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Wherever there's a head of hair in trouble, I'll be there!
Combining a thinly-disguised parody of Fist Of The North Star with a plethora of bad puns, pop-culture parodies, and a cocktail of hallucinogens, Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo is every bit as weird as its name, which is also the name of its main character. Bo-bobo (as he's known) is a tall, muscular man with sunglasses, a large blonde afro, and tendencies towards childish, eccentric, or downright strange behavior that belies his serious demeanor.
In the post-apocalyptic world of the year " 300X", Bo-bobo fights the machinations of the Margarita (from marugarite, the Japanese word for "bald-shaven") Empire and their leader, Emperor Tsuru Tsururuna IV (Czar Baldy Bald IV), who has sent his "Hair Hunters" to shave the hair off everyone in the world. Ostensibly, Bo-bobo does this through the art of Hanage Shinken (translated as "Fist of the Nose Hair"), an oddball form of martial arts that allows him to manipulate his body hair to defeat his enemies. More often, though, he defeats his enemies by confusing the hell out of them with his oddball behavior and an assortment of sight gags (like little people living inside his afro). This is eventually revealed to be an actual fighting style in the world of Bobobo, known as "Hajike" (from the Japanese word "hajikeru", which literally means "to burst" but can also mean "to go crazy", translated as "Wiggin" ala the phrase "Wiggin Out"), where the object is to use these strange happenings to distract and confuse your enemy into submission.
Bo-bobo is accompanied on his adventures by an assortment of sidekicks, including:
- Beauty, an otherwise ordinary young girl who is frequently perplexed by Bo-bobo's antics (and frequently kidnapped by the bad guys).
- Don Patch (Poppa Rocks, his Japanese name being a pun on "Donpachi", a brand of Japanese candy similar to Pop Rocks), a strange fellow who resembles an orange ball covered in spikes and, as a former "King of the Hajikelists", frequently acts as weird as Bo-bobo. Don Patch frequently tries to act tough or hog the spotlight, usually with no success. Hinted to be genuinely insane, as he occasionally makes humorous references to how, in his own words, "I don't take my medication, because thats just how cool I am!"
- Heppokomaru (Gasser), a young man who is another token "sane" person like Beauty, aside from the fact that he fights with a style called Onara Shinken (or "Fist of the Backwind(fart)").
- Softon, a former Hair Hunter whose head looks like soft-serve strawberry ice-cream (and, by no coincidence, the common anime representation of excrement). He fights with the Babylon Shinken(Fist of Blabs-A-Lot), and for the most part (one of the excluded parts being the aforementioned head) is the most serious of the group. Has a penchant for spouting badass-sounding nonsense, though. In the manga, his head was chocolate ice-cream.
- Tokoro Tennosuke (Jelly Jiggler), another former Hair Hunter who happens to be a humanoid blob of blue jelly. His name is a pun on "tokoroten", a type of seaweed jelly, of which he'll often sing the praises. He frequently tries to get people to eat him, and is somewhat obsessed with the Japanese character for "nu". uses the fighting style Purupuru Shinken (Fist of the Wobble-Wobble)
- Dengakuman, a cute little white humanoid figure who, like Softon and Tennosuke, leaves the Hair Hunters to fight alongside Bo-bobo. He occasionally insists he is a dog, and is almost always obsessed with either making people eat dengaku (fried tofu on a stick covered in miso sauce), or making people be his friend.
This series features examples of:
- All Girls Like Ponies (Beauty)
- The Alcatraz - Cyber City
- Aloof Big Brother - Softon to Beauty and Bi-bibi to Bo-bobo
- Arthur Dent (Beauty)
- Bald Of Evil (Duh! Although, oddly, most of the Hair Hunt Troops have hair. Many, though, fit the trope.)
- Beyond The Impossible (How totally and impossible weird can this episode be? Only answer is "more than the last.")
- Big Bad - Czar Baldy Bald IV (Smoothie IV in Viz manga) Czar Baldy Bald III in Former Chrome Dome Arc, Hydrate in Shadow Chrome Dome Arc, and Bibibi-bi Bi-bibi in Hair Kingdom Arc.
- Bowdlerize (the anime was toned way, way down from the original manga. The High Pressure Blood Running Gag was completely removed, Softon's ice cream head was changed from chocolate to strawberry to avoid the poop jokes, one enemy who was a box of cigarettes was changed to a box of chocolate bars, and quite a few more minor examples.)
- Butt Monkey: Don Patch and Jelly Jiggler (particularly the latter), to the point where Bobobo randomly beats them up in fights for no reason. Dengakuman also gets such a treatment, by often being left behind by the group.
- Don't forget Pickles!
- Pickles, you're not allowed!
- Clothes Make The Superman
- Cloudcuckoolander: Bo-bobo, Don Patch, and Jelly Jiggler.
- One notable case is when Don Patch injects the Poet with a serum that causes him to think like Don Patch. Instead of creating cool weapons to attack, he creates "Stupid Prince", "Pure-Hearted Bucktooth Cop" and "Panties".
- Comedic Hero
- Cross Dresser: Don Patch, and occationally Bobobo.
- Cut Short (Anime version anyway, ending midway through the first series. The manga did, however, reach a conclusion.)
