Trivia / Battles Without Honor and Humanity

• Creator Backlash: Sonny Chiba said later in life that he regretted not reprising Katsuoshi Otomo in Final Episode.
• Deleted Scene: A still exists of one from the fifth film with Yamamori trying to sneak away with a cut of the Tensei Coalition's money, but he is stopped by Takeda and Matsumura.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: While most of the yakuza who were involved in the incidents portrayed in the films were in jail when the films were produced, they managed to successfully block Toei's attempts at releasing the saga on TV and home video until the late 2000s.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The very first scene in the original film's trailer has Hirono and Sakai holding up a man at gunpoint while challenging off-screen enemies, something that we never see in the final cut.
• The Other Darrin: Toshie Kimura died during the production of the last two films, so Rika Yamamori is instead replaced by a separate character who serves as Yamamori's mistress in Final Episode. She was then recast for the first New Battles film.
• The Red Stapler: After the film's success, Hiroshima dialect as spoken by the yakuza in the film became "hip" among Japanese teens and young adults.
• Shout-Out:
  • Toshiaki Tsushima's score, especially the opening chords of the first film, are often used in Japanese noontime variety shows as a wake-up call.
  • William Friedkin spoke positively about the series, citing Kinji Fukasaku's dark approach to morality as an inspiration on Friedkin's own work, such as Sorcerer and To Live and Die in L.A.. Friedkin even went on to say that narrative choices such as 'never redeeming the bad guys' and 'letting the good guys lose' is something that can't be done in American cinema today.
• What Might Have Been:
  • Fukasaku was not the first choice as director. It was supposed to be Sadao Nakajima, who would later direct the Nihon no Don trilogy a few years later.
  • Tetsuya Watari was supposed to be cast as Hirono, but he was recovering from an illness when production began. They then cast Hiroki Matsukata in the role, before he swapped roles with Bunta Sugawara. Of note though, Watari was also earmarked to star opposite Sugawara in 1975's Cops vs. Thugs with Fukasasku, but his illness went into remission. Watari did however finally get to work with Fukasaku, twice, in Graveyard of Honor and Yakuza Graveyard.
  • Bunta Sugawara wasn't even supposed to be in the series until he goaded the producers did so. When he was cast, he was supposed to be Tetsuya Sakai until, as stated above, he swapped roles with Hiroki Matsukata.