Mujoe and his bulge bomb on the title of Episode 2.
3! 2! 1! 0! NO MOUTH, FRACTIONS, MAN WITH NO PANTS! BIRD, ARMADILLO AND MOUSE-ROBOT! FIRE IN ENGLISH IS CALLED "FIRE"! RIDING ON THE BACK OF A DUCK-BUNNY! BUUUUULGE BOOOOOMB!!!
"Bulge Bomb", Title Theme
Jetters Abridged was an Abridged Series of the Bomberman Jetters anime. It was created by ThornBrain of Sgt. Frog Abridged, and written and voiced with fellow MidnightFrogs BigTUnit1 and codeblackhayate as Team Bulge Bomb
. It ran sporadically from April 2011 to Valentine's Day 2014.
Shiro is a young Bomberman whose brother, "the legendary Bomberman" Mighty, disappears suddenly after the first episode and is presumed dead. Shiro takes up Mighty's position in the Jetters, an intergalactic crime-fighting team pitched against the outrageous thief organization, the Hige-Hige Bandits, all while sorting out his issues with his late Jerkass brother, and slowly losing his mind when he realizes Mighty might not be dead. Shiro's teammates include the easily irritated Shout, the doddering old scientist Dr. Ein, the Cloud Cuckoolander extraordinaire Birdy, and the unloved and useless pair of Bongo and Gangu.
On the opposite end, Mujoe is the incompetent but sympathetic captain of the Hige Hige Bandits who must deal every day with a useless robot workforce, his alcoholic father/boss Bagular, unrequited love for the local bartender Mama, and a massive crotch bulge that makes everything he says sound like an innuendo. His teammates are the Mad Scientist Dr. Mechadoc, an army of the group's namesake robots who only speak in "Hige's", the one Hige with a deep voice who speaks English, and the mysterious cyborg Max.
Where the original series is largely a Monster of the Week kid's cartoon with lots of Character Development, Jetters Abridged revels in its sheer insane ridiculousness. Character personalities and motivations are flipped on their heads, relationships are thrown around for the hell of it, and Birdy talks.
The series did not have a consistent update schedule, to the point of it becoming a running joke outside the series. Episode 3 was released on November 30th, 2011, Episode 4 the next year on September 3, Episode 5 the next year on June 21 and Episode 6 on Valentine's Day, 2014. There were plans to resume Jetters with a consistent schedule following Sgt. Frog Abridged's conclusion in December 2015, but that idea was put to rest after Thorn and Travis concluded their working partnership in 2017 due to Travis' hectic life. The show was quietly canceled after that, as Thorn has no intention of continuing it without Travis.
This series provides examples of:
- The Abridged Series: One with a take on its characters and writing that managed to attract fans who normally don't like Abridged Series.
- The Ace: Mighty, whose nickname is "The Legendary Bomberman". And he knows it.
- A Degree in Useless: Episode 1 features a mockery of both DeVry University and Communications majors.
- Affectionate Parody: The series takes a chunk of its humor from poking fun at the original anime and the video games.
- A God Am I: Averted with the Bombermen. Though they have god-like powers, they are responsible with them and treat them like a part of growing up.
- Art Shift: While most of the series' footage is taken directly from the original anime, the Cold Open dream sequence in Episode 5 is drawn by TheMidnightFrogs' artist Teddy, and the sky ass in episode 6 is drawn by an-artist-complex.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Mighty's visor, which covers one of his eyes. Shout lampshades its uselessness and potential for hindrance in Episode 2:"He always had to wear that stupid visor. I bet he didn't even see that side of the cliff."
- Bad Boss: The mole boss in Episode 4, who actively overworks and mutilates his employees.
- Big Brother Bully: Exaggerated with Mighty, when flashbacks reveal that he taught Shiro how to fight by using bombs on him.
- Black Comedy: Death and suffering are used frequently as comedic tools. The Jetters are perpetually broke and hungry, the people they help turn out to be more evil than the Hige Hige Bandits, everyone does horrible things to each other, and if you're not a main character you're likely to get killed and eaten.Shiro (smiling): "We're horrible people."
