Despite being on the younger side of the age spectrum amongst the GLORIO crew, it seems that most of my favorite OPs and EDs are classics. Not sure if that says anything about me, but it’s not changing today. For this week’s OP/ED Op-Eds, I’d like to feature a special favorite of mine, “Driver’s High” from the classic comedy-drama, GTO.
“Driver’s High” by the notoriously spelled L’Arc-en-Ciel is hands down one of my favorite OPs of all time, and for good reason too. It’s a song that perfectly sums up everything that GTO is about. It’s a classic 90s rock tune, defiant, free, and rebellious, perfectly meshing with the stylized visuals that accompany it. It’s an OP that makes an impression, with the first 10 seconds literally being the eponymous Onizuka (Age 22, virgin) flushing a toilet and emerging from the bathroom completely naked, before proceeding to committing random acts of vandalism and driving recklessly. If that’s not a good primer on what Onizuka’s all about, nothing is.
GTO and Onizuka himself are a lot of things. Crass, hilarious, vulgar, inspiring, but on top of all those things, undeniably awesome, and its first opening hits you in the face with that first impression and rides off with it. In a lot of ways, it’s a perfect OP for the end of an era. Released in 1999, GTO was a swan song for the 90s, bringing to a close an era of themes, archetypes, and narratives (Expect a lot more OP/Ed Op-Eds from me featuring 90s anime). But we got one hell of an OP out of it.
The Glorio Blog 
GTO in general has a pretty good soundtrack I think. While I’m not a huge fan of ‘Driver’s High’ (no reason in particular, it just doesn’t seem to grab me as much as it does other people), I do really like the second OP, Porno Graffitti’s ‘Hitori No Yoru’.
Ha, I’m glad somebody mentioned GTO’s 2nd OP. Believe me, I had a hard time choosing between the two because honestly, they’re equally catchy, but in the end I went with “Driver’s High” because it’s what gave me my first taste of GTO and got me interested in the series in the first place. Both of them are GTO in essence though.