[Crows Zero Series] – Background of the Crows Zero series

[Crows Zero Series] – Background of the Crows Zero series

 

The Crows Zero movie series highlights the story of Takiya Genji, a senior who came to ‘dominate’ Suzuran High School, the so called ‘High School of crows. During the first episode, Takyia Genji makes his own clan, GPS (Genii Perfect Seiha, Seiha means dominance or conquer in Japanese) against the original strongest force of Suzuran High School ‘Serizawa Corps’ led by Serizawa Tamao. The second episode depicts how Takiya Genji unites GPS and Serizawa Crops to resolve the prolonged conflict between Suzuran High School and its arch enemy, Housen Academy.  The Crows Zero series became one of the most vivid academy-violence action film presenting unique characters and action.

 

 

The Crows Zero movie series is a prequel of the manga/comic ‘Crows’ written by Hiroshi Takahashi(高橋ヒロシ). The characters and contents of the movies weren’t officially part of the Crows manga/comic series. However, upon the premier of the Crows Zero film and the success of the second episode, the story was officially incorporated into the Crows manga/comic as well and a spin off manga/comic was published. The contents and history of the Crows series still continues in the ‘High and Low’ TV series in Japan as well which shows how influential the series was.

 

 

While watching the Crows Zero movie series, some characters and story parts of the movie seems awkward but take a substantial part of the film. However, many of the seemingly awkward time-consuming scenes were substantial in connecting the Crows Zero movie series with the original Crows manga/comic series. With some background knowledge of the Crows comic/manga series, it is easier to understand why such emphasis was given to seemingly non important characters and scenes.

 

 

The original Crows comic/manga series is the 3-year story of Bouya Harumichi(坊屋 春道), who has transferred to Suzuran High School as a junior. The time period of the Crows manga/comic series is after 1 year of the Crows Zero series.

 

 

The main characters of the Crows Zero series mostly graduated during the starting point of the Crows comic/manga series. The Crows Zero movie series were a prequel that wasn’t intended to be a part of the Crows manga/comic series, so many characters including the main characters of the movie weren’t in the comic/manga. However, there are many main characters of the Crows comic/manga who served as a connecting point between the movie and the comic/manga.   

Such characters include Bandou Hideto(Member of the ‘Front of Armament’ in the first episode of Crows Zero), Bitou Tatsuya(the younger brother of Housen Academy’s former boss Bitou Makio from episode 2), the Ebizuka Trio, Makoto Sugihara, Toshiaki Honjou and Hiromi Kirishima(The trio that takes over the freshman in episode 1 and episode 2 who interacts with Izaki Shuun a lot), and Rindaman(the most powerful personnel throughout the movie and the comics.)

 

 

The main narrator of the Crows comic/manga series is the Ebizuka Trio. During the Crows Zero movie series, the trio takes a substantial portion of the scenes, however they never played a crucial role during the clash between Takiya Genji’s GPS and Serizawa Tamao’s Seirzawa Crops nor the clash between Housen Academy and Suzuran High School. As the trio play a crucial role in helping Bouya Harumichi , the protagonist of the Crows comic series, if the trio already had a major history, it would have substantially damaged the original comics /manga plot.

Thus, it seems the Ebizuka Trio don’t play a crucial role but take a large portion of the movie series as a link between the movie series and the comic/manga series.

 

 

Kirishima Hiromi is the character, mostly depicted as the leader of the trio in the movie series. Honjou Toshiaki is the character with a white mask on while Sugihara Makoto is the character with the unique pig tail hair style.

 

Honjou Toshiak, Kirishima Hiromi Sugihara Makoto (From Left to Right)

 

Although Kirishima is depicted much as the leader in the movie, in the Crows comic/manga, Sugihara Makoto is probably the best fighter among the trio. As the Crows Zero series prospered and the spinoff comics/manga of Crows Zero was published, scenes with Sugihara Makoto fighting with Takiya Geji were added.

 

Kirishima Hiromi Honjou Toshiak,Sugihara Makoto (From Left to Right)

 

One of the most popular group in the Crows comics/manga is the ‘Front of Armament’. The leather jackets of the Front of Armament are popular among the original comics/manga fans. The Front of Armament is a biker group lead by one leader which is also known as the ‘head’ and 4 members known as the ‘elite four’. The symbol of this group is the skull drawn on the back of their jackets. During episode 1 of the movie Crows Zero, Takiya Genji was able to notice that Bandou Hideto and his gang didn’t kidnap Luka (the female protagonist).

 

 

Bandou Hideto was originally one of the elite four members of the Front of Armament under the 2nd head Sugata Kazushi. Bandou Hideto was personally close with the 2nd head. However, the 2nd head Sugata Kazushi was killed in a very mischievous accident. Kuno Hideomi, who was considered second in place then takes over the Front of Armament after Sugata Kazushi’s death. Bandou Hideto rebelled against Kuno Hideomi and decided to build strength to take over the Front of Armament.

