This review is spoiler free. 800https://tiny.io/i/UImbDxh.jpeg Comedy as a genre is inherently interesting to me I mean what people find funny is so flippant and subjective between each individual. It seems like a Herculean task to even formulate any gag string when writing comedy its hard to know if what youre doing will hit. Sure theres conventions to comedy writing but playing it too safe will lead to making an average SitCom. So we enter one of the various approaches absurdism. You throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. This is very much what Gokudols entails as one can see from the premise and cover alone. Theres always a perforating issue that plagues and attempted absurdist comedy however. How far is too far? When does the wackiness devolve into mere nonsense and random equals funny gags? Shows like One Punch Man straddle this line near perfectly but where does Gokudols fall? This is the core question I will tackle with this review without further ado lets analyze Back Street Girls: Gokudols. Intro To Gokudols Img800https://tiny.io/i/vqvolXK.jpeg Upon failing a mission three lowrank Yakuza are given two choices: die or become a pop idol. Naturally abandoning their Gokudo Yakuza Path they fly to Thailand and get the surgery. Unfortunately it goes over incredibly successfully and they spend the rest of the show coming to terms with their new lives. Exploring the various things a stoic Yakuza would be upset about within a cutesy girls body they run with this premise. Of course more elements like new members and even a Gokudols their group Hate Club appear but it generally sticks to the core premise. Personally while not all of the skits hit I find this to be hilarious. Whether it being the girls forced to go through random and hellish training or deal with a rival idol group on the radio show. It always pushes the limits of the premise and creates for entertainingly awkward situations as they put their literal lives on the line as idols. Structure wise the comedy is not all that dissimilar to something like The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. Short comedic bursts focusing on singular premises and evolving one joke. This works for a myriad of reasons but the most prominent one is the pacing. If one segment doesnt land there will be a new one within a few minutes. This way its always fresh I believe this to be a general advantage over shows that spend an entire episode on one premise. Of course the gag strings arent entirely detached. While Ive heard plenty claim Gokudols doesnt have a plot they are simply objectively wrong. There are recurring characters and things that confound upon previous events showing their progression as idols and even their hate groups progression as haters. So no you arent in for a 4Coma or anything like that. Img800https://tiny.io/i/Mt5cDjF.gif So lets get to the elephant in the room: the production value. I cant believe Ive gone this far without even mentioning it but many will automatically hate this show for the animation quality alone. Its put bluntly horrendous. Characters are commonly drawn off model the faces simply dont even align half of the time. Everyone is incredibly ugly and its rare to see people actually move. However I would argue this almost works in favor of the show. While nowhere near the levels of Cromartie Highschool the poor animation adds to the tone and comedy. The rough aesthetic generally meshes with the bizarre premise creating for an incredibly unique experience. It wont be for everyone but I find the low budget to be hilarious and sometimes I believe thats intentional. Ive never been one to cry about animation anyways however. From a critical perspective its most certainly bad if you cant handle that avoid this one. Character Writing Img800https://tiny.io/i/XsPYE0y.jpeg So evidently I dig this show but lets destroy that perception as we get into where the series falls on its head. Characters are the key to most stories and for comedy this especially holds true. Thats nothing lamer than a disconnected knock knock joke comedy in fiction around at least 70 of the time is funny because it comes from the characters. Gintoki Saiki Kazuma and most other comedybased protagonists are vital to what makes their shows so memorable. Unfortunately we dont really have that here. They try to establish the characters well by panning over them several times establishing names and directly stating personality traits but nothing about their designs or actions are particularly compelling or unique. They just mesh which works for the comedy most of the time but is rather lacking. By the end you can say a few things about each character that has been directly shown as opposed to told like Maris hemorrhoids but I think most will agree the impression is weak. Naturally that has its own reason inconsistency. In episode two Mari is established to be jealous of Airi and Chika receiving so many nice gifts from fans. The joke here is that shes slowly seeped into the psychology of an idol and abandoned her Yakuza roots but it does establish a good bit about her character. Later Mari is shown to have destroyed an entire marriage because she has so many dedicated fans. Of course its possible she just grew in that one episode time span but it wasnt directly shown so it fails to deliver in what the initial skit set up. If you cant keep your character traits homogeneous then your characters will come off as muddled and unmemorable. On that note however I believe the lack of personality bar their Yakuza archetypes from our main trio makes Boss Inugane stand out all the more. Being the leader of the Yakuza he automatically holds comedic potential due to his sheer power. The shit he puts the girls through never fails to deliver as well his tacit threats and demonlike demeanor provide a palpable presence. If the rest of the cast had standout character traits like this I believe the reception would be far better as a whole. As a bonus note their producer was great. His naivety on the situation created for some great and naturally following humor. Evolution of a Joke Img800https://tiny.io/i/J0qNtc9.jpeg What ultimately determines if the premise is purely a gimmick and remains onenote is how they evolve the joke within the show however. How far can you take something like this and run with it? One Punch Man is applauded for how it deftly handles its gimmicky premise and modern day Isekai are lambasted for their shallow attempts at grabbing attention. On this line Gokudols falls more towards the One Punch Man side. Instead of beating the premise into the ground with the most predictable copypaste gender swap gags they use the Yakuza and idol settings dichotomy to their advantage. Some of the funniest shit comes up because we have these huskyass men in these cutesy girls idols being asked to act like women. I mean think about the early 2000s perception around idol culture and how men especially Yakuza could misconceive that. Comedic goldmine and I cant say I saw it all coming. This isnt to say there arent bad jokes but youll see what I mean when you watch it. They do things like putting the girls on talk shows making them fail for acting like cute idols but then fail even harder when theyre told to answer the questions honestly as thats whats popular in the modern idol movement. Of course they employ a lot of misunderstanding comedy which may be tiring for a lot of people as its so commonplace in AniManga but its done pretty well here. By the end there are enough new concepts introduced into the show to make it feel like the joke evolved at least a little. Inuganes wife the hateclub the other girls who join all of these push it past its base archetype and keep the formula from getting stale. So yeah. Gokudols is pretty great in this aspect. Conclusion Img800https://tiny.io/i/9cLCFY5.jpeg While not perfect by any means Gokudols was a fresh absurdist comedy thats a nice reprieve from most of the schlock put out nowadays. Some will fucking despise this show while others will love it as its generally polarizing. If you want something similar but far better check out Prison School. I know this review was rather short but thats all I have to say. Pretty fun but nothing standout. I definitely recommend you check it out see you peeps next review.