Release Date & Cast for New Anime featuring yakuza thugs getting gender reassignment surgeries to become idols

Sometimes it seems like there aren’t many original ideas these days. With all the reboots and Avengers flying around, it feels like we’ve seen it all.

Characters

Airi Yamamoto

Voice Actor: Yuka Nukui

Airi is the leader of Goku Dolls. ‘In order to become an idol, I undertook singing lessons while standing under a waterfall and took dance & choreography lessons while standing in it!! Please support me!!’

Kentarou Yamamoto

Voice Actor: Daisuke Ono

Kentarou is the reliable older-brother with a crew cut. Now, he goes as Airi and is the orthodox leader of the idol group ‘Goku Dolls.’

Mari Tachibana

Voice Actor: Kaori Maeda

Mari is the cool, older sister-type of the Goku Dolls. ‘I challenged myself by working on many different things because I want to be even cuter than I am now! Why? Because I’m an idol after all!’

Ryou Tachibana

Voice Actor: Satoshi Hino

Ryou has the most wicked disposition of all of the three members. He is now Mari and takes on the cool disposition of the ‘Goku Dolls.’

Chika Sugihara

Voice Actor: TBA

Chika is the lovely, bouncy member of Goku Dolls. ‘I’m Chika! I’m working very hard to do my best in everything!! Let’s all be lovely and bouncy together!!’

Kazuhiko Sugihara

Voice Actor: Kazuyuki Okitsu

Kazuhiko is the lively, punch perm sporting non-returner. Now he is the lovely and bouncy member of ‘Goku Dolls’, Chika.

Inuganegumichou

Voice Actor: Keiji Fujiwara

The leader of the Inugane group. He is the creator of Goku Dolls. He is not only the leader, but he is also a music producer now too… ‘It’s show time!’

Synopsis

Men who are part of the Yazuka are now going to make their debut as idols!? And their popularity has exploded as backstreet idols!! However, these men have to deal with increasingly absurd circumstances. They just want to live a regular life, but…!? This is a comedy about idols who have changed genders to become lovely, bouncy crossdressing girls engaged in immoral business practices!

It’s premise is simple but so strange: a yakuza boss orders three of his men to undergo extensive surgeries to transform them into an idol group to perform his songs.

Originally a manga by Jasmine Gyuh that began in 2015, it is about to get the full anime treatment in a series airing on Japanese TV from 3 July. Here’s a preview!

The story follows three members of the Inukin yakuza family, Kentaro Yamamoto, Ryo Tachibana, and Kazuhiko Sugihara, who, under orders from their leader (who also happens to be a genius producer-songwriter) get extensive surgery to become Airi Yamamoto, Mari Tachibana, and Chika Sugihara.

The trio then enters the underground idol scene under the group name Doku Dolls and together must juggle the demands of a fully functioning idol unit and yakuza family at the same time. Needless to say, hijinks ensue.

The voice actors for the main cast are Daisuke Ono (Black Butler, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure) as Kentaro, Satoshi Hino (Naruto, Gintama) as Ryo, and Kazuyuki Okitsu (Ladies versus Butlers!, Berserk). Meanwhile Airi, Mari, and Chika will be voiced by relative newcomers Yuka Nukui, Kaori Maeda, and Hikaru Akao respectively..

Given the nature of the story, however, it is unclear how the voice work will be divvied out. For instance, there is another trailer which is exactly the same but uses the women voice actors instead.

Those who want to find out can tune in when it airs on BS11, Tokyo MX, and MBS. It shouldn’t be boring…and I mean that in the imperative sense. If you’re making a story about forcibly transgender yakuza idols, it’s your solemn duty to not make it boring.

The response from Japan and abroad seemed mixed but overall cautiously optimistic.

“It looks interesting but I wonder if there is anything more than just the initial shock value.”
“Gross!”
“Anime is saved!”
“This is going to be funny. Same studio that made Prison School.”
“They’ll make anything into and anime these days.”
“I don’t like that it makes light of gender reassignment.”
“The new Love Live! looks great.”

As the last comment reminds us, the hiatus of Love Live! Sunshine has left a vacuum in the idol genre of anime. Perhaps Back Street Girls is just what’s needed to fill it.