Crows Explode departs from the flashy and energetic style of the previous Crows Zero films by being adopting a somber tone and giving a few of the characters real, fleshed out emotions and struggles. The problem is that this realism is mixed with the typical Crows action craziness of having various cartoonish thugs fighting for control of Suzuran, a high school that apparently has no classes or teachers. There's not enough time devoted to either and the film is unsatisfying as a result. And to be honest, I came for the fighting, but I left wishing there was more time spent on the drama. The dramatic scenes are in that classic Asian macho drama mold of cool/tough guys suddenly bursting into emotion they can no longer contain, with anger, fear, honor, and respect all coming together at once. It's the kind of awesome stuff that Asian cinema does best, but there just isn't enough time spent on the drama here. Too bad, as the little that is here is pretty good.

The first 30 minutes is OK but the pacing become slow and slow till the end. Its boring. The first 2 Crows by Takashi Miike is awesome, its not this director is bad or what because he have make some good movie before. The real problem is the storyline, it doesn't have any strong plot in this movie. They use Kenzo story, the former character from previous Crows as a subplot but it still not works. Woman character is less used too in this sequel. But they forget something important in Crows Zero, something really important. The action scene! Although this movie only using street fighting as its martial art, they forget to hire any choreographer! We can see that all action scene here just use some random punch and kick here and there without any art, just like the director or the actor who know nothing about fighting choreographed the fight scene, which is really important for this movie. Even the names are not memorable and stylish at all, we still can remember Genji and Serizawa and it feel so good and cool to saying their name. This movie, I have forgot all their name, I think the hero named Kazeo and its not cool at all. Stay true to the book is the only way.

Seriously guys?? what's with the review? It didn't help people who didn't watch the movie yet.As someone who watch Crow Zero and Crow Zero 2, and read the WHOLE 'Crows' manga, this movie is really bad. Not only it's not connected to any Crow series, the plotting is bad. I know, the director doesn't want to make it similar to the Crow manga and bla bla bla.. It's just like Crow Zero (1), main character comes to the "Crow" school as senior, not a junior, are destined to conqueror the school and in the end trying to defeat the unmatched guy in the school, Rindaman. At least Crow Zero (1) was unique.The Fighting scene, gurhh~~ really, really, really bad. Most of the guys just know how to punch using the right hand and swing it wide and kick using the right foot. Only the dynamite guy got some good move. Even though Shun Oguri not that good with fighting seen, at least he made it look real. I'm writing this sincerely. If the director want to make a 3rd movie, he should at least consider where to put the storyline as the Crow Zero as the title suggested, Zero = Prequel to Crows story. Maybe he just should make it after the storyline of Crows series.

Despite the absence of Miike, Oguri Shun, Yamada Takayuki and the rest of the amazing crew, I never actually held previous prejudices on Crows Explode. But after viewing it, I can clearly state that it falls behind compared to its prequels.Being a fan of Miike's filmmaking, it was unavoidable to miss the highlighted foolish characterization, extreme violence and hilarious black humour inserted everywhere. That being said, I never expected Toyoda to do the same. After all, two different directors have entirely dissimilar ways of making their pictures. Crows Explode leaned to the realistic side way too much which was a bit wrong in my opinion; don't get the wrong idea, immersing the characters and fighting scenes in realism didn't sound like a bad treat but when it's over-done with this type of film then things are bound to become bothersome.To make things clear, this film had too many similarities with its famed prequels. The fight to become Suzuran's top leader was still used as the main thread to drive the plot. However, the fighting sequences to reach that objective were surprisingly demure and repetitive in a worrisome way. Although Toyoda tried to focus on the human emotions between his characters, he didn't exploit his main leads' potential to the fullest. Thus, many feelings couldn't get pass the screen barrier to reach the watcher's heart.Crows Explode narrative pattern was composed of several side stories that didn't serve any meaning at times. At the matter of fact, few of them were just used to fill the running time instead of building characters' back stories. To some extent, most of them were heavy to watch especially with the obvious lack of fighting scenes; they became utterly irrelevant to the film's development. Let's not forget the near-disappearance of black humour – which I clearly don't blame Toyoda for it. The last fighting sequence wasn't blowing but it delivered a nice punch after all.The entirely different cast is worrisome, isn't it? I know that many people can't imagine the "Crows" without Oguri Shun and Yamada Takayuki on top of them. I am a big fan of those two actors myself but shockingly, their disappearance didn't make me feel bad. I did want them to be in here but the new faces weren't bad at all. Led by rising stars like Higashide and Yagira, the acting department did the trick for the lack of better words. Some actors didn't convince me much but I can't put all the blame on them, the way their characters' were written didn't allow them to show a wide range of emotions or action.The cinematography was trying to be the same as the two Crows Zero but it didn't come out that way, I believe the yellowish atmosphere is the film's way of distinguishing itself from the others. The directing style and the setting of fighting sequences are debatable but Toyoda made sure to leave his mark which is more than enough to respect a director.Crows Explode had its own touch of filmmaking but the serious realistic depiction that Toyoda decided to use didn't come out entirely right, just like it wasn't entirely wrong. Due to its entirely different pattern, this sequel should be viewed for its own merits, comparing it to Miike's Crows will only make it harder to watch and judge.