Anime original by Mappa
Streaming on Crunchyroll
Premise
Arajin Tomoshibi enrolls in a new high school, dominated by punks and delinquents of every stripe. A naturally timid kid, he’s struggling with his new surroundings. To make things even more hectic, a genie by the name of Senya decides to take up residence in his head.
Gee’s verdict: Simply in Awe it Exists
The most interesting thing about watching Bucchigiri?! was discovering a 1987 manga by the same name, being utterly confounded by this, and then eventually discovering that the term “bucchigiri” means “to tear violently” or “leave in the dust.” This term is apparently fairly common in the parlance of delinquent and gangster media in Japan and so it wasn’t a case of copyright infringement, merely a generic term that’s been deployed a handful of times in the history of the media.
As for the anime itself, it’s inoffensive, if not exactly my preferred flavor of delinquent story. The vaguely Arabic/South Asian aesthetic theming is kind of interesting and lends the show a distinct look. Utterly fascinating that something channeling such strong early 00s energy is getting made in 2024 though. An anime original by Mappa no less. I’m not curious enough to follow along to figure out why they decided to throw themselves behind this one though.
Iro’s verdict: Like Walking Into A Time Warp
Rather than actually enjoying anything that was happening in Bucchigiri?! (the show is fine, just not my speed), I spent most of the episode stunned at just how precisely it imitates the exact tenor of a semi-popular mid-00s school fighting manga. From the premise to the characters to the wacky little mascot guy, everything about this feels like a peer to the likes of Tenjho Tenge or History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi… except it’s an anime original, made in 2024. An absolutely fascinating 24 minutes.
Artemis’ verdict: #NotMyDelinquentAnime
I made the mistake of assuming this was a comedy and/or parody anime and therefore expected something along the lines of Cromartie High, albeit with more action scenes and a major fantasy element. Bucchigiri, however, while harkening back to old-school tropes with its sometimes outlandish character designs and musclehead personalities, doesn’t really lean into any specific jokes or sketch segments and, while lighthearted, has a more serious side to it despite its ridiculous nature. Is it a bad show? No, not at all. But it’s also just not my kind of show, so I’ll be politely passing on this one.
The Glorio Blog 
I don’t think this show and its existence are any particular mystery, though? So far it seems to be the exact same recipe as the other original shows the director is famous for, Free! and SK8: take a bunch of hot guys blatantly designed to be ogled, make them have sexual tension with one another until they have shamelessly blinking “please write doujinshi about us!” signs on their foreheads (but carefully avoid crossing into *actual* homosexuality because nah, that’s not our way), and then make them weird and eccentric (but without any actual creativity or interesting/modern takes on “eccentric”, something right out of the ’90s will do).
As with Free! and SK8, I’ll defend this show’s existence as well to my last breath because god knows there should be at least as many shows with blatant female gaze and shameless BL-pandering as shows with blatant male gaze and yuri/oniichan/etc. pandering. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it, or find in any way interesting. (OK, at least this episode had a bit less cringe than SK8, but considering how much SK8 made me cringe that’s a very low bar to clear.)
(I mean, if you want to do the female targeted counterpart to all those “we-call-this-general-mainstream-but-it’s-obviously-targeting-guys” shows, stop being coy and have the bravery and shamelessness to put on a straight face and go full Fairy Ranmaru. Otherwise what’s the point?)
To be fair, I had to drop Free! and SK8 because I just can’t stand blatant yaoi all that much – on the cover this show didn’t strike me as a yaoi type (ah, naiveté) so I was taken aback by the blatant homoeroticism of it, and was ready to drop it when I realized I got got – but it quickly dropped off into imho tolerable ranges.
In summary it was both more and less homoerotic than I thought it would be and somehow it managed to sway me.
The story itself was fairly interesting too, with the whole “what does it mean to be a serious person” (or a honki person, or if you prefer a Real Man) question that it poses. It’s obvious from the whole premise that it’s not following your dick, or even just wanting to be the strongest. I had fun following along as the protagonist and even the guys who are supposed to have figured it out learned what it actually means. (Not that it was a surprising journey. Of course, it’s the friendships we rekindled along the way but an interesting story doesn’t always mean revolutionary ideas.)
And MAPPA did an awesome job with the OP and ED as always, so to be fair a big reason I binge-watched the show was to listen to those on a 24 minute loop (especially the subtly changing ED was really good, but the OP was a bop too).