Right before start the translation process, I picked up the first three manga episodes and read them in a rush: I died! Not only the story was raw and cruel, the things that characters had to suffer touched my heart. There I remember I thought "My gosh, I could have done a great choice this time".
Story: 9/10
The story's premise is simple: six teenagers, all of them involved in some criminal action (generally, because very good or desperate reasons), are imprisoned into Shounen Reformatory, a juvenile prison full of injustices and abuses. There, the self-centered boys meet their senpai, a guy older than them that has been imprisoned for a whole year by now. He teaches them a lesson since he considers them as "a bunch of monkeys", and then the kids fall in love with this guy. He becomes their light in that dark path, and even after they leave the facility he continues illuminating their lives. The story can be divided into two different arcs: the first 12 episodes inside the facility, and 14-26 which portrays their lives outside.
What made this story so special to me was the rawness of the things they have to stand and the strenght every character depicts once they understand what camaraderie is truly about. Also, the feeling you have in some parts of the story is certainly creepy: when you start to think these kids can't be more disgraceful, something even worse happens to them. The reformatory's pests, the very nasty doctor Sasaki and his henchman the guard Ishihara, makes boys' lives a living hell; but they manage to survive to live after through the most important thing they learn in prison: the bond of friendship.
What I disliked of this anime is the speed that sometimes risks to ruin it all. Some characters are not explored as much as others and you can get the feeling that they didn't have any development. Since they're quickly introduced to you, you can guess which kind of personality each one have. That could have been better, I like to discover characters while the story's going on. Some plots were easy to guess too, in counterpart to the well-planned others.
Art: 9/10
The animation is one of the best I've seen. The high contrast between the dark scenes in the reformatory and the "pure air" you can breath in the outside world really makes you feel the difference between one and another. The use of static scenes, with textured, alternative colours, was one of the big achievements, it gets you some strange feeling. You can think and consider the action scene you just seen with this "stop" pics.
The character design is something I liked very much. They're not highly handsome boys, even girls are not exaggeratedly pretty and don't even mention villains, they're all quite disgusting, but that helped to keep the anime into a "normal" state of things. It helped me to keep the characters into a realistic view. The animation is sublime and goes very well with the design.
Sound: 10/10
This is an absolute. The BGM has to be one of the most accurated I've had the pleasure to listen. Every song has its moment and they transmit a very particular feeling. The voices are great. Every character has personality and mood swings, pretty real mood swings. The best work in my opinion goes for Rikiya Koyama, seiyuu for An-chan, and Shun Oguri as Mario.
The opening is brutal, an awesome way to start every episode; the ending has been made to get you all cheesy, because when the episode ends, you want to cry just because of the song!
Character: 9/10
Rokurota, or An-chan, is far away the best character of the whole bunch. A young, troubled man who has learnt to live looking forward, a character with a huge heart and street wisedom that fights every single day to find a bit of happiness in this dark world. He's pretty well developed and is easy to feel him as a natural leader while he guides the boys through that dark path.
Mario is a character that also developes himself very satisfactorily. He starts as the others, a punk with nothing to live for, but in the end you have realized, as you walk this difficult path beside him, that he's the most sweet, kind boy of all.
Noboru (Turtle/Suppon) is a tiny thing, a very irritating kid that finds himself through hard lessons. Another success among the characters.
Ryuuji (Uncovered/Baremoto) is perhaps the most predictable of them. He's very selfish and greedy and makes a lot of mistakes during the series, but also has a good heart and it makes up for it.
Tadayoshi (Soldier/Heitai) was and is my personal favourite among the six boys, and I'm frankly disappointed because he didn't had his spot. His crime, life and personality are easy to guess, but I'd certainly liked to learn a little bit more from him.
Mansaku (Cabbage) is the classic friendly giant; I'm sure his crime was made because a very stupid mistake. He earns your heart with his calm mood and kindness.
Jyou (Joe) is the pretty boy. I was afraid to see him develop into some kind of predictable crybaby, but in the end proved to be the rudest of all and the most crazy kamikaze.
In the end, I was pretty satisfied with every character (even the supporting ones, they have crappy lives also), except the mentioned Soldier's abstinence. The northamericans portrayed in this series are kinda weird, a bit forced, but they fulfill their duty: as the "enemies", the boys learn to see them as persons as well.
Enjoyment: 10/10
I found myself enjoying every single episode. None of them left me with a disappointment feeling: in exchange, I died to see the next. I dropped tears of joy and sorrow with every trial the kids had to overcome, with every reunion, with every tragedy. Despite of the mentioned predictable plots, the resolution of each conflict touched my heart in a powerful, strong way. It moved me into tears more than once.
Overall: 10/10
Though I've written the few things I disliked, I can't give this series a lower rating. It just won a place in my heart in its entire form. I loved every single piece of it, even the mistakes or the predictable stuff, because the teaching it gives to you is so moving that I feel I didn't waste my time watching it: the lesson of friendship, the lesson of hope, all of that prepacked with an exciting old-school flavour and, more importantly, manly tears!!
