An animated adaptation was made in 1993, and live-action TV series ran in 2018.
A later work of the mangaka is Cheeky Angel, which is very similar but also a bit of a deconstruction.
This manga provides examples of:
- Absentee Club Member: Parodied. Mitsuhashi is a member of the Gardening Club. Despite the President's pleas to keep him around due to bullying the club receives from members of a Sports Club, Mitsuhashi never actually shows up. However, the one time he does show up (albeit tricked into doing so), he takes over the Gardening Club and beats the Sports Club into submission.
- Accidental Kidnapping: In Chapter 5, Mitsuhashi finds a little foreign girl on the street and takes her around, unaware that it could be interpreted as a kidnapping until Itou tells him. The situation is made even worse when it turns out that the police is looking for an actual blonde-haired kidnapper is on the loose. Hilarity Ensues, especially in the end when it turns out that the little foreign girl wasn't the girl who was kidnapped, but Mitsuhashi's cousin.
- Action Girl: Ryouko, Riko and Kyouko.
- Adventurer Archaeologist: Imai's idea of an archeologist - which is why he wants to be one.
- Attempted Rape: During the Saipan arc
- A Friend in Need: Even when you've just been hit by a car, with broken bones and bloody head.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Mitsuhashi, Itou and some other high profile delinquents.
- Always Someone Better: Discussed by Yutaka.
- Anime Hair: Look no further than 1/2 of the Nan High Duo, Shinji Itou. Justified as he's spending a lot of money on hair gel to keep that hairdo.
- Art Evolution
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
- Riko and Mitsuhashi may argue a lot and go out their way to irritate one another, but the last arc definitely shows how much they love each other.
- Also, Ryouko and Imai... With the difference that Imai believes she hates him and Ryouko is so shy her attempts at declaring her love end up pissing him off.
- Bad Liar: Mitsuhashi's father. One time, he lies to his wife and son about how he saved a young girl from a bunch of punks, when in reality, he was the one being harassed and was unbeknownst to him, saved by Mitsuhashi himself.Mitsuhashi's mother: That kinda sounds...made up...Mitsuhashi:(thinking) Uh...so pathetic...
- Band of Brothers: How the Beni High gang sees themselves when they prepared for the assault on Akehisa High.
- Barehanded Blade Block: Nakano can perform this on small swords and knives.
- Bash Brothers: Mitsuhashi and Itou are famous as the Nan High duo.
- Bears Are Bad News
- Becoming the Mask: Mitsuhashi and Itou started out just pretending to be badass fighters and initially only got out of scraps using Mitsuhashi's dirty tricks but eventually both grew into their new roles.
- Berserk Button:
- Don't make fun of Mitsuhashi.
- Or steal anything from him.
- Or (God forbids) ruin his food.
- Or even TOUCH Riko. In fact it's probably better to just stay away from Mitsuhashi.
- Don't hurt Itou's friends. He doesn't think too highly of bullying either.
- A good way to piss off Imai is by hurting Tanigawa or a female.
- Rape seems to be a Berserk Button for both Mitsuhashi & Itou. The only time they were prepared to seriously fight and hurt each other was when each of them thought that the other one was supporting some guys who had raped & blackmailed a girl.
- You're asking for trouble if you make fun of Nakano's height.
- Delinquents in general seem to be one for Ryou.
- Don't make fun of Mitsuhashi.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Many. To list them all: Itou is a genuinely nice person, but woe betides anyone who piss him off; Ryou and Riko are even nicer, but can easily throw people away if sufficiently provoked (in Ryou's case, only if the provoker isn't too overwhelming strong); a drunk Mitsuhashi is an incredibly nice person, but if you touch him he'll punch you out; Kyouko may be an overly girly and nice Retired Badass, but making her snap means she un-retires long enough to beat the crap out of the poor fool who pissed her off; and Tanigawa can become incredibly scary when pissed, and is rather strong for his size (enough to take down some of Akehisa's weakest delinquents in one-on-one combat).
- Big Bad Wanna Be:
- Mitsuhashi's first opponent in his senior year is a new student with a biker helmet, improvised armor made of magazines on his torso and a baseball bat tied up at his arm, who tries and fails to take over the school before getting expelled for beating up a teacher. Next time we see him, he's an Akehisa student and the local Butt-Monkey, disarmed and with a locket on the helmet.
- Yuuichi starts out as one, picking on Mitsuhashi, Ito and Imai at once to impress a fellow middle school student. His attempts to get revenge on Mitsuhashi made him wiser, and he became an ally once he enrolled Nan High.
