I learned about this anime from a Love Live Facebook page, where I discovered its bizarre premise: a trio of yakuza members forced to work as idols after having failed their boss. Initially, I couldn't help but be intrigued by the whole idea of such a show and wondered how someone came up with such a strange idea. Further research showed that the manga was being published in the same magazine as Initial D and Wangan Midnight, two of my favourite car-racing animes. At this point, I was certain that Back Street Girls was going to be good and I eagerly awaited its premiere. And then I actually saw it.

I'm pretty sure that the main difference between an anime and a manga is that the former is animated, while the latter is static. In spite of this, I'd argue that the Back Street Girls anime is closer to a coloured, voiced manga than an actual anime, as a good majority of the episodes consist of nothing but panning views of static images. Don't ask me how small the animation budget for this show was, but the resulting animation is severely lacking and extremely disappointing for a 2018 production. Arguably the worst offender would be any of the live show scenes, which in most idol animes, consists of a lengthy CGI dance scene. Guess what Back Street Girls has instead? Yes, it's another static, panning image!

The whole premise of Back Street Girls is ludicrous, but the execution is even worse. Basically, three yakuza members fail their boss and are given the choice of death or being forced to undergo gender reassignment surgery and becoming idols. They choose the latter, somehow receiving female voices in the process, and are subsequently subjected to this crazy guy who seemingly does nothing but bark orders at them all day. The anime primarily deals with the three ex-yakuza members performing live shows, dealing with perverted fans, getting yelled at by the crazy guy and drinking until they puke. Unfortunately, that's about all they do and even the addition of a new member to the group couldn't make the show any more interesting. Every episode of this show felt plotless and repetitive and even after 6 or so episodes, I swear there was absolutely no character development whatsoever.

If you couldn't tell from the score I gave this anime, or my review in general, I strongly recommend that you don't watch Back Street Girls. No seriously, do NOT watch this show unless you specifically want to torture yourself by watching something terrible. For reasons I shall never understand, Netflix has licensed this abomination and there was even a live-action adaptation made. No, I'm not sure why and I don't think I'll ever know how such a thing came into fruition. Then again, the whole idea of Back Street Girls was a strange one to begin with, and the execution leaves a lot to be desired.