Yoshio Sawai's manga and anime series Bobobo-bo Bo-Bobo was very strange. It ran in Weekly Shonen Jump in the mid-2000s, with an anime also airing shortly thereafter. Parodying action manga from the '80s, the world of the show is post-apocalyptic but not dark. It's looked back on fondly as a bizarre fever dream with tons of funny moments that really fit with online humor at the time.
The antics of the series were bizarre and full of non-sequitur and parody. Often the show had little to do with its premise, operating in random dream logic. Fittingly, the characters were parodies of manga cliches from the time it was written. They weren't dark brooding heroes; they were goofballs. But despite their strange antics, the characters ended up being pretty charming in their own way.
9 Hatenko
Hatenko is a survivor from the Hair Kingdom like Bo-bobo. He wields the "Fist of the Key," a technique that allows him to freeze people in place. He was a member of Don Patch's gang, and in some translations, his godson. He's also attractive, often being referred to as a hunk.
But despite backstory relevance, Hatenko came off as kind of generic. He had his moments, and his special ability was interesting, but it wasn't that useful. Overall, he doesn't do much and he never stuck around with the team long. Hatenko was more than able to participate in the show's antics, but never added anything new to them, and didn't parody any character type.
8 Softon
The rare serious character in Bobobo-bo Bo-Bobo, Softon is a fierce warrior. Unlike other heroes, his sanity is never in question. He wields the "Fist of the Goddess Blabs-a-Lot," giving him magical laser powers. He has a close relationship with the character Beauty and is shockingly revealed to be her brother.
There is one thing that makes Softon hard to like, though. That would be his poop-shaped mask that covers his whole head. It's colored brown in the manga, but pink in the anime to look like ice cream. Either way, it's kind of hard to look at and off-putting. Softon isn't unlikable but for a series character, he's hard to get behind because he's kind of goofy.
7 Dengakuman
Dengaku is a Japanese snack food made of fried tofu. He is the "cute-mascot" character in the show, and dengaku is his favorite food. Comically weak, his biggest recurring joke (aside from making untranslatable puns about dengaku) was that he was useless on his own. He debuted as the head of a unit of powerful enemies that followed him simply because he was cute.
Because he's weak, he doesn't participate in fights. His only goal in life is to gain as many friends as possible, which drove him to join the heroes. He ends up working well with others and has a role in one of the series' most popular bits; Denbo-chan. When parodying fusions from Dragon Ball Z, he can fuse with Bobo-bo and become an idol/magical girl parody character. Someone who just wants to have fun and make friends is pretty likable.
6 Torpedo Girl
Torpedo Girl is another anime trope parody. Specifically, she's a parody of the "final form" transformations common in anime and video games. There was an intimidating antagonist called OVER who wielded giant scissors and had the ability to transform but when he transformed, he turned into the very different Torpedo Girl.
After her defeat, Torpedo Girl began to sporadically appear on the team. She's very aggressive, often tackling opponents and allies while screaming "I'm a Torpedo!" She's a slight liability because she's quite callous. Additionally, she sometimes transforms back into OVER. Her design and passion give her unique charm, though and while she was wacky, she usually has no tolerance for the crew's shenanigans.
5 Gasser
This character is known as Heppokomaru in the original. He's one of the sane characters in the show, always reacting when the crew does something weird. But like Softon, he is underscored by his gross "Fist of the Back Wind," which allows him to use his farts to fight.
But unlike Softon, Gasser gets much more screen time. Viewers get to see him fight alongside Bobo-bo and hang out with Beauty often and get to know him. Much like Killua, he turns out to be a nice guy. He's able to both fight and play the straight man. He does have a transformation called Baby Gasser, which is as gross as you'd expect, but fans tolerate it because they know he's a sweet guy deep down.
4 Beauty
The female lead Beauty parodies the children tag-along characters from anime like The Fist of The North Star. Rather than being silly like the other characters, though, she's actually the straight man of the show. She's smarter and saner than all the other heroes and mainly reacts to the things they do. Far from being just a tag-along, she's the only character that seems like she should be there.
But she's still nice, willing to give everyone in this mad world the time of day. She also respects her teammates, despite their antics. She has moments where she gets silly or angry with them, but generally, she's pleasant to be around. Also, Beauty is the reason the team are heroes, as she often strong arms them into doing the right thing. This audience surrogate has a really crucial role on the team.
3 Don Patch
Don Patch, also known as Poppa Rocks, is the rival character in the show. Parodying characters like Vegeta, Don Patch believes he is the protagonist. He's also where the wacky fighting style of the series, "wigging out" or "hajike" in Japanese, is first shown. This is what the bizarre random humor in Bobobo-bo Bo-Bobo is called.
When fans meet Don Patch, he's leading a gang. He's a master in wigging out style and challenges Bobo-bo to see who's the best. After his loss, he sticks around purely to prove that he's better than Bobo-bo and a lot of his antics are based on one-upping Bo-bobo's. He's a lot like if Vegeta were a weird sun clown. Don Patch's plots to become the main character are entertaining, but he's still kind of a jerk.
2 Bobobo-bo Bo-Bobo
The titular character, Bobo-bo is a parody of Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star with a bit of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure mixed in. As a master of "Fist of the Nose Hair," he can control his nose hairs and use them like whips. Through the power of wigging out, he has a lot of other bizarre powers. With a golden Afro and the voice of Takehito Koyasu, his sense of style is really cool and he's committed to making sure mankind doesn't go bald.
The Bo-tector is never without bizarre jokes before he commences beat-downs. He parodied power-ups hilariously when he simply went to the store and bought a new jacket that made him stronger. He's full of wacky abilities and a love of hair that makes him extremely fun to watch. He's protective of Beauty, but that's not something he can say about his other teammates. While he fights the good fight, he has a bit of comedic sociopathy, usually towards his non-Beauty teammates.
1 Jelly Jiggler
The team's resident punching bag, Jelly Jiggler (or Tokoro Tennosuke in Japanese) is a large block of blue jelly. He's the sentimental guy, which makes him easy to like. Another former enemy, he now uses his Fist of the Wobble Wobble to help Bobo-bo and friends. It lets him reshape his body and because of this, he's frequently used as a human shield by Bobo-bo.
He's able to bounce back from the abuse because of his lucky handkerchief. It has the Japanese symbol Nu on it, which he's obsessed with. This kind of sentimental attachment and emotional depth makes Jelly even more likable. And unlike Beauty and Gasser, Jelly still can use both the wigging out style and fist attacks. This makes Jelly an all-rounded character who fits all of the niches. He might be a butt monkey in the show, but in the hearts of fans, Jelly Jiggler is number one.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/31yGUef
No comments: