30/7/2021: some of our favorite manga teachers (lots of pictures and videos)

Summer's really close to ending! That means school starts soon... Apart from schoolmates, that also means teachers! A good or bad prof can make or break a semester, so let's celebrate the great teachers in manga, anime and sometime live-action!

1) Onizuka from GTO (has anime adaptation and live-action drama)

A karate expert and former gangster who realizes his dream to become a teacher. He's super dumb and perverted but his good nature usually wins the day. He's the pinnacle of "funny teacher reaches the students' hearts" and arguably raised the genre to another level. It's funny how he'll do something really stupid at one point but have something profound to say right after, or how he'll do something really cool and then mess it up by doing something silly and embarrassing.

He's got great facial expressions too!

This is a great movie, btw:

2) Takayanagi from From Now On, We Begin Ethics

He's a seemingly detached teacher who teaches Ethics, which is basically a sort of Philosophy 101 class. He seems composed and cold, but he actually cares dearly for all of his students and manages to solve their problems. Although I found the manga's exploration of some of these ideas a bit superficial, its heart is in the right place and I found it overall to be an incredibly enjoyable read that sometimes gave me some insight into things I was going through.

3) Waseda from Wasteful Days of High School Girls (has anime adaptation and live-action drama)

This series is similar to Danshi Kokousei no Nichijou in that it follows a group of students who waste their days away on frivolous tasks. The girls' homeroom teacher is Waseda, a tall bespectacled man who looks more nerdy than sophisticated. In his private him, he's a vocaloid producer and otaku. What makes him special? His passion for teaching! Well, it's not what you think. He actually hates teaching and his students, but the fact that he puts up with the girls is a kind of passion. For example, the most common gag involving him is him dragging this delusional schoolgirl to the guidance room to try to get her to straighten her act instead of engaging in her strange fantasies. Usually, this ends with his glasses breaking due to the stress she causes him by refusing to accept reality, even if he takes precautions like bringing a suitcase full of glasses or wearing a special tough glasses.

4) Aizawa from Ikimeru Aitsu ga Waruinoka, Ijimerareta Boku ga Waruinoka?

He's a bullying victim who becomes a teacher. By a twist of fate, his bully's daughter ends up in his class and gets bullied. It's unclear whether Aizawa is being the bigger man by helping the girl against her tormentors, or whether he's vicariously exacting his revenge on his childhood bully by aiding today's bullies against her. It's a thrilling mystery and you can't tell what's going through Aizwawa's mind!

5) Watanabe from Bad Girl Exorcist Reina

This series follows Reina, a delinquent-exorcist. (She looks like a delinquent but she's actually an exorcist.) Eventually, her classmate persuades her to perform her exorcisms as part of a club to help the school, so her acts of kindness don't get mistaken for bullying. Eventually, a popular and handsome teacher gets roped in to be the club's advisor. He's initially hesitant because of Reina's reputation but also because he's terrified of women (and most of the club members are girls). However, he's forced to after Reina reveals that she's already got the lady ghost that traumatized him as a child (causing his gynophobia) under her control (in fact, as a housekeeper) and that she'll only perform the purification rituals if he joins. The series gets quite a few jokes out of everybody thinking that he's gay because he's especially close to the only boy in the club, and how he's surprisingly good at crossdressing. Also, he's quite cool for overcoming his fear of the supernatural to join in club activities and of women.

6) Osamu Mizutami from Yomawari Sensei

This is an autobiographical series of the author's time as a teacher working at a night school where the students are mostly from troubled backgrounds or otherwise can't be enrolled in mainstream schools. The setup is usually him patrolling the city at night to identify and counsel youths at risk and hopefully set them on the right path. Sometimes he succeeds and manages to touch the youth's soul and help them towards leading a good/better life, and sometimes he doesn't, with heartbreaking results. Nevertheless, the stories themselves are always moving and memorable! Some of them made me tear up a little!

7) Kondo from Rokudenashi Blues

He's the burly advisor of the school's boxing club. Although the school (and club) are full of delinquents who love nothing better than to drink, smoke, fight and otherwise be a nuisance, he takes his job seriously and wants the kids to grow up well and have a good time in school, even putting his dignity aside to ensure that the kids don't get expelled or suspended. He's also a former fighter himself, having once been an Olympic wrestling hopeful, but losing the chance due to piles and other circumstances. Although he's not in the series that much after the first few volumes, his appearances are usually hilarious (at his expense).

8) Kawato from Rookies (has live-action drama)

This series is about a school's baseball club making a comeback. It used to be the school's pride, but the junior batch started a fight at a match and the club was banned from competing and the members have since become delinquents. (Well, they were already delinquents to start with.)

Luckily, a new teacher arrives at the school and resolves to become the club's advisor and get the boys fired up with their passion for baseball again - using force if necessary. Kawato is young and naive but his heart is in the right place. His determination is top-level! It's fortunate that he's also got the necessary physical toughness and fighting skills to help him survive his fool's errand, since his actions aren't always met with the most positive response.

The drama had a great theme song!!!

9) Yankumi from Gokusen (has anime and live-action drama)

She's a yakuza family's daughter who doesn't want to be a yakuza but instead a teacher! Funny enough, her family's not into any bad stuff and is actually rather supportive of this. The problem is that she's got to hide her background from the school, students and parents. This is easier said than done because she's been assigned as the homeroom teacher of the class where they shove all the worst students. Luckily, her unique upbringing and sense of values lets her see and bring out the students' true worth and helps her get their respect so they listen to her and learn how to become good people! I especially like the parts where she bends the rules as long as the students are doing something right - it's a very "substance over form" approach!

I hope these helped you find something to watch before school starts again. See you soon!