelings for Onizuka.

Hiroshi Uchiyamada (self-sustaining, Uchiyamada Hiroshi^?)

Seiyū: Yūichi Nagashima, Akira Nakao (live-action)

Deputy director of the school. The first time he had the opportunity to meet Onizuka was on the bus before the job interview, Onizuka hit him when he saw that he was rubbing against Fuyutsuki (in the manga, she had torn her pants and he took advantage of this to touch her buttocks), which earned Onizuka being despised and humiliated at the time of the applications. The second was while Uchiyamada insulted some former students, offering Onizuka a position at the school in exchange for beating them up, as a consequence, he received a wrestling key from Onizuka, for disrespecting the young people. Upon learning that Onizuka is settling in the same school where he works, he will be the first to disagree, waiting for him to make a mistake to fire him.

He appreciates his white Cresta, the car he bought in order to win back the affection of his wife and daughter, before whom he did not have the value of a man or father, because he believes that if they see him driving a car at home elegant, they will see you as someone worthy of respect and admiration. Over and over again (up to 4 times) throughout the series, his Crest is smashed. In the manga, while this repetitive joke exists, it doesn't happen as often as it does in the series.

Kadena Nao (?, Kadena Nao^?)

Seiyū: Kaya Matsutani

Nurse arriving in the middle of the school year. She is an adult woman with an exuberant body and who likes to dress provocatively. Shortly after arriving, she shows attitudes very similar to Onizuka's with her students. Much to Fuyutsuki's annoyance, who doesn't approve of such a woman in contact with students. As time goes by, it is possible to see that she seduces the male students and manipulates the women to obtain money from the sale of amulets and makeup. In addition to working in a bar as a companion at night, all because her only objective is to earn money regardless of the methods. Thanks to Ryuji, it is discovered that in the time when the Onibaku existed, Nao was the so-called queen of the Last Signal , a type of illegal race in which she runs in a straight line ignoring all traffic signals and pedestrian. She only lost once and after the accident she was never seen again. But the truth is that the driver on that occasion was her brother, who wanted to be like her and used her car and her helmet, seriously damaging her eyes. Nao dedicated herself from that moment to raising money to operate it however she wanted. However, the person in charge of getting the operation was a scammer who left her on the street. Thanks to Onizuka, she is reunited with her brother and understands that the accident was not her responsibility, so she should not live enslaved to it, after which she decides to stay as a permanent member of the school campus. This character only appears in the anime.

Hajime Fukuroda (أعربية, Fukuroda Hajime^?)

Seiyū: Kazuhiro Nakata, Kunihiko Ida (live-action)

Sports teacher at school. He is a pervert, who enjoys seeing the students in shorts, whom he scolds for not wearing them and continually finds excuses to touch them. He hates Onizuka, because despite not having a degree as a teacher, he is superior in all physical disciplines, thus feeling a strong rivalry towards him. He is proud of his appearance and his physique, convinced that the students go crazy when they see him, but they are only disgusted by his exhibitionist attitude, his overdeveloped body and his ugly face. The students call him Hokuroda in reference to a huge mole that he has on his face (in Japanese, mole is Hokuro).

Ryōko Sakurai ( , Sakurai Ryōko^?)

Seiyū: Yoshiko Okamoto, Yumi Shirakawa (live-action)

She is the director of the Tokyo Kissho Academy and the main person in charge of hiring Onizuka at the school and has also settled there to live. She is the only one who, from the first moment she sees him, trusts that he will undoubtedly be a great teacher. She will trust his potential to the end, and she will have to endure continuous complaints from the vice principal, parents and students, but she is determined that Onizuka stays in the establishment, even if she has to resort to illegal methods to protect him. She is a very deceitful person, since her hobby is to attend the food store, so that she can meet people without them knowing her true position in the establishment.

Suguru Teshigawara (使 使 使 使 使 使 使 使 使 使 使 使 使 使 使の 使 使 使。, Teshigawara Suguru^?)

