Unlike River City Ransom, however, its structure is linear, dividing the game into numerous short levels where you fight various types of hoodlums, cops and drunken salary men. Considering that none of them are credited on subsequent Athena releases and that Gowcaizer was Technos’ final release before their bankruptcy in 1996, this suggests the possibility that Crows may have started out as a Technos project. Most notably, the person in charge of the visuals was Kouji Ogata, who’d worked as a character designer on most of the original Double Dragon series, Combatribes, Super Dodge Ball (both of them) and many others. As it turns out, it’s no coincidence a look at the credits reveals that quite a few former Technos employees worked on it, including executive producer Teruo Ishikawa, who was the project leader for Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, the composers, and about half the graphics team. ( Dezaemon), it appears at first glance heavily inspired by Technos’ own hot-blooded Kunio/ Nekketsu beat-’em-ups, going for River City Ransom‘s fighting style and super-deformed looks in particular. Published by obscure developer Athena Co.
Perhaps due to the not-quite-kid-friendly subject matter, it never saw a TV anime adaptation, and only one video game, 1997’s Japan-exclusive Crows: The Battle Action for SegaSaturn.
A popular manga, Crows spawned 28 volumes, a sequel of roughly the same length (Worst), countless side-stories, 2 OVAs and a trio of live action movie prequels, among them the beloved Takashi Miike-directed Crows Zero & Crows Zero II, which in turn gave birth to their own manga retellings.
He gets into numerous battles over the years as he makes friends and enemies at Suzuran and around town. Uninterested in fighting for power or upholding a though guy reputation, he would rather skip school to sleep until the afternoon and sponge fast food and bento off whoever he can, but his violent environment won’t leave him be. Starting publication in 1990, Crows follows Bouya Harumichi from his transfer to the infamous all-delinquent Suzuran High School to his graduation. Focusing on hot-blooded Japanese youth who fight to rule their school, run with bosozoku biker bangs, or simply try to get through their teenage years without conforming to mainstream society, they typically mix action, comedy and delinquent politics to varying degrees.Īmong the major names in the genre is Hiroshi Takahashi, who came to prominence early in his career with Crows. While not very well-known in North America, the “delinquent” manga genre goes back to the 1960s at least, spawning a number of successful titles throughout its history.