Manga / GTO: The Early Years

Ryuji (left) and Eikichi (right)

Meet 15-year-old Ryuji Danma and Eikichi Onizuka. Together they form the Oni-Baku^note literally "demon explosion" Bōsōzoku gang and are some of the toughest Japanese Delinquents around in their hometown of Shonan. However, their violent reputations do not endear them to the opposite sex, so they attempt to change their ways so they can get girlfriends and lose their virginity. As the story unfolds, it introduces more of the duo's friends and foes, and gradually shifts from a gag manga to a more serious fighting/drama series.

GTO: The Early Years (JP: Shonan Jun'ai Gumi! ^note lit. "Shonan Pure Love Gang") is a manga by Tooru Fujisawa, better known as the creator of Great Teacher Onizuka, which is actually a sequel series to this one, following the adult Onizuka's life as a teacher. The Early Years ran for 267 chapters compiled in 31 volumes (longer than GTO, mind you) from 1990 to 1996, and was re-released in 15 deluxe editions in 2005. Multiple adaptations of the manga were created during the series’ run, such as a five-episode anime OVA series released on VHS from 1994 to 1997, a Japanese television drama, and several live action movies. An Origins Episode prequel titled Bad Company was released between the end of The Early Years and the beginning of GTO, showing the story of how Ryuji and Eikichi met. A live-action web drama adaptation starring Kanichiro Sato as Onizuka and Daichi Kaneko as Ryuji was released on Amazon Prime Video in Japan on February 28, 2020.

The manga also has a distant spin-off, Shonan Seven, focusing on the continued delinquent reputation Tsuji-do High cultivated long after Onizuka and Ryuji left. Shonan Seven was a collaboration between Fujisawa and artist Shinsuke Takahashi, and is complete at 17 volumes following its debut in 2014.

For characters, see the character page for Great Teacher Onizuka.

---

This manga provides examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Aina to Eikichi, after he learns she has an STD and has deliberately infected guys with it in the past. He still defends her from other guys who try to take advantage of her, but turns down her advances.
• Agitated Item Stomping: Parodied. When Itou realizes her friends invited a prettier girl than her to the party, she stomps on a "stomping pad" in frustration.
• The Alleged Car: Shinomi's friend Kyoko drives a car that's so beat up, Shinomi has to get in through the window since the door won't open. And then the door falls off while they're driving.
• All Just a Dream: When Ayumi returns to Shonan, Ryuji has a dream of them going to a hotel and her kissing him, after which he wakes up with a gasp. Later in the chapter, the dream seems to be starting to come true.
• All Men Are Perverts: The main characters sure are, with a dose of Hormone-Addled Teenager.
• Anti-Hero Team: The Oni-Baku and their friends are a gang of Japanese Delinquents who are really only heroes because they're the protagonists, and almost all their enemies are even worse. Eikichi, Ryuji, Saejima, Kamata, and Katsuyuki are the most violent, but Abe and Makoto are unrepentant horndogs, and Shinomi's basically a female Eikichi in terms of her personality. Tsukai is a Nice Guy compared to the others, but still pretty Hot-Blooded when people badmouth Yui. She's probably the only one who doesn't actually engage in violence (though she has shown a willingness to).
• Arc Villain:
  • Machida is a Starter Villain, only appearing for a few chapters before Eikichi beats him up.
  • Yokokawa for the Valentine's Day Parade arc.
  • Saejima and Kamata for the Mad Dogs of Kamakura arc. After the Oni-Baku beat them, they become close friends and Bash Brothers.
  • Fumiya Shindoji for the Ayumi arc.
  • Okubo is the villain for the eponymous arc.
  • Yoko "Nanno" Minamino for the Nanno arc, though he gets flanderized into a Butt-Monkey afterwards.
  • Takezawa and the Idaten gang for the Idaten arc.
  • Junya Akutsu for the Midnight Angels Revival arc. Supporting arc villains are Yasha and Kamishima (though Kamishima is a case of The Only One Allowed to Defeat You towards Akutsu).
  • The Yokohama Cavalry, Nakagaki and Mauchi, for the Yokohama Cavalry arc.
  • Yagyo Atsuki (revealed to be Tamaru) for the eponymous arc.
  • Kashiya and Joey for the Dead End Junkie arc.
• Arranged Marriage: Ayumi reveals that she's going to have one, causing her to break up with Ryuji.
• Art Evolution: The difference in styles between the first and last chapters is very noticeable, with earlier ones frequently suffering from Only Six Faces.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Eikichi is shocked at Saya Minazuki's bluntness when they first meet.
  Eikichi: Do I look like such a lame guy?
  Saya: You do.
  [...]
  Eikichi: What's a girl buying porno for? Yeah, what're you gonna use it for, huh? I dare you to tell me.
  Saya: Masturbation.
• An Ass-Kicking Christmas: After both Ryuji and Eikichi strike out on the ski trip, they end up fighting a group of delinquents whose car Eikichi wrecked when rescuing Aina.
• The Baby Trap: Downplayed. Mami tells Makoto she's pregnant (after they broke up) and she wants to get married, but she didn't do it on purpose. They end up running away to start a new life before she finds out she's not pregnant after all.
• Back for the Finale: Nearly every villain, rival, and friend the Oni-Baku have encountered returns to see their climactic final battle, or tells the camera about them in the final chapter.
• Backstab Backfire: In Eikichi's battle with Okubo, Saejima has to stop him from killing Okubo, because he doesn't want his friend to become a killer. Okubo seizes the opportunity to stab Eikichi in the arm, but is knocked out cold with a massive uppercut.
• Badass Biker: Nearly every named male character (and some of the female ones too) is a Bōsōzoku. Eikichi and Ryuji have been riding motorcycles since they were 14, and have elaborate custom ones.
• Badass Boast (sometimes Blasé Boast):
  • "Come visit us if you're bored with life."
  • "Figurines should stay on their shelf unless they want to get broken!"
  • "Kneel and beg before me, and I'll let you go." (Ryuji to Saejima)
  • "Let me tell you right now... I'll never admit defeat. I'll make sure to return all your punches later, one by one. I'll even throw in a big one as a present! The Onibaku will never bow their heads down to anyone! Unless you kill us, that is!" (Ryuji to Kamata and Saejima)
  • "The Legend of the Onibaku ends here." (Kamata)
  • "There's no way Onizuka would lose fighting just five guys [...] The only one who's going to win over him... IS ME, AND ONLY ME!" (Ryuji)
  • "I'm the terror guy! A terror that freezes people still..." (Saejima to Eikichi)
  • "Go and train ten years first before looking for me!" (after knocking Saejima out with one punch)
  • "Only if the world explodes will I be taken down with it."
  • "You'll suffer the consequences for what you did. We'll make you piss your own blood!!"
  • "Open your mouth to me again, and you're going to have a real hard time closing it!"
  • "If you don't leave I'll grind you up like an onion!"
  • "If you go near her [Shinomi] I'm coming to kill you!" (Eikichi, while shoving the guy's face into a flushing urinal)
  • "When I die is when the other guy does too."
  • "If you wanted to fight, you should have just come to our turf! We'd be happy to kill you anytime."
  • "Let me remind you what killing pain feels like!" (Eikichi to Joey)
  • "I'd be happy to teach you about just how scary dying is." (Eikichi to Joey)
  • "I'll leave you covered in your own blood!" (Saya to Shinomi)
• Badass Longcoat: Akutsu wants to get his hands on the coat formerly worn by the legendary Kyosuke Masaki, founder of the Midnight Angel gang. Masaki gave the Oni-Baku the coat, on the condition that they make sure "Midnight Angel never rides again". When Eikichi puts it on, he becomes a One-Man Army and Akutsu's cronies think that it's the avenging spirit of Masaki come to punish them.
• Bait-and-Switch: In-Universe. Saya asks Eikichi to "do it" with her, and everything about her appearance and behavior says "sex", but it turns out what she wanted to do with him was start street fights and "conquer Japan".
• Bash Brothers:
  • Ryuji and Eikichi.
  • Kamata and Saejima.
  • Nakagaki and Mauchi, the Yokohama Cavalry, are a villainous version.
• Beach Bury: In Chapter 110, Shinomi completely buries Eikichi in sand after he gropes Nagisa.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Eikichi and Shinomi. First it seems like he only sees her as Like Brother and Sister, then he gets desperate to lose his virginity and tries to do it with her, but his case of Open Mouth, Insert Foot and inability to act mature about sex make her refuse, then she wants him again once he's found someone else... This keeps going back and forth.
• Berserk Button: All the guys have something different:
  • For Ryuji, it's anyone insulting Ayumi (and later Nagisa).
  • Likewise, for Tsukai it's anyone insulting Itou.
  • Eikichi has a special hatred for deadbeat dads (since his father was never around).
• Big Bad Ensemble: There are several arcs with multiple villains:
  • The Midnight Angel arc has Junya Akutsu returning from juvie to rebuild the gang, bringing him into conflict with the Oni-Baku (the protagonists). Meanwhile, another former Midnight Angels leader, Toshiki Kamishima, wants to kill Akutsu for nearly killing him, and doesn't care who gets in his way. A fourth faction is led by Kunito Nakajo, who's just waiting to see who comes out on top so he can beat them. He doesn't actually become a villain until the end of the manga, though.
  • The Yokohama Cavalry arc has the Oni-Baku facing the Big Bad Duumvirate of Nakagaki and Mauchi, the titular Yokohama cavalry, as well as Blood Knight Natsu, though Natsu later becomes less of a villain and fights the Cavalry.
• Big Brother Worship: Fumiya Shindoji had this for his brother, Ayumi's boyfriend who died in a road accident. After he died, Fumiya twisted it into taking revenge on Ayumi for "betraying" his brother by falling in love with Ryuji.