- Fundoshi
Mask has a vendetta against Mitsuhashi for him ruining his life in self-defense, giving him the nickname and forgetting about him before moving to Chiba. All of his attempts have miserably failed. - Suenaga. He may be quite evil and Satoshi's successor as the head of Akehisa, but he's not as strong or charismatic as his predecessor and ends punched out by Mitsuhashi inside Akehisa (his hold on the school's gang shatters immediately after).
- Kitagawa, the guy who forced Takasaki out of Saitama. Thanks to his family practically owning the town he feels unstoppable, but once Takasaki comes back with Mitsuhashi and Itou his reign collapses extremely fast and he's even captured by Takasaki, and his bodyguard, the American wrestler Jumbo, won't obey his orders to stand down out of hate for Mitsuhashi, who had downed him with a flying kick.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Nakano does this during the assault on Akehisa.
- Itou and Mitsuhashi when saving their schoolmates or helping out others.
- In one memorable occasion, Akehisa pulled it, saving Kyouko from the arc villains and waiting for them at Itou's home because they expected them to attack his family.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Mitsuhashi's extended family. Turns out that Mitsuhashi and his parents are the nice ones, and the rest of their family is a bunch of hypocrites...
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Jun.
- Blatant Lies: Mitsuhashi blaming Ito for what he did (nobody ever fell for that), or Riko claiming she and Ryo transferred to Nan High because they were getting bullied (Mitsuhashi didn't buy it).
- Blood Knight: Several of them, Sagara and Nakano being the best examples.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Imai.
- Book Dumb: Almost all of the characters.
- Brick Joke:
- Early on, Imai digs a hole to try and trap Mitsuhashi in it (but isn't there when Mitsuhashi falls into it). Many chapters later, Mitsuhashi, Itou and Imai himself fall into it while chasing Yuuichi.
- And many other chapters later, Mitsuhashi tricks Imai and Tanigawa into falling into it.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: It's repeatedly shown that Mitsuhashi can do almost anything if he actually puts an effort into it, to the point he used to be a honor student before moving to Chiba... But he's too lazy and impatient to put an effort in anything other than his offscreen training.
- Broke Episode: One for Itou.
- Bullying the Dragon:
- Surprisingly, there's people around who tries and picks a fight with Mitsuhashi while knowing perfectly who he is. Takeda is especially bad, as he not only continued after Mitsuhashi threw him in a river the first time, but, differently from Kirimura, AKA the Fundoshi Mask, didn't even try and ambush him until Kirimura himself didn't offer his help (and nearly pissed off even Kirimura).
- Then we have the gang from Tokyo who came in Chiba to fight Mitsuhashi and Itou and beat up a student from Akehisa fully knowing they'd get hundreds of delinquents on their collective asses...
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Happens frequently to the duo, considering the amount of people they've fought, as well as their carefree attitude.
- Best shown by Fundoshi (Japanese traditional underwear) Mask: once a feared bully, Mitsuhashi gave him the nickname, ruined his life and made him a Butt-Monkey before moving at Chiba, realizing in the process that he could stand up to bullies and thus deciding to become the Blond Devil of Chiba... And yet Mitsuhashi can't remember him, his face, or what he did to him.
- Sometimes Mitsuhashi feigns having forgot about somebody he previously beated, as shown in one of his early encounters with Imai, where he claimed not remembering him and the author revealed he actually remembered him.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Imai.
- More like Iron Butt Monkey.
- Tanigawa is another Iron Butt Monkey
- Kirimura is the true Butt-Monkey of the series, beyond anyone. How? Well, pre-delinquent Mitsuhashi completely ruined his life and gave him the Embarrassing Nickname Fundoshi Mask right before moving to Chiba and becoming a delinquent inspired by the experience (and to add to the humiliation at first even he found the nickname funny given the bandage he was wearing at the moment, before realizing it could ruin his reputation. His attempt at beating up Mitsuhashi transformed the temporary humiliation in his life getting ruined), yet not only Mitsuhashi barely remembers his nickname (and later forgot even that), but the first thing he does upon debuting is choking on a coke, accidentally groping an old woman, get slapped for it, and having Imai, Tanigawa and the rest of Beni High (including Nakano) plus Ryo laugh at him for what had just happened.
- And then he got an even more patethic sidekick in his attempts at taking revenge on Mitsuhashi.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Mitsuhashi becomes a nice guy until you touch him, and Itou just falls asleep.
- Casanova Wannabe:
- Mitsuhashi may have the looks, but his combat pragmatism and greed ruins his image in the eyes of many young ladies, save for Riko.
- Imai has nice moves, but he's unable to actually keep a girl, and got dumped multiple times.
- Characterization Marches On: Just like Itou, Imai refuses to fight like Mitsuhashi does. This becomes weird if you re-read the early chapters and see that he had no problem fighting dirty like every other delinquent, even trying to fight dirtier than Mitsuhashi at one point.
