Healthy Inspiration from Comics

September 7, 2009 by r2moo2
Filed under: Manga Journey, News

“You think verbal violence is any less damaging than a physical blow?” – Ekicihi Onizuka after performing the Reverse German Suplex on a teacher

One of the main reasons for me to become a comic artist, as a side career at the very least, is basically because I drew lots of healthy inspiration from comics and manga.

Great Teacher Onizuka(GTO) is one of the few manga comics that actually piqued my interest in drawing comics.

A little about GTO

GTO is a manga comic about a former delinquent(from a reknown motorcycle gang), Ekichi Onizuka, who strives to be the greatest teacher of Japan.

His vision was actually initially inspired by the fact that he just wanted to have a young girlfriend and to lose his virginity.

However his journey as a teacher allows him to see the downside of our modern society today: students are valued not as persons but on their academic value, adults behaving childishly due to office politics, parents being irresponsible, and many more.

All these paved the way for many students to become deliquents such as himself; some are suicidal, others suffer emotional scars that wrecked a normal life.

As a result, Eikichi Onizuka strives to correct the problems and issues his students faced, using many unorthodox and outrageous methods to win their hearts over. All his methods were mainly influenced by the fact that he suffered similar scars which his students had, and also as a former motorbike gang member, his ways were ridiculously daring.

Back to my story

Although some of the events in the manga were hilariously exaggerated, it does not mask the fact that the events are actually a reflection of modern society. I myself can identify some of the issues the students faced.

Hence I came to believe that a good manga or comic is not just about fighting and adventure, but inspiration and life lessons could be also imparted through it. Our textbooks today can only teach academics, and not about life.

If I could only turn back time and apply some of the life lessons I have learnt now, I wonder how my life would have been different.

So with this revelation, I believe that teenagers could pick up a good read from manga and benefit greatly from what the author is trying to portray.

That is why I believe that healthy inspiration can come from comics.

p.s. I used comics and manga interchangeably, for the fact that these two words are exact, but to many manga refers to Japanese comics while comics itself refers to Western comics. Pardon me because there are people who don’t know the difference between the two.

Also, GTO’s author is Tohru Fujisawa.

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