Series / High&Low

Mugen was a legendary team that used to run their town. But after a showdown with the Amamiya brothers, both Mugen and the brothers disappeared. The resulting power vacuum gave rise to five new gangs, collectively dubbed S.W.O.R.D., each taking a part of the region under their control.

However, Kuryu Group, trying to regain their former power, start their plan to take over the town. They send their newest member to take care of things, a familiar face to the the Sannoh gang...

High&Low was created as a multimedia project by LDH, an entertainment company that manages multiple bands (most notably the EXILE TRIBE family), actors, among other projects. Many of High&Low's stars are singers, dancers or actors under their management, and the songs for the show are made by their bands. High&Low was enough of a success that it also spawned 5 movies (and counting), two manga (one by CLAMP), anime shorts, a theme park, and even a live concert to tie into the show.

In 2019, the franchise had a major collaboration with the Crows delinquent franchise, and used its sequel WORST as the basis for the film High&Low: The Worst. However, both generations of both series' student delinquents have moved on, and the conflict focuses on Oya and Housen Academy's new blood. This received a sequel later; 2022's High&Low: The Worst X (Cross), which featured new generations of Crows' iconic Suzuran High School in addition to an alliance of three new schools made to oppose Oya High; this alliance consists of Senomon Technical High School, Ebara Commercial High School, and Kamasaka High.

Examples in High&Low:

• Americasia: The vast majority of the cast is Japanese, everyone speaks Japanese, and the show has quite a few traditional Japanese elements such as the Yakuza. However, there's a huge crossover with American culture. Not only are a few teams based on American culture, such as Sannoh Rengokai and Mugen (American biker culture) as well as Mighty Warriors (gangsta rap), but American currency is used in the show as well. It doesn't help that the country that the show takes place in is never named.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Junko seems to have an interest in biker boys like Cobra, Yamato, and Masaki. In Season 2, Murayama meets Oshiage, a member of Strawberry Milk who has a crush on him.
• Arch-Nemesis: White Rascals and Doubt are this. one is hell bent on protecting women and the other loves abusing them.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: All the leaders of SWORD or any gang leaders established themselves as leaders with this.
  • When Sannoh Rengokai fights, Cobra leads all of them to the battle field, beats up more enemies, fights the strongest one, and uses the coolest moves.
  • Rocky is the most stoic, stern, and determined to protect all of the women in White Rascals. He is also the most skilled using a weapon i.e his cane.
  • Murayama is the leader of Oya High because he can take 100 punches from the oya guys, beats up all of them, and is the craziest in fights.
  • Smoky is the most agile and physically strongest out of all the Rude Boys. He established himself by giving Yamato (who can be considered close if not equal to the SWORD leaders) a Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • Hyuga is the most brutal out of all the Daruma Ikkas when they fight. He uses no tactics and just punches, kicks, and bites all the guys he could get his hands on. His signature is breaking arms...painfully.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Rude boys parkour style consist of high kicks, flips, and jumping place to place. Despite how cool it looks, they are an open target to attack if their enemy is quick enough.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Considering this is an action series, way too many times to count. The first movie makes it interesting by having people from different teams have each other's back and quibble.
• Badass Biker: Mugen, Sannoh and the Amamiya Brothers all fit in here.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: Murayama
• Barehanded Blade Block: Noboru and Rocky both grab blades by the fist to prevent themselves from getting stabbed.
• Berserk Button: Do NOT say the word "crab" around Kabuto. Don't even say anything that could be MISHEARD as crab.
  • The Amamiya brothers will not tolerate anyone who mentions their dead older brother in a mocking way.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Murayama mostly acts goofy and childish, but make no mistake, he is just as much as capable as his fellow S.W.O.R.D leaders.
  • Masaki Amamiya. He is the most cheerful, kind, and open among the Amamiyas, but let's not forget that He IS stronger than his younger brother, and can go toe to toe with Kohaku.
• Big Eater: Yamato.
• Big Damn Heroes: The cavalry comes to the rescue quite often.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: A subtle variant between Yamato, Noboru, and Cobra.
  • Seki, Furuya, and Murayama are a more straight example.
• Book Dumb: Pretty much everyone in Mugen and Sannoh Rengokai.
  Tsukumo: 8 times 1 is 8, 8 times 2 is 14, 8 times 3 is 23...
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: ALL OF THEM. Just look at the main image.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Kohaku can throw around grown men with one hand. Tsukumo is strong enough to move a car by kicking it. and most of Sannoh's (i.e Yamato) punches are able to bend an iron pipe.
• Combat Parkour: How the Rude Boys fight, and considering they're the only ones who know how to get through the slums they live in, it makes them a really hard target to hit.
• Chick Magnet: Cobra
  Dan: Set up a date for you, me and Cobra.
  Tetz: But if Cobra comes, wouldn't all the girls go to him?
• Childhood Friends:
  • Yamato, Cobra and Noboru
  • Kohaku and Tatsuya from Mugen
• Choke Holds: Cobra uses them so much that it's where he got his nickname from.
• City with No Name: The region is only referred to by the gangs that run it, S.W.O.R.D.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: It varies, but the gangs of H&L have some kind of color or style theme.
  • Sannoh Rengokai members have regular street clothes and workwear with no overarching color. Lots of coats, boots, and button up shirts.
  • White Rascals wear white with black accents. Party clothes, leather, studs, gloves, collars, etc.
  • Oya High students wear student uniforms or blue, or both.
  • Rude Boys wear green coats and lots of layers. Everything is over sized and worn out.
  • Daruma Ikka is nearly all red jackets with white accents. Some characters buck the trend in later movies.
  • DOUBT is all black (only Ranmaru's coat has color). The Kuryu group is black suits. The Mighty Warriors wear flashy street clothes with no consistent palette (but each member has a personally consistent style). The Prison Gang is totally hodgepodge, with its randomness defining the group.
• Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: Mighty Warriors beat up and steal from others and they love it!
• Dance Battler: Jesse of the Prison Gang. Pitted against Cobra, he flips and spins like a breakdancer and avoids all of Cobra's usual leg-focused attacks.
• Darkest Hour: Near the climax of The Final Mission movie, Cobra is abducted and later tortured, all of the SWORD places has been destroyed by the Yakuza, Smoky is attacked and later killed, and all of the rest of the SWORD leaders can do is desperately search for Cobra.
• Death Glare: Expect to see this often, mostly from Cobra.
• Destination Defenestration: Kohaku kicks Tsukumo out of a second story office in the first movie.
• Defeat Means Friendship: The series seems to run on this trope.
• Dirty Cop: The only cop with a name in the show is, indeed, corrupt.
• Doomed by Canon: The first half of season 2 focuses on how Mugen came to be and their eventual fall. Since you already know Mugen was pretty much wiped off the map, you know things don't end pretty. You also quickly realize that Tatsuya isn't seen anywhere in season 1.
• Downer Ending: Season 1 in SPADES. Noboru's turned around, finally back with his Childhood Friends again. He's willing to go down the straight and narrow. But right during his Friendship Speech he's hit by a car, and the episode ends with no clue to his condition. Thankfully it's followed up in season two.
  • End of Sky wrecks you when The Stinger shows Hiroto Amamiya getting shot before immediately fading to black. Final Mission reveals it was a fake out.
• Dreadlock Warrior: Tetsu.
• Dude, Where's My Bike?: Masaki Amamiya got his bike towed in the first movie, to hilarious effect.
• Dumb Muscle: Sannoh Rengokai
  S1 Opening Narration:Sannoh Rengokai. They all grew up under the same circumstances, in the same town. All had a bad upbringing, and don't have much smarts either. But no one matches their strength during a fight.
• Eagleland: Itokan, Sannoh and Mugen's main hideout, is decked to the ceiling with Americana.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Junko from Strawberry Milk does this to Cobra and Yamato. Later in season 2, Oshiage also from Strawberry Milk does this to Murayama.
• Elevator Action Sequence: Chiharu manages to trick a member of Daruma Ikka into pushing his teammates into an elevator. He then proceeds to kick stomp them and send them to another floor.
• Everyone Chasing You: Chiharu when he accidentally punched Furuya, the 2nd in command at Oya High.
• Excuse Me While I Multitask: Hiroto beats up a half dozen guys, while on his phone, trying to order from the vending machine.
• Face–Heel Turn: Kohaku after Tatsuya is killed.
• Family of Choice: Rude Boys is a gang made up of those left parent-less by either death or abandonment. They protect each-other and consider themselves a big ū.
• Family-Unfriendly Violence: In the first episode fight scene of Sannoh Rengokai, Cobra uses a german suplex on an opponent unto a pile of bricks. it still looks pretty awesome thou.
• Fan Disservice: In Final Mission, Cobra was shirtless when he was being tortured.
• Fantastic Drug: Red Rum
• A Friend in Need: The reason that former Mugen members Cobra and Yamato made Sannoh Rengokai was so that their Childhood Friend, Noboru, could have a place to come back to. Despite Noboru almost killing Yamato and Chiharu in the finalie, Yamato and Cobra still try to convince him that they're still friends and to come back. Thankfully they were able to bring Noboru back to their side.
  • This is also why Yamato helps Chiharu, even though he knows it could cause a huge ripple in SWORD as members are not supposed to switch gangs. And thanks to Yamato's desire to help Chiharu, the rest of Sannoh Rengokai comes in to save them as well.
  • In the first movie, Cobra, Yamato and Tsukumo all come together to bring Kohaku back from his Heel–Face Turn - knowing that he's suffering like this because of Tatsuya's death.
  • The other leaders of S.W.O.R.D rally behind the White Rascals' fight with Doubt in the second movie, and again when Cobra is abducted in the third movie.
• The Gambling Addict: Hisako, Yamatos's mom, is addicted to pachinko. To the point of leaving him alone late into the evening when he was growing up.
• Gang of Hats: Each of the gangs in High&Low have a very specific aesthetic. They often take the tropes associated with their groups and turn them up to eleven.
  • Sannoh Rengokai: Greaser Delinquents
  • White Rascals: Agent Peacock
  • Oya High: School of Hard Knocks
  • Rude Boys: Le Parkour
  • Daruma Ikka: Thug Dojo
  • Kuryu Group: Yakuza
  • Mighty Warriors: Gangbangers
  • Doubt: Evil Wears Black
  • Strawberry Milk: Female Japanese Delinquents
  • Mugen: All Bikers are Hells Angels
  • Amamiya Brothers: Badass Biker Sibling Team
• Gangsterland: The town is literally run by gangsters and has more than it's fair share of gang fights.
• Gangsta Rap: Discovering Wu-Tang Clan's music was what saved Ice as a kid, and it's an obvious influence on how he build up the Mighty Warriors.
• Generic Graffiti: Everywhere. Tons of sets have lots of graffiti, especially in the movies with the larger sets. It's also used to mark gang territories.
• Genius Bruiser: Noboru.
• Guyliner:
  • Murayama
  • Kizzy, with nail polish, foundation, and lip gloss—because she's Transgender
  • Hirai from Doubt, with black nail polish
• Gratuitous English: EVERYWHERE. Most of the graffiti in SWORD is all in English. Tons of characters drop random words in English - notably Rocky's catchphrase 'Party Time', and Ice with his catchphrase 'Change or Die', among other phrases. The characters who's actors speak English are much more likely to drop gratuitous English.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Li, a Korean gangster, has some conversations in Korean in the first movie. It does help that he's played by a Korean singer.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Todoroki had been training everyday since he was a junior high so that he could achieve the strenght to defeat most of the guys in Oya High. However, He still isn't a match to Murayama, who despite never seen training, has a lot more experience in fighting tougher opponents. This is taken up to eleven in their rematch, where Murayama mostly play around while Todoroki gets more and more desperate.
• Heel Realization: Cobra and Yamato were able to convince Noboru that what he was doing was wrong and to come back to them. Cobra, Yamato and Tsukumo also convince Kohaku to see the error in his ways in the first movie.
• Held Back in School: Almost all of Oya High is composed of 20 year olds - because they all intentionally held themselves back so they could stay within the gang.
  • Chiharu

