This movie is a teenage boys fantasy where the school has no teachers but individual clubs or gangs. And the only goal is to become top by fighting their way up. This has been a popular concept for a while and there is quite a bit of comics and even movies that portray this. Movies like "Volcano High", "Go" and "Blue Spring" comes to mind. But this movie is strictly about fighting and building reputation and number of gang members. The story is like a war happening in school and the only education is to build a reputation and be notorious for being the best fighter in Suzuran High. While having a bit of rivalry going between to gangs. One is Serizawa's gang which starts off as a notorious gang in Suzuran High for being close to the top gang and the other is this new guy named Genji. And Genji's main goal is to best his own father who is a boss in the yakuza and to do that he must become the top fighter in Suzuran High. But instead of showing both sides of the story this movie focuses just about only on Genji and how he builds his reputation and gang members. And makes a group called GPS in order to take over the school. I guess there is more meat to the story when it comes to a character that starts from nothing than a character that already has a big reputation and a large number of gang members. But the thing is personally liked Serizawa more than Genji since he doesn't try to be overly cool all the time. A bit dorky and bright while being cool and having a code of honor. And would liked some of his back-story as well. But that isn't the case and it only focuses on Genji's gang. This has all the rival gang in high school elements in this movie and can sometimes come of just plain ridiculous and senseless even if this flick is based on a manga. In fact when it comes to the characters and such it sticks really close to the manga although this movie is a prequel. The fight scenes are nothing special everyone has only one style of fighting which is brawling and that is understandable but it doesn't have memorable fight scenes. Except maybe the final battle where Serizawa's gang and GPS gang face off with three different things going on. Overall if you like high school teenage rebels style of movie with a lot of fights than this one is a sure watch. Meisa Kuroki is also in this but doesn't add much to the story besides being the very few female in this flick and also adding to the teenage boys fantasy of winning the girl at the end.
7.5/10
7.5/10