Seiyū: Tohru Furuya, Kunihiko Ida (live-action)

Math teacher, who has obsessive and voyeuristic fixations for Professor Fuyutsuki, for this reason he will devise all kinds of plans, in order to get rid of Onizuka, given the appreciation felt for him by the teacher whom he insistently spies on and harasses. In general, he shows himself to people as a correct and educated man, however his treatment of his students is unpleasant and cold. He suffers from a superiority complex, since he studied at Todai, gives private lessons to important people, belongs to a family that is of great status and has an IQ above average (but lower than Kansaki and Kikuchi), reaching according to the manga. to consider himself a superior being; thus he commonly refers to her plan to rape Fuyutsuki as inseminating her with her superior genes from her. This is how he usually plans ways to bring Fuyutsuki to her house to abuse her, but because of Onizuka it has never worked out. He despises Onizuka because he comes from a third-class university while he graduated from Todai which in his eyes makes him unworthy of Fuyutsuki and considered equal to him. He gives private lessons to the daughter of an important politician who, based on extortion, uses him as a sexual pet, something to which he lowers himself due to the influence that such friendships mean.

When any of his plans don't work out, he goes into hysterical crises in which he even inflicts injuries. When Onizuka and Kikuchi passed him in the high school knowledge test, he even beat himself up in front of the rest of the teachers. Finally, he is temporarily suspended from his position, since upon hearing a student comment in class that she obtained third place in the exam, she hits her until she breaks her eardrum (it is only explained in the manga). In the manga, after a while he returns & # 34;reformed & # 34; but it is nothing more than a trap to be able to take revenge on Onizuka and continue his obsession with Fuyutsuki which almost leads him to death but thanks to his brother and Onizuka who finally realizes what he really wants.

Students

Urumi Kanzaki (laundering, Kanzaki Urumi^?)

Seiyū: Kotono Mitsuishi

A blonde girl who rarely attends class, she has an IQ averaging over 200. She is fluent in multiple languages, and is a prodigy in all fields of teaching. She loves to expose the teachers to her ignorance, using her intelligence or creating very dangerous tricks and pranks in which they fall and sometimes get hurt, so that they are constantly terrified of teaching classes with her present. Known as the most dangerous school terrorist in the institute, she hates teachers, since when she was young she trusted a teacher and came to see her as a mother, but she betrayed her, envious to see that the young woman surpassed her in knowledge and skills, for which told his classmates the most important secret of Urumi: her mother fancied she had a genius daughter, so she looked for the most suitable man for the case and Urumi was born as a test-tube girl, having to grow up in a cold house, without love and under the stigma of being a phenomenon.

Despite his rebellious and malicious attitude, the vice principal has given impunity to all his acts, since he alleges that having a genius student in the school increases the status of the establishment. Even when he assaults teachers and makes their lives miserable, he rarely takes it personally; However, when he does, his acts become even more heinous, shortly before carrying out the punishment he has reserved for that person, he addresses her composing poetry in French in which he expresses all his hatred and contempt for the victim. Onizuka confronts her, showing her that her airs of superiority are just a cover to avoid suffering. In the manga, she does not manage to make Urumi change after endangering her life, but later introduces her to the members of her gang, who tell her about the misfortunes of her life and seeing these people, who have suffered more than her and are still living. ahead, he decides to straighten his course. From that moment on, she began to attend classes regularly and became a great friend and adviser to her. She suffers from heterochromia, (her right iris is brown, and her left is blue).

In the manga, she tries to commit suicide after Miyabi reveals her secret to the whole school but Onizuka saves her again, from here she tells him while he sleeps that he is her favorite and that his relationship with his mother is better; she also gets jealous every time Onizuka tries to do something perverted with a woman and hits him most of the time causing him to bleed. Even so, before meeting her on one occasion, Onizuka would comment on her ideal woman's appearance, which would turn out to be identical to Urumi's appearance. As of volume 16, Urumi gradually begins to fall uncontrollably in love with her teacher, since when Onizuka takes her to Tokyo Tower she tells him that because he did not accept her request that they run away together and live his love since Onizuka's dream was to marry one of his students, at that moment she tries to kiss him but he refuses.

Tomoko Nomura ( і, Nomura Tomoko^?)