Bandou Hideto’s decided to transfer to Suzuran High School to build his strength against the Front of Armament as Suzuran High School was notorious for its strength. He also wanted to avenge the death of the 2nd head as he believed he was killed in a conspiracy. He erased the skull on the jackets of his men as a pledge for his ambitions which Takiya Genji was able to notice upon the misunderstanding of Luka’s kidnap.

 

 

Tokaji Yuji from Serizawa Crops knew of Bandou’s intentions which is why he negotiated with Bandou Hideto to kidnap Luka to trigger war between Bandou’s group and Taikya Genji’s GPS. Without reading the comics/manga series, Bandou’s appearance and the presence of the Front of Armament seems to be out of context.

Unlike the movie, Bandou is depicted more as a craven character in the comics/manga. Bandou Hideto constantly tried to force the Ebizuka trio to join his cause, however Bandou eventually loses to Bouya, the main protagonist of the comic/manga Crows. Eventually, Bandou forms a band with Kirishima Hirom of the Ebizuka trio at the end. Nothing much was depicted of him after Bandou has lost to Bouya.

 

 

Rindaman is the most powerful character among the comics/manga and movie series. Even Bouya Harmuchi couldn’t win against Rindaman. Thus, strictly speaking, Bouya and Taikya Genji both failed to take over Suzuran High School. Both in the movie and the comics/manga series, Rindaman didn’t care about Suzuran High School.

Bouya actually was also not interested in taking over Suzuran High School either but still, he was the protagonist of the comic/manga series as he actively engaged in all the incidents in the comic/manga series. Rindaman also had a friendship with Bitou Makio. Bitou Makio was a ‘lone wolf’ unlike how he was depicted in the episode 2 of the Crows Zero movie series. Bitou Makio and Rindaman both noticed each other’s strength and their personality in a series of events. Both often had lunch together and shared their own feelings as a lone wolf as well.

 

 

As the Crows Zero movie series prospered, the spin-off comic/manga published later differed a bit with the movie. Details were added to the Housen Academy captains which wasn’t depicted much in the movies. In the movie, Housen Academy was united under the leadership of Narumi Taiga from the first. However, in the spin-off comics later published, Housen Academy was also divided as much as Suzuran High School. Narumi Taiga actually had to unite all of Housen Forces by his own hands.

 

 

If one is not a part of the leadership in Housen Academy, one must shave his head off. This gave a distinctive visual character in the movie and the comics/manga series. Among the movie and comics, those who haven’t shaved their head and became part of Housen Academy’s leader ship was Matoba Toushi, Shibayama Hayato, Kumakiri Rikiya and Urushibara Ryo.

 

 

Kumakiri Rikiya loved to flirt with women and only became a leader in Housen Academy so he could keep his looks to flirt with women. He wasn’t interested in Housen Academy’s war against Suzuran High School in the spin-off, however Narumi Taiga was able to convince him to join the fight.

 

Kumakiri Rikiya 

 

Shibayama Hayato, also known as ‘Mister Hercules’ was a buffed-up character in the spin-off. Although in the movie, the actor seemed to be a bit little to make such an impression, however Hayato’s character was successfully depicted in the spin-off comics/manga series.

 

Shibayama Hayato

 

Urushibara Ryo complied with Narumi Taiga in both the movie and the comic/magna series. After Narumi left Housen Academy, Ryo quits school. In the spin-off comics/manga, Ryo becomes obsessed with Serizawa Tamao. Before the main clash between Suzuran High School and Housen Academy, both picks up a fight but discontinues as they were in public. Both in the movie and comics/manga, as Urushibara Ryo beats Tsutsumoto Shouji(the junior with dreads and part of the Serizawa Corps), Serizawa Tamamo was eager to avenge Shouji and fight Ryo.

 

Urushibara Ryo

 

Matoba Toushi is the character with the grillz in the movie. Toushi was the 2nd in strength in Housen Academy. In the spin-off comic/manga, Narumi Taiga had to pick up a hard fight to force Toushi for the reunification of Housen Academy.

 

 

Also, unlike the movie series, Bitou Tatsuya didn’t overcome his brother Bitou Makio’s death and tried to avenge his brother in the Crows series, and there were twin brothers in Housen Academy that facing the Mikami brothers in Crows zero. For fans that enjoyed the Crows Zero movie series should also read the comic/manga spinoff as well.

 

 

‘Suzuran High School’ became a proper noun for ‘hard boiled school’. The Crows Zero movie series was able to represent academy-violence genre influencing other movies and media as well. Even in the ‘High and Low’ series, the universe created within the Crows Zero series has been descended and still popular. Also, many media celebrities of Japan were able to shine in the Crows Zero series. Oguri Shun who played Takiya Genji, Yamada Takayui who played Serizawa Tamao, and Ayano Go who played Urushibara Ryo are currently one of the best actors of Japan.

The unique Japanese style of characters and background art combined with the Japanese fictional depiction with a touch of the inner rebellion of men of the Crows Zero series was not only unique but also brought out the inner fight within the viewers.