• Big Damn Heroes: Ayumi escapes from the Kyokuto gang, but they chase her until she's backed up against a cliff. Just as they're about to rape her, Ryuji shows up and takes them out with a few roundhouse kicks.
• Big Damn Kiss:
  • Miki kisses Eikichi after he rescues her from Yokokawa.
  • After rescuing her from Fumiya's gang, confessing his love for her, and asking her to marry him, Ayumi runs into Ryuji's arms and kisses him. It takes up a whole two-page spread.
  • Shinomi gives one to Eikichi when he's full of self-doubt after failing to save Natsu.
  • Eikichi gives Shinomi one in one of the final chapters, complete with a Wall Pin of Love. Doubles as a Now or Never Kiss, though Shinomi doesn't know it yet.
• Big "WHY?!": Ryuji lets one out in Chapter 68, when Ayumi leaves, with Manly Tears.
• Billionaire Wristband: Hiroshi Abe wears an extremely expensive outfit to look cool and pick up girls. His watch alone is worth 2.4 million yen (USD$21,300).
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The Oni-Baku are violent delinquents and unrepentant perverts, especially Eikichi. They face plenty of way worse people though, including rapists and murderers.
• Blackmail Backfire: Ryuji and Eikichi try to blackmail Mariko and Ayumi by threatening to tell the school board they almost had sex with the boys, their students, demanding that they meet them at a motel to actually have sex with them. When they show up, instead of the girls they meet a triad enforcer who attempts to sodomize Eikichi (Ryuji decided against going in, and then ran into Ayumi on the way out).
• Blatant Lies:
  • When Ayumi and Mariko ask the boys what their blow-up doll is, they claim it's a new Barbie model that can eat snacks.
  • When the boys are considering buying Night-Vision Goggles to spy on their hot neighbor, they lie and say it's for birdwatching at night. The clerk is not convinced, and even offers a "50 Best Voyeur Spots in Shonan" pamphlet if they buy a pair.
• Blood Knight: Pretty much any of the delinquent characters, which is almost all of the males.
  • The Onibaku duo didn't get as infamous as they are by being reluctant to fight.
  • The Kamakura Wild Dogs too, especially Saejima.
  • Fumiya and his cronies from Kyokuto High School are more violent than any previously seen in the series, and Fumiya actually brings a knife to a fist fight (and uses it).
  • Katsuyuki is so violent (beating people up as a greeting) that even the Onibaku are embarrassed to be associated with him. He idolizes them, though.
  • Yasha uses a wooden katana to gleefully beat up rival gang members alongside Akutsu.
  • Natsu is the epitome of this trope, killing anyone who crosses him with a Slasher Smile and Dissonant Serenity.
• Bookends: In the final scene, Eikichi and Ryuji lampshade that what they just did (Faking the Dead) is similar to what they did at the start, when they faked being kicked out of their old high school to transfer to Tsujido. Ryuji asks So What Do We Do Now?, and Eikichi responds "Let's check out some tropical island!"
• Breather Episode:
  • After the Kamakura Mad Dogs arc wraps up, Chapter 32 has all the boys go to the public baths, where they compare dick sizes.
  • Chapters 70 through 74 are three side stories focusing on Tsukai, Makoto, and Saejima respectively. (Makoto's is three chapters)
  • The "Midnight Angels Revival" arc, which introduces Nagisa, Yasha, and Akutsu, is interspersed with three silly chapters about Nanno trying to get revenge on Eikichi and failing, Makoto dealing with a problem on his own, and Saejima, Kamata, and Tsukai meeting a student who supposedly has Psychic Powers.
  • A few chapters between the end of the Midnight Angel arc and the beginning of the Natsu arc focus on Ryuji and Nagisa running away from home to live in an abandoned bus, and their friends helping them make it feel like a home.
• Bring My Brown Pants: When Eikichi sneaks into Nao Kadena's apartment, he watches her point a gun at two guys who seem to be yakuza and order them to leave. As soon as they're gone, she turns the gun on him and pulls the trigger, saying he knows too much. It's revealed to be Only a Lighter, but he still shits himself in fright.
• Broken-Window Warning:
  • After Eikichi beats up some guys trying to take advantage of Aina, they throw a rock through his window at the ski resort and demand he come down and face them. He obliges.
  • Katsuyuki does this to the leader of the Emperors of Darkness gang, who Eikichi lied about needing the Night-Vision Goggles to fight.
• Bucket Booby-Trap: In Chapter 164, Atsushi walks into one and takes a chalkboard eraser to the face.
• Burn Baby Burn: Ryuji decides he needs to let go of the past, and burns the pictures of him and Ayumi that she gave him.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When Fumiya meets the Oni-Baku after getting out of juvie, he doesn't remember who Onizuka is.
  Fumiya: And who were you again?
  Onizuka: Fumiya, what are you saying, you idiot! It's me! Onizuka from Oni-Baku!
  Fumiya: Onizuka? Oh! The guy I put in the hospital! Yeah, that's right. Now I remember. Sorry about that. I almost instantly forget guys who're weaker than me.
  [Cue Onizuka's Eye Twitch]
• Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Both his sister and Eikichi are amazed that Ryuji still hasn't "done it" with Nagisa, despite her sleeping in the same bed as him for several nights.
• Can't Stay Normal: Eikichi and Ryuji initially tried to distance themselves from their Onibaku past, if only to better pick up chicks. Their plans were nipped in the bud the more delinquents from their past and other hopefuls and wannabes heard about their new whereabouts, to the point where the pair embraced it and declared Tsuji-do the new home of the Onibaku.
• Car Meets House: Ryuji and Eikichi crash a car through the door of Yokokawa's building to deliver the 100 million yen they owe him. They don't care about the Collateral Damage since they have an ace in the hole (an Embarrassing Old Photo).
• Carved Mark:
  • The Yagyo Atsuki gang carves the kanji for "Oni" into their victims' skin, usually on the hand.
  • Some goons carve "Zelda" into Mafuyu's chest after taking him out with a Static Stun Gun and stealing his surfboard.
• The Cavalry:
  • Just as the fight with Okubo looks like the end for Eikichi, Makoto, and Asakura, Ryuji shows up to help them. On his heels are Kamata, Saejima, Abe, and Tsukai. It still ends up being a one-on-one fight, but their backup ensures it's a fair one.
  • Later on, Eikichi is facing 30 members of the Idaten alone (and has already beaten up two of their leaders), when the Onibaku and K-T show up to back him up.
• Cement Shoes: Kishi Yokokawa, a Yakuza heir, threatens Eikichi and Ryuji with this (even encasing them up to their necks in barrels) for stealing and wrecking his car.
• Cerebus Syndrome: It started out as a Gag Series, but shifted into a more dramatic Fighting Series with occasional bits of comedy around the time Saejima and Kamata were introduced. There are still occasional Breather Episodes, but on the whole it's much more focused on violence and action than comedy by around chapter 40.
• Chairman of the Brawl: In Chapter 140, the Yokohama Cavalry smash a wooden chair over Nakajo's head.
• Chaos While They're Not Looking: In the "Shonan Love Story" arc, all the boys (except Tsukai and Kamata) are trying to impress Kaoru and fight off the other guys interested in her. When she goes to the bathroom, everyone gangs up on Makoto, and then beats up Kamata for trying to prevent them from going out with Kaoru. The remaining guys (Ryuji, Eikichi, and Saejima) leave with Kaoru, and Eikichi betrays Ryuji, then he and Saejima try to beat each other up. Kaoru can tell something's up, since they're both covered in blood when she turns around.
• Chekhov's Gag: In Chapter 56, 50 chapters after his head was shaved, Eikichi still hasn't grown his hair back.
• Chuunibyou: New Transfer Student Ashura Sakaki proclaims himself as "Shogun of the North", "Demon King of the Northern Sea", and "Hero of the Land of Snow". For a short time Katsuyuki and Tamura think he actually managed to beat Eikichi, but it turned out to have just been someone with the same hairstyle. He supposedly beats Tamura in one second, but it turns out he just had stomach pains. Later, a bunch of his old classmates from Hokkaido arrive and apologize for his behavior, revealing that he's a Stone Wall with delusions of grandeur, declaring himself the winner when his opponents get bored and leave.
• Cigar-Fuse Lighting: In Chapter 177, Kashiya knocks over Takagi's bike and flicks his cigarette onto it, causing it to explode.
• City with No Name: Antagonists from other towns in the Shonan region are often named after their hometown (Kamakura Mad Dogs, Yokohama Cavalry), but the town the Oni-Baku are from is never named. A fan figured out it's most likely Fujisawa, and guessed the reason it was never revealed is because Tohru Fujisawa didn't want people to think he picked the city with his name.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: When Eikichi ignores her for Kaoru, Itou smashes a mirror and says she'll kill him, before Tsukai calms her down.
• Clingy MacGuffin: Saejima sells a motorcycle to Makoto. It turns out to belong to Katsuyuki, whose friends (including Eikichi) have sworn to find and return it. A terrified Makoto tries repeatedly to get rid of the stolen bike — leaving it in a junkyard, only for it to literally fall off the back of a truck in front of him; tossing it off a short cliff, only to hit someone with it; crashing it into a pole, but the only thing that gets smashed is his face. His girlfriend suggests customizing it so nobody will be able to tell it's the bike they're looking for, but it's All for Nothing when someone just flips up the seat and sees Katsuyuki's initials carved into it.
• Combination Attack: In Chapter 151, Eikichi and Ryuji both punch opposite sides of a guy's face at the same time. He probably won't be eating anything solid for a while.
