How Real-Life Gangs Changed Japanese Cinema, Television, And Anime Forever

In the 1970s and 1980s, Japanese citizens walking on the street at night were probably afraid of one thing. It would start with the roaring sound of dozens of motorcycle engines being pushed to their limit. The riders didn't look like traditional Japanese men. They dyed their hair in vibrant colors, wore long jackets, and wielded bats or wooden katanas while yelling threats at other drivers and pedestrians. The bosozoku, as they were known, were biker gangs that ruled the streets of Japanese cities, and people had good reasons to both fear and respect them.

The bosozoku were known for their violence, but also for following a strict code of honor. They would frequently taunt people and ambush members of other gangs, but they would also display tremendous respect for the older members of the group, and subject themselves to physical punishment if they offended their peers. Membership in a group like that would only appeal to young individuals with violent tendencies, which they found regularly in high schools.

Delinquent students, also known as yankiis, were usually seen wearing highly customized uniforms and adopting the sophisticated regent as their hairstyle. They were usually seen chain-smoking and fighting to prove their masculinity and saw their behavior as a continuation of the spirit of the samurai. As such, it wasn't easy for equally rebellious women to enter these groups, which is why they created their own.

The increasing number of sukeban gangs only made them scarier. As encounters became more frequent, stories of the gang's crimes, love triangles, and revenge started to spread, reaching the ears of TV and film producers. Unfortunately, the topics were not appropriate for the dramas and anime series being broadcast at the time. It was, however, ideal for exploitation films.

Pinky violence was an exploitation subgenre that focused on sex, mobster violence, and female revenge. 1973's "Sex and Fury," for example, tells the story of a 17th-century, sword-wielding female gambler in search of the men who killed her father. "Female Yakuza Tale," the sequel released in the same year, focuses on a mystery revolving around yakuza. Both films are filled with gratuitous nudity and well-directed action scenes, which could be easily adapted to feature sukeban gangs.

Despite the erotic scenes and violence, sukeban pinky films would also focus on Japanese women demonstrating their ability to survive without men and fight back against a conservative society that wanted to assign them submissive roles. Movies such as "Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss" and "Terrifying Girl's High School: Lynch Law Classroom," featuring actresses like Reiko Ike and Miki Sugimoto, would focus on rival gangs realizing they were more powerful by joining forces against corrupt politicians or yakuza trying to control them. The result was that sukeban were transformed from feared thugs into antiheroes.

Japanese TV shows faced harsh competition in the 1980s. While an adaptation of the classic sukeban detective genre would provide younger audiences with a combination of drama, mystery, and action, the shows cast popular singers as their lead actors to ensure that the audience would tune in.

The first season of "Sukeban Deka" was led by singer Yuki Saito. But after she left the show to work on her singing career, the series had to cast another actress. This time, the story followed a different girl who adopted the name of the original Sukeban Deka, Saki Asamiya, as a codename. She was accompanied by two new sidekicks using marbles and martial arts as weapons, a sign of the progressively complex plots that other series would follow in order to maintain viewership.

During the next few years, new sukeban-like shows would emerge. "Hana no Asuka-gumi!" was adapted in 1988 into a TV drama, in which the protagonist has to use a golden coin to fight against enemies who use increasingly ridiculous weaponry ranging from bamboo stilts to boomerangs. "Sailor Suit Rebel Alliance" takes things even further, as three female students use a powerful scarf, sharp pencils, and gloves with metal knuckles to fight their enemies. If "Sukeban Deka" was at this point fighting ninjas and zombies, the girls from "Sailor Suit Rebel Alliance" were facing ghosts, teachers with mind-controlling powers, and mad scientists. It was, for all intents and purposes, a superhero show.

The influence of sukeban and yankii characters can be seen in various anime productions from the 1990s. Sanosuke Sagara from "Rurouni Kenshin" is an excellent example of a period character, displaying the classic bosozoku jacket and bandages, who is later revealed to be a good person. This type of arc became a trope, exemplified by other characters like Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara from"Yu Yu Hakusho." Protagonists like Utena Tenjou from "Revolutionary Girl Utena" have also been heavily influenced by the rebellious attitudes of young delinquents, only following their own path instead of the classic character tropes.

Probably one of the most important manga of the era is "Crows." It tells the story of Bouya, a young man who transfers to a school where all the problematic students are sent. Ironically, Bouya fights because he finds it fun, not because he hates people. Over the course of the story, we see the students become friends, and reflect on whether the path they are following will bring them happiness. It's a coming-of-age story that takes advantage of delinquent characters to inspire reflection.

Yankii culture continued to influence character designs like Jotaro Kujo and Josuke Higashikata from "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure." In addition, more yankii-focused comedies were released to great success, including "Great Teacher Onizuka," about a teacher who used to be a bosozoku, and "Cromartie School," a progressively surreal comedy that includes a Freddie Mercury lookalike, a gorilla, and a robot.

The popularity of yankii, bosozoku, and sukeban characters kept the genre alive for decades, but by the 2010s, manga and anime writers had to come up with fresh takes to subvert audience expectations and provide interesting stories. Bakugo from "Boku no Hero Academia" is a great example, as the writers used his unbuttoned high school uniform and his tendency to bully other students to quickly establish his aggressive tendencies. However, as the series progresses, the audience discovers that his anger against Deku comes from a fear of weakness, and he eventually starts demonstrating his heroic tendencies.

Two characters from manga writer One are other excellent examples of the creative use of yankii characters. Metal Bat from "One Punch Man" displays the classic modified uniform, hairstyle, and disrespectful attitude, but when a threat emerges so does his heroic personality. Tenga Onigawara from "Mob Psycho 100" is presented as a classic young delinquent at Mob's school. But instead of establishing him as a bully, the character is used to demonstrate how easily people can turn their back on someone they already held specific beliefs about.

Ryuko, from "Kill la Kill," has a unique relationship with the sukeban genre. Her aggressive and skeptical attitude is used as a way to provide audiences with a point-of-view character who is increasingly surprised by the absurd traditions of Honnouji School. It's also a direct reference to the "Sukeban Deka" live-action adaptations, as she wears a similar uniform and red gloves, and the ending is clearly a shot-by-shot reinterpretation of the TV series finale.

Despite their once immense numbers, yankii and sukeban gangs seem to be, for the most part, a thing of the past. In an interview with a former bosozoku gang leader, it becomes evident that groups that used to have dozens of members, and belong to an alliance with thousands of bikers, today have trouble gathering more than five teenagers. The older members of the gangs have either died, been arrested, or gotten manual labor jobs like demolishing houses or fixing streets. Sukeban gangs, on the other hand, are apparently non-existent.

Some attribute the disappearance of the movement to the development of new law enforcement strategies. The police gradually reduced their numbers by collecting information about the identity and activities of the most dangerous members and then proceeding to arrest them. This severely reduced gang activity after the 1980s. Of course, that doesn't mean that Japanese youth haven't found other ways to express themselves.

The globalization of pop culture and the emergence of the internet as a means of communication mean that young Japanese men and women are now able to discover more niche interests and find people to share them with more easily. They can join a group dedicated to buying and modifying vans, or adopt a gyaru look that imitates Western clothing styles and tans. In other words, the need for aggressive acts of rebellion has disappeared, leaving teenagers with more socially acceptable but still unique ways of expressing themselves.