- Character Development: All of the cast, however Imai is the most triumphant example.
- Combat Pragmatist:
- Most of the delinquents in general, but Mitsuhashi is especially not known for being honorable.
- Sagara turns it up to eleven in the last arc by getting someone to beat up Imai, getting everyone from Akehisa to target Mitsuhashi and Itou's friends, attacking an already injured Imai with an iron pipe and running over Nakano and the Nan High Duo with a car.
- Coconut Meets Cranium:
- How Mitsuhashi deals with teachers that annoy him: he can't attack them directly or he'll be expelled, but if nobody sees him dropping the coconut...
- On one occasion, the teacher had hired an incredibly strong former yakuza as assistant, and the first attempt failed due the yakuza breaking the coconut in the air. Later Mitsuhashi tried again... With a coconut filled with pepper.
- Combat Pragmatist: Mitsuhashi isn't above crotch shots or taping the floor to make your shoes stick.
- Before facing the Judo champion Takasaki, Mitsuhashi glued himself at the wooden platform where the students changed their shoes to neutralize his throwing moves. Takasaki ended throwing both of them and the platform.
- During the storming of Akehisa, Itou and Imai fully expected Mitsuhashi to let them, Tanigawa, and Koyama get beat up by the Akehisa punks so they'd serve as distraction while he'd beat up Suenaga (and were OK with it as long as he actually succeeded). He's not trying it, but not only this would have been in character for Mitsuhashi, but he already did something like that once.
- The incident mentioned above: Nan High's original gang was too tough for Itou and Mitsuhashi, so Mitsuhashi faked quitting being a delinquent, and while Itou served as bait by picking fights with all of them at once Mitsuhashi would catch them one by one and beat them up until they were ready for the hospital. Again, upon finding out he had been used as bait Itou was (mostly) OK with it, in spite of the broken arm he got during the latest fight.
"You resisted!! I complied!! You got noticed!! I didn't!! You got beat up!! And I took them out one by one!! Thanks for playing the part for me, Itou-kun!!" - Comedic Sociopathy: DON'T cross Mitsuhashi.
- Crying Wolf: Mitsuhashi lies so often and so blatantly that he has been accused of things he didn't do, including stealing a wallet Itou found on the road (actually recovered by his owner without telling, as he thought they wouldn't give it back), faking being assaulted by Karuizawa punks when tied up for previous misdemeanours (he was being attacked), kidnapping Riko (who had to save Mitsuhashi from his mother and tell her she went there on her own will) and even two murders (one was actually a guy who had been beated half to death and abandoned in Mitsuhashi's garden, and the other part of a prank from Imai), and never believed when he protested his innocence until he proved the truth.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: This tends to happen to most of the villains who mess with Mitsuhashi and/or Itou.
- Cute Bruiser: Riko and Ryouko
- Dark Mistress: Because she hangs out with Mitsuhashi, Riko is treated as such, much to her dismay.
- Darker and Edgier: The last arc.
- Saipan arc as well
- Defeat Means Friendship: After their fight in Kyoto, Nakano grows bored in his own town. After beating up the son of a Yakuza boss, he moves to Chiba to pursue the duo. After several more encounters, they gradually become friendlier with each other.
- More clearly in Takasaki's arc.
- Invoked by Koyama: after Imai managed to lift and thrown him, he declared himself friend of Imai because he was stronger.
- Delinquents
- Delinquent Hair
- The Determinator: Itou and Imai.
- Sagara is a villainous example. No matter how many times Mitsuhashi beat the crap out of him, he still kept tryingnote .Sagara: You're gonna have to kill me to get rid of me!
- Sagara is a villainous example. No matter how many times Mitsuhashi beat the crap out of him, he still kept tryingnote .
- Didn't Think This Through: Imai, Tanigawa and co. once played a terrifying prank on Mitsuhashi, leaving him frozen in shock. After a while they realized Mitsuhashi would pay them back a hundredfold...
- Disguised in Drag: In chapter three, Kyouko and her friends ask Mitsuhashi and Itou to dress up as girls and take care of the delinquents who harass girls at her school everyday.
- Distaff Counterpart: It would be a safe guess that Ryouko and Shouko were originally created to be this for the Nan High Duo - their Day in the Limelight chapter is even entitled Kyou Kara Atashi Ya!note - but upon comparison of backstoriesnote , the trope is clearly subverted.
- Dodge the Bullet: Mitsuhashi and Itou dodge a bullet shot each from Jun during the Saipan Arc
- The Dragon: Many, with the most notables being Sagara (to Satoshi. Later a Big Bad in his own right) and Suenaga (to Sagara in the final story arc, after having been head of Akehisa until punched out by Mitsuhashi inside Akehisa itself).
