The only way to move up in the ranks of the Suzuran Boys' High School is by fighting. The "School of Crows" - so-called because the students have banded into fighting groups against each other - is the lowest-achieving school in Japan, and no one faction has ever been able to rule the school by unifying all of the factions beneath them. New transfer Genji (Shun Oguri, REINCARNATION) is eager to take on Tamao (Takayuki Yamada, 13 ASSASSINS), whose faction is currently on its way to ruling the ranks of Suzuran. Genji gets some coaching from low-rung Yakuza hotshot Katagiri (Kyôsuke Yabe, DEAD OR ALIVE) who has failed on his own to take on Tamao for putting several of his fellow gang members in the hospital. As Genji fights his way through the various factions to gain respect and support, Tamao and Genji's former friend Tatsukawa (Kenta Kiritani, CYBORG GIRL) forge alliances with other factions leading up to the brutal ultimate showdown.

Takashi Miike's latest (well, latest in English-speaking countries since the sequel has already been out for some time in Japan) is based on a popular manga; and it may take a reading of the source to keep track of all of the characters and their almost Shakespearean subplot machinations: including pop singer Meisa Kuroki as bad-boy-loving Luca Aizawa (also a pop singer), Motoki Fukami as the towering Rinda Man (given a great introductory shot), and pop singer Yűsuke Izaki and his identical twin Hisato Izaki as the Mikami brothers (not to mention the Yakuza whose own actions may render the outcome of the final battle meaningless). Story-wise and stylistically, it may seem like impersonal Miike, but it's funny and exciting with some knockout fight scenes; also, recall that the revered AUDITION was radically different for Miike, who had previously helmed a number of idiosyncratic Yakuza films (on a less comfortable budget than CROWS ZERO and, likely, its sequel which reportedly features the return of a number of characters from this film).