The movie is about two high school dropouts, Masaru (Ken Kaneko) and Shinji (Masanobu Andō), who try to find a direction and meaning in their lives—one by becoming a yakuza lieutenant, the other by becoming a boxer.

Shinji and Masaru are high school delinquents, terrifying their classmates, stealing money, and even setting their teacher's car on fire.

After some of their victims hire a boxer to beat up Masaru, he decides to get revenge, and takes his shy friend Shinji along with him to a boxing gym.

[2] David Wood, writing for the BBC, described it as "a tender, funny and melancholy affair which will come as a delight to ardent admirers after the recent Kikujiro."

[4] In 2013 a sequel to the film titled Kids Return: The Reunion was released, directed by the assistant director of the original, Hiroshi Shimizu.