Seiyū: Ayako Kawasumi, Miki Kuroda (live-action)

She is called "Toroko" (トロ子, "Toroko"^?), that's how everyone in your class knows it. Her name comes from a play on words that comes from the mixture between her name and the word toroi which in Japanese means slow or silly . She is characterized by quite remarkable clumsiness, mental slowness and innocence, in addition to her large breasts and her long brown hair that she later dyes red. She is the only person who genuinely likes Miyabi, as they have been her companions since her kindergarten and she is the only one Miyabi shows appreciation to before befriending Onizuka and her group. Since she was little, she has known and resigned herself to being clumsy and stupid, not only because of the ridicule of her classmates, but also because her parents have convinced her to be like that. Initially she is part of the group of “bad girls” headed by Miyabi, but when she fails to frame Onizuka she becomes a victim of her friends and a ward of her teacher.

One day she comments to Onizuka that she wishes she had friends to talk to and how much she envy the life of Miyabi, her ex-best friend, to which Onizuka advises her to give her own life a chance to be something. well, forcing her to apply for a beauty contest, which although she doesn't win (the contest was arranged), makes her enter show business and later, with the help of Onizuka, she becomes the highest idol in Japan, becoming Kunio and the rest his friends and much of Japan his admirers. In the manga this does not happen, however it is known that she is really famous and she even buys an apartment where she lives alone.

Miyabi Aizawa (▪, Aizawa Miyabi^?)

Seiyū: Junko Noda, Aimi Nakamura (live-action)

She is one of the students who most intensely opposes Onizuka and will carry her resistance to the end. The other girls follow her because she is beautiful and comes from a wealthy family. She calls the shots when it comes to attacking the teachers and begins to hate her classmates as they go over to Onizuka's side. She has always preached that adults cannot be trusted, so the job of young people should be to attack them and make life as miserable as possible. Her obsession with harming Onizuka is such that she has come to steal and slander whoever is necessary, manipulate her friends and even attack people, showing that she is really the one who should not be trusted. She has also openly expressed her happiness at the possibility of Onizuka dying on the occasions when she has been shot or believed to be terminally ill.

The truth about his behavior and his constant and excessive anger is that his father is rarely at home because he cheats on his mother and she prefers to ignore the situation and convince herself that her family is perfect. Seeing this attitude in her house for so long, Miyabi has grown up thinking of adults as the worst thing that exists. In the manga she not only hates adults because of her parents but also because of an accident she had with one of her high school teachers.

Yoshito Kikuchi (地, Kikuchi Yoshito^?)

Seiyū: Hikaru Midorikawa, Akira Nakao (live-action)

A prodigy with computers, manipulation of images and recordings. Very observant, he usually collaborates with his classmates and makes photomontages of the teachers to slander and humiliate them. When Onizuka arrived, he was the first to try to get it out through pornographic photomontages; but this one, far from getting angry or giving up, commissioned him erotic photos taking advantage of his ability. Knowing the attitude of the new teacher, he was convinced that he would be able to make school fun again, so he gradually became one of his closest friends. He is the second brightest student in the institute after Urumi and has scored second nationally after Onizuka in the high school knowledge measurement exams (Urumi did not take the exam).

In the manga, the character has subtle differences, such as that he teaches karate classes outside of school, he has a tendency to laugh more often unlike the anime, where he is characterized by his cold attitude. Also in the anime he maintains a correct attitude at all times, while in the manga he takes advantage of the moments he is away from adults to relax and smoke.

Kunio Murai (▪ كا م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م و م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م و م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م م , Murai Kunio^?)

Seiyū: Tomokazu Seki, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi (live-action)

A short, hot-headed, naturally aggressive boy with short, dyed blonde hair. He is one of the leaders of the class, he has a young and beautiful mother with whom he is obsessed and fearful at the idea of finding a partner, Onizuka is aware of this and bothers him very often. His mother got pregnant with him at the age of 13 and his father fled when he found out so as not to bear the responsibility. This fact has marked his personality and in general, despite his defiant and aggressive attitude, he prefers to flee the consequences of his actions. since she believes that this is the attitude of an adult. Along with Miyabi, he is the most determined that Onizuka will leave, but when he gets into trouble with a gang and Onizuka forces him to demonstrate his manhood and decision in an extreme way, he decides to forget the grudges and later it is common to see him playing him and his friends. friends with their teacher.

Noboru Yoshikawa (▪, Yoshikawa Noboru^?)

