Sakigake!! Cromartie Kôkô

If i had to watch only one anime series over and over again this is that animated series

I didnt laugh at the jokes because i felt they were too forceful and honestly even with the amount of "wow" references they used, it still didn't work for me. In fact, Gintama is way better than it in my personal opinon....

First of all, for as many anime parody series as there are in existence, nothing even comes CLOSE to the wackiness factor of Cromartie High School. Absolutely nothing. For those anime fans with no sense of humor whatsoever, avoid this show like the plague, because it's very likely that you just won't appreciate it. You have been warned.

If you do have a healthy sense of humor, though, read on.

Take one serious high-grades high-schooler from out of the respectable school system and throw him into a school full of delinquents, robots, gorillas and aged rock stars. And that doesn't even scratch the surface of what you're about to get yourself into. Cromartie High School is quite possibly the funniest show, never mind the fact that it's anime, that I've seen since Monty Python's Flying Circus. Clocking in at an average of ten minutes per episode, this would be a perfect fit for the Adult Swim block on Cartoon Network, but alas, you'll only find it on the very exclusive Anime Network (how many cities carry the actual network? Two!?) and their On-Demand service. As far as I know, there are three (soon to be four) DVDs on sale from ADV Films, each carrying an average of eight episodes per disc. But I'm straying from the point...

The point I'm trying to make is that this show is flat-out hilarious. Imagine if you will: A punk sporting a mohawk with a mind of its own. A smart-mouthed robot that looks like an over-sized coffee can. A blonde-haired student whose mom you'll swear is a guy. An intelligent giant gorilla. An enigmatic Mexican-style masked wrestler. A scary-looking bear of a man whose only weakness is motion sickness. And to top it all off...Freddie Mercury. That's right, the guy from Queen, all the way down to the mustache, suspenders, bare chest and killer theme music. It's all about the ten-minute adventures they go on, often with disastrous results. Intrigued yet? To be honest, I didn't know what to think when I first started watching this show. I did, however, find myself laughing uncontrollably during around the 3-minute mark, and it kept up the pace for the full 10. Any anime that opens up with a disclaimer has to be good, or maybe that's just my opinion. I get so happy to see it On-Demand when the new episodes come on that I start to hum along with the theme song. Seriously, after watching 3 episodes I started to laugh at key points in the show's opening song/montage/what-have-you. It's just that infectious.

The show itself takes its visual style from old Shonen anime and manga from the 80's, with high school gangs fighting for turf and respect. Everyone looks older and more mature than they really are, and there are more than a few instances that you'll be reminded that all of the characters are supposedly 16 year-olds. It takes repeated potshots at the very pillars of time-honored anime stylings, such as using limited frames of animation for movement or very static backgrounds with an explosion-of-light-like effect to punctuate a character's serious sounding line. After those pillars give, the mighty structure crumbles into rubble, leaving only dust and rocks. Most parody series would build it back up in it's own whacked-out image, but Cromartie just pees all over the remains, laughing all the while. And you'll be laughing right along with them, guaranteed.

This anime certainly is a one-of-a-kind in the world of comedy, a really witty comedy anime involving high school delinquents.

There's no certain story nor the narration is linear, but the series revolves around the main character Takashi Kamiyama who joined a high school named Cromartie High School which is a den for the Tokyo delinquents. Kamiyama who's a decent guy adapts to be in the atmosphere of the delinquents by actually being himself. The series is about the routine of the delinquents in Cromartie High school which involves many bizarre characters. Cromartie has many rival schools with whom they fight a lot like a real gangsta novel, which is too hilarious and well put.

The direction is good and the timing of the delivery of the lines is just perfect, the production is on a low budget, the voice acting is very good and every character was just too funny. Each episode is about 12 min long, it is a parody series all in all. I really loved the comedy aspect of the series as one character puts out, the comedy is entirely made on situations and the perspectives of the characters, not on the premature adult jokes. The anime is flat-out funny, recommended to the comedy-loving peeps.

Had no clue what was going to happen before I saw it aside from the description on the box. This is not everyone's cup of tea but I enjoyed it immensely. Think of "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast" mixed up with "Fooly Coolly". The whole production is very cheap, not as cheap as the average Adult Swim offering but cheap enough. The characters actually complain about it! Lots of strange animation. Lots of Japanese humor that you'll need to research the extras to understand. The characters are drawn as if there are in their 20s and 30s so captions constantly remind us that they are really 16 years old. Each episode lasts about 10 minutes and essentially nothing happens.

One episode revolves around the gang trying to get to a street fight by cab. The main action is that the toughest guy is secretly car sick and ashamed to admit it. It's very funny for the ten minutes.

Very, very recommended.