• Come Alone: All the time, villains demand Eikichi or Ryuji meet them in single (or occasionally double) combat. Of course, they always bring their own gangs, but the Onibaku win most of the time, due to Conservation of Ninjutsu and the fact that they're just that good.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: This applies to almost all of the fights Eikichi and Ryuji get into. Eikichi goes alone to face Fumiya, who brought at least 20 guys. He manages to take down at least 15 of them before they can tie him to a rope and take him for a drag behind Fumiya's bike.
• Conspiracy Theorist: In Chapter 192, Yasuo somehow gets it into his head that Alien Abduction is the reason Saejima, Tsukai, and Katsuyuki haven't been coming to school the last few days. Even after seeing Atsushi get whacked in the head by a stick during a drive-by, he asks if it was aliens.
• Continuity Nod: In Chapter 244, Tsukai references the events of Chapter 91, when Ryuji fell in love with a corpse he found in the ocean. Nagisa is shocked to say the least.
• Cool Big Sis: Ryuji is on better terms with his sister Yoko than the rest of his family, and she lets him and Nagisa stay at her apartment for a while.
• Cool Bike:
  • Eikichi has a custom Kawasaki Z400GP, which he and his friends rebuilt from scrap in Bad Company.
  • Ryuji rides a Honda CBX, though he got it unmodified as a gift.
  • Hiroshi Abe has a CBX 1000 with 6 cylinders, which he lends to Ryuji when his CBX is too damaged to ride.
  • Junya Akutsu has a Kawasaki FX-ZII.
  • The "smoking man" (Junji Kashiya) rides a CB750 Integra. Later Joey borrows his ZZR-1100 Turbo.
  • The masked biker who attacks Atsushi has a Kawasaki GPZ 900R Ninja.
  • Yoshio Tamaru gets an XJR-1200 in Chapter 168.
  • Makoto gets a Kawasaki ZRX in Chapter 187, which Katsuyuki damages as payback for buying his bike from Saejima, who stole it, and modding it.
  • Chapter 234 opens with Ryuji heavily customizing his bike.
• Cool Car:
  • Eikichi and Ryuji steal a König KS Benz car from a mechanic shop, mistakenly thinking it was the Cedric (also stolen) that they'd asked the mechanic to modify to look like a König. Eikichi then modifies it further by making the doors open vertically and adding teeth and eyes to the front.
  • Nao Kadena has a purple hotrod with an L28 swap.
• Covered with Scars: Toshiki Kamishima has burn scars all over his body from when Akutsu set him on fire. He gets even more when it happens a second time.
• Cross Counter:
  • Eikichi and Machida do this in their rematch fight.
  • Eikichi and Ryuji do this to each other when they're fighting over who gets the money for returning Machiruda's surfboard.
• Crossdresser: Kaoru Kamata. Eikichi never finds out, but the other guys are shocked when Jun Kamata tells them.
• Crowded-Cast Shot: The cover of Volume 31◊ has nearly every named character on it, even ones who only appeared in one chapter hundreds of chapters ago.
• Cut-and-Paste Note: Eikichi gets a sketchy part-time job cutting out letters from newspapers, which are implied to be used for ransom notes.
• Damsel in Distress: Ayumi, Shinomi, and Nagisa all fill this role at one point or another.
• Dangerous Clifftop Road: Several dramatic motorcycle chase scenes in take place along winding cliffside roads, and several Posthumous Characters (Fumiya's brother and Kyosuke Masaki) died in accidents on those roads (though it's ambiguous whether they went over the edge).
  • In Fumiya and Ryuji's chase, Fumiya's bike gets hit by a truck and Ryuji saves him from a Disney Villain Death.
  • Eikichi leads Akutsu to the place where Masaki died, where Akutsu crashes but survives. And then falls off the cliff for an unrelated reason.
• Date Peepers:
  • Shinomi, Ryuji, and their friends spy on Eikichi's karaoke date with Misato, and are surprised to see she's attractive.
  • Ryuji spies on Nagisa's date with Akira Saijo, even going so far as to hide under the seat of the Ferris wheel car.
• Death Seeker: Joey Feels No Pain and is searching for someone who can give him a death he can feel. His brother visits Tsujido and explains that he had a near-death experience that took away his ability to feel pain. Now he has only 3 months to live, and his brother begs Eikichi to Mercy Kill him. He also sees this as his way of atoning for failing to save his girlfriend from dying of drugs (whether it was withdrawal or an overdose is unclear).
• Defeat Means Friendship: Or at least Defeat Means Respect. This is how Ryuji and Eikichi became friends in the first place (see Bad Company), and Kamata and Saejima become Bash Brothers with the Onibaku after being beaten by them. Even Fumiya becomes an ally, and even more unbelievably, Akutsu becomes, if not an ally, at least not an enemy.
• Delinquent Hair: As to be expected of Japanese Delinquents. Eikichi has a blond pompadour, and one scene even shows him at a hairdresser getting it bleached.
  • After a barber shaves his head, he wears a wig with a pompadour a foot long.
• Designated Girl Fight: In Chapter 207, Shinomi and Saya get into it over Eikichi. Nakajo shows up and tries to intervene, but one of them hits him with a 2xFore.
• Destination Defenestration:
  • Eikichi throws Takezawa through a window into the building where his gang have Shinomi prisoner.
  • Natsu throws a guy out a window in front of Kamata. Two chapters later, he throws Eikichi into a window.
  • At the school festival, Sakaki offers a million yen to anyone who can knock him out, with Ryuji failing with his Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs and having to pay him ten thousand yen. Kiwamezawa takes a different approach, throwing the punching bag Sakaki's in out the second floor window.
• Dine and Dash:
  • Eikichi and Ryuji each thought the other was paying for their meal, since both of them were pretty much broke. They end up sneaking out the bathroom window.
  • In Chapter 244, some girls invite Eikichi to a karaoke club and then sneak out one by one, leaving him with the bill. He gets out of paying it thanks to a kind-hearted employee.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Invoked by Shinomi's friend Kyoko, who gets her to stand up in the car and then pulls down her pants so she's mooning the cops following them, who crash.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • After beating up Makoto and forcing him to betray Eikichi, Makoto hits Saejima in the head with a shovel.
  • Asakura originally asked Okubo to help him defeat the Onibaku, but after he demands a million yen and Asakura's girlfriend Natsumi (and he and his friends take turns raping her), Asakura can't stand by when he sees Okubo and his gang beating Eikichi to death.
• Don't Eat and Swim: In Chapter 1, Ryuji gets a cramp after jumping into the water, though it's not clear if it was due to him eating.
• Don't Try This at Home: A note in Chapter 255 says this about the boys playing with fireworks.
• Do You Want to Copulate?: Eikichi is desperate to lose his virginity, and outright asks Shinomi if she'll "let him hump her". He gets punched off the beach into the ocean for his request. Ironically, she totally would have had sex with him if he'd been more tactful.
• Dustbin Class: The protagonists are Held Back in School and assigned to the "problem student" class, headed by the Sadist Teacher Yoko Minamino. In the prequel Bad Company, we see that their entire middle school (or previous high school; the translation is unclear) was like this, with nearly every male student being a delinquent.
• Dynamic Entry:
  • Natsu shows up to the fight between the Oni-Baku and Yokohama Cavalry by riding his motorcycle in front of a car, destroying it. He's completely unharmed.
  • Fumiya shows up to rescue Yasuo and Atsushi from an imminent Golf Clubbing by driving onto the thugs, hitting one in the face with his rear tire.
• Elopement: Ayumi and Ryuji go to a church in the middle of the night and say their vows (though there was no one else there to officiate or be a witness). She leaves town for good the next day.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Saejima hates it when people call him "pencil sharpener" after he got pencils painfully shoved up his nose.
• Embarrassing Old Photo:
  • In Chapter 3, Mariko and Ayumi destroy the boys' reputations as cool boyfriend-material types by taping up a photo of the Onibaku in bosozoku clothing exposing their penises. One wonders why the hell they agreed to take that photo in the first place, at 15 years old.
  • One of these is the solution to Eikichi and Ryuji's situation with Yokokawa. It turns out they went to junior high together, and have a photo from then of him pooping in public. They offer it to him in exchange for wiping out the 100 million yen debt they owed him...if he re-enacts the photo and lets them take another.
• Epic Fail: When Nanno tries to kill Eikichi in revenge, he first misses because Eikichi ducked down to pick up a 10,000 yen bill, then is chased off by Saejima and Katsuyuki, who think he's part of the Kamakura Massacre Unit (because he's wearing their uniform for a False Flag Operation). He sends a note demanding a Rooftop Confrontation with Eikichi, but ends up bashing the principal in the head with his weapon, and jumps off the roof to escape, injuring his leg in the process. Nanno confronts Eikichi one more time, but is interrupted by a little girl (the same girl he was fired for having an inappropriate relationship with). The girl's mother sees her daughter near a scary guy dressed as a gang member and tells the police that he's kidnapping her, leading to him holding her as a hostage while cops surround the building. By this time Eikichi has lost interest and gone home.
• Exposed Embarrassing Purchase: Onizuka orders some dirty video tapes, using a fake name and arranging to have them delivered to him at a cafe. Unfortunately, the delivery guy is his rival Mafuyu, who revels in embarrassing Onizuka by loudly reading the titles, and thanking him for his business by his real name.
• Expository Hairstyle Change:
  • When Eikichi is actively trying to charm girls, he changes his hairstyle and wears glasses.
  • In Chapter 34, Saejima's changed his hairstyle so much that the author has to point out that it's him in several panels.
  • Minamino forces the students in his class to change their Delinquent Hair to more conservative hairstyles.
