Time and time again we have observed that highschool is one of the most popular settings when it comes to anime and manga.
Almost all kinds of genre and demographic have been explored with this setting, but most of these series have young students as the main focus.
Today we have handpicked a list of manga that actually turns the spotlight on the teachers and mentors in these high school settings. Below are five high school manga with teachers as their main protagonists.
Best high school mangas with protagonist teachers
Assassination Classroom
Out of all the protagonists on this list Koro-sensei might be the most unique one. The extremely powerful tentacled alien-professor threatened to destroy earth after destroying the moon.
Story follows the Government tasking his students, who are a bunch of misfits, to eliminate the threat. Koro-sensei is also one of the best teachers for his students, who are actively trying to go after his life.
This whole premise alone makes the series an emotional investment and a page-turner worth including in this list.
Gokusen
One of the lesser known series in this list, follows a story of the granddaughter of a Yakuza boss. Kumiko Yamaguchi is next in line to become the family head, but her dream is to become a school teacher.
She takes over a class of delinquents in an all boys school as the home room teacher. The story follows Kumiko trying to change her students for the better as a good mentor while trying to hide her identity as a yakuza’s granddaughter.
Hi Score Girl DASH
This one is a sequel spin-off to one really popular series, the original ‘Hi Score Girl’. Similar to the original, it follows the setting of arcade video game culture, specifically the competitive fighting game culture.
The main character is Hidaka Koharu, one of the characters from the prequel manga. Hidaka is now in her 30s and a tired high school teacher trying to stay away from video games and focus on doing her job.
But things don’t generally turn out that monotonous as we slowly find out that Hidaka still wants to play fighting games, and it’s only a matter of time before her students find out.
Shiori Experience
This one is quite interesting, it follows the story of Shiori Honda, an ordinary high school teacher who wanted to be a musician and have her own band, but that dream was cut short due to reasons.
Things take an interesting turn when suddenly we find her being haunted by the ghost of legendary blues guitarist Jimmy Hendrix.
The manga follows Shiori trying to get music back into her life while forming a band with her students, and doing the best she can as their teacher. It is a love letter to anyone who is a fan of hard rock and blues music from the 60s and 70s, as the whole series is sprinkled with references to that.
Great Teacher Onizuka
There’s no way we could have omitted GTO from a list about High School manga teachers. This series follows the life of a 22 year old ex-bike gang member, Eikichi Onizuka, and his pursuit to leave his past behind and turn into a great teacher.
Initially Onizuka is shown to pursue this career as a teacher for perverted and wrong reasons, but that slowly changes as he actually becomes a mentor figure to a lot of the students who initially disliked him throughout the show.
Even though this manga is about the occupation of a mentorship, it focuses on the character development and growth of the teacher, and brings Onizuka to the limelight. GTO shows that mentors can grow and change as much as their students can, and learn from each other.
From Now On We Begin Ethics
Also called ‘Koko wa Ima kara Rinri desu’ is probably the most genuine inclusion in this list because this manga actually focuses on the act of teaching. Takayanagi is a highschool teacher in charge of the subject of ethics.
Ethics is a subject that is all about determining the good and bad qualities in a person and imparting morals. Students in Takayanagi’s class are rowdy, disrespectful and have their own issues to deal with. He turns out to be the teacher who can help them approach their problems.
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei
This is another weird inclusion to the list. Roughly translates to ‘Goodbye, Mr. Despair’ is about Nozomu Itoshiki, a highschool teacher who is overly pessimistic, something absolutely unlikely for a teacher to be.
Each episode in this series revolves around Japanese culture and language, often touching on philosophical discourses.
The series actually starts off with the teacher trying to hang himself from a tree, and in an odd turn of events, one of his students actually tries to save him.
Even though she kind of ends up almost killing him. Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sense is an odd inclusion to this whole list because it is a series where the relationship roles between a teacher and a student are reversed sometimes.
Denpa Kyoushi
Written and illustrated by Takeshi Azuma, the title Denpa Kyoushi also translates to ‘Ultimate Otaku Teacher’, which gives a hint to the kind of story readers can expect.
Following the main character Kagami Junichirou, who was a genius in the field of physics at a very young age, but lost his interest in the subject too soon, only to end up as a shut-in otaku. Junichirou’s sister manages to kick him into a productive job life as a teacher at his old high school.
Initially reluctant, Junichirou slowly starts falling in love with the occupation and even helps save one of his students from becoming a victim of bullying.
As much as it is a manga showing the main character as a teacher, Denpa Kyoushi is also about growing up and taking responsibilities, and falling in love with the next chapter of your life. It sends a positive message to people coming of age.
Interviews With Monster Girls
‘Demi-chan wa Kataritai’ or ‘Interviews With Monster Girls’ is a show that puts a twist on this sub-genre of manga that utilizes teachers as the main characters.
The original manga is written and illustrated by Petosu, and then, later in the winter of 2017, an anime adaptation that A-1 Pictures worked on finally aired. The story follows a biology teacher named Tetsuo Takahashi with a fascination for ‘demi’.
Demis are short for ‘demi-humans’ in the world of this manga, referring to half-human beings who have slowly assimilated into regular human society.
Our main character, Takahashi, wants to learn more about them. Thus, the story follows him conducting interviews with a bunch of other significant characters, who make up the rest of the interesting bits of this wonderful manga.
‘Interviews With Monster Girls‘ is a manga that is made colorful with its student cast around the main teacher character. Along with sprinkling in supernatural elements that blend really well with the atmosphere of the show, which leans towards slice of life.
The Royal Tutor
The Royal Tutor written and illustrated by Higasi Akai, is a manga that follows our main teacher character in an important role, where his duties might shape the future of the country of Grannzreich.
But the responsibility of being the tutor of a royal family can be overwhelming if the students refuse to accept the teacher.
Such is the story of Heine Wittgenstein, who is given charge of the most prestigious position in the country of Grannzreich, to be the one to look after the four princes’ education, so that one of them may succeed the throne.
The Royal Tutor is a funny spin on this type of manga, as it pits a teacher main character who visually looks like a child, against a cast of younger characters who are much taller than he and of royal lineage. It’s a fun comedy series that toys with the themes of earning respect and giving it back.
An anime adaptation for The Royal Tutor, licensed by Funimation and created by the studio Bridge, was also aired in 2017, and an hour-long film by Tear Studio that was released in 2019