- The Dreaded: Kagawa-san, a giant yakuza whose mere appearance is enough to send Mitsuhashi running (usually because Mitsuhashi realizes he has either beaten up a friend of his or accidentally provoked him).
- Mitsuhashi himself is one: many people tried to pick a fight with him or accidentally provoked him because they hadn't recognized him only to fear for their own lives when they realize who the blond guy was.
- Nakano was one at Ibaraki: even his own classmates didn't want to involve him in their fights unless absolutely necessary, as they were terrified of him. He briefly lost this status due the son of the boss of a powerful gang enrolling his school, but recovered it as soon as he massacred him before leaving for Chiba.
- Sagara ascended this status in the final arc: his mere appearance terrified Riko, Kyouko, Imai and Ryou, without him even looking in the general direction of the first three.
- As far as Akehisa is concerned, he had always been this: he may have been weaker than Satoshi, but was much more evil.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Inverted. There are several female delinquents who look like guys.
- Embarrassing Nick Name: A minor character is infamous as Fundoshi (a type of Japanese underwear) Mask due the results of him trying to bully Mitsuhashi before the start of the series, resulting in Mitsuhashi giving him the nickname, ruining his life and getting the idea to try and pretend to be a badass. Of course, Mitsuhashi completely forgot about him.
- Enemy Mine: The Nan High Duo will occasionally receive help from their "enemies", Imai or Nakano.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even the Akehisa students are appalled at what an invading group of Tokyo delinquents pulled. And of said group, the one who called them for help against Itou and Mitsuhashi (who had beat him up during a vacation in Karuizawa) is disgusted by his companions.
- Evil Laugh: Mitsuhashi is a repeated offender.
- Exact Words: Riko's dojo is challenged by another dojo and the loser must lower their sign (close the dojo). Riko's dojo lost the challenge and literally lowered their sign instead of closing the dojo.
- The Fool: In-universe Example. Imai is known as the Idiot Banchou of Beni High. Even Imai acknowledges this himself.
- For the Evulz: One chapter features a house robber who robs poor people because it leaves more of an impact on them than if he were to rob the rich. He steals from Mitsuhashi, with the obvious results
- Friendly Enemy: The Nan High Duo develops this with Imai.
- To a lesser extent, they also develop this with Nakano.
- Funny Background Event: Chapter 348, page 16. You can see Mitsuhashi in the crowd getting Yakisoba from some guy.
- Gang of Bullies: Of course there are a few. Bonus points to Akehisa for having the gang include the whole student body and to Hokunei's gang for burning down the school.
- Generation Xerox: Mitsuhashi gets his greed and Jerkass tendencies from his mother. He looks identical to her too, but it doesn't count as an example since Mitsuhashi's current hairstyle isn't his natural one.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Played straight and Subverted: street brawlers like Mitsuhashi and Itou routinely crush trained martial artists, but that's because they are just that stronger and faster, and martial artists will crush lesser street brawlers and, sometimes, give trouble even to Mitsuhashi (Riko routinely throwing Mitsuhashi, Takasaki winning a spar against him and that karateka who actually knocked out Mitsuhashi in their first fight come to mind).
- Greed: Mitsuhashi is well known as a greedy cheapskate.
- Once a thief entered his house and stole his wallet, and Mitsuhashi woke up (after previously not waking up at a big noise) and chased him barefoot for about half of the city, with the thief running over walls, using a bike and even resorting to roof hopping before being captured. The wallet contained 437 yen and a phone card.
- Graceful Loser: Sagara in the final arc: after being defeated, he paid for the guys' stay in hospital.
- Groin Attack: One of Mitsuhashi's preferred methods of attacking.
- He pulled it even on a bear actually a guy who had dressed up as a bear to scare Mitsuhashi and co. away, but Mitsuhashi never found out that.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: 99.9% of the delinquents will start beating the crap out of you even if so much as look at them funny.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Subverted with Mitsuhashi: he seems just a slacker who sleeps far too often and just happens to be incredibly strong, but early on he remarked to himself actually trains hard off-page.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Mitsuhashi and Itou, and Imai and Tanigawa.
- Hot-Blooded: A lot of the cast, but, Itou is known as this even in-story.
- Identical Stranger: There's three different people that look close enough to Mitsuhashi to be mistaken for him at a glance, much to his chagrin:
- The first is an unnamed punk that picked a fight with a group of low-ranking yakuza, and had to be saved by Ito. Who wasn't amused at all when he took a good look at the guy and found a stranger.
