Gokudols Niji-gumi/Kan-gumi -- Gokudol Music The Album（ゴクドルミュージック）

My anime buddy was wondering when this would finally come in, and it finally came in a couple of weeks ago: "Gokudol Music" the song album.

Considering that a majority of anime have 12 or 13-episode seasons, I was a bit caught off guard on hearing that "Back Street Girls" finished up after just 10 episodes. I actually enjoyed the show as did my friend although a number of anime fans didn't buy into it since the animation was more of no-animation. Usually when a live-action J-Drama wraps up after a mere 10 episodes, that's not a good sign, but I'm not sure what the case is like in anime land. Personally, I hope that there is a second season.

When I first saw "Back Street Girls", the theme song and the day-glo opening credits grabbed me right from the start. Of course, it was the post-operation Niji-gumi（ゴクドルズ虹組）who took care of the singing of the fun and bubbly "Gokudol Music" for most of the episodes, but for Episode 7, the pre-op Kan-gumi（ゴクドルズ漢組）, consisting of the three gangsters played by Daisuke Ono（小野大輔）, Kazuyuki Okitsu（興津和幸）and Satoshi Hino（日野聡）, took over the microphones.

A lot of comments have been made stating that the Kan-gumi version is better than the Niji-gumi original. I don't agree but I have to say that the Niji-gumi's take is more hilarious especially when the guys go into the chants near the end. Just imagine the guys in the Corleone family singing ABBA's "Dancing Queen" at karaoke (Take it away, Sonny!). As I mentioned in the article for "Gokudol Music", Masayoshi Oishi（大石昌良）wrote and composed the opening theme that has ensured that I will never be able to hear that yakuza trumpet fanfare the same way ever again.

A number of songs were showcased through the 10 episodes of "Back Street Girls", and in-universe, they were all written by the Godfather of the Inugane Gang and the guy who started off this whole gangster-to-aidoru craze, Kimanjiro Inugane（犬金鬼万次郎）. However, in real life, it is Jasmine Gyu（ジャスミン・ギュ）on lyrics and the band Gesshoku Kaigi（月蝕會議）on music.

One song that I heard fairly often next to the opening and ending themes was "Koi no Sakazuki"（恋のサカズキ...Sake Cup of Love）by the Niji-gumi. I think Gyu and Gesshoku Kaigi got the alphabet aidoru group thing down pat when they whipped this one up. The song is AKB-lovely but the lyrics are also funny since they talk about exchanging sake cups and likening them to the famed anime trope of kansetsu kiss (indirect kiss). Plus, I don't think I've ever heard the description of cutting one's pinkie off being so fluffy.

"Okottenno?"（怒ってんの？...Are Ya Mad?）is perhaps even closer to AKB48, and I think the oyabun may have created this to let out his frustrations on paper instead of using his bat on the noggins of his young charges. It happened quite a lot on the show.

To finish off, we're back to the Kan-gumi and their rendition of the ending theme "Hoshi no Katachi"（星のかたち）. It's not quite as hilarious as their take on "Gokudol Music" (aside from the sighing), but one wonders what the scene must have been like in the recording booth. Once again, Ono and the gang got their chance in the sun at the end of Episode 7.

Gokudols Niji-Gumi -- Hoshi no Katachi（星のかたち）

About a month ago, I talked about the increasingly nutty "Back Street Girls ~ Gokudols"（ゴクドルズ）, the story of three Yakuza members who get a unique punishment from their ambitious and deranged boss. The show of course has gone ahead a few more episodes, and now apparently, the aidoru group Gokudols Niji-Gumi（ゴクドルズ虹組...Gokudols Rainbow Gang）may have a fourth American member in the wings after making that same life-changing trip to Thailand (So long, George. Hello, Rina!).

The opening theme "Gokudol Music"（ゴクドルミュージック）has already become one of my anison earworms for 2018, and it's to the point that I will probably no longer hear that famous Yakuza trumpet fanfare without the launch into the super-cheerful theme song. However, the ending theme, also by Gokudols Niji-Gumi, has started to grow on me like a weed in recent weeks.

