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Once a common sight on the streets of Tokyo’s Shibuya youth district, women decked out in the alternative ganguro style are now rare…which makes it all the more strange that an online video of five ganguro girls dancing in a classroom has recently popped up!

Apart from its randomness, the video is actually pretty fun and infectious, and makes us nostalgic for other wacky Japanese street fashions. After seeing their moves, you might even want to get up and dance, too!

First of all, in case you’re not familiar with the ganguro fashion fad of 1990s Japan, here’s a quick primer. The most distinguishing feature of the subculture is a dark tan, bleached hair, and outrageous makeup and clothing. The style supposedly evolved from young, rebellious women who wanted to challenge the traditional Japanese ideals of beauty.

▼Typical ganguro girls that overran Tokyo in the 1990s

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▼An extreme version of ganguro 

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The trend mostly died out in the early 2000s, but you can still occasionally spot a ganguro in certain areas of Tokyo today. Therefore, it comes as a surprise to see a video of five ganguro girls who call themselves “TEMPURA KIDZ” dancing along to an upbeat song titled “Suimin Busoku ~ need more sleep”.

The description on YouTube explains the video in awkward English as “Japanese gals who are dressed up in school uniform with quirky pop make-ups show a mind-blowing dance.” Sounds like a winner to me! It also says that they released a cover mini-album “Minna no Dansu Uta” on March 12.

▼Ironically, although they’re singing about sleep deprivation, they seem pretty energetic to me…

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After watching this video, you can’t help but wonder what kind of strange dancing video will pop up next. Personally, I would like to see a revival of the sukeban ‘delinquent girl’ trend from the 1970s and 80s…

▼Just picture these tough sukeban girls dancing to some TEMPURA KIDZ tunes!

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Sources: Dance@Web, YouTube
Images: YouTube, Wikipedia, WordPress, Tumblr