February 27, 2023, 18:17 – BLiTZ – News
In just a few days, a new youth movement has appeared in Russia, the participants of which are aggressive anime people who organize brawls in shopping centers. This, of course, will be about the PMC “Ryodan” – a community of teenagers wearing plaid pants, long black hair and sweatshirts with a spider logo with the number “four”. The correspondent of the BLiTZ decided to find out how, why, and most importantly, for what purpose this “organization”, which many have already managed to call a criminal group, arose.
The movement takes its origins from an accidental conflict between groups of so-called “nefors” and “ofniks” who did not share chairs in the Aviapark shopping center, one of the largest in Moscow. Legend has it that on February 19, strangely dressed teenagers sitting at one of the tables in the food court were approached by other teenagers – in tracksuits – who demanded to give them several chairs on which anime people were sitting. However, those who, according to all the canons of teenage “concepts”, had to silently endure the insults of the “sports”, did not do this – and a fight ensued, the videos of which went viral on the Web. Photo: Social networks
The “anime characters” very quickly developed their own fan base and followers, who adopted their clothing style, hair color and length, as well as their demeanor in public places. They called themselves PMC “Ryodan”. The second half of the name refers to the name of a grouping of characters from the Japanese manga (comics) Genei Ryodan. As for the abbreviation PMC, it, as you might guess, means “private military company.”
The teenagers themselves, participating in the movement, explain their by no means peaceful name by the fact that they are ready to rebuff anyone who starts to oppress them for their love of anime culture and ask them to “explain their gear”. But who are these people who allegedly do not give them a pass? The Ryodans call their opponents “ofniks” – young people who profess the cult of strength and short hairstyles – and “abushniks”, which, as a rule, rank exactly the same guys, but only of Caucasian nationality.
Because of the hatred towards the latter, Ryodan PMCs are often referred to as nationalist movements. However, its representatives themselves deny this, arguing that they do not care about the characteristic external signs of the enemy – according to them, the PMC “fights” only with those who bully its “fighters”.
Starting from the 20th of January, there has been an explosive growth in the popularity of publics dedicated to militant anime fans in VK and Telegram. The name of their movement has become so “hype” that the admins of communities that have nothing to do with it began to urgently rename them to “PMC” Ryodan “in order to get new subscribers. The most enterprising began to trade in the merchandise of the “Ryodans” – those same checkered pants and sweatshirts with spiders and fours, so that now anyone could buy them.
The number of participants began to grow exponentially. Groups of “spiders” of 5-6, or even 10 people began to hang around in shopping centers and look for meetings with those very “office workers” and “abushniks”. A wave of teenage violence swept across the country: the youth, oppressed for their extravagant appearance, got a taste, realizing the power of self-organization, and began to take revenge. Violent fights were almost always filmed on video, the proliferation of which fueled interest in the Ryodan and increased their numbers.
Photo: social networks
Hunters do not like to become victims: “officers”, whose masculine reputation was destroyed by battles with “some anime people”, who by all “concepts” should have recognized their superiority in everything, carried out their own “intimidation actions”. The “Ryodans” were caught one at a time and on the video they were forced to scold their movement, accompanying the “persuasion” with savory cuffs. Some of them, after communicating with ideological opponents, even lost their long bangs.
Appearing in public in “spider” clothes has become simply dangerous, and even those who stood at the origins of the Redan PMC stopped doing this. Nevertheless, the movement did not cease to exist – without any specific leader, it continued to live and develop on its own, attracting more and more new members to its ranks.
Having learned about the Redan PMC, the authorities realized that it was not in vain that they had been fighting anime all these years (for example, the cartoons Death Note and Tokyo Ghoul were banned by court decisions) – it suddenly became clear that it really corrupts the minds of teenagers.
As a result, on February 25-26, in the shopping centers of St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don and Kazan, there were raids on the followers of PMC “Ryodan”. In total, according to media reports, about 300 young people were detained. Some of them were charged with hooliganism. Photo: Social networks
It is already obvious that after the total “cleansing” of the largest shopping centers from teenagers, few of them will want to return there even in plaid pants – let alone sweatshirts with spiders. Obviously, now food courts in large shopping centers will become much safer – but can you say the same about other public places? Where will the center of gravity of battles between representatives of conflicting subcultures move now?
It makes sense to assume that police raids on militant anime people are just the beginning. Judging by the decisiveness of some authoritative public figures, very soon the rapidly growing publics of PMC Ryodan will be blocked, and the symbolism of the movement will be banned. However, the defeat of only one part of the street hooligans will not help the cause of ensuring the safety of citizens. “Officers” and “abushniks” should also be in the center of attention of the security forces. After all, that the first, that the second are not much different from their anime counterparts. In fact, these are exactly the same asocial elements, except that they do not have the same bright identity.
Earlier, News wrote that schoolchildren from Moscow complained about death threats because of their participation in the Redan PMC. It is noted that 15-year-old teenagers participated in a mass brawl in a shopping center.
