Teenage ‘manga’ gangs influenced by Japanese comics are arrested across Russia after hundreds of members gather for mass brawls – and now face calls to be sent to fight in UKRAINE

• Last weekend, 450 ‘PMC Ryodan’ teenagers were arrested across Russia
• But despite their growing reputation, it would appear they are being targeted

The Kremlin has accused a youth subculture born out of a Japanese manga series of seeking to destabilise Russian society after a spate of mass brawls.

Last weekend, more than 450 teenagers – believed to be part of the PMC Ryodan ‘movement’ made up of fans of the Hunter x Hunter manga comics – were arrested in Russia after fighting broke out in shopping centres across the country.

Despite its origins in adolescent fiction, senior Russian officials – as well as every-day citizens – have taken against the group, saying it has been created by Moscow’s western enemies to sew discord across the country. 

After the brawls, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dimitry Peskov said his office has been ‘paying attention’ to the group.

Vasily Piskarev, head of the Russian parliament’s security committee, said the group’s only goal is ‘to destabilise […] through our youth’. Others said the arrested teens should be sent to the frontlines in Ukraine.

Pictured: Brawls break out between members of the PMC Ryodan group – accused by Russian officials of trying to destabilise society – and anti-Ryodan thugs in a shopping centre in Russia

Pictured: A Ryodan teen (right) is seen defending himself against another youth in a shopping centre in Russia, amid a growing backlash against the teenage ‘movement’

The Ryodan teenagers, who according to The Times are typically around the age of 14 to 15, are inspired by the comic series which chronicles the story of a boy who goes on a quest to join the elite ‘Hunters’ group. 

The comics were also adapted into an anime TV show in 2011. 

Specifically, the teens style themselves after the fictional shadowy group in the series called the ‘Phantom Troupe’ (Ryodan means ‘the troupe’ in Japanese), also known as the Spider. In the series, its members are tattooed with a black spider and their respective number within the organisation.

The PMC Ryodan teens wear black hoodies with the same spider with a number four on its back, and sport long black hair and plaid trousers.

Reports suggest they have been involved in brawls across the country, with authorities clamping down the group described as a ‘pseudo-subculture’ by Peskov.

But despite their growing reputation across Russia – fuelled by politicians and media coverage with headlines including ‘How to find out that a child ended up in PMC Redan: instructions for parents’ – it seems the teens are the ones being targeted.

While ‘PMC’ in PMC Ryodan stands for Private Military Company (like PMC Wagner), social media posts by the group’s members suggest it was adopted ‘for a laugh’.

Other users suggest the name was given to the teenagers after they unexpectedly fought off larger groups of older thugs. 

In recent weeks, the PMC Ryodan group has found itself fast becoming a target of hatred and caught up in a national hysteria.

However, there is little evidence to suggest the group has any political ambition. Rather, its members appear to just want the freedom to dress as they want.

Footage posted to social media from shopping centres showed the youngsters being targeted by older, tracksuit-wearing thugs who call themselves ‘anti-Ryodan’ with the aim of hunting down the teenagers.

These counter groups have mobilised quickly into violent mobs, and have shared videos of themselves online attacking anyone they suspect as being ‘Ryodan’. 

While some of the fights more closely resemble fights in school canteens than street battles between rival gangs, some clips have shown the teens being threatened with knives and broken bottles, and having their hair forcibly cut with a blade.

Last weekend, more than 450 teenagers – believed to be part of the PMC Ryodan ‘movement’ made up of fans of the Hunter x Hunter manga comics – were arrested in Russia after fighting broke out in shopping centres across the country. Pictured: Teenagers are seen in Russia wearing black hoodies with a spider of them in a nod to the Hunter x Hunter manga comics

Despite its origins in adolescent fiction, senior Russian officials – as well as every-day citizens – have taken against the teenagers, saying that the movement has been created by Moscow’s western enemies to sew discord across the country

Footage posted to social media from shopping centres showed the youngsters being targeted by older, tracksuit-wearing thugs who call themselves ‘anti-Ryodan’. Pictured: A group of anti-Ryodan thugs pose for a photo

Anti-Ryodan Telegram groups often share memes (example pictured) which depict violence, framing the tracksuit-wearing thugs are heroes fighting against an ideology. The memes also show similarities to white supremacist and anti-LGBTQ groups

While some of the fights more closely resemble fights in school canteens than street battles between rival gangs, some clips have shown the teens being threatened with knives and broken bottles, and having their hair forcibly cut with a blade (pictured)

Investigative news outlet Bellingcat, having accessed some of the anti-Ryodan Telegram channels, reported to finding videos of the Ryodan teens being beaten in shopping centre bathrooms or in the woods.

In some cases, it says, the teens had guns pointed at them as they were beaten.

Several of the anti-Ryodan members met up at a shopping centre in St Petersburg on February 25. Fights broke out, videos showed teenagers being chased down escalators, and the police eventually closed off the Gallery shopping mall.

In total, Bellingcat reports over 200 youths were arrested.

Elsewhere, hundreds of the schoolchildren who allegedly belong to the group were detained on Wednesday in Kurgan, a region in central Russia, by officers.

Regional governor Vadim Shumkov called them ‘mummy’s revolutionaries’ and suggested they should be sent to fight Putin’s on-going war in Ukraine.

In Khabarovsk, a city in Russia’s far east, elite officers wearing body armour rounded up dozens more of the PMC Ryodan ‘members’.

Reports suggest those carrying out these attacks are Russian football hooligans and other ‘patriotic’ youths known as ‘ofniki’. 

In Ryodan social media channels, these men are usually depicted as wearing Adidas tracksuits. One post in a group called them ‘bald motherf******s wearing Adidas’.

Anti-Ryodan Telegram groups often share memes which depict extreme violence, framing the tracksuit-wearing thugs are heroes fighting against an ideology. The memes also show similarities to white supremacist and anti-LGBTQ groups.

While Russia publicly cracks down on the Ryodan teens, they have also faced a backlash across the border in Ukraine. 

Left: An image from the Manga series Hunter X Hunter. Specifically, the teens style themselves after the fictional shadowy group in the series called the ‘Phantom Troupe’ (depicted right) (Ryodan means ‘the troupe’ in Japanese), also known as the Spider. In the series, its members are tattooed with a black spider and their respective number within the organisation

Pictured left: A spider with the number four on its back in the same style from the Hunter x Hunter series. Right: A person with the same spider tattooed on their back

Members from the group are understood to have gathered in Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipro, and were confronted by police.

Since the start of Putin’s invasion last year, Ukraine has been under Martial Law, which means large gatherings can be restricted by authorities.

Kyiv police called the group an instrument of ‘Russian propagandists’ designed to ‘destabilise the internal situation in Ukraine.’

In Minsk, Belarus, 200 teenagers were also arrested there.  

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