Sex, Drugs, and Violence in Tokyo - TOKYO TRIBE
In the west, movies, comics, and other forms of entertainment tend to dive into the dark sides of things, like sex, drugs, and violence. Japan tends to shy away from that field, or at least water it down to a much more family-friendly level. Mangaka Santa Inoue is not afraid to go as deep as you can in this direction with his series TOKYO TRIBE.
The TOKYO TRIBE franchise started in 1993, with the introduction of the first version, TOKYO TRIBE, often abbreviated as "TT". Everything starts in this one volume, which follows the youth of "Tokyo", revolving around the "Shivuya Saru" and "Shinjuku Hands" street gang war.
TOKYO TRIBE 2, known in the west as TOKYO TRIBES, is the most well-known series of the franchise. Unlike TOKYO TRIBE, TOKYO TRIBES was serialized in the fashion magazine BOON, one of the most iconic magazines that covered the Ura-Hara scene of the 90s and 00s. It was very rare for a manga in a fashion magazine to see the success that TOKYO TRIBES did. Also set in a fictional "Tokyo", TOKYO TRIBES takes place 5 years after the major Shibuya riots. While all the tribes were enjoying peace, members of the gang "Musashino Saru" are killed by rival gang Wu-Ronz, leading to havoc kicking off once again in Tokyo.
The depictions of street activity in TOKYO TRIBE are very raw, making it one of the rare manga that was a hit in both the street scene and manga fans alike. While the "Tokyo" in the franchise is an imaginary version, many of the locations in the series are real places in real Tokyo, adding reality and relativeness to the story.
Still a hit series today, TOKYO TRIBE has been turned into an anime, and live-action movie.
