Reviews of the film have been average. Najib Zulfikar of Total Film gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, stating, "Miike amps it all up to 11 in his inimitable style, as impossibly coiffured pretty boys duke it out and the Yakuza take an interest in the outcome. Sadly, the story’s so overpopulated it’s hard to care who’ll survive to graduate." Similarly, David Brook of Blueprint Review gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars indicating, "Teenage boys will lap up every minute of it (other than the songs which probably won’t appeal to many Westerners) and the lack of obviously ‘bad’ and ‘good’ guys means the conclusion wasn't always going to be clear cut (after an hour or so you can see where its heading though)."
