List of Great Teacher Onizuka Characters - Holy Forest Academy Faculty and Staff

Holy Forest Academy Faculty and Staff

Eikichi Onizuka (鬼塚 英吉, Onizuka Eikichi?)

• Voiced by: Wataru Takagi (Japanese), David Lucas (English)
• Japanese live-action actor: Takashi Sorimachi, Akira (2012-Remake)

A 22 year-old, hormonal, blonde-haired biker, virgin, and former bōsōzoku, Eikichi Onizuka is the protagonist of GTO. He graduated from a bottom-rung university by cheating and, as such, cannot get a decent job. His primary way of spending time is peeping up girls' skirts at a local mall. He is very athletic, as he can bench press 150 kg (331 lbs), has a second dan black belt in karate, and claims he performs 500 push ups, 1000 pull ups and 2000 Hindu squats daily.

Through the events explained in the manga, Onizuka decides to become a teacher, even though it is implied he has an IQ of about 50. His initial training is in the Musashino Public High School, where he meets Nanako Mizuki. His experience taming the rowdy gangs in his assigned class hardens his convictions that teaching is the way to go, and when he learns of Mizuki's problems, he also decides to abstain from sexual experience with schoolgirls, opting to solve their personal issues for them, instead.

Unfortunately, he nearly messes up by forgetting to take the public teachers' civil service exam; as a result, no public high school will accept him, but he is still eligible for private school teaching. He manages to get a job at the upper-crust Kissho (Holy Forest) Academy, despite the objections of Vice-Principal Hiroshi Uchiyamada, whom he continues to aggravate well into his tenure. One of the conditions of having the job at Holy Forest is that he must sleep at the school - in the storage room at the top floor, with roof access - and it is here that Onizuka officially starts his career in teaching, when he stops Noboru Yoshikawa from committing suicide.

Onizuka is put in charge of class 3-4, a class so bad it has driven past teachers insane and one to death. Not only does he survive their brutal, bullying tactics, but he also befriends his students, and the backbone to the story of GTO consists of his unique experiences in turning his students around and learning lessons of his own.

Onizuka has incredible physical resilience. On more than one occasion, he has fallen from heights that would instantly kill most people and claims to have a sort of healing factor, as he healed from a broken arm in less than a day, and even endure multiple gunshot wounds. Onizuka often presents his strength in unintentionally flamboyant ways, such as arm-wrestling over 100 men of exponential strength, (sometimes 3 at once) in a row and winning. His fighting abilities are not to be taken lightly either, as Onizuka is capable of fending off multiple opponents, even if they are well-armed. However, it was revealed around chapter 190 that because of all the physical damage he sustained since he started teaching, it all resulted in a clotted blood vessel in his brain and that a jolt to his head could either turn him into a vegetable, paralyze him, or kill him.

In spite of his impressive fighting skills, Onizuka is often roughed up by his students, and others, whenever he behaves badly. It could be speculated that deep down, Onizuka knows when he's acting immature, and allows others to keep him in line. An example of this is when he forces his students to dig for buried treasure during the Okinawa trip. Urumi Kanzaki kicks Onizuka into a hole, and later forces him to wear S&M garb and has him crawl around on all fours, with Urumi riding on his back. Another example is when Vice-Principal Uchiyamada has Onizuka over for dinner and hits him on the head with a wooden bench, after finding out that he was acting lecherous with his daughter at a karaoke bar (Onizuka was playing "Where's The Nipple?").

His mode of transportation is a Kawasaki Z750RS Z2 motorcycle, and is also the protagonist in the GTO prequel, Shonan Junai Gumi.

It is shown throughout the series that Onizuka is also very lucky, as he always manages to squeeze out of tight situations. An example of this is when he must raise 8 million yen to live up to a promise he made to the 3rd year students. He received what he believed to be a winning lottery ticket but it turned out to be false. However, he was given a raffle ticket which he kept but didn't expect for it to help his predicament, but ended up winning a car worth the 8 million yen. He gave away the car in an act of kindness, and while it seemed unlikely for him to get the car back, it was returned to him in the last minute.

GTO-Shonan 14 days

In Shonan 14 Days, Onizuka revealed on a live television programme that he nearly buried one of his students for thinking that she is dead. Although he denied the claim that he did this on purpose, the crowd did not take it and Onizuka was forced to leave Tokyo for a while until the outrage subsides. He goes to Shonan, a place where he grew up. There he met Shiratori, one of Fujitsuki-chan's friends and he learns that she is a caregiver at the White Swan Youth Home which houses kids from broken homes. He tells her that he is a teacher back in Tokyo and he probably could give her a hand in managing the kids at White Swan. Shiratori invites him to stay with them and help out, and Onizuka obliges in order to help the kids in the same manner he does at school.

Onizuka mentioned a little about his dad, who left his mom when he was younger for another woman when he shows Katsuragi his secret place, a place where he goes when he is stressed out or in trouble. Katsuragi thinks that she might have misjudged him and started to think of Onizuka on a different perspective after that.

Azusa Fuyutsuki (冬月 あずさ, Fuyutsuki Azusa?)

• Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)
• Japanese live-action actor: Nanako Matsushima, Takimoto Miori (2012-Remake)

A 22 year-old female teacher, employed at the same private school as Eikichi Onizuka, Azusa Fuyutsuki is the heroine of the series. Unlike Onizuka, she led a relatively normal life, graduating from Waseda University. Her quiet manner and moderate ideas are misleading, as she proves to be very tough on her own, which scares the overconfident, zealous Onizuka. To prepare him for the test which would determine his teaching career, she makes a mountain of jelly with eyes of Maguro tuna fish as fruits and imposes an impossibly tough schedule that would have killed anyone or driven them mad. Her field of expertise is Kokugo or Japanese language (English, in the live-action). She falls in love with Onizuka, but as both are quite reluctant to admit their affections and show them in the open, they claim they are "just friends". This friendship is not something major, except under the eyes of the cunning Suguru Teshigawara, who finds it most aggravating that a woman with her qualifications would fall in love with one with such a crude background as Onizuka. She has difficulty with the female students in her class, due to all the boys having crushes on her, but brings them around fairly quickly, after Onizuka's advice. She has a younger sister named Makoto Fuyutsuki.

The Azusa portrayed in the live-action differs greatly from the manga and anime counterparts. In this version, Azusa became a teacher because she felt she was forced to, and envies the life of one of her closest friends, who became a stewardess and frequently dates male celebrities. She eventually decides to remain a teacher, thanks to some convincing from Onizuka, though the two are continuously depicted at odds with each other, with the notion of romance strongly implied. Azusa also has a general dislike for men, finding them too possessive over women, though Onizuka states she too is guilty of the same sin.

Ryoko Sakurai (桜井 良子, Sakurai Ryōko?)

• Voiced by: Yoshiko Okamoto (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)
• Japanese live-action actor: Yumi Shirakawa, Kuroki Hitomi (2012-Remake)

Ryoko Sakurai is the director of the Holy Forest Academy. She is a caring woman who believes that Eikichi Onizuka and his "methods" will work positively for the school, contrary to the beliefs of the faculty. The only time in the series that she did not approve of his behavior is when Onizuka endangered her grandson, Mayu Wakui, but she later admits this is due to his manipulative nature. She is also Daimon Misuzu's former teacher.

The Sakurai portrayed in the live-action is not as initially confident in Onizuka's abilities, sometimes blocking the door to her office in fear, when she hears what Onizuka has done, by eavesdropping on Vice-Principal Hiroshi Uchiyamada's conversations.

Hiroshi Uchiyamada (内山田 ひろし, Uchiyamada Hiroshi?)

• Voiced by: Yūichi Nagashima (Japanese), John Smallberries (English)
• Japanese live-action actor: Akira Nakao, Tayama Ryosei (2012-Remake)

The vice-principal at the Holy Forest Academy, and the Mr. Wilson to Eikichi Onizuka's Dennis the Menace, Hiroshi Uchiyamada is commonly seen throwing fits over two things: Onizuka the "parasite", and his beloved and frequently-totaled Toyota Cresta.

According to a self-explained biography in the manga, Uchiyamada was born and educated in a small rural town. He was discovered as a prodigy and recommended to become a teacher at the Tokyo College of Education, where he first met his wife-to-be, Ryōko. 29 years of hard work eventually earned him his current house and position at the Holy Forest Academy. His daughter is Yoshiko Uchiyamada.

Uchiyamada holds very conservative ideals on how peoples' backgrounds determine their future performance. Despite his attempts to thwart Onizuka's plans, Uchiyamada is not so much a classic villain than merely dogmatically serious about the job of teaching (at least in his mind). He is a not-quite-extreme example of the punishment an ordinary, older middle-aged, Japanese man takes from his home and workplace. He is forced to work with a young man like Onizuka, who easily breaks the rules and does things that don't make sense to him. His superior, Headmaster Ryoko Sakurai, seems to think it is fun to have a presence like Onizuka. At home, his wife, daughter, and dog openly disdain him in his often deluded imaginings, and feels that they're only satisfied with the luxuries that his work earns.

Uchiyamada eventually accepts Onizuka's views of teaching, when the latter yells at and punches Uchiyamada, when he interferes with Onizuka, trying to save Urumi Kanzaki, on the verge of death, for the sake of his job. As Onizuka takes Urumi to an ambulance, Uchiyamada contemplates on his 29 years as a teacher and realizes that he had stopped caring for his students and more for his job, and he even decides to save Onizuka from being fired. With Onizuka's help, he also reconciles with his family, though he remains viciously defensive, when Onizuka tries to make a move on his daughter.

A running gag in the manga has Onizuka constantly destroying Uchiyamada's Cresta, mostly as a side effect of rescuing students, such as falling from the top of the school building and landing on the car. Another running gag involves Uchiyamada frequently getting injured, or assaulted by accident, from an oblivious Onizuka.

Suguru Teshigawara (勅使河原 優, Teshigawara Suguru?)

• Voiced by: Tōru Furuya (Japanese), Doug La Rosa (English)
• Japanese live-action actor: Kunihiko Ida, Yano Masato (2012-Remake)

Suguru Teshigawara is a ruthless, perfectionist mathematics teacher and a graduate cum laude of Tokyo University. He grew up trying to follow in the footsteps of his successful, older brother and father, the latter of whom is a high-ranking Parliament minister. He dresses very neatly and even wears a white velvet glove - his symbol of perfection.

Teshigawara is obsessed with Azusa Fuyutsuki and her dedication and relatively clean, prestigious background - far past the point of stalking. The walls of his apartment, which overlooks Azusa's, is completely covered with photos of her, and keeps tabs on her every move in her apartment, with extensive surveillance equipment. He even has a large pillow with a full-body shot of Azusa imprinted onto it. Suguru ends up having to drape white cloth all over the walls to conceal his fetish, when he tries to invite her over to his apartment.

Teshigawara absolutely loathes Eikichi Onizuka, not only because of his poor educational background, but because his students love him, and Azusa appears to love Onizuka more. As a result of his hatred, he pulls in a favor with the head of a local Parent-Teacher Association group, the mother of Hidemi Ohta, a student he tutors, whose father is a member of Japanese Parliament, eventually leading Onizuka to take a national high-school aptitude test, to prove he is capable of teaching. Sadly for Teshigawara, Onizuka places first nationally, keeping his position, much to his dismay and frustration. It is later revealed (exclusive to the manga) that his mental instability and fanatical perfectionism arose from the pressures placed on him by his father, who expected him to never fail at anything. His failures in his love life corroded his sanity which led him to kidnap Azusa and then failing that, to take over the school and declare it an independent country.

Teshigawara's appearance in the live-action is mostly faithful, without the white gloves, and he still stalks Azusa and has a room whose walls are plastered with photos of her, albeit only his bedroom, in a trendy condominium. This counterpart of Teshigawara is heavily stripped-down from the manga, where he is portrayed to be rather more timid, cowardly and anti-social.

Hajime Fukuroda (袋田 はじめ, Fukuroda Hajime?)

• Voiced by: Kazuhiro Nakata (Japanese), Richard George (English)
• Japanese live-action actor: Sugi-chan (2012-Remake)

The stereotypically macho-muscular gym coach at the Holy Forest Academy, Hajime Fukuroda (more commonly known as "Moleface", due to a rather large mole on the side of his cheek) is a graduate of a prestigious physical education academy. Fukuroda admires his body and does his very best to keep it, and those of his pupils (the female ones, in particular), in tip-top shape. He even enjoys famously macho theme songs at karaoke bars with his colleagues. However, he also has a closeted sexual longing for young girls - in his case, the aforementioned female students. He also as a curious habit of doing pushups when under extreme stress.

Tadashi Sakurai (桜井 ただし, Sakurai Tadashi?)

• Voiced by: Katsumi Suzuki (Japanese), David Lelyveld (English)

The 42-year-old English teacher at the Holy Forest Academy, Tadashi Sakurai is not very fluent at the language he teaches. His last name was changed to Sakurada in the anime, in order to avoid confusion with Headmaster Ryoko Sakurai, with whom he shares no relation. Though he makes few appearances in the earlier volumes of the manga, he gets a more important role when Miyabi Aizawa blackmails him into embezzling the funds for the class trip.

In the manga, Miyabi uses Sakurai's fetish for looking up girls' skirts in the bathroom stalls, with a hidden camera, as blackmail, and his downfall comes at the hands of the police. In the anime, Miyabi blackmails Sakurai with pictures showing him as a cross-dresser, and he simply flees from school.

A flashback in the manga reveals he was bullied a lot during his high school years. He sent a love letter to a girl, but she didn't share Sakurai's feelings, and as a result was beaten up by his male peers for even sending the letter, in the first place. One day, while Sakurai was skipping class, hiding in the boys' washroom stalls, the same girl needed to use the boys' washroom, because the girls' washroom smelled bad. Sakurai was able to watch her, leading to his fetish.

Naoko Moritaka (森高 尚子, Moritaka Naoko?)

• Nao Kenda is voiced by Kaya Matsutani in Japanese and Midge Mayes in English.
• Japanese live-action actor: Takizawa Saori (2012-Remake)

Naoko Moritaka is the eccentric, school nurse at Holy Forest Academy. Often acting as the teachers' muse, Naoko is quite helpful and knows her trade well, though she seems to derive some erotic pleasure from her regular blood donations. She's extremely attractive, and Azusa Fuyutsuki notes that she's heard "quite a few love confessions" about her from students.

In the anime, she is replaced by a former street racing queen named Nao Kadena (originally from Shonan Junai Gumi, the prequel to GTO), who took the nursing position at the Holy Forest Academy, in order to help pay for her brother's surgery - a result of him racing in her place.

Hiroshi Kochatani (小茶谷 宏, Kochatani Hiroshi?)

• Voiced by: Isshin Chiba (Japanese), Ron Allen (English), and David Lucas (English)

The primary science and biology teacher, Hiroshi Kochatani is obsessed with trying to find a woman for marriage. He is nicknamed "chihuahua", because his facial features closely resembles one (even more so, after a prank by Urumi Kanzaki).

Itagake Kinoshita (Kinoshita Itagake)

Itakagake Kinoshita was originally one of Headmaster Sakurai's attendants, until he appeared to work for Misuzu Daimon, so as to help her rid the school of any useless teachers and students. However, it was Headmaster Ryoko Sakurai who ordered him to do so, as a ruse for Daimon to keep an eye on her and her actions. He was the one who gives a software CD to Takumi Ishida, a former student from Holy Forest, to shut down Daimon's network and surveillance control over the school.

Ippachi Maruyama (丸山 一八, Maruyama Ippachi?)

One of Holy Forest Academy's Vice-Principals, with jurisdiction over administration, Ippachi Maruyama is nicknamed "Xavier" by Eikichi Onizuka, due to his resemblance to Francis Xavier. During the latter half of the series, he is transferred to another school but came back at the ending of the series which caused the vice-principles to loses their chance to be promoted.

Misuzu Daimon (大門 美鈴, Daimon Misuzu?)

• Japanese live-action actor: Nishida Naomi (2012-Remake)

Misuzu Daimon is the new vice-principal, hired during the second semester, after Vice-Principal Ippachi Maruyama's transfer. She was placed by the board, in order to weaken the position of Headmaster Ryoko Sakurai and to force Eikichi Onizuka to leave. To that end, she deploys a school wide intranet and gives each student and faculty member a palm device. Additionally, she institutes a point system for the faculty, in an attempt to cause Onizuka's resignation and employs a special force in the school known as the "Angels", to further control the school and its faculty. One particular Angel, Sho Shibuya, regards her as a surrogate mother and the only person he has no animosity towards. She sees school as nothing more than a business, and deems personal things like friendship to be utter nonsense and unrealistic in real life, this outlook on life stems from her time in her high school, where she was always the butt of bullying and cruel verbal abuse by her classmates because of her excellent academic performance, and also due to the escalating rumors that her parents were incarcerated in prison (according to the rumors, they were both arsonists, although this was never explicitly proven). However, through it all she was able to overcome only most of the pain through her teacher at that time; Ryoko, who gave her sincere support. In a moment of weakness, she set her school on fire, and was set to die if it wasn't for Ryoko rescuing her. However, she wasn't able to remember exactly who rescued her at that time, assuming that the fire fighters were the ones responsible for that, but it would only be years later that she would find out the truth from Ryoko herself.