“Bankaku Rock” (番格ロック), Original Release Japanese STB / Tatekan Poster 1973, Ultra Rare, 2-Panel approx. 51 x 145 cm Q109

“Bankaku Rock” (番格ロック)
Original release Japanese STB / Tatekan poster, 1973
Ultra rare two-panel cinema-display format — approx. 51 x 145 cm

Offered here is a complete, original-release Japanese STB / Tatekan poster for Bankaku Rock (番格ロック), a 1973 Toei sukeban / delinquent-girl action film directed by Makoto Naitō and starring Emiko Yamauchi as Otonashi Yukiko.

This is an ultra rare large-format poster for one of Toei’s most visually distinctive early-1970s girl-gang films. Its appeal extends beyond cinema collecting, combining Toei exploitation, sukeban iconography, Carol, Eikichi Yazawa, and early Japanese rock culture in one striking theatrical design.

The film

The term “bankaku” refers to a boss-class enforcer or bodyguard within a delinquent group — not merely a follower, but the gang’s hard-line fighter and protector. In the film, Yukiko occupies this dangerous position within the violent street hierarchy.

The story centres on conflict between rival girl gangs, with Yukiko returning from reform school into a world of revenge, loyalty, betrayal, and urban violence. The film belongs to the same Toei milieu as the studio’s Female Prisoner Scorpion, Girl Boss, and Terrifying Girls’ High School cycles, but remains less widely circulated internationally, making surviving original advertising material especially desirable.

Emiko Yamauchi and Carol

Emiko Yamauchi had a brief but highly collectible presence in early-1970s Toei cinema, appearing in titles including Neon Jellyfish, Bankaku Rock, Neon Jellyfish: Shinjuku Hanadensha, and School of the Holy Beast. Here, she is presented as the full selling point: cool, confrontational, and dangerous.

A major additional feature is the blue star-shaped inset of Carol, the influential Japanese rock’n’roll band led by Eikichi Yazawa. Their inclusion gives the poster an important music-culture dimension, making it collectible as both Japanese film paper and early-1970s rock-related imagery.

The poster

Orange cityscape, white-suited Yamauchi, hot-pink rock typography, and Carol imagery

This STB design is a superb example of 1970s Toei poster art. The upper panel is dominated by Yamauchi in a white suit, open jacket, and knife-forward pose, set against a saturated orange urban background with distorted city architecture. The lower panel continues the composition with huge jagged 番格ロック title lettering in hot pink, a blue star-shaped Carol inset, gang imagery, cast credits, and Toei / Eirin period markings.

Rarity

STB / Tatekan posters were produced in much smaller quantities than standard B2 posters and were designed for public-facing cinema display. Their large two-panel construction made them difficult to store and vulnerable to handling, so complete surviving examples are genuinely scarce.

For a cult Toei sukeban title such as Bankaku Rock, this complete original-release STB is an ultra rare collector piece, with crossover appeal to collectors of Japanese cinema, Toei exploitation, sukeban culture, Carol, and Eikichi Yazawa.

Condition

Excellent display condition / unrestored / complete two-panel example

This poster is unrestored and complete in two separate STB panels. Colours remain strong and vivid throughout, especially the orange background, hot-pink title lettering, blue Carol inset, and white costume imagery.

The very bottom edge of the lower panel has small tears repaired with archival tape on the verso. These repairs are discreet, located at the lower edge, and do not affect the central artwork. Once framed, this poster will display excellently.

Overall, this is an ultra rare, complete, unrestored, vividly coloured, and highly displayable original STB / Tatekan poster for Bankaku Rock, with only modest condition issues concentrated at the bottom edge of the lower panel.

About STB / Tatekan posters

STBs are tall, two-panel Japanese standing-board posters measuring roughly 51 x 145 cm, formed from two B2-size sheets. They were designed for vertical display in and around cinemas and survive in much smaller numbers than standard Japanese B2 posters.

For major 1970s cult titles — especially Toei sukeban and pinky-violence material — first-release STBs are among the most desirable Japanese theatrical formats.

It is over 53 years old!