Great Teacher Onizuka Opening

Submission 448

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About

Great Teacher Onizuka Opening refers to a series of caption memes based on the opening sequence of the anime series Great Teacher Onizuka in which Eikichi Onizuka wakes up on a couch, lights up a cigarette, and rides a motorcycle, set to the R&B song Million Dollar Baby by Tommy Richman. The caption format first achieved popularity on X in July 2024, trending again in early November 2024.

Origin

On January 23rd, 2000, episode 18 "Lesson 18: How to Dine and Dash" of the anime series Great Teacher Onizuka premiered in Japan.^[1] In the episode, the second opening sequence in the series appears for the first time.^[2] The opening sequence, set to the song "Hitori no Yoru", starts with the protagonist Eikichi Onizuka waking up on a couch, lighting up a cigarette, walking out the door, standing against a screen with several female characters on it, and riding a motorcycle. On November 6th, 2019, Crunchyroll's official YouTube channel uploaded the intro to YouTube,^[3] where it garnered over 6.4 million views in five years (shown below).

On July 10th, 2024, X^[4] user @Salt5006 posted a 21-second clip of the opening, pairing it with the 2024 R&B song "Million Dollar Baby" by Tommy Richman and captioning the video, "how life gonna feel once jjk ends". The post (shown below) received over 4,900 reposts and 44,000 likes in four months.

Spread

In mid-July 2024, the edit saw further use on X / Twitter as caption format. For example, on July 12th, 2024, X^[5] user @HANCXCK captioned the edit, "how life feels without league of legends". The post (shown below) received over 70 reposts and 590 likes in four months.

On July 14th, 2024, X^[6] user @Tony_Taku_TTV captioned the video, "how it feels waking up each morning to watch 80s & 90s anime instead of the safe formulaic shonenslop crunchyroll pushes". The post garnered over 760 reposts and 3,200 likes.

In August 2024, the format saw more use on iFunny.^[7]

In early November 2024, the caption format regained popularity on X / Twitter. For example, on November 3rd, 2024, X^[8] user @KnightTimeBlue posted a meme about fighting games that received over 6,100 reposts and 54,000 likes in two weeks (shown below).