- Breathless Non Sequitur:
- Mighty in Episode 1.
Mighty: "...About twenty-thousand light years away, a woman is about to be hit on by a very ugly shark. But that shark hates tobacco smoke, aaaand... Beat... I lit her a cigarette!"Shiro: "Ooh!"Mighty: "And I killed the shark!"- Housing Bomber to Max in Episode 5:
"You look like Mighty. All my furniture just fell out." - Brick Joke:
- Louie's death in the first episode. It becomes a running gag every episode after.
- Mighty kills a shark in the first episode. At the end of the episode he gets attacked by an unknown laser, which the writers confirm is from the shark's brother.
- Shiro shouts "RAAAAAAID!" at the start of Episode 2 while stealing food from Shout's scooter. At the end of the episode he screams it again while spraying an evil ant colony with Raid.
- Birdy being himself in Episode 2:
"If a showerhead could talk, it would probably say 'Ksssssssssshhh...'" *Later in the episode* "'...sssssshhhh, squeak squeak. You take too fucking long to shower'. That's what my shower would say to me."- Shiro dreams about cobras raining down on him at the start of Episode 5. Later in the episode he summons a rain of cobras in real life.
-
Broken Aesop: Mighty's "The bomb is in your heart", seeing as he's an asshole. - Butt-Monkey: Bongo. Everyone hates him for no reason whatsoever.note
- Call-Back: "Don't interrupt me" is said by Mighty in Episode 1, then Birdy in Episode 2, both when nobody is saying anything.
- Cast Full of Writers: Thorn and Travis are both the head writers and the voice actors for the majority of the cast. Codeblackhayate also co-wrote the first two episodes.
- Cloudcuckoolander: All of the characters are nuts, but Birdy is the standout. Everything he says is a One-Liner or thought comparable in style to Steven Wright and Jack Handey, though he says it in such a cool-headed, calm and collected manner that you can't tell if he's insane or just really deep. If there was ever a case of Makes Just as Much Sense in Context, Birdy said it, mostly because what he says is never in context to begin with.Birdy: *Over radio* "Hey Mighty."Mighty: "What's up, Birdy?"Birdy: "What's your opinion on paper-mache?"*Silence*
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Shiro in Episode 4, long after the Jetters have become homeless:
Shout: "Shiro, why is it whenever you move, you put us deeper into the red?"Shiro: "It's my favorite color."- Shiro in Episode 6, discussing Sibarelu with Shout:
Shout: "An ice comet describes love perfectly. Beautiful, and seldom found, but it can hurt if you cling to it too tightly."Shiro: "Like a cat's tongue. That shit is rough."- Mujoe in Episode 6, when he and Mechadoc are discussing defeating the Jetters:
Mechadoc: "...You have to turn the tables on them completely."Mujoe: "Hmm. Well they are kids' tables. Probably low to the ground anyway." - Couch Gag: Something different happens with Mujoe at the end of every title sequence, usually involving the bulge.
- Crossover:
- Birdy made two separate vocal appearances in Sgt. Frog Abridged, both of which referenced Jetters Abridged. The writers are coy about if the two series take place in the same universe or if Birdy is just that transcendental, given that Jetters Abridged is written to never reference SFA.
- According to the SFA Ask Blog, Ask GiroDoro SFA, the Keronians have tried to invade Planet Bomber, only to fail. Giroro and Dororo make a comment on how lucky they are that the super-strong Bombermen are peaceful. Later they mention that Mighty was a key reason the invasion failed, and he was kept away from the peace talks because he's "kind of a dick".
- Deadpan Snarker: Every character at some point. It is co-written by ThornBrain, after all.
- Death from Above: Shiro twice summons a storm of cobras in Episode 5.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Bagular emphasizes how foolish Mujoe and Mechadoc are in Episode 5:"You fools! You foolish fools! Fooling around foolheartedly!"
- Depraved Bisexual: Implied with Bear Bomber, who makes out with everyone on Sibarelu regardless of if they needed the face-warmth or not.
