Sakigake!! Cromartie Kôkô

This show is so goddamn funny and clever that it saddens me that more people haven't seen it. I would highly recommend watching it because its really good. The only reason why you shouldn't watch it is if you are somehow not a fan of comedy.

Visuals - This show has what would technically be considered bad animation. Instead of actually walking across the screen or face each other when talking, characters slide and bounce across the screen and character models are enlarged to show who is talking. Though this may seem somewhat lazy in something else, here it just adds to the comedy. Think about it, if the producers of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" could have afforded a real horse for the movie, imagine how many brilliant jokes would've been lost. The bizarre backgrounds and jerky movements just add to the show's hilarity. Ignoring the "poor" animation, the character designs and sets themselves are all actually pretty good. Everyone from the human characters to the gorilla to the robot has an interesting and unique character designs. Like I said, the places where the people are bouncing across the screen in hilarious mockeries of walk-and-talks are well-drawn.

Sounds - I don't speak Japanese, but the voice acting on this show is pretty good. All the voice actors have distinct and funny voices that appropriately fit their characters. The soundtrack is also very good. Probably the best thing in the audio department regarding this show is the sound effects. When things are moving in an unnatural way (like one dude's sentient hair) there are sound effects to accompany each movement. Whenever there is a mother vehicle or explosion, the sound used is somebody verbally imitating an explosion or engine. Most of those scenes are played to be extra melodramatic, making it all the more funny when you hear some voice actor going "vroom vroom" in sync with the motorcycle revving.

Plot - This show doesn't have much in the way of an ongoing plot. Most episodes will feature self-contained events. A lot of these events will be something very mundane and relatable like trying to figure out the name of a song stuck in your head or being stuck in a cab with a driver who has no clue what he's doing, and hilarity always ensues.

Characters - Despite not having much of a plot, most of the characters are developed at some point. They all have mostly consistent personalities that subtly change over time. There's even a whole episode devoted to telling the life of the gorilla.

Humor - Ignoring what I've already said about what makes this show funny, there is a lot of other stuff it does. The writers who wrote this are pretty much experts on comedy. Jokes never outstay their welcome, and scenes only last as long as they need to. Once they are out of material for a setting, the story quickly changes to a new location with new characters. Running jokes are only brought up when there is something to be done with the material. The overall structure of this show is a bit bizarre as the writers are more focused on making you laugh than telling a story, and it really works.

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.

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.

Cromartie is an aburdist, short-form comedy (roughly 10min episodes) which parodies of the Japanese 'Juvenile Delinquent' genre, that was extremely popular in Japan, in the 80s and 90s- in anime and manga, as well as live-action TV and gloriously cheesy, cheap b-movies.

If you ARE a fan of the JD genre (stuff like Sukeban Deko, Yu Yu Hakusho, Baki the Grappler, Initial D, GTO, or even Stardust Crusaders-era Jojo) you should enjoy this series, but you don't really have to know the genre, to appreciate the glorious, played-completely-straight absurdism of Cromartie.

It's hard to describe Cromartie; Other reviewers have mentioned britsh comedies like Monty Python, and although Cromartie has some huge differences, being a satire, set in High School for delinquent teenage boys, the overall style and quality IS comparable (which isn't a comparison I'd make lightly. Monty Python are some big shoes to fill). The Mighty Boosh and The Young Ones also have similar appeal.

It can be very hard to pull off this kind of absurdist comedy, without lapsing into forced, painful-to-watch, "lol so random" cringe. But Cromartie does it beautifully.

I've seen literally hundreds of anime series' (sad, I know), much of it goddam terrible, especially comedies, which can be hard to translate, across cultures- But Cromartie is in my all-time top 10, and has as much re-watch value as classsics like Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, or Evangelion.

Different people like different humour, but Cromartie is a solid 10/10, in my book (and I score shows pretty harshly)

Also, Cromartie has arguably THE greatest opening theme music, in all of anime... (well, on par with Bebop's... and Eva's.... and Space Battleship Yamato's... and Science Ninja Team Gatchaman...)

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....