There are 3 adaptations of GTO. Which raises the following questions:

• Which is the most faithful?
• What changes are made?
• Which one falls apart?

I will attempt to answer most of these. I’ll gradually work on this article, making it more readable.

Overall, the live action series can be seen as a more watered-down version. It has less of the risqué content than the manga or anime.
I won’t list many additions for now, only the changes. I just don’t remember everything.

This will list the characters and the changes made to them, they’re in no particular order. I should explain I made many of these notes while watching the series in real time, which is why they’re all over the place.

• Mizuki Nanako
  • I originally assumed she was merged with Kanzaki-chan, but I found later that she was introduced just a month before the series aired. So it’s more likely they just didn’t know about her in the beginning stages of production and by the time they did, they had gone so far there wasn’t any point in adding her.
  • She attends Holy Forest rather than Musashino and she sticks around until the end of the series.
  • After her arc ends, she’s essentially relegated to one stage above background character.
• Aizawa Miyabi
  • Was very clearly merged with Uehara Anko.
    • Miyabi’s mother is the head of the PTA, a TV presenter and an education “expert.” This is all inherited from Anko-chan, as Miyabi-chan’s mother was a housewife.
    • Miyabi and her clique is responsible for the bullying of Yoshikawa Noboru.
  • She had a boyfriend before the events of the series.
  • She takes part in enjo-kōsai very early on, although she does it to steal money.
  • In terms of her character, she’s much closer to Anko-chan than Miyabi-chan
• Fuyutsuki Azusa
  • Fuyutsuki-san’s reason for becoming a teacher was just to keep afloat while she tries to become a flight attendant, that being her ultimate dream.
  • Following her encounter with Onizuka, she is inspired by him (every now and then, before he lowers himself) to be a better teacher. With her devoting herself to teaching fully at the end.
  • Fuyutsuki and Onizuka also end up together at the end. To a degree where Onizuka’s friends can no longer mock him for being a 22 year old virgin.
  • Fuyutsuki was also already working at the school when Onizuka showed up.
  • Other staff treat her like a secretary. OL.
  • She has longer hair, wears skirts more often and is dressed more “modestly.”
  • Her personality is closer to that of a tsundere, especially towards Onizuka. Besides that, she keeps up appearances at school, but tends to “let loose” after work, playing pachinko and drinking beer.
• Murai Kunio
  • Murai’s father was a member of a bōsōzoku. Onizuka also knew of him, thinking of him as a legend. He died in a motorcycle accident while proving his bravery, which made Murai distrust men… and especially bōsōzoku.
  • Murai’s mother had Murai when she was 17 rather than when she was 13. She’s also a truck driver rather than a crane operator.
  • Murai is very physically fit. The series has him beat the gym teacher in various activities instead of Onizuka.
  • Murai has a thing for Miyabi. He was also her previous boyfriend’s best friend.
  • Murai’s personality is… less hot-headed I’d say. He comes off as calmer.
  • He doesn’t have blonde hair, and has a buzz cut instead.
• Fujiyoshi Kouji and Kusano Tadaaki
  • They are present in the series… I think?
  • They’ve been made into two unnamed punks.
  • They don’t hang out with Murai.
  • They they they.
  • It’s very strange they’re never mentioned by name.
• Saejima Ryuji
  • This character is an amalgamated Danma Ryuji and Saejima Toshiyuki.
  • He’s a cop, like Saejima, but not as crooked.
  • His personality is something of a mix of Saejim and Ryuji. He teases Onizuka like Saejima, but talks of him like Ryuji. I don’t remember clearly whether he sells uncensored porno or not… I think he does? He also admires Onizuka for becoming a teacher.
• Vice-Principle Uchiyamada Hiroshi
  • He isn’t bald like in the Manga. He’s a bit… rounder.
  • He comes off as a much calmer guy, even if he still complains about Onizuka all the time.
  • Otherwise he’s the same.
• Onizuka Eikichi
  • He’s less violent. Gets angry less often, or at least he comes off as less angry.
  • He has dyed brown hair instead of dyed blonde hair.
  • He doesn’t dress up in weird outfits.
  • He’s a window cleaner at the start of the series, rather than a construction worker.
• Teshigawara
  • He’s mostly the same, but comes off as less unhinged and more respectable.
• Nomuro Tomoko
  • She plays with hand puppets she sews herself, rather than with dolls.
  • Her improv bit was changed to a speech about how much she admired Miyabi.
  • She doesn’t get picked up by an agency right away. Instead, she starts practicing dancing and such and gets picked later on.
  • She has black hair and lacks her big boobs.
  • Her personality is more childish than in the manga, at least I felt it was.
• Yoshikawa Noboru
  • He’s more willing to exact revenge on Miyabi and crew than manga Noboru, who was hesitant.
• General stuff
  • The students are all aged up to 17. None of the female students wear loose socks. Heartbreaking. All of them have black hair, unless I’m misremembering.
  • Besides Uchiyamada, Fuyutsuki and Teshigawara, none of the teachers from the original seem to be there.

• Director Sakurai’s request has been changed.
  • Onizuka doesn’t live in the school anymore, instead, he carries a letter of resignation around all the time (in the event he causes trouble). This becomes a “huh” moment when we learn Fuyutsuki also always carries a letter of resignation around.

