Shakotan★Boogie

If you were a fan of Initial D for the culture surrounding that era, this would be my top pick for a next up. Think of it like Initial D but for the late 1980's where this story is set- and with less racing and more filler. It is an excellent period-correct show to study Japan's peak "Bubble Era" economy. Particularly about the "bosozoku" street phenomenon.

Would say the story focuses less on racing the machines and instead it is about the people and the lifestyle that surrounded it. Much tradition and cultural experiences are depicted here which is lost on modern media today. Things like ... "highschool fair days" and what it meant for the youth of the time. How the young deliquents spend all their money on their gaudy, flashy ride for a chance to get with a beautiful girl. (It is similar to Young GTO show). The story shows much of "Nanpa" which roughly translates to "the West" as "Picking up" girls. Yes, this was how the youth then met their love interests before smartphones, the internet and social media. It is a great peak into that time. It is a story about Nanpa, not racing.

Also has much to do with tropes like: friendship, loyalty, responsibility and honor. Characters are introduced that are integral to the show's story and pull the two main characters into all sort of predicament. In one moment, it is a goofy and humorous story and the next- it becomes a dark and rather macabre look at youth life. With topics such as kidnapping, r_pe, violence and even introduces some straight up murderous villains in the story. It is similar to Bebop Highschool- a story about deliquents after all.

Being so old- you might find it difficult to locate on online streaming sites. You might get lucky and somehow find it uploaded from the VHS copies posted somewhere (like YouTube for instance). The art style has a greatly colorful palette with highly-expressive character designs which was common for the shows of the time. There are scenes of high-frame animations with impeccable detail particularly for the vehicles and some races- using slow-motion cinematography at times. The music score is also excellent- particularly for those who are now fans of City Pop- you might appreciate the music choices in this show.

I highly recommend it if you are a gearhead enthusiast type.

Okay, to begin with
This is not excatly what you probably expect.
Instead of fast cars and cool races, about half of screen-time is filled with REALLY stupid, mostly slapstick humour, sexism, and basically doing stupid things.
Okay, if that discouraged you, you can already close the tab with this review, and give up on watching Shakotan Boogie
But if by any chance, you enjoy watching stupid guys, doing rather dumb stuff
and on top of that you like JDM culture, i can almost guarantee you that you'll enjoy this show.
I mean, this show won't change your life, don't have any really strong points either.
It's just really enjoyable comedy, which ... don't give a damn, about being right.


The plot doesnt really exist, we've got a few characters that are introduced during first two episodes, and they're sticking with us till the end.
Every episode is separate story, but they still about the same stuff, Cars and Girls.
fortunately since the anime is just 5 ep it doesnt really matter.

Characters are just good, some of them are generic, some of them have unusal traits, but honestly, they've got literally zero development, they're really simple and exist for most of time just as plot/gag devices.
And considering the tone of this anime, and length, it's just fine

Art is average, we got really good character designs, girls are looking lovely, and boys look as local deliquents would look.

Can't say much about audio, music was forgettable, except for main theme/opening which was great
Voice acting was just fine, generic 80's starter pack i'd say.

You won't consider it as masterpiece, you probably won't remember it after five years, but it doesn't really matter since you probably want just to watch a stupid 80's comedy.