Satire and Subversion: Counter-Narratives of Education in Great Teacher Onizuka and Heaven Official’s Blessing

• In Event: Critical Media Engagements

Abstract

This paper explores how popular culture functions as a pedagogical space for challenging dominant narratives of education and power. Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) and Heaven Official’s Blessing (HOB) offer two distinct yet interconnected critiques of neoliberal education and state control. GTO, a satirical anime and manga, subverts Japan’s rigid educational hierarchies, highlighting the absurdities of standardized schooling through the unconventional pedagogy of Eikichi Onizuka. Meanwhile, HOB, a subversive Chinese web novel and anime, critiques state surveillance and censorship through the journey of Xie Lian, a banished god navigating oppressive structures. This paper employs critical pedagogy, feminist ethics of care, and Foucault’s theories on surveillance to examine how these texts reimagine educators as figures of resistance. By juxtaposing their satirical and subversive approaches, this study illuminates how cultural narratives shape perceptions of education, mentorship, and agency in a time of increasing global authoritarianism.

Author

• Mila Zhu, Southeastern Oklahoma State University