Shonan Jun'ai Gumi

Today, I watched the fourth OVA episode of Shonan Jun'ai Gumi. Hang on for a few moments, and I'll explain why this is a medium-sized "big deal" in my little world.

I am by no means a major anime fan. I've seen a few animes, and I've read fewer mangas. Mostly because I'm too lazy to actively search out the good stuff, I guess. But there are a few titles I really like, with my personal favorite being GTO.

Also known as Great Teacher Onizuka, this utterly fantastic manga series and its not-fantastic-but-still-pretty-good anime adaption centers around 22 year old Eikichi Onizuka, former biker/street fighter/hooligan extraordinaire. Now an adult, Onizuka's goals are to find a respectable (read: well paid) job and, oh yeah, to lose his virginity. One day, he witnesses a middle-aged, fat, bald ugly high school teacher completely dominate an attractive, young female student. Upon seeing this, Eikichi sets a new goal for himself: To become the greatest teacher in the history of Japan – Great Teacher Onizuka.

Long story short: Rather than finding himself perving on 17 year old girls, Onizuka is eventually put in charge of a class of Jr. High students (who, much to his dismay, are just too young for his tastes). It just so happens that this class consists primarily of psychos who have driven away several teachers before; one disappeared and another went nuts. As the story develops, Onizuka slowly but surely begins to rehabilitate the class in his own unpredictable and crazy ways.

The manga consists of 25 volumes, about 200 pages each. The TV anime series is 43 episodes long and leaves out a lot. For starters, it stops half-way through the story and tacks on a less than satisfying ending spanning two episodes. It also tones down the naughtiness considerably (By the way, the English translation attempts to tone things down even further. Note to translators: When someone loudly and clearly exclaims the word "fuck", in English, then replacing it with "damn" in the subtitles just isn't going to fool anyone.) and leaves out a bunch of details, and changes others, along the way. Is it any wonders it left GTO fans hungry for more?

Now, then. What I failed to realize until after I'd finished watching the anime (which was my introduction to GTO, for better or worse) was that GTO is actually a sequel. It's predecessor is called Shonan Jun'ai Gumi and it's in the process of being released in English these days (under the title GTO: The Early Years, which doesn't really make sense). It's being promoted as a prequel to GTO, which it really isn't since it was created first, but never mind.

Shonan Jun'ai Gumi follows Onizuka and his best friend Ryuji Danma during their High School days as notorious trouble makers. The first four manga volumes have been released in English so far, and it's a lot of fun.

I don't remember when I first watched GTO, but I figure it must have been around six years ago. And it took me until last year to learn that an anime adaption was made of Shonan Jun'ai Gumi as well. Not so strange, maybe. There were only five episodes made, for video, released in the mid-nineties on VHS and then never seen again. And never released in America or Europe at all.

Of course, if 43 TV episodes can't do justice to the 25 volume GTO manga, then there's little hope of 5 OVAs even beginning to cover its 31 volume predecessor. But that fact won't keep a die-hard Onizuka fan from wanting to see them. Sadly, that just hasn't been possible. Until now.

Sentosha Fansubs to the rescue! I don't condone piracy or anything, but clearly the creators of this anime have long since abandoned it, so what choice does a fan have? Sentosha have made English subtitled versions of the Shonan Jun'ai Gumi anime and have released the first three volumes over the last seven months or so.

Tonight I was having a couple of guys over to watch the three episodes released thus far, only to find that Sentosha released volume four today. How's that for timing? Extended Onizuka viewing party, baby! …and that's what I was getting at with this post.

Geek moment over for now. Almost. I gotta post this clip from Shonan Jun'ai Gumi that someone posted on YouTube:



…and the darn cool opening title sequence from GTO: