Eikichi Onizuka

Eikichi Onizuka (鬼塚 英吉, Onizuka Eikichi) is the 22 year old teacher and the central protaganist of the GTO series. A former leader of the Onibaku bike gang who controlled Shonan, Onizuka was heavily involved in a life of juvenile deliquency before graduating from a fifth rate university and aspiring to be a teacher. He is currently a teacher at Kissho/Holy Forest Academy because of his unconventional teaching methods towards Class 3-4, nicknamed the "problem class" because of their deferential attitude towards authority figures and their constant habit of hazing teachers (one former teacher ended up having a mental breakdown and ended up committed to a mental institution).

Onizuka's success with class 3-4 mainly stems from the fact that he is a child at heart and also had a problem with people who abuse their positions for personal gain, allowing him to relate to and emphasize with what the students are experiencing. Whereas Onizuka is not a conventional teacher in that he rarely teaches or even acts like a proper role model, his students look up to him because they know that they can rely on him. This is undoubtedly Onizuka's strongest skill as his attitude towards life and everything else inspires his students to return to school and have a more optimistic outlook on life.

Onizuka is not very educated or book smart, having slacked off for most of his school life and rarely studying. On more than one occasion, he has had to rely on his students to get him out of sticky situations, usually due to his lack of common sense (although one can argue that his lack of common sense is an unfortunate by-product of his unconventional genius). Although Onizuka does not look like a serious person, he often surprises people who look down on him by achieving feats thought to be impossible for him. This is proven when he once took the National Scholastic Aptitude Test and received a perfect score (he beat a fellow teacher who was a graduate of Tokyo University, one of the most elite universities in Japan) while suffering from severe blood loss after having been shot three times with a pistol, resulting in his passing out at the end of his exam. He also beat up an entire gang and saved a student prior to taking the test with only one hour left. Onizuka also ventures to do what others think are impossible feats, once beating 99 students in an underground arm wrestling tournament in order to prove a former student wrong and to save the lives of his fellow teachers. He may not be book smart, educated, or have common sense, but he's a veritable genius as his insane feats prove.

Quotes

 * You know, there's a word for people like you. Let me give you a hint; it starts with a be, and it ends with atch.
 * People who treats people like trash is even worse than trash.