Get to the Top! City Boys

Get to the Top! City Boys (頂点に行く! 市男子) is a Yamataian manga series written and illustrated by Okonomiyakihime. The series is published in Yamatai in the magazine Shōjo Leap, with chapters collected and reprinted into fifteen tankōbon volumes to date. City Boys follows a group of Junior College boys who form a dance group and compete with groups from rival schools to win the coveted National Modern Dance Awards in order to secure funding for their club. Most of the cast are personifications of cities in Yamatai, with some foreign cities also personified.

A 13-episode dōga adaptation produced by Kobayashi Animation aired in Yamatai between April and June 2015. An additional original video animation (OVA) episode was released in January 2016. A 26-episode second season, titled City Boys Never Stop!! aired in Yamatai between April and September 2017, with an OVA episode released in March 2018. An animated film based on the series, Unlimited Potential!!! City Boys was released in Yamatai on December 3, 2018. A mobage spin-off, City Boys Don't Stop Moving!! has also been released. By 2019, gross revenue for the franchise has reached over 円15 billion.

Characters from City Boys have been used by some Yamataian cities as part of advertising efforts.

Plot

In Akitsukuni Southern Junior College, five boys form a hip-hop dance group and attempt to register it as an official extracurricular club. Facing heavy opposition from the Student Council President who hates hip-hop music, the boys make a deal, if they manage to win the National Modern Dance Awards, they would be considered an official club and receive school funding. In order to win, the boys have to go through several stages of dance competitions before they can face off with the current national champion team, the legendary Bay Dragons Crew from Niihama. Along the way, they face numerous challenges in their school and personal lives, and eventually deepen their friendship bonds throughout their ascent to the top.

Later on in the manga series and animated in the second season of the dōga, the boys graduate from Junior College and enter Hasukuni National University, where they join the pre-existing modern dance club and help to revitalise the club to save it from being closed, facing off with even more difficult opponents from across Yamatai, while dealing with personal issues as they grow up to young adults.

In the movie Unlimited Potential!!!, the boys attempt to defend their title against a foreign modern dance group with some of the top dancers from around the world.

Characters

Main characters

Yasuhira Ichiban (安平一番): Personification of: Heian; Called Ichi by his close friends, Ichiban is the leader of the dance group. He has been interested in modern dance since he was 10 years old, when he saw a breakdancing performance at a local mall. Though his family is now rich, he had a humble childhood and is determined but a bit idealistic. He has been working hard in his studies all his life in order to become a successful entrepreneur. His mother is a politician, and his father is a sailor in the Imperial Navy. He is most skilled at mathematics and his hobby is football.
Shinada Kawahiro (品田川弘): Personification of: Shinagawa, Kinai; Kawahiro is often called Shina by his friends and is the tallest in the group. A bit of a delinquent, he is an aspiring DJ and knows how to program electronic music, and mixes many of the original tracks the group dances to. He has problems with skipping class and has consistently poor grades, but puts in his heart and soul into doing what he loves. He's a strong swimmer, which he claims is his hobby, but he also has a secret hobby of fishing, which he hides as it goes against his tough-guy persona.
Himura Kinjirō (日村金治郎): Personification of: Higane, Kinai; Kinjirō is called Jiro by his friends. He is the best dancer in the team and is acknowledged as a natural, but he seems to be always sleepy and often sleeps during class. This is later discovered to be because he is secretly working a part-time job as a factory packer after school to support his single father and three siblings. He is the biggest and physically strongest member of the group, but shuns violence. His hobby is baking, and is surprisingly good at making Higane Cakes.
Takano Taro (高野洸太郎): Personification of: Kōya, Kinai; Though he was not a technically strong dancer at the start, Taro has the ability to flawlessly remember every single step and position down to the centimetre, and his dancing skills eventually improve with practice. He wears glasses and is very intelligent, regularly among the top scorers in the class. He comes from a very traditional household and his parents do not approve of his dancing at first, as they preferred him to join the kendo club instead. His hobby is kendo, which he prefers to practice for fun.

