Be-Bop Highschool

A forgotten gem. If you are into studying Japan's peak Bubble Era economy time, this would be a great addition to your list. It excellently captures the mindset of people at the time- and shows a perspective of young adulthood. Full of hardship, turmoil, romance and of course, violence.

I would say this series inspired many other shows that came after it. It has this pure feeling about its story. As if you were there experiencing that time with the characters. The story is set, stark in the late 1980s and emerging into early 1990's. The characters are delightfully cast into predicaments that can only ... pertain to that era. Like getting lost in an unfamiliar neighboring district in the bustling metropolis that is Tokyo with no directions or information. That kind of story is what you'll see here.

The stereotypical masculine storyline is also there to be admired. You just do not see this kind of depiction of Japan in current media anymore and this show is a shining example of that. Highly recommened if you are into this type of violent story.

DISCLAIMER: This is a review I did on anilist just copy pasted here. It is spoiler-free as well.

The delinquent/yankii subculture was very popular in Japan during the 1970s-1990s, which in turn became reflected in its pop culture during this time. The delinquent manga was a very popular sub-genre during the 1980s-1990s being reflective of its era, with its pompadour worn protagonists and side characters exploring the lives of their youth as they get into fights with rival gangs, experience romance, form stronger comradery with their friends, among many other exciting adventures. This subgenre created many popular series that stand as some of the most iconic ... and best-selling manga to this day such as Rokudenashi Blues, Crows, Bad Boys, and the title I'm reviewing right now, Be-Bop High School. Despite being hugely popular, almost all of the manga in this sub-genre never got TV anime series (The only examples of tv delinquent anime are Otoko Ippiki Gaki-Daishō from the late 60s, Hareluya Boy from the late 90s, and just recently Tokyo Revengers which will be getting a TV anime next year) only ever getting live-action (Film series and TV series) adaptations. This is due to a variety of reasons like underage smoking being banned on TV which is a common trope in these series, delinquency being a big social problem in Japan during this time, the success of the live-action market, among many other reasons. With the success of the OVA market starting in the later part of the 80s, a lot of popular delinquent manga managed to get adapted as OVAs (In this case there was a lot more creative freedom, and they wouldn't have to deal with strict guidelines/censorship adapting these series as OVAs in comparison to attempting to do the same as a TV series). Now, this brings us to Be-Bop High School, which was adapted by Toei Animation (Who also did other delinquent OVAs) as 7 50 minute OVAs (Except the last one which was 40 mins) between 1990 to 1998.

Compared to the other delinquent OVAs I have watched this is one of the better adaptations that is decently well made and treats its source material with care. This is a pretty great delinquent OVA series that encapsulates a lot of the qualities that I love so much about the genre. It has great humour/funny gags, a good cast of characters with their own interesting chemistry/behaviour, natural world-building, and just some very fun hijinks/adventures we get to enjoy. I also feel like it understands the appeal and charm of its genre very well, managing to avoid a lot of the cliches/pitfalls and annoying writing you might come upon in some delinquent manga (Ex: Protagonist being a superhuman who never loses, lack of focus on the characterization or the lives of the characters with gang fights occurring all the time, style over substance).

I say this as on the surface it may appear repetitive and lose its charm very quickly with this duo of characters (Hiroshi and Tooru) trying to get girls while running into hijinks with rival gangs. But as mentioned before it understands the appeal/popularity of genre very well, adding a lot of variety to these adventures. Instead, focusing time to explore the daily lives of these cast of characters, which also organically help build into larger world-building (Our protagonists occasionally travel to other prefectures/cities going about their lives/to pick up girls and running into minor characters or antagonists who soon become a major part of the cast and become more fleshed out, as well as the setting they come from), characterization, as well as the larger conflict with gangs/romance and its use of humour. Episode 5 is my favourite episode in this series and very clearly highlights what I'm talking about, as with some other delinquent series it would have resulted in some generic gang fight but goes in very interesting/funny directions I didn't expect.

The character design for this series is great, a very effective art style that manages to capture the various moods and expressions of these wacky characters. The art direction and direction of these episodes are fine, they're nothing special but certainly not bad (There are some standout moments though like the beginning of episode 6 or the use darkness/light in some episodes to highlight the tense mood/danger of a particular scene like the dart gamble scene from episode 2 or the train shot during the night in episode 6 reflecting the protagonists piercing eyes in the shadows during a fight). The fights themselves were fine, some were very great, particularly those from the earlier episodes. However a good chunk of them in the later episodes definitely could have been improved as after a while, some of them looked less unique (Particularly due to the direction and perhaps a tight budget in some areas with the use of close/limited shots). Overall, this is a great delinquent anime, and I highly recommend it to fans of this genre and people who have some interest in it. It sucks that it ended kind of abruptly but I'll take what I can get (Especially since the manga is still being translated to this day and probably won't be finished for well over a decade lol).

Episode ranking: 5>6>4>3>2>1>7

This is a very good and well executed old-school anime about high-school delinquent gangs and all the cliches in terms of portrayal you would expect from that sort of premise and age of animation.

Unlike other delinquent anime, this one focuses more on conflicts and fighting, yet there are still elements of comedy and goofiness, which lighten the mood. But do not expect Cromartie High School tier of comedy. It is episodic, which means that each 1-hour episode is a self-contained story, however, it's chronological so the outcomes of one episode carry to the next.

Episode 5 is probably the funniest one. Overall, a very good ... delinquent series recommended to all fans of the delinquent genre.