• The beginning is changed. Onizuka starts out as a window cleaner, explaining he wanted to be a teacher. Saejima Ryuji comes to get him to tell him an opening appeared at Holy Forest, so Onizuka signs up.
• The bit with the punks trying to get money out of him is moved to after he gets rejected from the school. The two punks being Fujiyoshi and Kusano’s dopplegangers. They’re also the ones Onizuka “deals with” at the start of the series.
• The Nanako Mizuki arc is mostly the same, except Uchiyamada and Fuyutsuki witness Onizuka destroying the wall.
• Onizuka does end up living in the school, but this happens in Episode 5 and only because he moved in on his own volition (it had AC while his home didn’t). The director then makes him a security guard to stop Uchiyamada’s protests.
• The class terrorism is kicked off by the death of Takeshi (Miyabi’s ex-boyfriend). The whole story is that he was accepted to the school as a promising pitcher, but he hurt his arm, making the reason he was there go away. The school tried to get rid of him and his homeroom teacher broke his promise of keeping him there, by trying to convince Takeshi’s parents to transfer. Takeshi was then expelled at some point and he dies in a motorcycle accident. The class terrorism starts as a result.
• The exams Onizuka was meant to do to prove he was capable of being a teacher are never finished as he passes out from bloodloss before he can even start.
• Tomoko-chan gets an extra arc about her joining a talent agency in Okinawa(?).
• The ending is about the school getting absorbed by another school following a backroom deal. Onizuka deals with it by organizing a cultural festival while locking himself inside. The (illegal) backroom deal is eventually revealed, which resolves the crisis.

This version takes some inspiration from the ‘98 version.

• Onizuka Eikichi
  • He’s mostly the same as his manga counterpart. He makes less funny faces and is calmer like the ‘98 version. He’s far less perverted than both.
  • He has a more consistent appearance, dressing like a punk most of the time.
  • He actually has blond hair.
  • At the start of the series, he’s working as a gardener (Great Gardener Onizuka). He’s actually employed by the school which is how he encounters Director Sakurai.
• Danma Ryuji
  • He is a very different character. He’s basically a “stoic hot guy” and I can’t say much else about his character besides that.
  • He runs a café for his girlfriend called “Café Nagisa” while she’s overseas doing some unspecified thing.
  • He looks different from his manga counterpart too. Having shorter hair, no glasses, no tan and he doesn’t dress like a mechanic.
• Saejima Toshiyuki
  • He’s a much more hyper character.
  • He’s actually good looking, looking younger than both Onizuka and Ryuji.
  • His crooked cop nature is far less evident in this version, at most he seems to sell uncensored pornos and tries to date highschoolers.
• Uehara Anko
  • She absorbs most of Mizuki Nanako’s character. Having her character arc and a bit of her personality.
  • Noboru and her were childhood friends.
  • She started bullying him because he abandoned her while a punk was trying to get money out of her.
  • She gets relegated to background character after her arc. I’m not joking.
• Yoshikawa Noboru
  • Noboru accepts the bullying as he blames himself for running away.
  • He and Anko-chan get together after their arc ends.
  • He ends up on the roof while Onizuka’s in a tree trying to peep on girls. When Onizuka notices him he yells at him to not do it, because he’s (Noboru’s) still a virgin, presumably. It works.
  • For the first… 3? episodes, he provides information for Onizuka but not much of anything else.
• Murai Kunio
  • He has black hair in a small pompadour, if I recall correctly. His personality’s closer to the manga version.
  • Murai’s the one who photoshops the image rather than Kikuchi.
• Kikuchi Yoshito
  • He’s a completely different character.
  • For most of the series he’s the mysterious background character with a shadowy agenda.
  • He’s the son of Daimon in the show. What.
• Fuyutsuki Azusa
  • She’s basically inherits most of her appearance from the ‘98 version. Just that she has short hair.
  • She’s more of a quiet girl than ‘98 Fuyutsuki. She doesn’t have any secret after school stress relief.
  • Like ‘98 Fuyutsuki, she was already working at the school.
• Mizuki Nanako
  • She was a student before the events of the series, but committed suicide.
  • She’s nothing like her manga or ‘98 counterpart.
  • Nice way to treat one of my favourites eh?
• In general
  • No loose socks again.
  • Teachers have been shafted, with them getting almost no focus at all.
  • Unlike in the ‘98 version, where most of the students are slightly above background characters after their arc ends… here they just become background characters.

• Ryuji, Saejima and Onizuka all share a house. But it’s more like Saejima and Onizuka are freeloading at Ryuji’s place.
• The three of them were all basically equals in the Onibaku pair thing.
• The name of the school is changed, but I can’t remember what it is now.

There are too many changes for me to remember all of it right now.

• The opening scene shows Fuyutsuki, at the insistence of 3-4 students, to tell a group of punks to pipe down. She fails and Onizuka beats them up instead, introducing himself to her as Great Gardener Onizuka.
• Uehara Anko arc gets merged with Mizuki Nanako’s arc. She attempts to seduce Onizuka after he does the reverse-bullying. After that, she gets captured by punks she hired to beat Onizuka up (they didn’t realise who they were dealing with).
• The class bullying is kicked off by the suicide of Mizuki Nanako.
• Fuyutsuki starts getting bullied because she’s insensitive towards Kujirakawa, who is self-conscious about her height. Although it looked like the other female students were looking for an excuse to bully her.
• Kanzaki gets her second arc rather than her first. Oh joy. It also overlaps with the exam, rather than… what happens in the Manganime.

Coming soon! The anime is the most faithful adaptation, so it’s hard for me to think of the differences off the top of my head. I’d have to watch it through again and take notes. (The only ones that come to mind are Tomoko’s performance and the ending).