- The second is Tom, a foreign exchange student that is identical to Mitsuhashi from behind, is popular with girls, and even strong enough to fend off the lesser delinquents. He ends up dying his hair black when the punks from Chuu mistake him for Mitsuhashi and the real one, after saving him, explains that blonds in Chiba are immediately taken for delinquents and are at risk of aggression.
- The third is an unseen Nan High student who happens to share Mitsuhashi's family name, and that the blond continuously picks on for it. He was also initially thought to be the guy Kirimura had a grudge against.
- I Know Karate: Several times, delinquents would tell Mitsuhashi and/or Itou that they know karate, boxing, kendo, etc. They go down before they can show off their skills.
- Important Haircut: How the Nan High Duo got started. Mitsuhashi got a perm and dyed it blond. Itou gels his hair into anime hair. The same can be said for Ryouko and Shouko, who cut their hair to become regular girls.
- In one chapter, Mitsuhashi shaves his father's head in order to create a new "Yakuza-like father" image for him so that Mitsuhashi can be proud of him. It works... Until Mitsuhashi's mother starts henpecking him as usual, reverting him back to his regular, timid self.
- Tom, the blond foreign exchange student, dyes his hair black when he finds out he'd be constantly mistaken for a delinquent (maken worse by the fact he looks very similar to Mitsuhashi) and assaulted.
- Improvised Weapon: Mitsuhashi has weaponized a lot of things, the most absurd being a table tennis racket (used to block Yanagi's knives).
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Itou's quite fond of them, in spite of getting regularly hit by Mitsuhashi for them.
- Informed Ability: Ryou has been training at the Akasaka dojo for about 5 years. Despite having so much experience with fighting under his belt, he gets curbstomped by deliquents on a regular basis.
- Late into the manga he's managed to defeat some delinquents on his own.
- Informed Flaw: The Nan High Duo's usual way to insult Imai is to call him a horse or a gorilla. It would be a fitting comparison if they were talking about Imai's mother, but in terms of appearances Imai doesn't look that different from anyone else in the manga.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Mitsuhashi and some villains.
- Knight Templar Parent: Itou's mother. It's not visible at all times, but telling your 15 years-old son to actually kill a pig using a knife because he can't pretend to be a nice guy and let others do the dirty work when he benefits from it, does seem a little overboard.
- Legacy Character: Imai tried to make himself one when he had problems with a group of yakuza, ordering Koyama to take over as banchou and 'Imai of Beni High'. When the yakuza beat Koyama up for being Imai and tricking them into thinking he was Imai, Imai returned the banchou to avenge him.
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Itou prefers to fight this way, but, most of his opponents would rather gang up on him.
- Lightning Bruiser: Mitsuhashi
- Like Father, Like Son: Averted in the case of Mitsuhashi, as his father is milquetoast, kind-hearted and unselfish - the exact opposite of him.
- Live-Action Adaptation
- Lonely Rich Kid: Itou in middle school. Part of the reason why he changed to the delinquent he is now.
- Loners Are Freaks: It's not so significant as in other series, but Nakano is regarded as creepy by most of the cast.
- Look Above You: Early in the series, Imai asks to kidnap Riko. Itou comes by and try to stop Imai. Imai tells Itou that there are bigger problems and tells Itou to look at the sun. Itou falls for it.
- Love Hotels: Izawa's sister was about to enter one in chapter 344
- Mirror Character: Tom, the blond transfer student from America. He initially acts as a foil to Mitsuhashi, but looks just like him with blue eyes, he's a cheapshot, much stronger than he looks, is quite the skirt-chaser (Mitsuhashi started out as one, but wasn't very successful), and, after they become friends, starts using his same hand gestures. On the other hand, he's much less of a troublemaker, and starts dying his hair black when he realizes what happens when he's mistaken for Mitsuhashi by delinquents from other schools.
- Mistaken for Gay: A minor character, Ookuma.
- Mistaken Identity: The Karuizawa punks mistake Mitsuhashi for Itou and Itou for Mitsuhashi.
- In one story arc a blond American transfer student was mistaken for Mitsuhashi multiple times. It ceased when the transfer student, after being mistaken for Mitsuhashi by random delinquents and bullied for this (at least until Mitsuhashi took offense. The delinquents weren't happy when they realized the mistake), died his hair to get less attention from delinquents.
- Morality Pet: Nakano's next door neighbour in Chiba, a college student who accidentally drove him to try and be a better person.
- Mugging the Monster: Not quite mugging, but random punks try to pick fights with members of the Chiba Gang without knowing who they are. Cue the fear when they find out whom they're messing with.
- There is actual mugging in some chapters.