Seiyū: Kosuke Okano, Shun Oguri (live-action)

Yoshikawa was a boy with a very complicated life, overwhelmed and ashamed because three of his classmates assaulted him and because they were women he couldn't defend himself, he even showed suicidal tendencies until he met Onizuka, whom he soon became good friends with.. When he tries to commit suicide for the second time, Onizuka confronts the girls and humiliates them in the same way that they did with Yoshikawa, endangering his work with the PTA, but Yoshikawa decides to recognize his situation before the whole school to protect him. He is an expert in video games, being even better than Onizuka at playing and will not hesitate to do anything to help him, understanding that although the rest prefer to ignore their problems, he does not hesitate to help and protect them. In the manga he shows a more radical change in attitude, since although he asks the PTA president not to do anything against Onizuka by telling her the truth, when she refuses, he extorts her with the recording that Kikuchi made of her daughter. confessing the truth

Anko Uehara (?, Anko Uehara^?)

Seiyū: Akemi Okamura

A student noted for her social standing and good-girl attitude. Originally this young woman was one of the class leaders along with Murai and Miyabi. Taking advantage of her position as the daughter of the president of the PTA (Parents and Teachers Association; Asociación de Padres y Maestros) to carry out attacks against teachers and students with impunity, since her mother is convinced that Since she is a member of the PTA and is also a pedagogical critic, her daughter is necessarily a good person. Her mother's attitude has generated a resentment in Anko that leads her to act aggressively behind her back. She and her group of friends are the ones who attacked and beat Yoshikawa. When Onizuka finds out that these humiliations (beatings and vexatious photos) are the origin of the boy's suicidal tendencies, he pays them in kind, beating them and photographing them without underwear to show them that when it comes to punishing him, he doesn't differentiate anyone..

When her behavior is exposed in front of her mother, she asks Onizuka to take charge of disciplining her whenever necessary. In the manga this does not happen, since Anko's mother's concern is to keep the truth a secret and not lose her good reputation, so she withdraws the dismissal request in exchange for keeping her daughter's guilt a secret and leaves. hide the evidence. In the anime, as the year goes by, Anko realizes that Miyabi is exceeding himself more and more and despite not recognizing sympathy for Onizuka, she helps him on different occasions, and even comes to feel admiration for Yoshikawa's attitude and strength. begins to show and ends up acknowledging that she is in love with him. When they get lost together in Okinawa, Anko remembers her childhood and sees that the origin of her attitude towards Yoshikawa was born when her father mistreated and humiliated her brother and he took it out on her; for this reason she did the same with her partner.

Others

Murai Julia (?, Murai Julia^?)

Seiyū: Megumi Ogata

Kunio's mother and the first proxy Onizuka met. A beautiful 27-year-old redhead who works as a heavy machinery operator for a construction company. When she was 13 years old, she got pregnant by her boyfriend, but he abandoned her because he did not want responsibilities, in the same way, her family turned their backs on her, so she decided to move to a room in Tokyo, get ahead and raise her son. at all costs. It is the fact of living this way and seeing how her father and grandparents abandoned her mother that makes Kunio hate adults. When Julia meets Onizuka, she begins to feel attracted to him, since, according to her, she says, despite being a pervert and irresponsible, she behaves like a man in situations in which she truly counts. It is the love and obsession of her son, who is aggressive with any man who gets close to her, even going as far as violence at the slightest suspicion of attraction to her mother.

Ryuji Danma (?, Ryuji Danma^?)

Seiyū: Isshin Chiba

Onizuka's best friend. She came to the city with him six years ago with the aim of having fun and losing her virginity. He met Onizuka in high school, becoming friends and bandmates, over time their attitude made them famous and they were named the Onibaku, being known today as the most dangerous motorcycle gang, even the most dangerous. Today's younger and more dangerous gangs idolize them and make themselves available for whatever they need. Currently he is the branch manager of a major dealership, where he has earned his position thanks to his innate knowledge of mechanics. He was the one who got Onizuka the interview at the school & # 34; Sacred Forest & # 34; and he is always willing to help you with anything that doesn't involve money.

Saejima Toshijuki (?, Saejima Toshijuki^?)

Seiyū: Kazuki Yao

Former biker and friend of Onizuka. Ironically, he is currently a policeman, but since he has not given up his bad habits it is easy to see that he is the most corrupt policeman in the whole city. He is generally assigned to the Inogashira Park Police Station, taking advantage of his position to carry out scams and bribes. When it comes to earning money, he does not respect the laws or friends, so many times he has had to flee to prevent Onizuka from killing him for swindling him or someone else.