    Yamato, serving Chiharu a drink: Drink! Oh, wait, you can't drink yet can you?

    Chiharu: I'm 20. A lot of things happened and I got held back and...

    Tetz: Wait, you're a real idiot!!!

• Improvised Armour: Masaki and Hiroto wrap chains around their limbs in order to fend off a katakana wielding opponent.
• Improvised Weapon: Too many times to count. Some of the times that are not covered by the tropes below include trash cans, taiko drumsticks, fire extinguishers, motorcycles and a shopping cart.
  • Batter Up!
  • Boulder Bludgeon
  • Cane Fu
  • Car Fu
  • Chain Pain
  • Chairman of the Brawl
  • Clothing Combat
  • Flipping the Table
  • Grievous Bottley Harm
  • Kill It with Fire: Huuga attacked members of the Kuryu with a stick on fire
  • Pipe Pain
  • Wrench Whack
• Incurable Cough of Death: It's not specified what Smokey's suffering from, but he's definitely not doing well considering he continues to cough up blood after hard fights.
  • It's revealed in the third movie that Smokey's dying from dumped toxins in the Nameless Street.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Cobra refuses to avenge Noboru because if they do, they will have to face the Yakuza, and despite their position as the strongest gang, they will need more to fight a Yakuza than just their fist alone. His prediction about fighting the Yakuza comes true when he directly challenges them in the third movie and is almost tortured to death. They can't win with their fists anymore.
• The Lad-ette: Strawberry Milk is full of rude speaking, bike riding women. However it seems to be a bit of a facade, considering that some of the girls like Junko are a bit girly, but they keep up their Ladette attitude. Junko, much to her dismay, scared off a guy hitting on her by going TOO ladette on him.
• Laughing Mad: Hyuga
• The Leader: Cobra for Sannoh, Rocky for White Rascals, Murayama for Oya High, Smoky for Rude Boys, and Hyuga for Daruma Ikka.
  • In Addition, there's Ice for Mighty Warriors, Jesse for the Prison Gang, and Ranmaru for Doubt
• Likes Older Women: Chiharu goes after a mom in the DTC movie.
• Look Both Ways: Doesn't happen just once, but TWICE. Fortunately Noboru and Tsukumo survived, but Tatsuya did not.
• Made of Iron: Everyone, but Oya High stands out because the challenger has to take 100 punches before they can even fight back- so the only ones who survive have to be literally Made of Iron.
• Manly Tears: Yamato, Cobra and Noboru all cry in the season 1 finale when they all try to reconcile. In the first movie, Yamato and Cobra cry when trying to convince Kohaku to stop his plan to destroy all the gangs.
• Misplaced Accent: Despite being raised in the same town as everyone else, Dan inexplicably has a Kansai accent. Lampshaded in-series.

  Chiharu [Narrating]: But he speaks Kansai-ben. For some reason.