- Many have messed with Riko, as her short stature and pretty looks make her appear harmless. The vast majority of them (including Sagara during the initial Akehisa arc) were sent flying or otherwise defeated.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: After the gang stormed Akehisa, Tanigawa was forgot in the popular tale. Even Imai forgot he was there too...
- Negated Moment of Awesome: Many, providing endless humour. For example, that time Mitsuhashi, Itou and Imai fell in a hole Mitsuhashi decided to climb out by jumping on the walls of the hole, but tripped on the last jump right after Itou and even Imai had been left speechless at his agility.
-
No Export for You: A bizarre case between the original VHS tapes and DVD releases of the OVA. Prior to TOHO's Blu-Ray remaster in 2020, the only way to watch the series in decent video quality was through the Italian DVDs (where it was released under the title of "Due Come Noi!"). The lack of any further overseas release can be attributed to the niche appeal of the delinquent genre outside of Japan. - Not Me This Time: Once in a while, Mitsuhashi is accused of something he didn't do.
- Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: During the final arc, the elite of the Akehisa attacked Mitsuhashi and Itou, and, upon getting kicked by a theorically immobilized Mitsuhashi, Suenaga cried that the outcome was already obvious in spite of that. Cue Nakano declaring he'd like join Mitsuhashi and Itou.
- Odd Friendship: Imai and Tanigawa in some cases. Imai's the Boisterous Bruiser banchou at his highschool and the tallest character in the cast to boot. Tanigawa's short and for the most part, a Non-Action Guy.
- Oh, Crap!: Many minor villains get this moment when they realize they're picking a fight with Mitsuhashi. Major ones usually get these moments when they realize how bad they're screwed. Most egregious example in the series is Yanagi, when Mitsuhashi defeats his knives with a table tennis racquet. As he sees that and that Itou, Imai and Nakano are coming for him, he gets the Oh, Crap! face and runs to the police begging to be jailed.
- Kagawa-san, befitting his position as the only person capable of consistently terrify Mitsuhashi, provokes it every time he appears.
- In the dojo battle arc, Kurosaki actually uttered "Oh shit.." when he realized how outmatched he was against Itou. He manages to win their match, but only barely and after cheating. Later he fights Mitsuhashi in a street fight... And is too terrified to even utter that when he realizes what Mitsuhashi can do without rules restraining him.
- The most epic is the one following Imai and his companions at Beni High playing a terrifying prank on Mitsuhashi that left him frozen in shock for a whole night. At first they were happy of their victory, but then they realized that Mitsuhashi would pay them back a hundredfold... Even Itou and Riko had one, when they realized what Imai and co. had done.
- When Tom showed up, a group of students from Chuu High mistook him for Mitsuhashi and picked on him. Then the real deal showed up, and this trope happened.
- Chapter 152, in which Mitsuhashi is apparently defeated in the middle of the storming of Akehisa, is actually titled "Oh, Shi-". When the truth is revealed in the following chapter, Suenaga's Oh, Crap! face is almost as good as the Eneru from One Piece.
- Older Than They Look: Ryou, Riko and Tanigawa are frequently mistaken for junior high or primary school students.
- Only Six Faces
- Pintsized Powerhouse:
- While not especially short, Nakano is frequently made fun of for his short stature. Until he gets into a fight that is, where he can stand on equal footing with Mitsuhashi and Itou.
- Riko is rather short, yet only the strongest delinquents can mess with her without being sent into orbit.
- The Power of Friendship
- Real Men Wear Pink: Imai is the big, badass Bancho of Beni High, who reads Shōjo manga and gets quite emotional.
- Red Baron: Mitsuhashi is known with many names: Blond Devil, Mitsuhashi the Villain, Mitsuhashi the Selfish, The Man Who Always Wins, and Mitsuhashi the Immortal (the latter after he faked being mortally wounded to scare a group of bullies and a fake yakuza into not fighting seriously. When the bullies realized they had been had, the nickname had already stuck).
- Yuuichi is known as "The Mitsuhashi of Junior High" for a good reason.
- Retired Badass: Kyouko. She used to be a delinquent, but stopped being one when she became Itou's girlfriend.
- Running Gag: A few, the most durable being Mitsuhashi taking revenge on teachers by dropping coconuts on them and people wondering where it came from.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Nemoto's "gachoon".
- Serial Escalation: Just look at Mitsuhashi's tricks and schemes. Pops out early when Mitsuhashi defeats an entire school by getting all the thugs in a line and bashing the first causing a domino effect, and once in a while he tops his previous tricks/schemes. His scheme to deal with a visiting Villain with Good Publicity is probably his best, as Mitsuhashi first tracked him by telling the journals a guy looking like him saved his (non existant) little brother, then thanked him publicily before beating him up when nobody looked, waited for him at his own home and, as a finisher, he and Itou tricked him into showing his real personality before his friends, making him lose them.
