| Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo | |
North American cover of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo volume 1 featuring the main characters. |
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| ボボボーボ・ボーボボ (Bobobō-bo Bō-bobo) |
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|---|---|
| Genre | Action, Parody |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Yoshio Sawai |
| Published by | Shueisha |
| English publisher | Viz Media |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Magazine | Weekly Shōnen Jump |
| Original run | February 2001 – November 14, 2005 |
| Volumes | 21 |
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | Hiroki Shibata |
| Studio | Toei Animation |
| Licensed by | Viz Media |
| Network | TV Asahi |
| English network | Jetix Cartoon Network |
| Original run | 8 November 2003 – 29 October 2005 |
| Episodes | 76 |
| Manga | |
| Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo | |
| Written by | Yoshio Sawai |
| Published by | Shueisha |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Magazine | Weekly Shōnen Jump |
| Original run | December 19, 2005 – July 2, 2007 |
| Volumes | 7 |
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (ボボボーボ・ボーボボ Bobobōbo Bōbobo) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshio Sawai, published by Shueisha, and serialized in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is a comedy influenced by Japanese manzai humor that uses puns, double-talk, breaking of the fourth wall, non-sexualized cross-dressing, visual gags, and satirical and pop-culture references, which makes its non sequitur humor very specific to Japanese audiences. The manga series lasted from 2001 through 2007, divided into two separate sections with a distinct difference in humor and plotting.
Contents |
In the year 3001.5, the entire world is under the tyrannical rule of the Maruhage Empire, and their ruler, Tsuru Tsurulina IV (Bald the 4th). His Hair Hunt troop captures innocent bystanders' hair, leaving the people bald and their villages in ruins. Standing against this evil regime is the heroic, but bizarre, rebel, Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo, who fights the Hair Hunt Troop with his powerful Hanage Shinken (Fist of the Nose Hair). His team consists of the normal teen girl Beauty, the smelly teen warrior Heppokomaru (Gasser) and the Hajike leader Don Patch (Poppa Rocks). Bo-bobo is on an exciting, gag-filled quest to deliver his own hairy brand of justice to evildoers everywhere.
Shueisha published the manga of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo and serialized it in Weekly Shōnen Jump. The original manga story ended in 2005, and in January, 2006 a sequel manga replaced it in Weekly Shōnen Jump, now entitled Shinsetsu Bobobō-bo Bō-bobo (True Theory : Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo) which has ended in July, 2007.
In North America, the manga is licensed by Viz Media and was published in a one shot graphic novel form in October 2005 and is now published monthly in Shōnen Jump. A recent report by Viz at the New York Anime festival reported that graphic novels would be released sometime in 2008, the first (covering volume 11 (the one-shot covers volume 9) yet stated as "Volume 1") having been released on August 5, 2008. When asked about why the previous volumes were not being published at Anime Expo 2008, Viz said it was due to the "content".[1]
After the end of the initial Bo-bobo series, the series rebooted into a second part known as Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo in December, 2005. Picking up one year after the end of the first part, the Maruhage Empire is reformed by former emperor Tsuru Tsurulina III into the Neo-Maruhage Empire, where the Hair Hunts resume and a new generation of powerful Hair Hunt generals are created. Bo-bobo, powering the abilities of his "Fist of the Nosehair" into its Shinsetsu (True Theory) form, rejoins Beauty and the Hajike allies to take on the renewed Maruhage threat. Many of the rebels from the original series, including Don Patch, Jelly Jiggler, Hatenko, Softon and even Hanpen return to assist in the new rebellion. Yet in the midst of this, Heppokkomaru (Gasser) joins the Neo-Maruhage forces, forced to turn to the dark side for his own personal reasons.
The anime was directed by Hiroki Shibata, produced by Toei Animation and ran for 76 episodes from November 8, 2003 to October 29, 2005 on TV Asahi. The anime, licensed by Toei Animation, first aired as a sneak peek on Cartoon Network's Fridays block on September 30, and then aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block Saturdays at 10/9c. The show returned to the United States on February 17, 2007 at 8:30/7:30c. It has been shown on Jetix UK since April 14, 2007 at 7:00PM, and has been seen on Cartoon Network's broadband service Toonami Jetstream since November 5. The anime is dubbed by Phuuz Entertainment Inc., the studio that dubbed the second Lupin the 3rd series, the original 1994 Shin Chan dub, and the Viewtiful Joe anime. The dub was censored at some points in order to receive a lower TV-rating, allowing it to be broadcast to a younger audience demographic.
Despite its limitations, the American dubs of the anime and manga manage to preserve the spirit of the show; the translators and adaptation writers were forced to rewrite several of the jokes due to the differences between the Japanese and English languages. At several points in the dub, the American version makes fun of the fact that it is a translation of a Japanese product (for example, when Bo-bobo is filling out an application card in episode two, he botches it because the application is in Japanese and he cannot read it, instead drawing "little doodles" for answers; in the original Japanese version he messes up the application for a completely different reason, and the "little doodles" are his honest answers written in hiragana). This style of self-referential humor can also be seen in the American version of Kyatto Ninden Teyande (Samurai Pizza Cats). Additionally, with the exception of the opening credits, all other on-screen Japanese text is intentionally kept in the English dub (most likely as a part of the retaining the show's surreal humor). The series only had 2 volumes on DVD, before Illumitoon Entertainment fell out of the distribution from a fallout with Westlake Entertainment, and all further volumes were canceled. It is currently unknown whether or not another company will release the series on DVD.
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