Oendan
Encyclopedia
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese sports rallying team similar in purpose to a cheerleading
Cheerleading
Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...
squad in the United States, but relies more on making a lot of noise with taiko
Taiko
means "drum" in Japanese . Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming...
drums, blowing horns and other items, waving flags
Pep flags
Pep Flags, also known as flaggies, short flags, small flags, or twirl flags is the performing art of twirling one or two flag as part of a choreographed routine. In recent years, some schools have implemented a third and even fourth flag in routines. This performing art is mainly prominent in...
and banners, and yelling through plastic megaphone
Megaphone
A megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loud hailer is a portable, usually hand-held, cone-shaped horn used to amplify a person’s voice or other sounds towards a targeted direction. This is accomplished by channelling the sound through the megaphone, which also serves to match the...
s in support of their sports team than on acrobat
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
ic moves (though some ōendan incorporate pom-pom girls
Pom Squad
A dance squad or dance team, sometimes called a pom squad or drill team, is a sport team that participates in competitive dance. In a routine, a squad will incorporate a specific dance style , technical work and, depending on the routine, pompon and/or cheers...
). In addition to cheering for their own teams, ōendan have been known to lead fans in cheers which tease
Teasing
Teasing is a word with many meanings. In human interactions, teasing comes in two major forms, playful and hurtful. When teasing is playful and friendly, and especially when it is reciprocal, teasing can be regarded as flirting. People may be teased on such matters as their appearance, weight,...
and taunt
Taunt
A taunt is a battle cry, a method in hand-to-hand combat, sarcastic remark, or insult intended to demoralize the recipient, or to anger them and encourage reactionary behaviors without thinking. Taunting can exist as a form of social competition to gain control of the target's cultural capital...
the other team and its fans. This is usually done in the spirit of good competition, but occasional fights have broken out if the taunting gets too heated. Smaller ōendan are sometimes called (or "cheering clubs").
Introduction
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
s, college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
s and universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, as well as in non-academic settings such as intercompany sports clubs, professional sports fan clubs, and so on. Many schools hold competitions during their sports day
Sports day
Sports days, sometimes referred to as Field Day, are events staged by many schools and offices in which people take part in competitive sporting activities, often with the aim of winning trophies or prizes...
events, and students often spend weeks perfecting their presentations after being divided up into teams.
Many members of an ōendan will dress in long happi
Happi
Happi is a traditional Japanese straight-sleeved coat usually made of indigo or brown cotton and imprinted with a distinctive mon . They are usually worn only to festivals. Originally, these represented the crest of a family, as happi were worn by house servants. Later, the coats commonly began to...
and wear hachimaki
Hachimaki
A hachimaki is a stylized headband in Japanese culture, usually made of red or white cloth, worn as a symbol of perseverance or effort by the wearer. These are worn on many occasions, for example, by sports spectators, by women giving birth, students in cram school, office workers, expert...
emblazoned with team logos, inspirational sayings, or the names of their favorite players, something adopted by some fans of Morning Musume
Morning Musume
, sometimes referred to as is a Japanese idol girl group, whose act generally revolves around singing and dancing to upbeat melodies. They are the lead group of Hello! Project, which is managed and produced by Tsunku, who composes nearly all the lyrics and melodies of their songs...
.
Especially with professional baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
teams, the ōendan for each team will come up with unique cheers to help the fans become involved. These cheers will often change depending on who the opposing team is. On occasion, the fans themselves will come up with a new cheer that is then adopted by other fans and their team's ōendan.
See also
- Hiatari Ryōkō!Hiatari Ryoko!is a high-school romance manga by Mitsuru Adachi. It was published by Shogakukan in 1980–1981 in the magazine Shōjo Comic and collected in five tankōbon volumes. It was later adapted into a live-action television drama series, an anime television series, and an anime film sequel to the television...
, a mangaMangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
and animeAnimeis the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series in which one of the main characters is a member of the high school ōendan. - Osu! Tatakae! OuendanOsu! Tatakae! Ouendan, sometimes referred to as simply Ouendan, is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console in 2005, for release only in Japan...
, a game for the Nintendo DSNintendo DSThe is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
in which the player participates in an ōendan. - Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It is the third game to use its gameplay, and is the sequel to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan while incorporating many of the improvements in gameplay made in Elite Beat Agents...
, the sequel to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. - Elite Beat AgentsElite Beat AgentsElite Beat Agents is a music video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It was first released in North America, and has since been released in Europe and South Korea . It is the spiritual sequel to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, a Japanese rhythm game...
, a North American Nintendo DS game based on Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. - Pom squadPom SquadA dance squad or dance team, sometimes called a pom squad or drill team, is a sport team that participates in competitive dance. In a routine, a squad will incorporate a specific dance style , technical work and, depending on the routine, pompon and/or cheers...
- Sakigake!! OtokojukuSakigake!! Otokojukuby Akira Miyashita is a comedy martial arts manga that was originally serialized at the Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1985 to 1991. It is staged in a private boy's school that teaches ōendan to troubled teenagers. The students are trained to "revive the Spirit of Japan" and mainly engage in fighting or...
, an anime and manga series in which all of the characters are taught how to participate in ōendan