- Description Cut: Where are Bongo and Gangu when Shout needs them? Floating away in a random underground river.
- Designated Hero: Mighty In-Universe. He fights crime, rescues orphans, rebuilds dams, etc, but he also punts children like footballs, kidnaps girls to pass them off as distressed damsels on whole other planets, and apparently hits on women like a total sleaze. Everyone lampshades it to hell and back. By Episode 5, it's clear that he was a Bunny-Ears Lawyer: complete Jerkass, but was otherwise great at everything.
- Dirty Communists: Bajira and his butler in Episode 3.Butler: "Instead of red with pride, I am red with rage!"
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: "Bulge Bomb" is sung by ThornBrain and BigTUnit1.
- Double Entendre: Most of Mujoe's dialogue is this by complete accident, due to his eye-drawingly large bulge.
- Dub Name Change: Downplayed with Shiro, whose name is shorted from "Shirobon" in the original animenote . Episode 6 shows that his full name is still "Shirobon", but he goes by the shorter version.
- Empathic Weapon: Parodied. "The bomb is in your heart, not in these...bombs..."
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Shiro: Happily dropping bombs into the nearby village.
- Birdy: "My grandfather's dead." Or "What's your opinion on paper-mache?"
- Mujoe: "Hey, what happened to my pants?"
Hige Hige Mook: HIGE!Mujoe: And don't you forget it!- Mighty: Singing the Superman theme.
- Bongo: Everyone hitting him.
- Gangu: "Wow, I offended myself by saying that!"note
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Episode 4, after Shiro and Shout murder Bajira from Episode 3 and feast upon his flesh.
- Expy: Bajira in Episode 3 is The Count, which annoys his butler to the point of (attempted) homicide.
- Funny Background Event: In Episode 6, after Shout and Shiro are resuscitated by Bear Bomber via second base, Pommy Dragon offers Shout hot chocolate to wash the taste out of her mouth. The camera then cuts to show the entire platoon of Hige Hige Bandits also drinking hot chocolate.Bongo: "That bear is a slut."
- The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: Birdy knows Talking Heads and The Bee Gees.
- Has Two Thumbs and...: A variation in Episode 4. Dr Ein asks "Hey! Who else hates their job?!", finger snapping can be heard, "This guy!"
- Heroic BSoD: Shiro is in the middle of one at the start of Episode 5 as the obvious death of his brother is finally starting to hit him. Comes back in full force at the end when he realizes Max might be Mighty.
- Hijacked by Ganon: An inverted running gag in the series. The people that hire the Jetters are always more evil and a greater threat than the Hige Hige Bandits. As of Episode 4, the Jetters are also more evil than the Hige Hige Bandits.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Shout in Episode 2:
"Kids aren't allowed in the Jetters! Except for me..."- Dr. Ein in the same episode:
Bongo: "I know your pain, Bongo. We'll take the jo-"Ein: "Shut up, Bongo! God! You're so insensitive! Anyway, disgusting ant creature, we'll take the job out of pity." - Idiot Hero: Defied. Thorn specifically wanted Shiro to not be a stupid protagonist like is found in every other abridged series (including her own), though Shiro could still exhibit naivete due to being a child. Every other character, however... Let's just say there's a reason BigTUnit1 calls the Jetters a "ragtag team of suck".
- I'm a Humanitarian:
- A variation in Episode 4, when Shiro and Shout murder and eat a humanoid pig character from the previous episode.
- Played traditionally with Pommy Dragon in Episode 6.
- Jerkass:
- Mighty, and it gets worse with each episode despite him only being in the first episode.
Mujoe: *Talking to Shiro* "You couldn't save a moderately struggling orphanage from termites. Then punt one of the kids for a field goal. I'll admit it: I laughed."- Everyone has their moments, even the mild-mannered Birdy:
Birdy: "Oh man."Shiro: "What is it?"Birdy: "A man with no corners. You're not very smart, Shiro." - Jerk Ass Dissonance: Played with In-Universe. It's clear that Mighty's a jerkass hero that everybody inexplicably loves, but nobody denies this either. Shiro even straight-up admits to Mighty being a jerk in the first episode.
