StoryIn another hairbraned anime watching suggestion, a group of unfortunates came together to share in the pain that is Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo.
Expecting random, spastic comedy, the show’s humour was hair today and
gone tomorrow. Definitely not in the cutting edge of Japanese animation
brought to the Western shores, much of the mane comic drama has been
americanised, swamping the native puns in what can only be described as
inane stupidity.
If these terrible hair puns are turning you off, imagine nothing but 24
minutes *per episode* of nothing but these atrocities. The main story
sees Bobobo teaming up with Beauty, Gasser and Don Patch to
defeat...... actually, just completely disregard that plot – the
writers most certainly did. After just five episodes, the most common
comment amongst the buddy group was “err, what the hell is going on?”
Introducing a new adversary seemingly every episode, the ongoing
mission is quickly tossed by the way-side as the heroes come face to
face with bad guys such as General Jelly Jiggler, Rice and Torpedo
Girl. Sadly, those are their real names and not gross spelling
mistakes.
The onslaught of randomness comes too fast and hard for anyone with an
IQ over 80 to understand. I kept finding my gaze wandering away from
the screen to something more exciting, like a spider abseiling down the
wall or the second-hand moving on a clock. However, younger viewers
will more than likely love the silly jokes, over the top special
attacks and the frankly retarded character fusions. Everyone else with
an attention span longer than 3 seconds will likely end up confused, as
the onscreen action can change in the blink of an eye.
Unfortunately, it seems that much of the humour has been lost in the
import across the Pacific. Original humour has blatantly been toned
down for our more PC tastes; Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is awash with playground jokes and only goes to prove inane stupidity
alone cannot carry a show. Continuing with the lazy translations,
screen after screen of kanji is left untranslated and unexplained, with
one scene even going as far as to see Bobobo filling out a form and
commenting he didn’t understand the funny symbols. A desperate hunt for
a subbed version was fruitless, and so the western world is stuck with
a heavily bastardised version of our own making. Thank you Cartoon
Network.Animation“What the hell, did someone doodle over the cells with a pen?”
The groups’ first experience with the bizarre artwork is to ponder how
serious the artists are; with scribbled nose-hair pouring out of a
butch blonde-afro’d berk, and an orange sun... star... thing...
dominating the main stage, it is impossible to take the visuals
seriously. This unfortunate feeling continues throughout much of the
show, as a very low budget hand-drawn essence brings down the aesthetic
quality of Bobobo. The constant puns borrow the styles of other better
known anime shows, such as Fist of the Nose Hair (Northstar) and Sailor Moon. Unfortunately, the feel of a grade school project means the visuals never rise above “puerile” and “mediocre”.SoundStepping up to the low quality bar, the opening track is on par with
the incomprehensible plot; stupidly random lyrics accompany what can
only be described as “noise”. The voice acting in the dubbed version of
the show suits the characters perfectly: annoying over actors you want
to choke to death. Bobobo’s seiyuu comes across as so badly wanting to
be African-american, it hurts. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ali G
line “is it because I is black?” was cunningly slipped into the script.
The rest of the cast fair no better, however, if grown men frequently
putting on girly voices is your thing, then feel free to mark this
section up. Otherwise, start the impossible hunt for the original
Japanese soundtrack.CharactersAll hopes of some likable characters to offset the lack of story were
dashed shortly after meeting the main protagonist, Bobobo. When I say
“meet”, what I actually mean is “brutally assaulted by”. For a supposed
hero, the blonde bouffant-topped prat spends his time cross dressing,
beating the crap out of Don Patch (a supposed ally), and going off on
completely unrelated tangents. I can think of rabid squirrels with a
more affable personality than this idiot.
Beauty is the token female who sadly does not live up to her name, and
I don’t think that is meant to be ironic. Her thoughts mostly echo that
of the viewer; her face contorts into ugly confusion as she screams
“WHAT!!!” for the fifteenth time in an episode as Don Patch reminisces
over a lost love with the number 6, or Bobobo undergoes a bizarre
fusion into Bobopatchiggler. Kind of understandable really. It seems
the writers took the idea of development, slapped it silly, dressed it
in a clown suit and instead decided to create a new personality called
Dengaku Man – a character with as much point as a blunt arrow.OverallApparently, “bobo” means stupid in Filipino... how appropriate. I honestly don’t think I would have finished Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo if it wasn’t for the support and laughs with the buddy group – it
really is that terrible. Compare it to having your bikini-line waxed;
the first few times are utter pain, but this numbs over time the more
you repeat it. Is the excruciating pain and lowering of IQ really worth
it? I can safely say that suffering through 76 episodes of this trash
has given me the definitive answer of NO. One day I *will* learn that
watching shows suggested by Chii is a bad idea....