February 18, 1988 was a bittersweet day.

In Japan, the final episode of Fist of the North Star aired after four consistent years of rocking a style and tone rarely duplicated in children’s programming. It left one heck of a gap to fill. What would you do?

I can tell you what Fuji TV did. They hired Toei Company to animate the shit out of Sakigake!! Otokojuku.

Sakigake!! Otokojuku is a parody of Japanese nationalism and machismo. Teenage delinquents built like brick shithouses enroll into an exaggerated old-fashioned school that extols the virtues of guts and battle prowess. As it goes along, Sakigake!! Otokojuku quickly becomes a more serious action series, which happens often with Shonen Jump properties (Kinnikuman and Dragon Ball, for example). And just as the original Sakigake!! Otokojuku manga resembles Tetsuo Hara’s style, the anime version has a lot of the staff that worked on FotNS. The results are as you’d expect: badass.

How do I love this anime, let me count the ways. First of all, I could take testosterone supplements for the rest of my life and never come close to possessing the characters’ gravelly baritone voices. Banjou Ginga voices an American police academy student who boxes (Ginga also voiced another 80s anime blonde you might know, Souther, as well as other obscure anime characters).

The baldheaded principal of the Otokojuku school, Heihachi Edajima, is voiced by none other than the recently departed Daisuke Gouri. Gouri was another FotNS alumnus, most notably voicing Uighur, warden of the Cassandra prison complex. Edajima is one of the most iconic characters in this anime, and he’s a man of few words, responding to nearly every situation by shouting “I AM THE PRINCIPAL OF OTOKOJUKU, EDAJIMA HEIHACHI,” and nothing else.

The action, even in the anime’s more lighthearted moments, is legit. This is the eighties, baby, so fights boil down to a straightforward exchange of blows. And even though this anime possesses nowhere near the stakes of a harder edged series like Fist of the North Star, you forget all that while you’re watching, because the combat is crude and the characters likable. You’ll catch on quickly to how every major Sakigake!! Otokojuku arc works. Despite the constant life-threatening danger that comes their way, guessing which character will kick the bucket next is a fruitless endeavor. They’re all pretty resilient.

There’s a reason Sakigake!! Otokojuku succeeded the FotNS anime, and there’s a reason I’m writing about it now. If you like one, you’re almost certainly going to like the other. But Sakigake!! Otokojuku is not some disposable ripoff, it’s been lauded with plenty of success in its own right. Not only did the manga run for 34 volumes (7 more than FotNS), but there was a 25 volume sequel about a new generation of delinquents at the same school, and a 10 volume prequel about Heihachi Edajima’s childhood. In 2008, Sakigake!! Otokojuku was adapted into a Japanese live action movie. Eschewing the impossibly muscular figures found in the manga and anime, it nevertheless remains true to the original spirit of the story.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed this anime gets licensed by the likes of Discotek someday, but until then I’m happy to report the entire series (and subsequent animated movie) have been fansubbed. Watch it! The manly eyebrows alone are reason enough.

I’d love to do more coverage of great anime being released in North America, but 2011 has been disappointing in that respect. Arguably the best new anime series, season two of Kaiji, wasn’t simulcast or licensed at all. On the bright side, Fist of the North Star will be completed in November. And the new Trigun movie is out now. It’s worth watching at least once. As is the 2001 Cowboy Bebop movie, which was affordably pressed to Blu-ray in June.