BANCHŌ & SUKEBAN - Japan’s Delinquent SCHOOL GANGS

Japan, as conservative and organized as it may be, is no exception when it comes to the existence of juvenile crime, which actually saw a significant rise in the Land of the Rising Sun from the 1950s up until the 1970s in particular, so much so that a form of organized crime crept its way into a place that should be a safe space for future generations: High School.
Bullies who take your lunch money and small groups of delinquents can be found in pretty much every school worldwide, but in early post-war Japan, these fairly harmless crimes were taken to a new level, at least in terms of scale and organization.
Violence, intimidation and theft was the bread & butter of the “Banchō” and “Sukeban” groups of young Japanese delinquents who managed to strike an interesting balance between being an innocent student and being part of an actual gang.
Today, I wanna take a look at the rise of youth delinquency in post-war Japan, the gang-like structures that found their way into schools AND the impact that the Banchō & Sukeban ended up having on pop culture!

#japan #highschool #gangs

SOURCES:

CHAPTERS:

00:00 - Intro
01:41 - “Oh, Mistake!”
04:52 - Banchō
11:03 - Sukeban

[anikihistory]

Hey everyone!

You might wonder why the voiceover starting at 11:06 sounds like it was recorded with a calculator! Well, due to a copyright claim I had to remove the music for that part of the video :( better than losing all my ad revenue for this one over a 2-minute long song, though! Hope you enjoy the video regardless!

[jonpaul]

That gangster hairstyle is so prominent in the 80/90s anime😂. Yuyu hakusho is one of them

[trorisk]

15-17yo in 1970's... Now they are 65+... Crazy.

[benjamanrottens]

To everyone who likes this japanese subculture i really recomend:
''GodspeedYou Black Emperor'' Documentary about bosozoku gang
''Blue Spring'' Film made based on a manga about a school gang
''Bad Company'' manga, GTO and shonan jun ai gumi prequel, great story and the beginning Onizuka and ryuichi's friendship.
''Rokudenashi Blues'' manga, ''the good for nothing blues'' tells the story of a young delinquent that becomes a boxer
''Crows'' 90's manga, this is popular but in the original manga you can even find music recommended by the mangaka and he explains a little bit of himself and what inspires him.

Those are some of my favorites that i can remember right now

[RonaldoSanchez-gy]

My moms best friend was a Marine aid de camp Lt. second grade something or other, stationed in Okinawa. Or maybe a captain, whatever. She was telling us about this motorcycle gang on Okinawa that was obsessed with Elvis from "Jailhouse Rock", trying to style their hair, dress, look and talk the same way as Elvis in Jailhouse Rock. She said it was the most surreal thing she saw on Okinawa.

[teachmeguitar]

That photo on the right just made the past two or three decades of watching anime make all new sense to me.

[touchm]

0:49 i just love how Jojo portrayed the look so accurately lol

[CanoaFurada-uklr]

Your channel was one of the most fun things I discovered this year. You picked all things I really like to dig in about Japanese history and make such a cool content that I can't stop watching. Congratulations!

[benjamanrottens]

yes! japanese street culture or delinquent culture is something i've been searching information since i was a kid, love this content! thanks ANIKI

[angelamason]

Back in the early nineties I used to battle with the local bancho and his crew. I shut them down and eventually we showed each other respect. The bancho eventually died on a motorcycle in 95.He was the baddest bancho ever and his name was Yasuto. I was truly sad to hear about his passing.

[b.b.e.a.]

I always wondered why Sailor Jupiter/Makoto, contrary to the others, was wearing a longer school skirt . She is also fighting back boys and a "tougher character" in general. Interesting to see that this is a reference to the sukeban 😲🤩

[bravo]

I only knew of these two through Japanese pop culture, so your video is greatly appreciated as it’s fascinating to glimpse the reality that inspired the entertainment. Subscribed!

[giantred]

Thank you SO much for an early holiday gift, I love delinquent manga/anime so much so this is right up my alley ^_^

[DanJackson]

Bancho also had a big influence on video games via the Kunio Kun series, which gave birth to the "beat em up" genre. The first game, Nekketsu Renegade Kunio-kun.. localized in the West as "Renegade" and was given a "Warriors" movie makover, which then spun off to the Double Dragon series. The whole "take their lunch money" and "bicycle chain / metal pipe" thing was brought into the series with "Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari" (River City Ransom in the West)... and years later the Scott Pilgrim comic and film used the whole "beat em up, get money" as part of that universe, though the original "delinquent" intent had been lost.

[bluefalcon]

As an american this is very interesting. I grew up around gangs and became friend with a good amount of gang members. Of course Japanese delinquent gangs are on a MUCH smaller scale than American gangs (I mean they're school kids) but I see patterns of behavior between them and the people I knew growing up

[Neomalthusiano]

This guy from the thumbnail is real life Kwabara from Yuyu Hakusho. This explains a lot about his gang and Yusuke's.

[dottieland]

My dad told me so many stories, they were seriously bad ass. The way they used to walk around and people used to part around them. But my father ended up joining the military and retiring from there. He said the military straightened him out.
He really didn’t and still does not like Americans as they bombed his home Hiroshima and killed older siblings. I think he was a bancho.

[Lazyplturtle]

Happy holidays ANIKI, still loving your videos man. Keep it up! You are doing awesome.

[ReaperPLUR]

The greatest piece of information i learned from this is that the hairstyles in jojos bizarre adventure werent some insane imagination, but insane real life hairstyles 😂

[ellendolloff]

Thank you so much for this great production. Guess gangs are in every country.