Bobby's In Deep

[ParaParaJMo]

Bobby's In Deep


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YouTube - GrapplerJMo Anime Review Bobby's in Deep

Story and Characters
Nomura Akihiko is probably not your typical anime protagonist (like in a lot of other animes). But on the other hand, he could exist in real life. He's a teenage slacker, and the only thing he cares about is his blue honda motorcycle, and for some strange reason (other than it's easier to say), people call him "Bobby." He just likes to ride on it all day, and one time, he went on a trip around Japan on it, and submitted his story and pictures to a motorcycle magazine that even published his address along with it. This then leads Bobby to getting letters from a girl his age from Okayama (a city not too far from Hiroshima). Akihiko/Bobby is excited that a girl is interested in his life style and personally likes motorcycles and decides to correspond with her. Despite this girl's fascination with Bobby and motorcycles, his father wants him to go to a college despite his bad grades. Eventually, things are led to him dropping out of school, getting kicked out of the house, and getting a job at a restaurant ironically called "Bobby's," owned by a former motorcycle racing champion.

Bobby’s in Deep is actually based on a novel that came out in 1980, and does have some significant differences in the anime release that came out 5 years later. Some of those differences are that in addition to Bobby’s passion for motorcycles, he’s also a beach bum surfer and it was more emphasized that he was more of a surfer than a biker, and he got a job at a surfing shop rather than as a waiter. Plus, it’s also elaborated in the novel by this girl who is writing to Bobby is suffering from an illness while it’s pure curiosity in the anime that drives her to write the letters. Sorry for the spoiler, but I felt I needed to point that out

As for this movie, I felt it ends where you are finally start to have development and pure resolution, and a sense of direction for Bobby. The ending will feel anti-climatic, but it does take you by surprise. It’s nothing you really expected, but the ending made me felt nothing really progressed at some capacity, but I guess the ending does prove a point that what happens in this anime can happen to some people in real life, and I’m sure it has. And I feel the biggest quality this anime has is its realism. But that’s just me.

For establishment, I think it fails. Such as there is no official explanation of why he is called Bobby, and how he got his motorcycle to begin with, or anything of why he’s such a bad student or the kind of guy he is. I think if they showed Bobby in school, we’d get a better foundational idea of his personality and why he prefers motorcycles over academics. Other things I’d like to know about Bobby are: is he popular? Is he a loser? Or is he just that guy? Or is he just one those people that are naturally like that? Is he a symbol that he doesn’t want to live up to society’s expectations? I felt the anime needed to be more direct with certain things more clearly which is why I give the story and characters, a 6/10.

Art and Animation
Well, don’t expect any fireballs or any exaggerated designs or hair colors. Expect more realistic characters clothing, hairstyles and use of colors like in Wangan Midnight, Initial D, and Hajime no Ippo. The designs are pretty good, and I guess because of it’s more realistic approach with the drawings, it won’t really stand out in comparison to Akira or Windaria in relation to it’s use of colors and background and costume designs. There’s nothing really to complain about it in terms of technical flaws rather than use of still shots and paintings.

The animation sequences are some of the best hand-drawn ones I’ve seen in awhile. Whenever they play a song sometimes or some montage, it’ll come across more as an 80s music video with the random drawings on a neon colored foreground. But it goes well with the atmosphere and the mood of the movie. And the way Bobby drives his motorcycle sometimes is breathtaking and the weather at times makes you wish you want to ride on that blue baby of his. So I give the art and animation an 8.75/10

Music and Voice Acting
A majority of the cast is mostly singers and actors, and they were never seiyuus, and are still active in j-dramas and movies. So you can call Nomura Hironobu, the voice of Bobby, something of an Oguri Shun of 1985 who recently played Akio in Wangan Midnight, an anime I previously reviewed. And he was also a rising singer at the time and sang a few of the songs in this anime as well which were a nice addition and were more in direct relation to the story and mood of the anime. But I think he could have done better with Bobby’s portrayal such as make him more something of a punk, or come across as unsure with his life. It seems to me all he wants is happiness and not really success. Also, Shimizu Mayumi, the seiyuu who plays the girl who writes to Bobby sings some of the songs and sings the ending theme, a good cover to the 1960s hit, Bobby’s Girl in perfect English. I think they added the personality that the anime needed with both characters and music. So I give the music and voice acting, an 8.5/10