• Face of a Thug: In Chapter 74, Saejima (who is a yankii, after all) finds out that the woman he thought was his girlfriend already had a boyfriend, but she was too scared of his appearance to say no to him. Depressed, he walks around town and notices how his face scares everyone (and even makes a child cry), but a girl asks him to defend her from some guys, since she assumes due to his scary face he must be a tough fighter (she's not wrong).
• False Flag Operation: In Chapter 106, Minamino tries to kill Eikichi, dressing as a Kamakura Massacre gang member so they'll get blamed. His plan doesn't work out.
• Falsely Reformed Villain: When he was in prison, Akutsu was a model prisoner and served his time. As soon as he's released, he reforms the Midnight Angel gang and starts a gang war.
• Fanservice with a Smile: The Dolphin Cafe, where Nagisa works, has all its waitresses in thongs.
• Fake a Fight: At the very end, Ryuji and Eikichi fake a fight to the death between them to avoid fighting Nakajo and end the gang war by Faking the Dead.
• Fake-Hair Drama: After Eikichi is shaved bald, he wears a wig that looks just like his old hair, but it keeps coming off at the worst possible moments (like when he's talking to a cute girl).
• Feel No Pain: Joey is apparently such a "dead end junkie" that he is immune to pain, even stabbing himself with an ice pick and slashing his own neck to prove it.
• Ferris Wheel Date Moment: Ryuji and Nagisa go on a date to an amusement park, and he tries to get handsy in the Ferris wheel, to her annoyance. Later he hides under the seat when she goes on a date to the same place with someone else, but overhears her gently reject him and say she's happy with Ryuji. Afterwards, Ryuji shows up outside the ride and offers to go on it with her one more time.
• Food as Bribe: Itou demands Eikichi buy her ice cream in exchange for her information on the Kamakura Mad Dogs.
• Friendship Trinket: Shinomi convinces Eikichi it's really her by giving him back a keychain charm he'd given her back in middle school.
• Friends Turned Romantic Rivals: In the "Shonan Love Story" arc, all the boys (except Tsukai and Kamata, her brother) are trying to impress Kaoru and fight off the other guys interested in her. When she goes to the bathroom, everyone gangs up on Makoto, and then beats up Kamata for trying to prevent them from going out with Kaoru. The remaining guys (Ryuji, Eikichi, and Saejima) leave with Kaoru, and continue fighting for the right to go out with her. Keep in mind, these guys are Vitriolic Best Buds to begin with.
• Gag Penis:
  • At the Vilas Girls High School cultural festival, Eikichi and Ryuji hug their Raging Stiffies, which are nearly as big as they are.
  • At the public bath, the boys are all comparing dick sizes. It seems like Saejima has the biggest dick in the room, but then Abe shows up^note An earlier chapter labeled his crotch as "Meat: Extra Large!" with his "Galapagos tortoise" to the others' "baby turtles" and "medium turtles". And then Makoto shows up, with a Kaiju turtle appearing behind him.
• Gag Series: Shonan Jun'ai Gumi started as this, then it progressively Genre Shifted into a more serious drama/fighting genre with some comedy from time to time.
• Game of Chicken: Kamishima Toshiki challenges Katsuyuki to a duel on the train tracks, as a train is approaching. Katsuyuki flinches and jumps back onto the platform before the train comes to a stop.
• Gasoline Dousing:
  • Akutsu did this to Kamishima twice. In the 2020 live-action, he does it to Ryuji as well.
  • Kamata does this to some Yokohama punks and threatens to light it when he's trying to find out where the Yokohama Cavalry are.
• Gender-Blender Name: The students think their new teacher Yoko Minamino is the famous actress of the same name, but he turns out to be a stern male teacher who's not attractive at all.^note The names are written with different kanji, but this doesn't carry over in the translation.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Katsuyuki tries to attack the retreating Enoshima students, Kamata punches some sense into him and tells him they were the Kamakura Massacre Unit.
• A Glass in the Hand: At the end of Chapter 107, Eikichi crushes a glass in his clenched fist when he overhears Makoto telling his friend that "Onizuka and Danma are my dogs!"
• Gonk:
  • The boys' faces whenever they're shocked.
  • The girls who line up for a ride in the KS Benz are all very ugly, except for two near the end of the line (who the boys bump up to first, of course).
  • The girls Itou invited to the get-together, specifically so she'd be the prettiest one there.
  • Usagi Kiwamezawa, and all his siblings.
• Gotta Have It, Gonna Steal It: The boys' solution to not having a cool car for the Valentines' Day car parade.
• Got Volunteered: When Makoto's girlfriend Mami becomes pregnant, he doesn't want to marry her, but everyone he meets assumes he does and gives their support (including wedding money). Plus, he's too terrified to admit he doesn't want the responsibility of fatherhood after Eikichi made clear his loathing for deadbeats. It even gets to the point that Eikichi beats up Mami's father, a powerful politician who opposes his daughter marrying a delinquent.
• Gratuitous English: "Midnight Angel" is spoken as the English words, not their Japanese translation.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Eikichi is jealous of Ryuji for having more luck in relationships than him, since they'd planned to lose their virginities at the same time.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: All the time.
  • In Chapter 2, a thug smashes a bottle over Eikichi's head.
  • Later on, during his and Ryuji's fights with Machida, both Eikichi and Machida use bottles from the bar to do the same thing.
  • In Chapter 59, during the confrontation with Okubo, Natsumi breaks a bottle and threatens to use it on herself. Eikichi shoves his hand between the bottle and her neck before she can do it.
  • Ryuji grabs a bottle during his revenge fight against Kamata.
  • In Capter 93, Katsuyuki smashes a bottle to get the Enoshima gang's attention, and bashes one of them in the head with it before they run away.
  • In Chapter 103, Tamura smashes a bottle over Eikichi's head.
  • In Chapter 169, one of the "demons" attacking Ryuji picks up a broken bottle and licks it.
  • In Chapter 207, Saya smashes a bottle into Shinomi's head.
  • In Chapter 221, James smashes a bottle and threatens to attack Mafuyu with it.
  • In Chapter 245, Eikichi smashes a bottle over his own head as a Dream Reality Check.
  • One last time in Chapter 266, by Ryuji to Eikichi.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: In Chapter 179, when Tsukai tries to stop Ryuji and Eikichi from fighting, Ryuji grabs him and slams him face first into Eikichi.
• Groin Attack:
  • When Eikichi attempts to grope Mariko's ass underwater, a stingray bites his penis.^note Real stingrays' mouths are not capable of biting humans.
  • Eikichi kicks Takezawa and Mitsuya in the crotch when fighting to save Shinomi from the Idaten.
  • Shinomi kicks Eikichi in the junk sometimes, when he's being especially lecherous.
• Group Picture Ending: The final chapter of the manga doesn't do this, but the final manga volume (the original, not the omnibus edition) has over 75 characters on the cover.
• Handbag of Hurt: Both male and female delinquents beat others up with their school bags sometimes.
• Handicapped Badass: In the Okubo arc, Eikichi is recovering from an injured ankle, but still fights.
• Hand in the Hole: While peeping on their neighbor, Ryuji sticks his penis in a hole in the wall and gets it stuck. He manages to bluff his way through an attack by the Enoshima High gang, but then the neighbor, who is actually a drag queen, notices a "strange mushroom" growing out of the wall and moves to put his face next to it. Ryuji pulls so hard he brings down the whole wall, trapping himself underneath. What a great time for Nagisa to show up! Not What It Looks Like... okay, it's exactly what it looks like.
• Hands-On Approach: An extremely dark one without Ship Tease, when Okubo forces Asakura to beat his friends with a wooden plank.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: Eikichi and Ryuji claim to have had sex with 100 women, and when asked when his first time was, Eikichi panics and says it was in 5th grade with a 4th grader.
• Heartbroken Badass: Both badass protagonists undergo heartbreak, at different times.
  • Ryuji lets out a Big "WHY?!" with Manly Tears when Ayumi leaves him, and spends the next few chapters in a funk, only really getting over her when he meets Nagisa.
  • Eikichi is shaken up when Misato reveals she's transgender, but he still showed up to the train station, implying he would have run away with her. When she doesn't show, he's heartbroken, but much more stoic about it than Ryuji was.
• Held Back in School: Eikichi, Ryuji, Abe, Kamata, and Saejima are forced to repeat their second year of high school.
• Help, I'm Stuck!:
  • Eikichi's fancy new wig gets stuck in a train door and he can't move without revealing that he's bald. And then Makoto shows up and starts picking a fight with a rival gang...
    • There's a funny poster in that panel warning train passengers to "please mind your hair to prevent being stuck at the door".
  • While peeping on the woman in the neighboring apartment, Ryuji notices a second hole in the wall, and sticks his penis into it. What a great time for the Enoshima gang to show up calling for the Oni-Baku's blood!
• Heroic Second Wind: In his fight with the Kamakura Mad Dogs, Eikichi was losing badly until Makoto proved his loyalty and hit Saejima with a shovel. He suddenly has the strength to continue fighting.
  Eickichi: And here's the revival of Eikichi Onizuka. Those attacks made me get a few level-ups, heh heh heh. So, what will you guys do? You guys can't do aything to harm me now!
• The Hero's Idol: Eikichi's idol is the legendary biker Kyosuke Masaki, who died before the start of the series. In the prequel Bad Company, Masaki welcomed Eikichi and his best friend Ryuji into the Bōsōzoku scene, and was a huge influence on their ethos of what bikers and biker gangs should be. In the sequel Great Teacher Onizuka, despite being dead for more than half a decade, Masaki shows up in a Dying Dream when Eikichi is in critical condition in the hospital, and gives him the motivation to recover.
