Shonan Junai Gumi wasn’t the best predecessor to GTO

Most American anime fans over the age of 30 are familiar with Great Teacher Onizuka (or GTO). It was a fairly popular series in the early 2000s, and it delivered a slice-of-life schoolhouse experience for that type of genre adherent.

Its predecessor series, Shonan Junai Gumi, fell under the radar, however.

Let’s take a step back. The main characters of Shonan are two biker gang friends, Onizuka and Danma. Both move to a new high school in Shonan, intent to change their lives. by hiding their reputation and using it to appeal to girls. Fast forward a few years to GTO and Onizuka, fresh out of college, is now a new teacher with the same goal.

Why didn’t the Shonan anime get the same attention as GTO, though? I believe it’s because there was no single sort of direction for the series. It was a five episode OVA released over several years, and those have a tendency to meander. Tenchi Muyo! and Legend of the Galactic Heroes are notable exception, of course.

But Shonan will give the viewer whiplash with its constant narrative shifts from episode to episode. Danma is engaged to be married in one episode, and is suddenly romantically involved with another character an episode later. Worse yet, the main canard of the first episode is completely tonally different compared to the remainder the series.

How much can you blame the studios or writers, though? We’re talking five episodes released over a three year period. In that scenario, of course you’re going to just film the most notable sub-stories or draw on something that can be compacted into that amount of celluloid.

An entire 31-volume manga series can never hope to be told in about four hours but it is hard, when all is said and done, to see this series as a complete offering. This is unfortunate, as the two leads have clear staying power. The broader GTO franchise has certainly cleared 100 million in worldwide volume sales at this point.

One would think that it’s about time for a full treatment of Onizuka and Danma’s high school adventures, right? Some of this series’ charm derives from the excellently animated exaggerations of expression for the characters. The major characters are also designed well enough that each has a sharp distinguishing visual.

As for what’s on display through the OVA, it’s perfectly acceptable and sometimes charming, if you’re comfortable with sudden narrative shifts from episode to episode. Just don’t expect much else. This isn’t Akira or anything.

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