Overall
All I have to say is watch this anime for the music and visuals. You won’t regret it for that. The characterization I wouldn’t say flat out sucks, but with the foundation it had, it could have been so much better. I thought it could have been something along the lines of a Wangan Midnight of it’s time, but in terms of its story and characters, it’s no where near the league of how Wangan Midnight executes its character exploration and development. I guess what makes Bobby so interesting is because he’s not only just an everybody we know and/or relate to, he’s more of those 1/5 anybody’s we probably knew back in high school: A kid from a well off family who wanted the best out of him, but didn’t seem to know what he wanted to do with his life because he messes around. Despite that, there is some confusion of giving any indication whether or not he’s a delinquent considering how he resists his father’s demands, and that he’s a drop out. He doesn’t do drugs or get into fights. He seems like a mellow guy. Maybe I am making generalizations, but hey, I think this characteristics and the ending is what makes him uniquely human in some right. I give this an overall 7.3/10.

[ParaParaJMo]

Officially, I don't really write my reviews. Most of the time, I just say stuff up the top of my head.

The second one is silly to me because he's in Japan. An English name isn't necessarily easier for the Japanese to say than a Japanese one is.

It's simply mentioned in the anime that he's called Bobby simply because it's easy to say. Other than that, there's no other official explanation why he's called Bobby, and I haven't read the novel to see whether or not there's any elaboration on it.

I don't understand the significance of the third one. So what if it isn't far from Hiroshima? How is this relevant? I doubt the readers are going to be well-versed in Japanese geography if that's what you are going for.

Just watch the anime and find out. It's sort of mentioned about that.

I think you are misusing "on the other hand here". The first definition I saw, because I'm too lazy to explain it well, is "something that you say when you are speaking about two different facts or two opposite ways of thinking about a situation".

Your first sentence says, "is not your typical anime protagonist" which you then follow up with, "on the other hand he could exist in real life".

What you are saying is, "He's not your typical anime protagonist, but he could exist in real life". To me, these are complementing statements.

I think you meant to say something along the lines of "He's not your typical anime protagonist because he's realistic enough to make you think he could be a real person."

It was kind of a spur of the moment deal. Thanks, didn't really think of it htat way.

If you feel that you need to apologize for something, maybe you shouldn't do it in the first place. You could give a simple explanation, rather than apologizing, for why it's important that it was spoiled. Sothis doesn't look fondly upon spoilers in general though.

Well, I only mentioned what was in the novel, not in the anime. And I doubt 0.000005% of any us are reading it in the novel any time soon.

I think you should write with confidence. If you don't believe in what you are writing, why should others?

Well I'm not saying "I guess" because I don't have confidence. It's just one of those moments where I just don't feel like having fun by going AVGN-mode in my review by throwing in F-bombs. This anime just didn't really give me that mood. I just say that to sum it up.

[sothis]

Originally Posted by Zakiel

Quantity over quality. Understood and acknowledged.

XD

[Sheex]

Originally Posted by ParaParaJMo

Officially, I don't really write my reviews. Most of the time, I just say stuff up the top of my head.

So why even post the text? If you're going to put virtually no effort in making your writing of any quality and merely copy-paste a transcript not in transcript form, I don't see much reason for people to read. Written and verbal communication are quite different, and coherently transposing one form to the other requires a fair amount of time and editing.

Also, as Zakiel mentioned, excessive parentheticals just bloat your writing (in textual form) and make it hard to follow. If it's not relevant information, leave it out; if you have to "watch the anime" as the only way to find relevance in a statement, that statement fails at being pertinent or useful to the review.

[sothis]

para,

from now on please post only text if you wish to post reviews, not links to your youtube ones. originally i had said it was ok to essentially have free advertising, because 1) you had a shout out message to the site in your reviews, and 2) i had assumed you'd help add entries for the sports stuff you've seen.

i notice that the ad for ap isnt in your reviews anymore, and/or even after begging multiple times for over a year i havent seen an entry (i finally had to add ring ni kakero myself for one, which i know you're very familiar with).

so from now on, if you'd like to post your reviews, text only.