Interprete Me

Back Street Girls: Gokudolls is the kind of production that attracts by its name. But make no mistake: this anime values the nonsense and may displease people who have more sensitivity to thorny issues, such as the question of sex-change operation being seen with a comedy bias. There are values ​​that go head-on with the politically correct, and those who don’t like “mild jokes” will love this first season (watch here).

The plot of Back Street Girls: Gokudolls is simply surreal, and involves the dreaded Yakuza and the life of j-pop groups that need hard training and lots of marketing to achieve success. They are two completely different things, aren’t they? I know. Only here they make sense when put together, and that can be quite funny for those who have the taste for that kind of humor.

A bizarre situation

It all starts when three Yakuza members fail to fulfill a mission to their boss. To compensate for the error, he offers some forms of self-immolation, and also ways to compensate the damage they caused by not completing the given mission. And it is no small thing: one of the options, for example, would be for the three of them to sell their bodies bodies’ organs to deliver the money to the king, among other heavier things. Because they don’t want to lose their lives, they accept the only option given by the boss that allows them to stay alive: they accept to travel to Thailand, a country known for their sex reassignment surgeries, to change their sex.

And why should they do this? The boss wants to invest in a group of j-pop, for he knows it makes lots of money for its investors. So he takes advantage of the three boys and sends them to Thailand, where they do the surgery and go back to heavy training to become stars of Japanese music, like a cute and sweet trio, such as the ones we’re used to seeing almost in the form of a production line from Japan.

Back Street Girls: Gokudolls focuses on the difficulty of these three heterosexual men as they become women – and more: it also talks about the grueling routine of rehearsals, dance, music, and fan encounters to which these girl bands are submitted. So there is a kind of double criticism here about the situations girls are subjected to as they enter this world of near-instant fame, and also about how men’s view of women is quite different from what they imagine. Being in the shoes of girls, they see all the sexism and misogyny that surrounds them.

Interesting and well-made adaptation

Back Street Girls: Gokudolls is the adaptation of a well-known seinen manga in Asia, which already has six volumes. The anime, which now debuts on Netflix, paves a road for more seasons that will surely come to continue this somewhat bizarre story. However, it is efficient: laughter is guaranteed with the nonsense situations the three boys go through by becoming members of a j-pop group.

It’s an interesting and very well made adaptation, but one that can be somewhat sensitive to people who take the question of sex reassignment seriously. And it’s understandable. However, as a finished product, Back Street Girls: Gokudolls is a lot of fun, and has its bright moments in making men see how the female world is far more troublesome than they imagine.

You can also like Hero Mask, F is for Family and Super Drags.

Trailer and additional information about Back Street Girls: Gokudolls Netflix

Synopsis 1: The odds are against them becoming the next J-Pop idol sensation, but you don’t know what they’re made of – literally!

Synopsis 2: To pay for an epic blunder, three yakuza brothers are forced to alter their bodies, form a girl group and break into the underground J-Pop idol scene.

Age rating: 16;

Release year: 2018.