• His Name Is...: Just as Atsushi is about to reveal Yagyo Atsuki's identity to the Oni-Baku, someone lassoes his neck with a bike chain.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: When Fumiya gets out of juvie, Saejima tries to get his revenge for Fumiya pencil-nosing him earlier, crawling on the ground with two fistfuls of pencils to pencil-nose him back. Shouldn't have held them right in front of his face, since Fumiya steps on his head and they go right up Saejima's nose.
• Homage: Chapters 226 and 227 are a two-parter called "The Onizuka Case Files", a homage to The Kindaichi Case Files, which Onizuka is reading at the beginning of the chapter. A group of students are trapped by Hostile Weather at the school overnight, and after playing Pokkuri-san, they hear a scream. Rushing to find the source, they find a seemingly-dead Saejima. Eikichi acts like Kindaichi, deducing that this is a Locked Room Mystery, and the murderer is among them! It turns out to have been a genuine accident, and the "blood" is ketchup.
• Horrible Housing: After Eikichi turns her apartment into Trash of the Titans and then drops the son of the tenants' association out the window on a bungee cord, his mom kicks him and Ryuji out, getting them a bug-infested apartment in a seedy part of town. There's no lock, there's a disgusting shared toilet, the floor is rotting through, and the walls have mushrooms growing in them.
• Hostage Situation: The Yokohama Cavalry knock Kamata out with a Static Stun Gun, then inject him with alcohol to keep him incapacitated. They try to use him as a hostage against Natsu, but Natsu doesn't care. Later on, they threaten to slit his throat if the Oni-Baku don't step down, but by then Kamata has recovered enough to stab one of them with a ballpoint pen.
• How Dare You Die on Me!: After Natsu is shot, Kamata tearfully begs him to "Come on, open your eyes!"
• Hypocrite: Mariko and Ayumi leave after finding out Ryuji and Eikichi were high school punks, not Kyoto University medical students like they claimed (they were also destroying the disco through their fighting). However, they also lied to the boys, telling them they were college students when they were actually teachers at their new school.
• Identical Stranger: Neither of these are remarked on by the characters, so it's probably just an artistic choice or a result of Only Six Faces:
  • Yoshiaki Asakura looks eerily similar to Eikichi, with the only difference being their school uniforms, Onizuka's hair having darker roots, and Asakura having dark outlines around his eyes. It's averted in the OVA, where he has brown hair to Eikichi's blond.
  • Katsuyuki looks almost exactly like Ryuji, only differing in a slightly larger hairstyle and a scar over one eyebrow.^note Though he idolizes the Onibaku, and may have modeled his appearance on them. In later chapters he's drawn more distinctively, with some hair falling down over his forehead.
• Idiosyncratic Cover Art: Each of the Omnibus edition volumes (which were the only ones released overseas) has a different character in a limited color palette (for the English volumes 1-10, monochromatic), except the last one, which has both Eikichi and Ryuji.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: When Abe chews out Minamino for punching him "as hard as he could" for being one minute late to class:
  Minamino: If I had hit you as hard as I could, I would have decapitated you and your head would be rolling... 30 meters away...
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Eikichi has to be physically prevented from beating an enemy to death at least twice:
  • In the fight with Okubo. Saejima stops him, and Okubo tries to take the chance to stab Eikichi. It doesn't end well for him.
  • After Nakagaki shoots Natsu, Eikichi beats him to a bloody pulp and only stops when Ryuji grabs him from behind.
• I Have Your Wife: Fumiya kidnaps Ayumi and threatens to have her gang-raped if Ryuji attacks him. He orders Ryuji to Come Alone to Enojima Station to find out where she is (though he mentions he'll kill Ryuji even if he doesn't show up).
• I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Tsukai has a crush on Itou, but she likes Eikichi. He decides to support her goal of winning Eikichi's affections. Eventually the two of them start dating.
• I Lied: Okubo agrees to a one-on-one duel with Eikichi in a week, but then gathers his men to beat up the Onibaku and anyone associated with them before the week is up.
• I'll Kill You!: All the time, given how violent most of the characters are.
  Kamata: The Onibaku will bow down when they're dead, huh? Then I'll start off by killing you!
• Impaled Palm: James stabs a giant splinter through Mafuyu's palm, pinning him to the wall.
• Improvised Armor: Itou wears shoulder pads, a pot on her head, and a sword that appears to be made of jagged metal when she goes with Tsukai to back up the Onibaku against the Kamakura Mad Dogs.
• Improvised Weapon:
  • Ryuji uses an oar to fight Saejima and Kamata.
  • The Yokohama Cavalry attack Ryuji with a mailbox (using the concrete end, though).
• Informed Obscenity: In a filler chapter, Shinomi overhears some girls talking about a "pink elephant". Not knowing what it is, she asks her friends about it, but they're no help, only leaving her more confused, and anyone else she asks about it avoids her or pretends not to know. She gathers from context that it has something to do with sex and requires a man and a woman. A creepy older guy offers to show her a "pink elephant", and they go to a hotel, but she punches him and runs away when he gets naked. She eventually goes to Eikichi's house and decides to ask him to show her a "pink elephant", but he doesn't know what it is either.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: As Itou is telling Eikichi about the Kamakura Mad Dogs, he confidently says that the Oni-Baku would never lose to them, only for Tsukai to burst through the door and tell him that they're beating up Ryuji at that moment.
• Interrupted Intimacy: When the boys visit Abe in the hospital, they find he's not too injured to have sex with the nurse.
• In the Back: Fumiya stabs Kamata in the back, showing how dangerous and willing to kill he is.
• Introduction by Hookup: It would be if they'd actually managed to hook up with Ayumi and Mariko, who turn out to be teachers at their new school.
• Invulnerable Knuckles: Nakajo punches the masked biker's helmet hard enough to smash it.
• Is That the Best You Can Do?: When Eikichi has had a Heroic Second Wind and beaten up all of Saejima's cronies.
  Eikichi: What's wrong, Saejima? Is that all? The five of you can't handle me alone? Is this what you call your Onibaku massacre?
• Japanese Spirit: Name-dropped by Eikichi and Mafuyu at different times in the "Chasing Eileen" arc, when they face American thugs.
• Jekyll & Hyde: Nagisa responded to Akutsu's abuse of her by making a split personality, Yasha, to protect her from the trauma. Yasha is a Superpowered Evil Side and Enemy Within who loves Akutsu, and tries to kill Ryuji and Eikichi, while Nagisa's normal personality is nice and sweet.
• The Kindnapper: Ryuji knocks out Yasha and takes her back to his sister's apartment. "Yasha" is the evil split personality of Nagisa, who he's trying to rescue from her abusive boyfriend Akutsu.
• Knight of Cerebus: Okubo is the first antagonist the Onibaku face who is an outright murderer and rapist, feared by all the other characters and the tone becomes much darker the moment he's on panel.
• Kung-Fu Clairvoyance: In Chapter 169, Ryuji is able to sense a razor blade about to be swung at him from behind, in a dark warehouse. He promptly elbows the enemy in the face of his helmet, smashing it in. Later on in the same chapter, Eikichi notices someone about to stab him from behind, catching and breaking his arm without even looking.
• Last-Second Villain Recovery: As Eikichi's battle with Okubo turns into a Curb-Stomp Battle after Eikichi's Heroic Second Wind, Saejima stops him from killing Okubo, because he doesn't want his friend to become a killer. Okubo seizes the opportunity to stab Eikichi in the arm, but is knocked out cold with a massive uppercut.
• Light-Haired Swimmer: Mafuyu Aoki is a Surfer Dude with tanned skin and pale hair.
• Like Brother and Sister: How Eikichi sees Shinomi, who's in love with him. They still have quite the Belligerent Sexual Tension though.
• Lives in a Van: After they both run away from home, Ryuji and Nagisa live in an abandoned bus in a field. Eikichi and Saegusa help them furnish it with furniture stolen from the school, and Yasuo hooks it up to a power line.
• Maniac Tongue: The boys frequently stick out their tongue when they're imagining or about to do something lecherous.
• Manly Tears:
  • The last scene of Chapter 68 is Ryuji grabbing hold of Eikichi and letting out an anguished scream at Ayumi leaving.
  • Eikichi gets them in Chapter 154 when Natsu dies.
  • Saejima cries in the next chapter when Kamata announces he's leaving for the States, though he tries to play it off as Sand In My Eyes.
• Man on Fire: Before the events of the series, Akutsu nearly killed Kamishima by burning him to death. He still has the scars to prove it, and is obsessed with getting revenge. Once Akutsu gets out of prison, he does it again, trapping Kamishima, Ryuji, and Nagisa in a burning room.
  • In the 2020 live-action, Akutsu sets Ryuji on fire, and Masaki's coat while Eikichi is wearing it. Ryuji gets badly burned, but it's a No-Sell to Eikichi.
• Marshmallow Hell: Hot Teacher Nao Kadena gives one as a consolation prize to Saegusa, the highest scorer on a kanji test. If any student got a perfect score, they'd get to have sex with her, but the highest score was only 75.
• Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration:
  • This is a frequent pastime of both protagonists, them being Hormone Addled Teenagers and virgins after all.
    • After Ryuji loses his virginity, Eikichi spends three days straight in his room masturbating.
• Memento MacGuffin:
  • Kyosuke Masaki's coat was formerly worn by the legendary founder of the first generation of Midnight Angel, who gifted it to the Oni-Baku. Akutsu believes he deserves to wear it, and that it will legitimize his leadership.
  • Kamata has a picture of him, Natsu, and Natsu's sister as kids. When Kaoru sneaks into Natsu's place, she finds he has the same photo to remind him of happier times.
  • Mafuyu wants to get his hands on his brother's surfboard, but Alisa and Machiruda both want to stop him from dying like his brother did.