- Dark Skinned Blond (Bo-bobo)
- Deranged Animation (Uhm...)
- Distressed Damsel (Beauty)
- The Dragon - Giga to Czar Baldy Bald IV, Hanpen (General Lee Fishcake) to Czar Baldy Bald III, Bebebe-be Be-bebe to Hydrate, and Shigeki X to Bibibi-bi Bi-bibi
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Pickles, who appears in the first chapter and is not fondly liked by Bobobo. He topped a Supporting Characters character poll.
- Arguably, Gasser is one as well; he topped second in the character popularity polls, despite him barely doing anything in the show.
- Evil Counterpart - Gunkan/Battleship to Bo-bobo, J to Softon and Shigeki X to Don Patch
- Eye Shock: Don Patch and Jelly Jiggler do this in shock after seeing Giga's true form.
- Fanservice: Subverted; at the beginning of one chapter, Don Patch poses while wearing girls' underwear and says "Fanservice!"
- Service Man. His name is a parody of fanservice. Not to mention his only attack is to lift his sheet to show things that should never be seen.
- You mean his boxers?
- Not his boxers...
- Fartillery: How much more obvious than "Fist of the Back Wind" can you get?
- Five Man Band: Bo-bobo's gang
- Fusion Dance (parodied, spoofed, came close to being deconstructed at one point when an enemy tricks Bobobo into fusing with the wrong person in an attempt to weaken him)
- Gag Series
- Goggles Do Nothing (Parodied with the minor villain Rububa the Bubbles (Bubble-uba in the English dub), who wears three pairs of goggles on his forehead, and has an extra-large pair wrapped around his waist.)
- Gasshole: Gasser
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: One possible reason for why this show was well-received in America was that it's basically the kind of thing Jay Ward would write if he did LSD; the dub just increased this.
- Ghost In The Machine (represented in various bizarre ways fully visible to the other characters)
- Hey Its That Guy (Denbo looks suspiciously like Bububu-bu Bu-bubu, Bobobo's sister)
- Hikaru Midorikawa: Softon
- Honest Axe (Spoofed)
- Hurricane Of Puns (describes pretty much the entire series)
- even more so in the english dub
- Interactive Narrator
- It Runs On Nonsensoleum: The entire series (manga and anime), and it does, too. Still, this is one of, if not THE biggest reason why a number of anime fans don't like this show.
- Kirk Thornton: Don Patch (English dub)
- Large Ham: Almost everyone aside from Beauty and Gasser.
- Last Second Word Swap: In the English dub, while Bobobo, Don Patch, Jelly Jiggler and Dengakuman look like they've formed a rock band...
All four of them: Gasser, Gasser, he's first class!
He thinks with his heart but fights with his - Ask us how he stays so fit!
He works out hard and he smells like-
Gasser: HEY NOW!! Wait a second!
- Lemony Narrator (The English dub narrator constantly breaks the fourth wall, interacts with the characters, and bitches about certain elements of the show. Arguably, he also gets more character development than most of the main cast.)
- Martial Arts And Crafts (Fist of the Nose Hair. Fist of the Fart. Too many to count. The "Hajike" fighting style as a whole counts.)
- Morality Pet Beauty to Bo-bobo
- Nakama: Parodied, of course, but also (believe it or not) played straight. After all, Bo-bobo doesn't want Beauty to get hurt...
- Narrator
- No Ending (the anime, anyway, which was cancelled midway through an arc, with the characters about to storm the enemy's fortress. They're then notified that the show ends on that note and everyone, villain included, freaks out)
- No Fourth Wall
- Not So Above It All
- One Winged Angel (parodied on several occasions, by opponents whose "true form" is something just plain wacky. Torpedo Girl and Sambaman are probably the best examples)
- Only Sane Man: Beauty, to a lesser extent Gasser, and to a even lesser extent Softon.
- When he's not worshiping Don Patch, Hatenko is also one.
- Pastel Chalked Freeze Frame (spoofed to here and back)
- Power Incontinence - Gasser
- Purple Prose (Cyber City villain J manages to outdo Softon at this.)
- Quirky Miniboss Squad (almost literally by the dozen)
- Rapid Fire Comedy
- Screw The Rules I Have Money (Halekulani)
- Shout Out (For one, Bobobo summons Yugi Moto from his afro in one chapter (drawn by Kazuki Takahashi, no less), and Dengakuman looks suspiciously like a Chao. Also, he once does a attack that involves A Dragonball Z posterboard, and Bobobo, when thrown doing this attack shouts "Vegeta"!
- Spotlight Stealing Squad (Don Patch tries to do this constantly, and fails spectacularly.)
- Takehito Koyasu Bobobo himself. And does a damn good job at being crazy!
- Training From Hell Torpedo Girl puts Gasser and Hatenko through a comically exaggerated version of this
- This Is Your Premise On Drugs (Duuude... are those squirrels in his Afro? And they're on a date! And so on.)
- And that's just the first episode.
- Tsundere: Torpedo girl is Dere to Softon and Tsun to everybody else
- Voice Of The Legion
- What Do You Mean It Wasnt Made On Drugs (I mean seriously...)
- Widget Series
- Woolseyism
Bobobo (sobbing):
"I can't read this.... It's in JAPANESE!!!!"
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