Kansai TV has announced that Meru Nukumi will play the heroine Mio Kashiwabara in the upcoming live-action series based on Tohru Fujisawa's GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka manga. Kashiwabara serves as the assistant homeroom teacher for the class taught by the titular character.
Nukumi, who previously appeared in the live-action Sexy Tanaka-san and My Hero Academia: You're Next, expressed surprise at playing a teacher, having imagined herself as a student when watching reruns of earlier live-action adaptations. Kashiwabara is depicted as a pragmatic and efficient teacher who maintains distance from students and colleagues to avoid conflict, but finds her methods challenged when she clashes with Onizuka.
The new series, a sequel to previous adaptations, finds a 52-year-old Onizuka teaching at Seishin Academy, an institution focused on grooming future leaders. The school employs a tablet-based system for information dissemination and anonymous teacher rankings, which Onizuka, now considered problematic for his direct methods, must navigate alongside educational commercialization and social media pressures. Takashi Sorimachi returns to the role of Eikichi Onizuka after 28 years, with Satoru Nakajima and Kazuhiko Yukawa also returning as director and scriptwriter, respectively. The series is set to premiere on Kansai TV, Fuji TV, and affiliated channels on July 20.
The original GTO manga ran from 1997 to 2002, spawning multiple live-action adaptations, specials, and films, as well as anime. The franchise also includes sequels like GTO: Shonan 14 Days and GTO: Paradise Lost. The 1999 anime adaptation is highly regarded, holding an 8.68 score on MyAnimeList from nearly 450,000 voters and was animated by Studio Pierrot.
Source: Anime News Network(ANN) (https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2026-05-08/new-live-action-gto-great-teacher-onizuka-series-casts-meru-nukumi/.237196)
