Only two of these movies are currently available in English-friendly versions, the other being the wonderful Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom.
Animal Classmates, like Lynch Law Classroom, deals with girl juvenile delinquents in a high school setting, with the high school being the setting for all manner of criminal shenanigans. Animal Classmates also has some affinities with the curious Japanese Catholicsploitation sub-genre.
Reiko Ike (who starred in all four movies in the series) is Aki Kazahana, one of five new pupils at the very exclusive Seiwa Academy for Girls.
The school is the stage for a power struggle between two factions, the Athletic Association and the Black Rose Society. They’re both pretty ruthless. Aki, despite her reputation as a very tough cookie, is reluctant to get involved with either faction. But remaining uninvolved may not be an option.
One student from the school will be chosen, by competitive examination, to be an overseas student at the Seiwa Academy’s American sister school, Saint Gregory’s College.
The power struggle between the factions heats up. The Black Rose Society is quite wealthy - they run their own prostitution racket and various other criminal enterprises.
The male teachers seem to enjoy watching the girls in the showers. Like most pinky violence movies this one has a very strong anti-establishment anti-authoritarian stance. The establishment is greedy ruthless sleazy men with no honour. The girl juvenile delinquents at least have some vague code of honour.
This movie, like Lynch Law Classroom, shows definite samurai movie influences with rival girl leaders challenging each other to formal duels.
There’s something very sinister going on at this school. It does seem a bit odd when one of the girls competing for the overseas student scholarship is told that if she wants to be in the running she’ll have to consent to being photographed nude. She is told that no Catholic school would consider a girl as a student without first seeing nude photographs of her! This is the kind of WTF moment that makes Japanese exploitation movies so endearing.
The Athletic Association seems to be mostly interested in fencing and archery. Which means that this is a girl juvenile delinquent movie that is going to feature some swordplay.
There’s no shortage of violence. If you enjoy seeing pretty girls in sailor suits beating the daylights out of each other you’ll love this movie. And if you enjoy seeing pretty girls in sailor suits trying to kill each other with swords you’ll love it even more. The climactic swordfight is pretty good. You also get a full-scale battle scene (and I do mean full-scale) between the girls of the rival factions.
There’s a fair amount of nudity (although being a 70s Japanese movie there’s no frontal nudity) and a fair amount of sleazy sex.
One of the things that differentiates Japanese exploitation movies of the 70s (such as the pinky violence films) from similar movies from other countries is that these Japanese movies were major-studio productions. They were made by people who were seasoned professionals. They tend to be technically flawless. They also feature acting of a generally fairly high standard.
While I still consider Miki Sugimoto and Meiko Kaji to be the queens of pinky violence I must admit that Reiko Ike does a very fine job here.
This is a movie that ticks most of the pinky violence boxes and it’s great sleazy entertainment. A must-have for pinky violence aficionados. If you’re new to the world of pinky violence this film is not a bad starting place. It’s a typical representative of the genre. Highly recommended.
The Discotek Media Blu-Ray has no extras but offers a very nice transfer.
I’ve also reviewed Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom (1973) which is absolutely essential viewing.
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