Genres: Drama

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Ten years after the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, much of the country was still recovering from its post-war occupation by allied forces. Seven young men are incarcerated in the Shonan Special Disciplinary School near Tokyo. Prison would have been a better term for the Shonan as they are beaten by a sadistic guard, named Ishihara, on a regular basis. This series starts with the six newcomers being transported in and dropped in a cell with an 18 year old named Sakuragi “Bro” Rokurouta.

Thinking that they need to prove their dominance to Rokurouta, they engage him in a six-on-one brawl. This ends with the six of them on the floor, soundly beaten. The series provides a brief introduction to the characters as they begin to grow together as a group. Miankami “Mario” Mario who was imprisoned for defending a girl against an attack by her teacher, Maeda “Turtle” Noboru for theft and running cons, Matsuura “Cabbage” Mansaku for assaulting a man while drunk, Nomoto “Uncovered” Ryuji for theft and running cons, Tohyama “Soldier” Tadayoshi for kidnapping and assault, and Yokosuka “Joe” Jou for taking revenge on his adoptive father who sexually assaulted him.

In the first of two characters who we get to learn a bit about are Jou and Noboru. Jou’s mother abandoned him and his sister at an orphanage. The orphanage, run by a woman who also sexually assaulted Jou, ran as a front for pedophiles to adopt children to abuse. Jou escapes the prison school in an attempt to stop the same fate from befalling his sister Megumi. She was already adopted (sold to) a pervert of a man and told Jou that she had to live her own life, as to not be a burden on him anymore. Tearfully she turned away when the police captured him again, thanking him for his support until then.

Noboru’s father was a drunk and beat his mother and sister. Usually Noboru would take his sister over the nearby mountains when he knew his father would be drunk to spare her the abuse. One day, however, Noboru set out alone to get some time to himself. It was on this day an atomic bomb leveled the city and he was left alone in the world, blaming himself for his little sister’s death.

The other characters’ backgrounds are assumed to be fleshed out soon as we see a good deal of depth behind the first two “troubled youth” the system would rather discard. Thus far, some seem to be good kids who were punished for taking the right (yet violent) side in a dispute. We shall see if the rest are more than thugs as the series progresses. This series delves in to a dark place in Japan’s history and seems to be leading to a continuing story outside of the correctional facility.

Overall Hook Rating: B