Titled "Hoshi no Katachi" (The Shape of Stars), it's less frenzied than the opener but it's still plenty effervescent with perhaps a little bit of a Latin twist. It's written by Taku Inoue and composed by CHI-MEY, and I'm hoping that the full version of this also comes out pretty soon (yay, it has!). In fact, some of the other tunes by the group have been popping here and there through the episodes, so my anime buddy has said that he will definitely plunk down his yen, if a CD comes out with all of the songs together.

We're halfway through the season, so I'm looking forward to how much crazier "Back Street Girls" will get, and supposedly Episode 6 may throw out the Gokudols' biggest threat yet in the form of an embittered and vengeful enka singer. Much hilarity to continue, I'm sure.

Gokudols Niji-gumi -- Gokudol Music（ゴクドルミュージック）

Well, the Spring 2018 anime season has given way to Summer 2018. It was basically another good outing of shows that my friend and I have seen. "Hinamatsuri"（ヒナまつり）was weird and hilarious, "Hisone & Masotan"（ひそねとまそたん）was great up until the somewhat underwhelming final episode although its opening and ending theme songs are still epic and fun respectively, "Last Period" （ラストピリオド）seemed to be petering out, and the second go at "Amanchu"（あまんちゅ!）was as soothing as ever and is having me think about returning to Ito again.

The new anime from Summer 2018 that I was introduced to yesterday seem to be quite ambitious and/or absolutely nuts. "Island" is flitting between comedy and mystery, "Uchuu Senkan Tiramisu" is plain insane, "Sunohara-Sō no Kanrinin-san" has immediately come out as a harem show, and "Banana Fish" is an anime that seems to want to become an HBO live-action suspense. Ah, I almost forgot to mention "Baki" which could make "Fist of the North Star" resemble a quaint tea party in terms of the violence.

Then, there is "Back Street Girls ~ Gokudols"（ゴクドルズ）which has come out of left field....if left field were elongated as far north as Baffin Island. For the second season in a row, along with "Hinamatsuri", we have an anime that has the yakuza world turned up on its head due to a fantastically deranged plot point. Imagine three tough-guy hoodlums who have run afoul of their oyabun and his demand as punishment/wish as fantasy fulfillment is for them to be completely remade (via a doctor in Thailand [message to Doc: 👍]) into cute and majorly successful female aidorus. Truly only in Japan. In this situation, I guess it wasn't their pinkies that got cut off.

When I first heard the title, I had been expecting (dreading?) a female version of the Backstreet Boys, but then I was completely bewildered by the opening credits until everything was explained in the first five minutes. Plus, I read on the J-Wiki article that the remarkable silhouetted chromakey-esque dancing of the three girls had all been performed by the same person: director Chiaki Kon（今千秋）under different wigs. Now, that is dedication!

However, it is indeed the three seiyuu behind the gangsters-turned-idols Airi Yamamoto（山本アイリ）, Mari Tachibana（立花マリ）and Chika Sugihara（杉原チカ）, Yuka Nukui（貫井柚佳）, Kaori Maeda（前田佳織里）and Hikaru Akao（赤尾ひかる）taking care of the opening theme song "Gokudol Music" under the group name of Gokudols Niji-gumi（ゴクドルズ虹組...Gokudols Rainbow Gang）. That first word is a riff on gokudou（極道）which refers to "organized crime", "evil" or "villain".

It is syrupy and skippy, just like a lot of aidoru music, that starts off with the familiar yakuza trumpet fanfare before things change from scars and dark sunglasses to adorable flowers and bright Benetton colours. And the amazing thing is that "Gokudol Music" was written and composed by Masayoshi Oishi（大石昌良）, the same amiable fellow who came up with "Kimi Janakya Dame Mitai"（君じゃなきゃダメみたい）, the happy and folksy opening theme for the legendary "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん）. I am still waiting for the sequel.

For a movie-and-TV genre that I would normally avoid like the plague, it's been a second hilarious hit in a row with these yakuza/insane comedy hybrids.