REAL MEN have had it hard in today's teenage-girl-and-scary-otaku-focused anime culture, but the fan translating community is bringing about change. First up is the recently-fansubbed first episode of Sakigake!! (Charge!!) Otokojuku. Two exclamation points is how you know they mean business. You might recognize the "Charge!!" title from Cromartie High School: now you know what it was making fun of. Otokojuku is a MAN SCHOOL that forcibly recruits teenaged delinquents and transforms them, through rigorous and often homoerotic training, into REAL MEN who will, one day, lead Japan into the future. The episode ends with our heroes pissing off a mountain together.
Here is a transcript of the next episode preview, which I think sums up the content and attitude of the show more concisely than I ever could:
"Yo! This is Momotaro! Men are beings of physical strength. Some guys do pull-ups on the side of the train during their commute. From Koiwa on the Sobu line to Ochanomizu, every day without fail. My, that spirit! That's Otokojuku! If you know anyone around you like that, let me know! Next time! Roar, Otokojuku! We Will Not Forgive Those In Our Way!"
Next, we have the recent scanlated release of what is possibly the baddest-assed, manliest thing I've ever read short of Mad Bull 34: BLASTER KNUCKLE. Here is its premise: Black Guts (left) is an former pro boxer in 1885 America who hunts and kills Ku Klux Klan members. Why? Because they ate his father. That's right: the Klan is actually an army of shape-shifting man-eating demons. Make a note of it. The only way to kill them is BLASTER FUCKING KNUCKLE, which I won't spoil for you. I don't even really want to supply sample pages; it'll ruin the "holy shit wow" of the whole thing. I will tell you this: this shit is so ultimate that you've got to read it right now.
I barely even think of Otokojuku 1 as manly now, because I've seen the later episodes and they totally bury it!
I should probably finish editing ep 3 sometime.
Posted by: astrange | June 06, 2007 at 09:30 PM
I am so glad that more people are learning of Otokojuku. Yes, it loses its way eventually but man, those early episodes are just amazing.
As much as Hokuto no Ken pretty much defined the 'Apocalypse Warrior' style, Otokojuku is the pattern for so much that has followed. So multi layered.
It wins just for the Op credit if nothing else.
Posted by: Steve Harrison | June 06, 2007 at 09:42 PM
This show brings me back to a happy time when men were men, and boys were men, and everyone was bulked to hell and understood the importance of manly friendships. Today's kids watch crap like Naruto and Bleach with metrosexual faggots for protagonists, and it sickens me.
Posted by: BotageL | June 07, 2007 at 05:03 PM