- Shadow Archetype: Nakano is this to Mitsuhashi: both are very strong and aggressive punks, both can't tolerate losing or submitting to wannabes, both are easy to rage, and both are very dirty fighters (at times Nakano comes off even dirtier than Mitsuhashi), but where Mitsuhashi is (kind of) nice and often makes efforts to act nice (and fails miserably whenever he tries on purpose), Nakano is a loner and permanently furious, before moving to Chiba and mellowing somewhat.
- Sagara to Mitsuhashi and Nakano: he's as selfish as Mitsuhashi, as rage-filled and violent as Nakano at his worst, and dirtier than Mitsuhashi.
- Shout-Out: One of Mitsuhashi's less-used nicknames is Golden Bat.
- Signature Move: Imai grab peoples' faces and then throwing them.
- Koyama has the same signature move on Imai, and they actually used it on each other. Or at least tried: Imai failed because Koyama was just too big for Imai to grab his face, and Koyama's attack was interrupted when Imai stole a page from Sagara's book and pinched his stomach before lifting Koyama and throwing him in the trash.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Halfway during the manga is revealed that Mitsuhashi was inspired in his Significant Haircut and becoming a delinquent by his brief feud with him immediately before moving to Chiba... But Kirimura's role is so small that he not only hadn't even appeared before then, since then Mitsuhashi has beaten up so many delinquents with weird hair claiming he ruined their life he can't even remember him.
- Speak of the Devil: Mitsuhashi has the tendence to appear from nowhere when he's mentioned and the speaker don't want him to. Also, Sagawa can literally summon Mitsuhashi and Itou by crying there're bullies for the latter and offering a snack to the former, causing Itou to turn the corner and Mitsuhashi to jump out from nowhere.
- Storming the Castle: When The gang goes to Akehisa High to attack the new head.
- Stout Strength: Beni High's Koyama is rather fat, and is second in strength only to Imai.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Sagawa has the ability to literally summon Mitsuhashi and Itou out of nowhere. Cue Oh, Crap! for the ones who got him to do that.
- The Syndicate: Aside for the various Yakuza groups, the students from Hokunei are extremely close to one, as pointed out by one of them.
- Taking the Heat: Riko does this for Mitsuhashi several times. Mitsuhashi does it for Kyouko when she visits Itou's house and breaks a family heirloom vase.
- Tempting Fate: Kagawa-san did that the only time Mitsuhashi actually fought him, declaring that Mitsuhashi needed to hit him with a dumptruck to win. Mitsuhashi actually got him ran over by a cargo truck, but whatever...
- This Is Gonna Suck: Kazuo, Ito's cousin, had been taught by Mitsuhashi how to defend himself from bullies by throwing salt in their eyes and headbutting them into submission, and was forced to go and try it on the first guy he met. He bumbed into Kagawa-san, a big yakuza who always wears Cool Shades, and without even looking threw salt on his sunglasses. As Kagawa-san got pissed, he thought "I'm so screwed".
- Those Two Guys: Arguably Sagawa and Izawa (their names even rhyme).
- Too Dumb to Live: Imai, dear god Imai. The time he got in trouble with the police ended with him hurting himself so much trying to escape the cops were begging him to stop and telling they didn't want to arrest him anymore.
- Took a Level in Badass: Tanigawa during the Saipan arc
- Tragic Dream: Imai tells everyone that he's going to go to college. Only later does he realize that it is impossible because he's too stupid.
- Training from Hell: Ito's mother asked Mitsuhashi to train her nephew Kazuo so he wouldn't get bullied anymore. Mitsuhashi's training involved, among the various things, picking a fight with Kagawa-san (accidentally: Mitsuhashi had taught a trick and sent him to try it on the first guy he met, who just happened to be Kagawa-san), with Ito making things even worse with his attempts at protecting him from Mitsuhashi. It worked: after facing Mitsuhashi's attempts at making him a man, Kazuo's bullies were nothing, and got the crap scared out of them when he just smiled at their punches.
- True Companions
- Unknown Rival: Perizoma Mask and for a brief time just after his debut arc Nakano
- The Usual Adversaries: The bullies from Chuu High, often appearing as general troublemakers and punching bags for Mitsuhashi and Itou, and, in one arc, as Koyama's Mooks before he became Imai's friend. They try to fight well, they really try, but... Well, when Suenaga took over Akehisa and ordered his men to put Chuu High in line, they stole their pants.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Surprisingly, we have a few.
