Author: Rob Gowers
When looking at the origins of sukeban media, the first representation of the genre came in 1967 with Taro Bonten’s Modern Delinquent Girl Stories manga; with the first proper sukeban film, Girl Boss: Broken Justice, not coming later until 1969. That isn’t to say, however, that vestiges of these themes weren’t explored prior to this.
When Toei’s flagship TV series Playgirl hit its 200th episode, a special event was planned to celebrate. Bringing their big screen output into the mix, Toei devised a crossover with one of their hottest film series – the Girl Boss pinky violence films. By 1973 pinky violence had hit its peak and was one of
When it comes to the cinematic phenomenon that was pinky violence, one of the key attractions was its stars: Reiko Ike, Miki Sugimoto, Reiko Oshida, and Meiko Kaji to name a few. Rocketing to the heights of pop culture icons, the media couldn’t get enough of these glamorous women, with at least one of them
Despite being one of Japan’s biggest film studios throughout the late 40s and 50s during the golden age of Japanese cinema, Daiei were struggling by the mid-60s and had to slash budgets for their productions. This eventually led to a merger with Nikkatsu in 1970, followed by bankruptcy in 1971. Somewhat overlooked is Daiei’s 1968-1969
Whilst Wong is a very common name in Singapore and China, Cleopatra certainly isn’t! The name actually reveals the main inspiration for this film: the blaxploitation heroine – CIA agent Cleopatra Jones. In a glut of murky blaxploitation films, where, despite their roles as the heroines, female characters were often victimised and objectified, Cleopatra Jones
Whilst manga in Japan was certainly nothing new by the 1950s, the efforts of artists such as Osamu Tezuka led to the medium becoming more popular than ever, especially with children. With the extreme popularity of this childrens’ manga only ever growing, the term “manga” itself was quickly becoming synonymous purely with childrens’ manga. Artists
First released in 1984, Cream Lemon was an anthology series of standalone adult shorts which revolutionised the OVA (original video animation) market. Despite not being the first adult anime made, it was the first to boast truly high production values not usually afforded to pornography. By the early 1990s tastes in anime had significantly changed;
Strike of the Tortured Angels is a fairly obscure, though not totally unknown film; appearing in the 1980s as part of a wave of Asian films brought over to the west to satisfy the lucrative direct-to-video market of martial arts and exploitation films. However, until recently the actual origins had effectively been lost to time.
The term pinky violence is a retroactive term used to collectively refer to Toei’s various films of the early 70’s focused on sukebans, girl gangs and bad girls in general. Initially sparked as a reaction to the girl gang films of their rivals Nikkatsu and Daiei, pinky violence films soon took on a life of
After contributing to periodical manga magazines such as Manga OK from the mid-60s, the ever-ambitious Taro Bonten would decide to create his own bespoke gekiga magazine in 1969 named Black Ace. However, this wouldn’t be just any normal magazine and would seek to recreate the mystery genre started by kasutori magazines in the late 1940s.