• Mistaken for Lesbian: In Chapter 182, Shinomi is given a love letter by someone named Akira (also her previous boyfriend's name). When she shows up to the place in the letter, it turns out to be a girl from her school. Her friends warn her that there are rumors that Akira is a lesbian who "turns straight girls to the other side", and all her behavior seems to indicate they're right... until she asks Shinomi to deliver her love letter to Onizuka.
• Moment Killer:
  • Just as Ryuji and Eikichi are about to lose their virginities with a couple of hot college girls, they both have a Potty Emergency and have to run to the bathroom.
  • More than 200 chapters later, it seems like Eikichi might finally get a girlfriend... and then Shinomi shows up and starts telling Saya how lame he is.
• Mouth Full of Smokes: In one chapter, Eikichi and Ryuji each have about ten lit cigarettes in their mouths, noses, and ears.
• Mr. Exposition: Tsukai serves as this in the Midnight Angel arc, explaining to uninformed characters (and the audience) the history behind the Midnight Angel gang and the Shonan War.
• Mugging the Monster: The Onibaku are about to beat up their new Sadist Teacher, Minamino, when another gang confronts him and he wipes the floor with them, revealing that he's a master karateka.
• My Own Private "I Do": Ryuji and Ayumi sneak into an empty church at night and say private vows to each other (without a priest or witnesses). Too bad she leaves the next day.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Kamata is violently opposed to any of the other gang members dating his sister, Kaoru, since he knows exactly what kind of Jerkasses they are (and he knows she's actually a male crossdresser).
• Naked Apron: Eikichi has an Imagine Spot of Misato in one, cooking dinner for him. He slips up behind her and she asks if he's poking her with a cucumber. Later in the chapter she wears one for real.
• Never a Self-Made Woman: The female delinquents typically rise to their positions either by love or by a male delinquent making her his woman.
  • Shinomi's motivation for becoming a delinquent was to get close enough to Eikichi for him to finally see her as a woman. She even almost gives it up because he's into normal girls, but sticks with it anyway after her feelings are cleared up.
  • Yasha got to be leader of the Midnight Angels because Nagisa, her original personality, became so broken by her rape by Akutsu she created the biggest, baddest delinquent persona to cope.
• New Transfer Student: The boys start the series as this, though they claim they were kicked out of their old school. Abe is introduced in a chapter titled "Transfer Student".
• No Brows: Eikichi taunts Machida as an "eyebrow-less kid" during their second fight.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When Kamata and Saejima capture Ryuji, they tie his hands behind his back and beat him bloody. The Onibaku are happy to return the favor.
• No Man Should Have This Power: After seeing all the harm caused by fighting over Masaki's coat, Eikichi burns it so nobody can use it (Masaki had asked him to keep his gang from re-forming anyway).
• Noose Necktie: The scarf Aina made for Eikichi looks so much like a noose that at first he thinks she's metaphorically saying she wants him to die. It is pretty warm, though.
• Nose Shove: Maruyama shoves pencils up Saejima's nose, as revenge for Saejima doing the same to him. Then Fumiya shows up and slams Saejima's head into the floor.
  • Some 150-odd chapters later, when Fumiya gets out of juvie, Saejima is obsessed with getting his revenge. He crawls on the ground with two fistfuls of pencils to pencil-nose him back, but made the mistake of holding them right in front of his face. Fumiya steps on his head and they go right up Saejima's nose.
• Now That's Using Your Teeth!: When one of the Yagyo Atsuki gang tries to stab Ryuji with a razor blade (the break-off kind), he bites it off.
• Official Couple:
  • Ryuji and Ayumi.
  • Later, Ryuji and Nagisa.
  • Tsukai and Itou.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: The first thing Fumiya says to Saejima after getting out of juvie is asking if he's "that pencil nose guy", an understandable Berserk Button for Saejima (especially since Fumiya was one of the people who did it to him).
  • When it happens again (while Saejima was trying to do it back to Fumiya), his friends come to the hospital to mock him for it, and Eikichi even gives him a bouquet of pencils.
• One-Hit KO:
  • After Tamura tries to attack Eikichi (who had just thrown a motorcycle helmet at his head), Eikichi knocks him out with one punch, and into Kamishima's chest, where his head slides down leaving a blood trail.
  • Lampshaded by Eikichi when he's facing the US Navy washouts:
  Eikichi: Just one punch for small fry like you.
• Only a Lighter: When Eikichi sneaks into Nao Kadena's apartment, he watches her point a gun at two guys who seem to be yakuza and order them to leave. As soon as they're gone, she turns the gun on him and pulls the trigger, saying he knows too much. It's revealed to be a lighter, and only singes his hair, but he still shits himself in fright.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You:
  • Eikichi warns his friends against facing Okubo, saying that he's Eikichi's to beat.
  • Kamishima feels this towards Akutsu, and will fight anyone getting in the way of his revenge.
  • Eikichi feels this way about Mafuyu, though the reason for their feud is much more petty.
• Out with a Bang: Makoto claims that last year's car parade winner, Masao, died from too much sex (3 girls every night for a month), and he looked like a (very happy) mummy when they buried him. In the next panel, Eikichi and Ryuji completely miss the point and declare that they're going to win this year. In the background, another student is handing Makoto some money, implying it was just a bet to see if he could get them to believe such a ridiculous story.
• Overly Long Gag: In Chapter 135, Nanno, who's guarding the school for the summer, notices that the TV and fridge from the function room have been stolen, along with a bed and two lockers. He runs to the desk to call the police, only to find that the phone has been stolen as well.
• Pædo Hunt: Eikichi and his friends find out that Minamino was fired from an elementary school for Playing Doctor with a little girl there. They use this to blackmail him into Throwing the Fight against Ryuji.
• Passing the Torch: Before the events of the manga, Kyousuke Masaki, founder of the legendary Midnight Angel Bōsōzoku gang, gave his Badass Longcoat to protagonists Eikichi and Ryuji, but got them to promise to make sure the gang didn't rise again. During the Midnight Angel arc, Eikichi wears the coat to fight Akutsu, who wants it to legitimize his leadership of the Third Generation of the gang. Eikichi never actually leads Midnight Angel, since he's a One-Man Army on a mission to destroy it.
• The Peeping Tom: The only upside to Eikichi and Ryuji's new Horrible Housing situation is their hot neighbor, who they spy on through a tiny hole in the wall. They even consider buying Night-Vision Goggles to watch her masturbate.
• The Pen Is Mightier:
  • The previously mentioned pencils up the nose by Saejima and Maruyama to each other.
  • Yagyo Atsuki's first appearance has him carve the word "oni" into the back of people's hands with a pencil.
  • When Fumiya gets out of juvie, Saejima is obsessed with getting his revenge, crawling on the ground with two fistfuls of pencils to pencil-nose him back. Shouldn't have held them right in front of his face, since Fumiya steps on his head and they go right up Saejima's nose.
• The Perils of Being the Best: Eikichi is Famed In-Story as the strongest fighter in Shonan, so naturally everyone wants to fight him to prove how badass they are. The manga begins with him and Ryuji trying to leave their delinquent lives behind, but they Can't Stay Normal.
• Pervert Revenge Mode: Ryuji tries to get a look at the tattoo on Nagisa's shoulder, and ends up pulling down her top. She slaps him for it and he quickly runs away.
• Piranha Problem: Hazuki Misato has a tank full of piranhas at her apartment, which Eikichi doesn't find out until he's already stuck his hand in. They end up biting his face too.
• The Pornomancer: Hiroshi Abe claims to have slept with 158 women, and Eikichi and Ryuji beg him to teach them how to be like him.
• Potty Emergency: Just as Ryuji and Eikichi are about to lose their virginities with a couple of hot college girls, they both get stomach rumbles and have to run to the bathroom, which is occupied. They quickly throw the guy inside out, and then fight over the single toilet. When they emerge, their Death Glares dispel any thoughts the ejectee and his buddies had about beating them up for kicking him out.
• Power Fist: Machida uses brass knuckles to beat Eikichi. The second time around, Eikichi reveals a steel plate under his shirt to counter the blow.
• The Power of Lust: Exploited by Nao Kadena to get the male students to study hard. She motivates the female students by showing them the hot guys who go to prestigious universities.
• Power Perversion Potential: In one Bizarro Episode chapter, Saejima, Kamata, and Tsukai meet Kiyoma, a classmate with Psychic Powers. His first use of them they see? Creating wind to blow girls' skirts so he can see their underwear. At the end of the chapter, they find out that's pretty much the extent of his powers.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: All the time.
  • "I'll fulfill your wish and send you to hell!" (Kamata as he does Grievous Bottley Harm to Ryuji)
  • "And here comes a nice little massacre!" (seconds later)
  • "What's that? You guys want to die together?" (Eikichi)
• Pregnancy Scare:
  • Makoto has one when a girl he hooked up with tells him she's pregnant. He really doesn't want to get married and become a father, but everyone around him is supportive of him doing so. It gets to the point that they run away while the Onibaku are fighting off her father's men, only to find out she's not actually pregnant. They stay together anyway.
  • In Chapter 209, Nagisa goes to the hospital when her period is a few days late, and after Ryuji and his friends see her there they draw the obvious conclusion. She tries to tell them the truth, but they get carried away talking about parenthood and baby names. At the end of the chapter, she finds out she's not pregnant, but doesn't tell Ryuji until the next chapter, when he's already started remodeling their bus to get ready for the baby.
• The Promise:
  • Jun and Natsu used to be in a band with Natsu's sister, and made a promise that one day they would go to America and make it big. Natsu brings it back up as he's dying in Jun's arms.
  • As he's being dragged off to jail, Fumiya asks Ryuji to make Ayumi happy. When he returns more than a hundred chapters later, he sucker punches Ryuji for failing to live up to that promise (though he recognizes it wasn't Ryuji's fault).
