On Tuesday, Feb. 1, GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the manga's debut.
According to Kodansha, in celebration of the debut, all 25 volumes of the original manga and the nine volumes of the sequel, GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, will be released online. Fans can expect to read and purchase the entirety of the series on all of Kodansha's digital vendors, including Bookwalker, comiXology, Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play, Nook, Kobo, izneo, MyAnimeList and more.
Coinciding with the anniversary celebration, starting Thursday, Feb. 3, Kodansha will hold a sale discounting the ongoing sequel to the original manga, GTO: Paradise Lost. Currently, fans can read free first chapter previews for GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka, GTO: 14 Days in Shonan and GTO: Paradise Lost on Kodansha's official website.
"We're excited to bring back such a fan-favorite manga digitally from the vault of Kodansha's extensive catalog," Kodansha USA President & CEO Alvin Lu said. "Equal parts dark comedy and action/adventure, GTO is sure to rekindle the love of manga for any fan who's been out of the loop, and give new fans the chance to experience this classic seinen series for the first time."
GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka is an award-winning manga series written and illustrated by Tooru Fujisawa. Initially serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine from January 1997 to February 2002, the manga follows 22-year-old Eikichi Onizuka, an ex-biker and virgin who dreams of becoming the greatest high school teacher in all of Japan. Faced with a classroom of students that usually bully any new teacher they get to quit, Onizuka must use his unique background and unconventional teaching methods to reel in his class of troublemakers. The manga has adapted into a 12-episode live-action television drama and a 43-episode anime adaptation produced by Studio Pierrot.
GTO: 14 Days in Shonan is a sequel manga, originally serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine from June 2009 to November 2011. The story follows what Onizuka does for 14 days after being shot by a former teacher and escaping from the hospital.
Finally, GTO: Paradise Lost is the most recent addition to the series. The story follows Onizuka, who has been sent to prison and is eager to tell his fellow prisoners about the events that got him there. This spinoff began serialization in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine in April 2014 and is still ongoing, though it's also set to be the last installment in the series.
Fans can expect pre-orders for the GTO series to soon be available on all Kodansha platforms.
Source: Kodansha