- Fujieda, Nan High original official banchou (even if he too took orders from Shiratori), had a very good reputation at school, and for a while managed to keep Mitsuhashi and Itou in check thanks to it and framing them for beating a younger guy. Then Mitsuhashi framed him for stealing the students' council money in such a way it appeared he tried to frame Itou and Mitsuhashi for it, and he got beat up by Mitsuhashi, Itou and the Judo club, before being expelled.
- Yanagi and Ootake of Hokunei High carefully make it look like they are the only ones capable of keeping their school's gang in check instead of being the instigators, to the point they have multiple willing Scape Goats and set their own school on fire and got away with it. Then they entered in conflict with Mitsuhashi, Itou, Imai and even Nakano, and their reputation was broken.
- Shirohara, thanks to an alias and never doing trouble near his home. Then he pissed off Mitsuhashi and Itou, who tracked him down to Tokyo and exposed him.
- Jun.
- Villainous Breakdown: Yanagi completely breaks down once Mitsuhashi defeats his knives with a table tennis racket, and starts running in horror and begs the police to arrest him.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Mitsuhashi and Itou, and Mitsuhashi and Imai at times.
- Weak, but Skilled: Ryou is skilled at Martial Arts, but, his short stature and lack of strength don't pan out well for him when he fights. The best example is in his match with Kurosaki: he dances around his foe for a while and manages to punch him twice, but fails to do any damage and gets knocked out by Kurosaki's one hit.
- Riko, sort of: she's the most skilled fighter of the main cast, but she's nowhere as strong or fast as Mitsuhashi or Itou, and in a fight she would be no match for them (as shown when Riko's father got her to fight Mitsuhashi: as soon as he stopped holding back, she only survived due Mitsuhashi stopping the first punch and demanding her to quit before he punched her for real) or those who can stand up to them. Thankfully, she knows it well and has no problem at running away when she's outmatched.
- Sagara, when compared to Mitsuhashi. Sagara, after studying karate, became much more skilled, enough to defeat Imai in a fair fight (something he couldn't do before) or even defeat Riko (who had previously curbstomped him), but was still annihilated by Mitsuhashi's superior strength and speed.
- What Does She See in Him?: Both an In-Universe and out-of-universe example with Riko's attraction to Mitsuhashi. Even she's not so sure herself.
- What the Hell, Hero?: A common reaction to some of Mitsuhashi's schemes.
- Whip of Dominance: Played for Laughs. Imai once used a whip to counter Mitsuhashi because he thought he could whip faster than Mitsuhashi's attacks, and it worked, but since Imai was whipping Mitsuhashi on the streets, it ended up causing bystanders to think they were S&M performers.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: In one of the early chapters, Mitsuhashi and Itou disguise themselves as girls to help out Kyoko and her friends.
- Why Did It Have To Be Ghosts?: Mitsuhashi's great fear are ghosts and youkai. Not that using it against him will work...
- Window Pain: The Karuizawa punks throws a rock through Mitsuhashi's window with a note taped to it.
- The Worf Effect: Unfortunately for Imai, he frequently gets trounced by the current arc's villains to show off how powerful they are. Imai can usually get in a few good hits, but, you can tell how dangerous someone is if he is completely helpless, and gets used as a punching bag.
- Also goes for Itou as well in some arcs.
- Worf Had the Flu: In the Hokunei Arc. Itou was trying to get a student of another school to admit that it hadn't been Mitsuhashi but Hokunei Mooks to pick on him, but had ended up sort-of picking on him himself and was attacked by Ootake (second in command of Hokunei, fancying himself as his protector alongside the boss Yanagi so they would have a willing Scape Goat if needed) for this, and couldn't muster the will to give his best. When they fought again, Itou had learned of Ootake and Yanagi's plan (and that they had actually tried to have their Scape Goat turn himself in in Yagagi's place for a stabbing) and was pissed, and knocked Ootake out with three punches.
- Would Hit a Girl: Many of the delinquents would do this. On one occasion, Itou was about to hit a girl for good reasons, but not before giving a warning
- Episode 7 of the OVA: A guy backhands a girl for telling him to be quiet. Itou is the one who called him out on it.
- Yakuza: They show up once in a while. Most prominently, Akehisa High is considered Yakuza recruiting ground, the recurring character Kagawa-san is one, and an unfortunate series of circumstances caused Mitsuhashi, Itou, Imai and Nakano to declare war to a Yakuza group.
- Zerg Rush: Akehisa prefers this method to deal with enemies, and was in full effect during the assault on their school.
- Also, the Akehisa punks found themselves on the wrong end of this after the assault: Mitsuhashi and co. storming the school, punching out the new head and getting away with that had shattered the fear other schools had of them, so the gangs of other schools joined forces to storm Akehisa. The Akehisa students, led by the old head Satoshi Katagiri, countercharged them and won.
From Today On, It's My Turn!!