• Public Bathhouse Scene: In Chapter 32, all the boys (who up until the end of the last chapter had been trying to kill each other) are at the public baths and end up comparing penis sizes. Eikichi is pretty small, and hilariously, the largest one belongs to Makoto.
• Punch a Wall: After Ayumi rejects him, Ryuji punches a fire alarm in anger (with an already-bandaged arm in a sling), creating his own Shower of Angst.
• Put on a Prison Bus: Several of the villains (Fumiya, Akutsu, the Yokohama Cavalry) get arrested for their crimes.
  • The Bus Came Back: In Chapter 187, Fumiya gets out of juvie and meets up with the Oni-Baku again. He mentions helping Akutsu break out, and Akutsu is seen in Chapter 193. Fumiya and Akutsu also reappear in the sequel GTO: Paradise Lost, and Akutsu appears in the spinoff Ino-Head Gargoyle.
• Put Their Heads Together: Eikichi does this to some bikers who are threatening Misato.
• Quest for Sex: Much of the plot of the manga is driven by Ryuji and Eikichi's efforts to get girlfriends and lose their virginities. By the time of Great Teacher Onizuka, Eikichi still hasn't succeeded.
• Race for Your Love: A variant in Chapter 66: Ryuji is supposed to meet Ayumi's parents in Yokohama (about 45 km from Shonan), but he hears about Eikichi getting lynched by Okubo's gang and can't stand by. Once Eikichi wins, Ryuji races there on a borrowed bike, catching the police's attention for speeding and supposedly driving a stolen bike. He trashes several police cars and breaks through a roadblock, but is too late to meet her parents. However, she admires his devotion to his friends and tells him she doesn't care what her parents say.
• Raging Stiffie: Both boys immediately start tenting when they see the photo of Kyoko and Mayumi. Eikichi also gets one when he thinks he's about to hook up with Kaoru.
• Rape as Drama: Happens a lot, often overlapping with Dark and Troubled Past.
  • Aina gets grabbed by some guys after Eikichi rejects her, but fortunately he saves the day.
  • The threat of rape is implicit when Fumiya's gang kidnaps Ayumi, even if it never actually happens.
  • Okubo rapes Asakura's girlfriend Natsumi, just to show what a monster he is.
  • Shinomi was raped by Takezawa, and almost by his whole gang when she tried to leave.
  • Nagisa was raped and abused by Akutsu to the point that she developed a Split Personality.
  • Natsu's Start of Darkness was when he found his sister raped by a gang of thugs, after which she killed herself. He then went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and killed them all, at the age of 12.
• Really Gets Around: Aina is something of a playgirl, which unfortunately resulted in her getting an STD.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Kiwamezawa, a Gonk hulking giant of a high schooler, loves Sailor Moon. It's quite a sight to see him with a tiny Sailor Venus figurine sticking out of his shirt pocket.
• Repeat Cut: Amazingly, done in still images. Eikichi's finishing punch against Saejima is shown from several different angles.
• Right Behind Me: In Chapter 208, Eikichi is talking about how he's got two girls fighting over him, only for one of them to come up behind him with a wooden katana.
  Eikichi: If I wanted, they'd gladly open up their— hm?
  Shinomi: Who's going to open what up?
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Akutsu nearly burns Kamishima to death, frames Ryuji for it, and stabs Nagisa, Eikichi puts on Masaki's Badass Longcoat and becomes a One-Man Army beating up every single Midnight Angel member he finds.
• Rock–Paper–Scissors: Nao Kadena offers to reveal her secrets to the Oni-baku if they beat her in strip rock-paper-scissors. They seem to be winning, but then the scene cuts to them being thrown out, naked, after failing to win against every hostess in the club.
• Roundhouse Kick: A favored move of both Ryuji and Eikichi.
• Rubber Face: In Chapter 206, Eikichi teases Saejima for being the comic relief and stretches his cheeks.
• Rugged Scar:
  • Tsumoto Katsuyuki, aka Katchan, has a scar on his eyebrow that he did to himself, to look more badass. The scar on his side from when he fought Eikichi is real, though.
  • Ryuji's old kohai Kenkichi Hino, aka Hinoken has a scar on the opposite eyebrow as Katsuyuki, which turns out to be from a fight with him.
• The Runaway: Nagisa and Ryuji both run away from home, Nagisa because her parents don't approve of her dating Ryuji, and Ryuji because they kicked him out over his delinquent behavior. They take up residence in an abandoned bus.
• Sadist Teacher: Yoko "Nanno" Minamino is a hardass teacher who Tsujido hired to reform Class 1-F, the problem students. His methods include beating his students with his bare hands (he's a 5th dan karateka) or with a shinai and making them swim in a cold outdoor pool in April. It's likely that he influenced Eikichi on what not to do when he became a teacher himself in Great Teacher Onizuka.
  • And then, just when it seems like he can't get any worse, we find out he's a lolicon.
• Save Our Students: Hot Teacher Nao Kadena exploits the male students' lust to get them to study hard. She motivates the female students by showing them the hot guys who go to prestigious universities. She's amazingly effective.
• Save the Villain:
  • Ryuji saves Fumiya from a Disney Villain Death after his bike got hit by a truck. And this is after Fumiya beat all the male Tsuji-do students half to death, stabbed Kamata In the Back, dragged Eikichi on a rope behind his bike, kidnapped Ayumi, threatened to have her gang-raped and/or murdered, and had been trying to murder Ryuji right up until he got hit by the truck.
  • Eikichi is implied to have saved Akutsu from a similar fate, though the police tell him that all they know is it was someone wearing Masaki's coat.
• Seppuku: Takezawa tries to commit seppuku, stabbing himself in the gut, but he gets taken to a hospital in time to avoid dying.
  • In the live-action, Kamishima does this when it seems he's lost to Akutsu.
• Sexy Man, Instant Harem:
  • Hiroshi Abe. Once his character is established, a random woman or harem can be seen in nearly all of his appearances.
  • Averted with Makoto: He has several girlfriends, but has to be careful to keep them all a secret from one another. He receives a lot of angry phone calls once it appears that one of them is pregnant.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Abe is this, and it definitely helps him attract women.
• Shovel Strike:
  • Makoto hits Saejima in the head with a shovel.
  • Joey swings a shovel at Eikichi's head, but misses.
• Sigil Spam: Yagyo Atsuki's "demons" graffiti the kanji for "oni" everywhere, including Ryuji and Nagisa's bus.
• Slasher Smile: Natsu has one when he's beating people to death, though he sometimes slips into Dissonant Serenity.
• Snipe Hunt: Eikichi ditches his annoying "elite guard" of first-year delinquents by ordering them to make it so he won't have to take extra classes to graduate. They decide the best course of action is to burn all the report cards, which nearly burns down the school.
• Speed Demon: Onizuka sets a record of 185 mph in a motorcycle race against Joey.
• Spiteful Spit: One of the thugs in Chapter 2 spits in Ryuji's face.
• Split-Personality Switch Trigger: Eikichi spends the whole beach trip in Chapter 110 trying to figure out what this is for Nagisa. As they're leaving, Ryuji realizes it's the sound of a motorcyle engine, when she attacks him after Eikichi revs his.
• Stab the Scorpion: In Chapter 193, Joey acts like he's about to stab Saejima, but instead impales a cockroach on the table. Subverted in that Joey is very much an Ax-Crazy villain (as opposed to Saejima, an Ax-Crazy antihero).
• Steal the Surroundings: In Chapter 166, Ryuji goes to buy condoms, and is later seen returning carrying the condom vending machine.
• Straw Loser:
  • Invoked by Itou. She deliberately invites only ugly girls to a party, so she'll be the best-looking one there.
  • Later on Saejima tries something similar, though the guy isn't so much ugly as "more scary-looking than Saejima".
• Strong Family Resemblance: All of Kiwamezawa's siblings, including the girls, look just like him (even if they're in elementary school). They look nothing like either of their parents, but exactly like the delivery man.
• Super Window Jump: Ryuji escapes Saejima and Kamata's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by jumping through a plate-glass window (with his hands still tied behind his back).
• Supreme Chef: Misato is an amazing cook, and even makes Nagisa feel inadequate about her skills.
• Surprise Party: Ryuji's friends throw him an early 16th birthday party to cheer him up.
• Swirlie: A more violent (and totally justified) example where Eikichi ambushes two sex traffickers in a public restroom after overhearing them talking about how they prostitute drugged high school girls and then blackmail the clients. When the traffickers' boss comes in to find them knocked out with their heads in the urinals, he gets the same treatment.
• Symbolically Broken Object: Nagisa's framed photo of her and Ryuji falls on the floor and breaks just as Ryuji and Eikichi have jumped off a building and (supposedly) died.
• Taking the Bullet: When Akutsu is about to stab Ryuji, Nagisa jumps in front of him and gets stabbed instead.
• Tattooed Crook:
  • Ryuji has a full-back tattoo of a dragon (appropriate, given his name means dragon). This may be a non-canonical art piece though.
  • Yasha has a Hannya tattooed on her shoulder, though it may be a fake tattoo since it's not visible when she's Nagisa.
  • Joey has an elaborate arm tattoo with several skulls.
  • Nao Kadena has a full-back tattoo of the Pieta, but she's not actually a criminal (except for illegal street racing).
• Teacher/Student Romance: Ryuji has one with Ayumi, but outside circumstances drive them apart.
• Technobabble: In the first chapter, Eikichi makes up a bunch of medical-sounding terms to impress some girls who he lied about being a medical student to.