Supporting characters

Shinya Masahiko (新屋政彦): Personification of: Kobushi City; A delinquent and school dropout, Masahiko is the leader of the Hoshima Fist Factory group. A quick-tempered loose cannon, Masahiko often attempts to get violent when things don't go his way. The first team to be defeated by the City Boys, Masahiko attempted to start a fight with Ichi but was intimidated into backing down by Jiro. Later on, it is revealed that he has a difficult background with a Gokudo father who is in prison. His hobby is fixing motorcycles, which was changed from his original hobby in the manga which was riding motorcycles, as it was pointed out that he was not of legal age to ride a motorcycle and could not be shown do so on TV.
Yamamoto Sōnosuke (山本聡之介): Personification of: Yamato, Nagato; The son of a Michi priest, Sōnosuke leads the Harukuni-based Springtime Rebirth Boys and is very serious and driven to reclaim the title, which historically belonged to his school for several years before it was lost to the Bay Dragons Crew. He is very good at coming up with choreography for his team and is a natural leader, though his humourless nature makes him abrasive at times. His hobby is studying Yamataian history.

Ichioka Yasuharu (一岡康晴): Personification of: Okayama, Yamashiro; Yasuharu is the leader of the Green Fields Crew from South Oshima. Appearing lazy and unfocused, Yasuharu takes things at his own pace and often doesn't seem to be interested in whatever is going on, but it turns out this is an intentional persona to throw opponents off. He is also very good at motivating his team, and he was the one who taught Ichiban the importance of positive motivation. While dancing, he is one of the most technically skilled, but lacks creativity in his movements. He is a train otaku and his hobby is watching trains.
Kobayashi Isami (小林勇): Personification of: Kobayashi, Yamashiro; Isami is the sub-leader of the Green Fields Crew from South Oshima. He is also very skilled at dancing, but like the rest of the Green Fields Crew is very methodical and hesitant to be more creative. His hobby is playing the piano.
Sato Masato (佐藤正人): Personification of: Fujisa, Masaki; The leader of the North Oshiman Bear Fighters Alliance. Airheaded and childish, Masato is nonetheless one of the most skilled dancers in his team, though a problem with his team is the imbalance between extremely good and poor dancers. He refers to himself as SatoSato, sometimes in the third person, and loves to play pranks and uses strange analogies. However, he shows moments of extreme clarity that reveal a highly intelligent and determined personality within. His hobby is riding horses on his home ranch.
Oda Sanshiro (小田聖): Personification of: Odagawa, Aomori; The sub-leader of the Bear Fighters Alliance and the tsukkomi to Masato's boke, Sanshiro is known for his large forehead and attractive looks. He is commonly held to be the best dancer of all of Oshima. Though he has put in efforts to bring up the level of the poorer dancers on his team, they still have a long way to go, so he tries to make up for it with flashy and complex moves to draw attention away from them. His hobby is cooking, and his speciality is boar stew (which is also Aomori's provincial dish).
Yukino Seiya (柚乃星矢): Personification of: Yuzu, Hōen; Seiya is the bespectacled leader of the Red Suns Boys from Hinomoto. A quiet and withdrawn person at a glance, Seiya is a man of few words but shows frighteningly high skill and aggressive moves while dancing. He actually does not talk to other competitors a lot because he is embarrassed by his Hinoan accent. His hobby is playing Go.
Shinhama Akira (新浜彰): Personification of: Niihama; The proud, arrogant and cold leader of the Bay Dragons Crew from the Satsuma Bay Area, who were the top modern dance group in Yamatai until Ichi's group beat them in the first season. He is extremely wealthy and his family owns a major industrial conglomerate. From the second season onwards (the fifth volume of the manga) he sees Ichi as a rival and is willing to go to extreme lengths to beat him, though later on the two reconcile their differences and have an honourable rivalry rather than resort to underhanded tactics. His parents are rarely around due to business matters, and he takes care of 7 siblings at home, and is like a completely different person at home. His hobby is video gaming.
Ishihara Tadao (石原忠雄): Personification of: Ishikawa, Satsuma; The second-in-command of the Bay Dragons Crew, Ishihara is the son of a famous celebrity. He is narcissistic and enjoys being in the spotlight, and always dresses fashionably. He's the centre of his group. His hobby is listening to idol music.