The 90s JDM Anime You Never Heard Of - Shakotan Boogie (1991)

Shakotan Boogie In 1985 a manga came out by the name if shakotan boogie. The creator Michiharu Kusunoki went on to create another series that had a full tv series called Wangan Midnight. In a nutshell, just toss JDM, women, and dudes who live and breath both these things in the mix.. And we got the vibes for Shakotan Boogie. Shakotan actually signifies a certain type of lowrider vehicle.. I know you’ve seen them in real life. These guys. The idiots that do this gotta take their dear time going over speed bumps and gotta be extra aware of potholes The anime continues the story where the 1987 live-action movie starring Kazuya Kimura left off. As much as the racing and the car aesthetics and stuff were cool and all, I got so much more from the actual character interactions when it came to the story. The basic dialogue when it came to the two friends sempai and koji and the romance and at times not so romantic moments with the girls. Little fact here, that what you just heard was actually written over a year ago, and shoulda been part of the 30 days of OVAs rollout from last year, but I just kinda fell off it. Shakotan Boogie is one big ode to retro Japanese youth and adolescent. Theres a lot that goes on over these 4 hours and when you sit back n analyze the contents, none of it is really all that serious in retrospect, But when ur in high school or your early 20s this stuff might be the world. Getting the girls, trying to be something your not at your core to get ass, Winning the race with your supped up whip, have the most supped up whip at the car meetup, these are actually kinda juvenile aspirations.. But I was just at that age a couple years ago, so it still resonates freshly. There’s a lot of interactions with women in this anime, and it’s hilarious just watching how all these situations play out. Now the dynamic between are two characters Hajime Yamamoto and Koji Watanabe is that they both are goofy at their core, but one has a limit while the other one is just off the rails. And this calls for a lot of misadventures as the off the rails one makes your suspense nerve tingle and the other one has to calm that down, but he himself still has his own less serious side that comes out as well. There’s other characters who come along to enhance the comedic appeal, and so your always hit with those moments of, aii whose this guy now. Now as soon as you throw this on, you’ll notice that there’s something in the vibes of shakoboogie that let’s you kno that this was intended to be consumed by a particular audience at a particular time. 80s young japanese boys who also had a interest in the car scene. Nothing about this says “westerners!” This one’s for u. There’s really not much of a cohesive story here to me, which is fine.. but The one thing that takes this anime down from being a masterpiece for me is that it can be a little too playful for what is actually supposed to go into the delinquent realm in terms of anime genre. I mean we got a lotta kuwabara cuts walking around in this thing. It’s always lighthearted and at times where I really wanted to see this characters stiffen up a bit or get into some stiff situations.. It never really happened. Unfortunately, as for art and animation.. I can see clear as day this might be amazing for those who got the VHS releases in Japan when it was out.. But for us who are watching it in 2024 as almost lost media.. I can’t really see past the grit to see its full potential. Aside from that for what I can make out its Great character designs, so many awesome designs for the cars and different candy paint colors. It’s kinda mind boggling that there wasn’t enough interest in OVA enthusiasts to bring this thing over here restored and not even subbed but dubbed. I assume that the delinquent stuff just never really appealed enough to the core anime audience of the 80s and 90s in the West the way a lot of the sci fi, fantasy and action stuff did. Anyways, Put together by the legensary studio perriot that brought us naruto, yyh n recca.. You’ll enjoy this one. Admittedly there’s moments where I found myself drifting off into multitasking cause I couldn’t follow what was going on.. And the quality.. But trust me it’s worth a watch.   / animebackwhen