• Mob War: One major one in season 1. Most of the movies have one as well.
• Mr. Fanservice: All of the cast.
• My Greatest Failure: Yamato feels very guilty about what happened to Noboru. It's what drives him to help out Chiharu when he wants to leave Oya High, because he doesn't want to feel that kind of regret again.
• Mythology Gag : Murayama's most notable clothing is his blue Jacket and Jeans which mbecome his iconic outfit. His actor Yuki Yamada plays the blue Gokaiger in the Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.
• No Shirt, Long Jacket: How the all-female gang Strawberry Milk dresses (though they wear tube tops).
• Not Blood Siblings: The Amamiya brothers.
• One-Gender School: Oya High.
• One-Man Army:
  • Each Amamiya brother, respectively. Considering the two younger ones beat up all of Mugen so bad that they got wiped off the map
  • The guys in Sannoh Rengokai are mild examples, easily able to take on a dozen men each in-show.
• Painted-On Pants: Kohaku wears skin-tight leather pants after he turns evil, and fights in them.
• Percussive Therapy
• Police Are Useless: Stated outright in the first movie when the police were too busy stopping other disasters in the area to come and help the main characters.
• Pint Sized Power House: Cobra and Murayama are some of the shortest members of their gang. But both of them are leaders of their gang for a reason. Jesse follows in suit.
• The Power of Friendship:
  • How Cobra and Yamato win back Noboru.
  • How Cobra, Yamato and Tsukumo win back Kohaku in the first movie.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  • "It's party time" (Rocky)
  • "IKUZO TEMERAAA" (Murayama)
• Protectorate: While all of Sannoh Rengokai desire to protect their town, Cobra specifically is hellbent on protecting SWORD and all the people in it. Rocky explicitly and specifically protects women in his area.
• Rated Mfor Manly: A series about gangs full of Hot-Blooded and Blood Knight men with a lot of actions, Mob Wars, vehicle destruction, and fist fights. Not to mention the Cast Full of Pretty Boys everywhere.
• Red Baron: All the Gangs of SWORD have their own badass nicknames.
  • "2nd Generation Warriors"(Sannoh Rengokai)
  • "White Devils of the Night"(White Rascals)
  • "The High School of Demons"(Oya High)
  • "The Town with no feelings"(Rude Boys)
  • "The Vengeful Group of Destruction"( Daruma Ikka)
• Red Is Violent: Daruma Ikka
• Reluctant Warrior: The Sannoh group wants to protect the town without having to fight. Fat chance.
• Roundhouse Kick: Expect to see this a lot. Mostly from Masaki Amamiya and Yamato.
• Rule of Cool: Why does every gang have incredibly incredible, matching fashion sense? How do any of them pay for anything considering no gang (except the White Rascals and Mighty Warriors) seems to have any sort of income?
• Rule of Symbolism: When Kohaku turned evil there's two scenes where he's staring up a picture of Satan falling from grace, which is clearly supposed to represent him.
• Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: In the first movie, a Korean crime syndicate tries to take over the region by taking advantage of Kohaku's hate for S.W.O.R.D
• Shirtless Scene: Yamato gets a few when he's getting bandaged up after a fight.
• Slide Attack: Cobra uses this often either to apply a chokehold or just a slidetackle.
• Smoking Is Cool: While only the older guys like Kohaku and Tsukumo tend to smoke, it's definitely shown to be cool. Cobra and Yamato were also shown smoking in the first episode.
• Start of Darkness: The first half of season 2 goes into Kohaku's backstory and what drove him off the back end, specifically seeing Tatsuya get killed and Tsukumo getting grievously injured.
• The Stinger: Red Rain has one that's super cute. End of Sky's is Mood Whiplash.
• Sweet Tooth: Cobra orders two cupcakes and eats them both by himself.
• Taking the Bullet: In the season 1 finale, Noboru tries to shoot Yamato - but Chiharu jumps in the way. Thankfully Noboru misses them both.
• Tears of Remorse: Noboru, after he realizes that his friends still cared about him and that revenge wasn't the answer.
• Terrible Artist: Dan. He drew a sketch of Lala, who got him into hot water with the White Rascals, and it was completely useless.
• Torture Cellar: Seen in the third movie. The yakuza snatch Cobra and beat him while chained to the ceiling. Had the cavalry not arrived in time, he would have been choked with wet cement.
• Trashcan Bonfire: These pop up a lot in-series, but they're most notably half a dozen lying around the Daruma Ikka hangout.
• Trauma Conga Line: This applies to way too many characters, but below is a standout case:
  • The Amamiya Brothers: Their parents died in an apparent suicide, then the older brother goes off to who knows where, driving the younger two to search for him. When they finally reunite, the older brother ends up dying while revenging against their parents' deaths. Then in the End of Sky movie, Masaki watches Hiroto get shot in the chest by a sniper right before the movie ends.
• Trrrilling Rrrs: Everyone in Daruma Ikka.
• True Companions: Noboru, Yamato and Cobra. To the point that when Noboru went through his Heel–Face Turn, they still worked long and hard to bring him back.
  • Dan, Tetz and Chiharu also fit under this, especially considering they all went on a road trip after the events of the 3rd movie.
  • Kohaku and Tatsuya as well.
• Two-Teacher School: Oya High has exactly zero teachers. Not surprising, considering the students that attend...
• Use Your Head: One of Murayama's moves.
• Whole Episode Flashback: The first four episodes of season 2 are all flashback to Mugen's history.
• Wife-Basher Basher: Don't you dare hurt your girl in the White Rascals' district, or you're liable for a beating - or worse.
• Would Hit a Girl: DOUBT will do anything to get what they want. Up to and including abducting and abusing women.
  • Murayama seems interested fighting a girl who had a crush on him.
• Would Not Hit a Girl: Rocky refuses to lay a hand on women. He immediately stops fighting Kizzy when he notices her nail polish. Somehow he correctly assumes she's transgender based only on that and walks off.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Cobra manages a suplex in episode 1, but as an action series there are quite a few wrestling movies used on-screen.
• Wretched Hive: While the White Rascals district is in pretty good shape, the rest of SWORD is this, especially nameless street where the Rude Boys gang lives.
• You Are Not Alone: Cobra and Yamato refuse Chiharu's resignation from Sannoh Rengokai and emphasize this with him.