Mr. Elefante Rosa

Seiyū: Kosuke Okano

He is Tomoko's young representative. His nickname arises because for all the castings and recordings that Tomoko has to do, the staff refer to him by the name of the company he works for (Pink Elephant), his real name is never heard., since Tomoko only calls him Manager-san. He originally worked for one of the big companies that represent idols in Japan, but a few years ago he left and joined his current company. Although he does not like to show it, he is an otaku in all its expression, but he keeps up appearances in view of his position. When he took the representation of Tomoko, he created a plan to direct the young woman's career so that in a short time she would become a renowned actress and the greatest idol in the country, after which he would marry her, but not for love, but because her dream is to marry the biggest Japanese star. Unfortunately, his plan was nothing more than fiction since Tomoko's striking appearance (red hair and large breasts) made her incompatible with supporting roles that were necessary to start the career, for which Onizuka and his students took her representation and raised her. to the fury of the manager but making him understand that it was Tomoko's life and not her dreams that was most important. However, when it came to seeing how much they were capable of doing to get Tomoko elected "Miss Glamor Princess" he and Onizuka were able to smooth things over when they saw the dedication they both had for the girl.

Media

Manga

Created by Fujisawa Tohru, the manga was published by Kōdansha publisher in Shōnen Magazine magazine from May 16, 1997 to April 17, 2002. It consists of 25 tankobon in total.

Anime

Directed by Naoyasu Hanyu and Noriyuki Abe, and produced by Studio Pierrot, the anime aired in Japan from June 30, 1999 to September 24, 2000, with a total of 43 episodes. In addition, the 5 ovas called GTO young (shounan joun'ai gumi) were made, which is the prequel to the anime, where Onizuka is seen as a young man.

The anime faithfully follows the story of the manga (adding some minor differences in some parts) until the trip to the beach (near the final episodes). That's where the anime ends, eliminating the characters that are later introduced in the manga. The anime has a different ending than the manga. Most of these differences are due to the fact that when the anime aired, the manga was still being edited. Many of Onizuka's facial expressions are modeled after Takashi Sorimachi's performance in the drama.

Soundtrack

Openings

• Driver's High

Interpreted by L'Arc~en~Ciel

Episode 1 to 16

• Hitori No Yoru (أعربية, 'Hitori No Yoru'^?)

Interpreted by Porno Graffitti

Episode 17 to 43

Endings

• Last Piece

Interpreted by Kirari

Episode 1 to 16

• Shizuku (『, 'Shizuku'^?)

Interpreted by Miwaku Okuda

Episode 17 to 33

• Cherished Memories

Interpreted by Hong Kong Knife

Episode 34 to 43

Drama

Directed by Masayuki Suzuki, the drama is made up of 12 episodes, aired before the anime, from the year 2000, a special and a movie. Takashi Sorimachi plays Onizuka, and Nanako Matsushima plays Azusa Fuyutsuki.

The opening theme song (Poison) is sung by Takashi Sorimachi himself. There are several drastic changes from the anime and manga in order to capture the entire story in just 12 hours.

TOKYOPOP claims the last episode of the drama "was the most watched show on Japanese TV".

2012 adaptation

A new drama version of 11 episodes plus a 2-hour special, the drama began airing in July 2012 on Fuji TV, with the main character played by Akira from the Japanese band Exile. Akira cut her hair short and dyed it blonde to play the role. The new version features actors such as Akira (Eikichi Onizuka), Takimoto Miori (Fuyutsuki Azusa), Yamamoto Yusuke (Saejima Toshiyuki), Yano Masato (Teshigawara Suguru), Fujisawa Ayano (Shiratori Ayame), Nagasawa Nao (Katayama Saki), Kobayashi Yumi (Sawada Noriko), Sugi-chan (スギちゃん) (Fukuroda Hajime), Takizawa Saori (Moritaka Naoko), Takachi Noboru (Hashimoto Tetsuo), Fuse Eri (Sannomaru Hiroko), Tayama Ryosei (Uchiyamada Hiroshi), Shirota Yu (Danma Ryuji)), Kuroki Hitomi (Sakurai Ryoko).