Great Teacher Onizuka had been in the news recently as the series got a new live-action adaptation after 26 years. While the news was greeted positively by fans, the author of the manga, Tooru Fujisawa, took the opportunity to express his frustrations at Kodansha, who held the copyrights for Great Teacher Onizuka.

Fujisawa said in his post on X (formerly Twitter) that he was happy that GTO‘s live action adaptation was returning after a long time. However, he felt that it was being prioritized over the manga.

The author was referring to how GTO: Paradise Lost, which is apparently the last part of the manga, was put on an inidefinite hiatus by the publisher. In fact, Fujisawa was so frustrated by this that he wondered if some other publisher will take over the copyrights of the manga.

“I’m glad GTO is coming back, but ‘Paradise Lost’, the last chapter of GTO, published in Kodansha’s Weekly Young Magazine, was kicked out of the magazine halfway through and is still on hiatus. Meanwhile, the [live-action] drama is coming out in front of [the manga]… What is wrong with this company? I wonder if some other publisher will take over the copyright…,” Fujisawa wrote.

GTO: Paradise Lost has been on hiatus since Feb 13, 2023. The manga was expected to return in early summer 2023, however no concrete return date had been announced for the series.

Paradise Lost began publishing in the magazine from April 2014. It is a sequel to GTO: 14 Days in Shonan which ran in Weekly Shonen Magazine from June 2009 to September 2011.

The original manga was serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine from January 1997 to February 2002, with its chapters collected in 25 tankobon volumes.

Great Teacher Onizuka live-action adaptation will be returning after 26 years as a part of Fuji TV broadcast station’s 65th anniversary. Takashi Sorimachi will once again portray the role of Onizuka in the new drama.

Source: X (formerly Twitter)