  Cobra: We don't turn our eyes away from our friends.

  Yamato: He's right.

  Chiharu: Cobra... Yamato...

  Yamato: If you're suffering, come talk to us. That's what friends are for.

Examples for High&Low The Worst and High&Low The Worst X:

• Always Someone Better: Murayama defeats Todoroki yet again in their rematch. This time he make sure Todoroki learn his lesson the hard way.
  • The Oya High students proves to be no match for the Housen Killer corps in their all oit war. Its to the point that their enemy took time to taunt them.
  • Housen themselves have this in the form of another school, Suzuran.
• Another Side, Another Story: The Episode 0 prequel explains what happens in Oya High after the events of the first movie, during the second, and Before the climax of the third.
• Ascended Extra: Todoroki will take a lead role in the upcoming crossover movie after being absent since the first one.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Murayama stands at the top in Oya High. In the trailer, Housen's leader, Ueada Sachio is this as well.
• Battle in the Rain: Tsukasa fights Fujio in a muddy forest during the rain.
• Battle Cry : Three people used "IKUZO TEMERAAA" , the first is by Fujio during the battle between Oya and Housen, the second is housen's leader Shida Kenzo, during their battle with Kidra, and finally from Murayama himself when he comes to save the day.
• Bash Brothers: The film introduces us to another sibling duo in the Orochi brothers, Shinya and Masaya.
• Berserk Button: Fujio doesn't take it well when someone calls him short.
• Beware the Silly Ones: There are some examples, the most notable being Fujio, the Orochi Brothers, and Odajima Yuken.
• Big Brother Instinct: Sachio Ueda, the leader of Housen,goes to a gangs hideout and beat up most of the guys there.. to take his sister home.
• Big Good: Murayama has taken this role in Episode 0, he gives advices to the juniors of Oya High.
• Blood Knight: All of the main cast are this.
• The Brute: Eimei to Housen, as he is the largest and physically strongest of the Housen leaders. He also managed to curb stomp both Tsuji and Tshibaman, who serve as Brutes to Oya High.
• Call-Back: There are a few.
  • Fujio's fighting style resembles Cobra, with a bit of recklesness.
  • The return of Red rum.
  • Arata's story is simillar with Chiharu's in the first season of the series; both involve a financial problem concerning a parent that made them unwitting pawns to gangs that sold drugs, but Chiharu's case is his father's debt while Arata's is his mom's hospital bills.
  • Murayama's Big Damn Heroes moment in the final battle is simillar to the one he performs in the End Of Sky movie.
  • In the climax, Fujio tries to talk some sense into Arata to see the error of his ways, after which Arata falls to the floor crying while his friends stand at his side. This is just like what Cobra, Yamato, and Tsukumo did to Kohaku in the first movie.
  • In the climax, two factions (Oya High and Housen, or three if you count Murayama's Oya gang seperately) join forces to battle the Kidra gang, just like when SWORD joined forces to battle the Yakuza and mighty warriors in the previous movie.
  • Also in the climax, the Orochi brothers come to perform a Big Damn Heroes moment just as Oya High and Housen is having a rough time, similar to the Amamiya brothers in the first movie.
  • In Final Mission, Murayama told Cobra that he wants to get a bike. The ending of the movie showed not only Murayama, but both Seki and Furuya also have bikes simillar to those that the Sannoh gangs own.
• The Cameo: Sannoh's Tetzu and Chiharu appeared briefly when the Orochi brothers met with them to discuss about Kidra. Later, Murayama calls Cobra to discuss about the Kidra situation (though the latter doesn't appear).
  • There's also a cameo by Parko, from Crows. For those who don't know, he is the guy who teamed up with Crows main character Harumichi Bouya to take on the snake head gangs.
  • The Worst X (Cross) gives us a cameo by Kyosuke Yabe, who played a major supporting character, Ken Katagiri, in all three Crows films. Given his mannerisms, it can be implied he is this very same character, though it isn't confirmed.
• Childhood Friends: The Hope Hill group consisted of Fujio Hanaoka, Seiji Kirihara, Shinya Oochi, Masaya Oochi, Madoka Ishii, and Arata Maekawa.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Eventually, Shinya and Madoka hooked up.
• Crossover: With the Crows franchise, primarily its sequel manga WORST. H&L's Oya and Worst's Hosen Academy are the main focus of the crossover, and it's years after any the main delinquent characters of either have been the focus. Suzuran also shows up as another faction.
• Demoted to Extra: Both series' main characters from the previous series (save for Murayama and his Oya gangs) are either cameos or didn't appear at all.
• Defeat Means Friendship: In the end, Fujio loses his duel with Sachio yet seems to be on good terms with him, as both give each other a smile before departing.
• Even Evil Has Standards:The young delinquents in Oya High, even the bad ones, know that the SWORD vs Kuryu war is a serious matter.
  Kiyoshi: This fight level is different.
  Yasushi: This is SWORD.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: At the end of the film, Fujio, Tsukasa, and Jamuo decide to ran away from the Suzuran students surrounding them, since fighting on their grounds would cause a commotion that could attract all of the delinquents in the area.
• Original Generation: The new characters introduced in this film series, in particular those from Housen and Suzuran, are this.
• Sequel Hook: After their battle against Housen Academy, Todoroki mentions that there is another school in Toarushi which is much more stronger than Housen, and Sachio battles the leader and lost to him. The school is none other than the main school of Crows, Suzuran, of whose students chase away Fujio, Tsukasa, and Jamuo at the end of the film.
• Stalker with a Crush: Sawamura from Housen stalks Sachio's little sister to keep her safe, but he seems to not harbour any feelings for her... until the ending.