• Teeny Weenie: At the public bath, the Onibaku and Kamakura gang members get into a dick-measuring contest. Eikichi is embarrassed of his baby turtle when Saejima and Ryuji poke fun at it, but then turns right around and laughs at Kamata, whose "turtle" is even smaller.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: When Kamata is beating up Ryuji, he tells him why.
  Kamata: I do not fucking like you! [punch] I don't like the way you look at me! I want to see you dead!
• Their First Time: In Chapter 135 ("Night of the Young Lovers"), Ryuji and Nagisa do it for the first time (with their friends sleeping just on the other side of a curtain).
• This Is My Side: When Ryuji stays with Eikichi for a while after his dad disowns him, Eikichi tries to make him stay in a closet at first. Eikichi's mom makes a dividing line through his room, giving Ryuji the half with the bed, and Eikichi a much smaller portion.
• Third-Party Peacekeeper: Whenever Eikichi and Ryuji get into a fight and break up the gang, it falls to one of their friends (usually Tsukai) to get them to reconcile.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: In Chapter 107, Makoto gets in over his head and has to face a terrifying thug, Samehara, alone. He tries getting Eikichi and Ryuji (who the thug had demanded to see in the first place), and when he can't reach them, Kamata and Saejima. They also refuse, telling him it's his fight (and they also call Katsuyuki and warn him not to help either). Makoto eventually beats Samehara, though it wasn't technically "alone": He used two Right Hand Attack Dogs named after the Onibaku.
• This Means War!: Thanks to Eikichi's overzealous underlings picking fights with the Enoshima High gang, Nakajo and his people come to fight the Oni-Baku. The point of no return at which Nakajo actually declares war is right after Eikichi accidentally blows up his car.
• Throwing the Fight: Eikichi is worried Minamino will actually kill or permanently maim Ryuji, so he digs up some dirt (namely, that Minamino is a lolicon) and blackmails him into losing to Ryuji.
• Toplessness from the Back: Shinomi uses a razor blade to slash open Ms. Kadena's clothes, revealing her full-back tattoo of the Pieta.
• Trash of the Titans: Eikichi and his friends turned his mom's apartment into this when she went on vacation for a few days.
• Trash Talk:
  • "You morons, do I look like someone who'd commit suicide? You are the ones about to die, you know!" (Ryuji to Saejima and Kamata's friends)
  • "This will also be the legend of the Onibaku's final resting place!" (Saejima to Eikichi)
  • "Do you wanna die here? Or come back to Shonan and beg us to spare you?"
  • "Shouldn't you be the ones going home quietly? You wouldn't want to die in a strange, faraway land, would you?" (Mafuyu to Alisa's gang)
  • "It won't go down like this next time we come here. When we do, you better face us ready to throw your lives away." (Nakajo to the Oni-Baku)
  • "Forget 'Oni', 'cause 'Baku' is going to take over this country on his own!" (Ryuji to Eikichi)
  • "This is going to be your last day on this Earth. All of you!" (Tamura to the Oni-Baku)
• Traumatic Haircut: A barber accidentally shaves Eikichi's head right before his date.
• Unbroken Vigil: When Nagisa lands in the hospital, Ryuji steals a cop's handcuffs and chains himself to her bed, refusing to leave until she's okay.
• Under the Truck: Yasha does this in Chapter 97, to Ryuji's amazement.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: At least three times, with different reactions each time:
  • Jun Kamata reveals that his "sister" Kaoru Kamata is actually an Attractive Bent-Gender Crossdresser. However, Eikichi, who Kaoru ends up falling for, never finds out. Kaoru doesn't disappear after that arc, playing a supporting role in later chapters. In the 2020 live-action drama Eikichi does find out (and defends him/her from a transphobic/homophobic teacher).
  • The attractive female neighbor who Eikichi and Ryuji spy on through a hole in the wall is revealed to be a Drag Queen who pranks whoever moves into the neighboring room by pretending to be a masturbating woman. This one is mostly Played for Laughs and the boys are treated as having deserved it for peeping.
  • Misato Hazuki, who Eikichi seemed to be seriously in love with, is revealed to be a trans woman. The normally sympathetic Shinomi shows an ugly transphobic side (possibly because she felt her own Belligerent Sexual Tension with Eikichi was threatened), but Eikichi is devastated when Misato leaves town, and Ryuji is understanding.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Shinomi and Eikichi's relationship, and the source of their Belligerent Sexual Tension. She liked him for years, but he only saw her as Like Brother and Sister. Then he was desperate to finally lose his virginity and tried to do it with her, but incurred a case of Pervert Revenge Mode and she lost respect for him. Then she had a Green-Eyed Epiphany when he went out with another girl, and he did the same when she went out with another guy. And so on...
• Use Your Head: Several times, for example when Tsukai slams his head into the guy holding him from behind, and then headbutts the guy in front of him in the face.
• Vapor Trail: Eikichi accidentally blows up Nakajo's car when a line of gasoline between it and the motorcycles he'd blown up by driving one into the others catches fire.
• Villainous Rescue: Akutsu of all people rescues Nagisa from an Attempted Rape by Joey and his cronies. When Ryuji gets back he scolds him for leaving her alone.
• Weaponized Headgear: Several bikers use their helmets as a weapon. Yasha throws hers into a car windshield to make it crash, and Eikichi throws his at Tamura's head to keep him from stabbing Katsuyuki.
• Webcomic Time: The manga was published for six years, but only takes up just under two years In-Universe. The seasons cycle through twice, and a few canon dates tells us that the series begins in August/September 1991 and ends around April 1993.
• We Can Rule Together: After the revelation that Yagyo Atsuki is Yoshio Tamaru, he offers Eikichi an alliance to take over the region if he leaves Ryuji. Eikichi naturally declines.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Makoto buys two dogs and names them after the Onibaku to fulfill his promise to Samehara to "introduce him to the Onibaku".
• What a Drag: In Chapter 46, Fumiya drags Eikichi on a rope behind his bike. Amazingly, Eikichi started climbing up the rope and almost made it to Fumiya before he swerved and made Eikichi hit a concrete block.
• When He Smiles: In Chapter 152, Natsu finally gives Jun a genuine smile (rather than a Slasher Smile) when he says he never forgot about him.
• The Worf Effect: Machida is the first person to actually beat Eikichi in a duel, since he uses brass knuckles. Ryuji goes to challenge him, but he loses too.
• Worthy Opponent: After Eikichi takes out navy powerhouse BJ with a Roundhouse Kick to the head, BJ tells the other Americans to let him go, and that it was a pretty good kick.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  • The red-haired Stalker with a Crush on Yasha in the OVA, goes after Nagisa (who's Yasha's Split Personality) and her friend, firstly punching her friend in the belly and then slapping Nagisa in the face 6 times in the row.
  • Ryuji punching Yasha in the gut when she tries to kill and then takes her prisoner.
• Yubitsume: Kurita tries to force Eikichi to chop off one of his fingers to free Katsuyuki. He's only saved from going through with it by the timely arrival of Kurita's boss Matsuoka.

Tropes specific to the adaptations:

• Adaptation Distillation:
  • In the OVA series, the first episode covers the Introduction and "Christmas Ski Trip" arcs, though it cuts out the actual ski trip and has Eikichi break up with Aina after the fight with Machida. Episode 2 covers the Valentine's Day Parade arc (though it cuts out Abe's introduction) and the Kamakura Mad Dogs arc. The third one skips the "Shonan Love Story" arc and the Fumiya arc, having the Okubo arc in its place but at the same time as Ryuji and Ayumi's romance.
  • The 2020 live-action series mixes and matches plot arcs from the series. Nanno appears in episode 2, while in the manga he didn't appear until after Ayumi left. Unlike in the manga, Ryuji and Nagisa move into the bus before defeating Akutsu and officially getting together. It ends with the conclusion of the Midnight Angel arc.
• Adaptation Name Change: In the OVA and the live-action, the girl Eikichi goes out with after the Wales All-Girls High School festival is Aina Yarita, but in at least some manga scanlations, it's Shou Souna. This could just be a bad translation though.
• Call-Forward:
  • The 2020 live-action series has a line in the first episode where Mariko tells Eikichi and Ryuji that Ayumi is a "Great Teacher".
  • The third episode begins with Eikichi dreaming about being a teacher, whose class is mocking him for still being a virgin. When he wakes up, his friends all laugh at the thought of him as a teacher.
  • At the end of the fifth episode, Kaoru says he's better than any teacher she's known, and he calls after her, "Just wait... I'll become a damn great teacher!"
  • In the last episode, Saejima says Matsuoka is pretty cool for a cop, and announces his intention to become one.
• Canon Foreigner: In the seventh episode of the 2020 series, an Apathetic Teacher named Kenji Inoue is teaching the main characters' class, and gives Onizuka some life advice. At the end of the episode, he punches out the principal for calling his students the "scum of society", echoing what Onizuka does to Uchiyamada in GTO.
• Composite Character: In the 2020 series:
  • The writers seem to have conflated Aina and Miki into a Composite Character, who tries to get Eikichi to marry her and raise her child. Miki and Yokokawa appear later in the live-action (at the beginning of the Midnight Angels arc), but there's no mention of her having kids.
  • Kamishima seems to have absorbed some of Takezawa's character traits, like his connection to Shinomi.
  • Police Chief Matsuoka has aspects of Police Chief Matsushima.
• Compressed Adaptation: Episode 4 of the OVA adapts the 38-chapter^* 35 if you cut out the filler chapters Midnight Angel arc, but there's only so much material that can fit into a 52-minute animation. By comparison, the 2020 live-action devoted almost 80 minutes over 2 and a half episodes to the arc.
• Group Picture Ending: The 4th OVA ends with the Oni-Baku having a party on the beach with all their friends. The 2020 Live-Action Adaptation also ends with this, and the characters take a group photo.

---