- Kafka Komedy: Nothing goes right for the Jetters. Protect a treasure from the Hige Hige Bandits? Their client is a bigger threat to the universe than them. Stop the new villain? End up in jail for genocide. Finally get out and get back to work? They're broke and they lose their house by the next episode. And so on and so on...
- Large Ham: The villains Mujoe and Dr. Mechadoc. BigTUnit1's inspiration for the latter was Mark Hamill's version of The Joker.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Mechadoc, the Hige Hige Bandits' chief scientist. People called him crazy for wanting to make a giant metal ostrich, so he did it.
- Metaphorgotten: Mighty to Shiro in Episode 1:"You're never going to be a great Bomber unless you learn to understand: The bomb is in your heart, not in these... bombs... Have I made myself clear?!"
- Mushroom Samba: The Cold Open in Episode 5 is a drug dream Shiro is having.Shiro: "'Lick the frog', you said."
- Mythology Gag: Episode 3 included two references to Thorn and Travis' Lets Plays of Bomberman Hero and Bomberman Jetters respectively:Dr. Mechadoc: "Bomber...Change!!!"MAX: "Hyper flyyyyy..."
- Episode 4 also featured "Redial" as elevator music.
- No Indoor Voice: Gangu primarily yells everything he says.
- No Mouth: Multiple characters. Thorn loved editing the first episode since there was so little lip-syncing.
- All of the Bombermen have their mouths covered by their jumpsuits, though the episode 1 Cold Open suggests that they literally have no mouths or ears.
- Gangu and Max both talk out of speakers on their bodies.
- Shout's dad Twist hides his face behind an omnipresent newspaper, making him effectively this within the show.
- Non Sequitur: Birdy rarely says anything having to do with what's in front of him.
- Once per Episode:
- Louie dies.
- Mujoe changes up his laugh, or laughs in a way that is not even a laugh.
- Someone says "For fuck's sake!"
- The "BUUUULGE BOOOOMB!" section of the opening is changed up, usually involving an explosion or something happening to Mujoe.
- Overly Long Gag: Mujoe's Alphabet Plan in Episode 5. It spans about 2/3rds of the episode."Y'all better prepare yourselves, Jetters, 'cause I will finally D-stroy you! E! A mouse! What the F?!"
- Physical God: The Bombermen have the powers of gods, including creation from nothing, revival of the dead, and instant killing, (when Louie gets involved, all three can apply). Mighty lampshades this in the first episode:"We're like gods. I can make you a new Louie!"
- Preemptive "Shut Up": Mujoe to Top Bomber in the Episode 4 Post-Credits.
- Refuge in Audacity: Mujoe's entire intro scene is one big "Hey look! He has a giant bulge in his crotch!" The kicker: he's sensitive about his bulge every point after.
- Running Gag:
- Episode 5 has Mujoe's "Alphabet Plan", which involves interjecting the letters of the alphabet into regular sentences. He reaches all the way to R before the episode ends.
"You'd better B prepared, C?" - Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mighty only disappeared because he got pissed off about something and ditched the team.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Shiro's quest to find answers to his destiny on Sibarelu. The whole quest was in his imagination to begin with, and it only culminates in a "behind" pun.
- Shout-Out:
- Birdy tells Shiro not to move in Episode 1 because Mujoe's bulge's "vision is based on movement".
- Birdy's lines sometimes reference songs, such as him mangling the lyrics to Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" in Episode 3.
- Something Something Leonard Bernstein: Birdy sings his own version of Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" in Episode 3, because Travis sings his own lyrics to songs when he doesn't know the rest of the lyrics.
- Song Parody:
- The theme song, "Bulge Bomb", is a parody of "Car Bomb" by Negativland. Instead of car parts, it lists off various silly things in Bomberman Jetters and the fan translation (hence the line "'Fire' in English is called 'Fire'").
- Birdy provides his own lyrics to Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" and The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" in Episode 3.
- Housing Bomber's two lines are parodied from "Brick House" by Commodores.
"I'm a bomb... Doo-doo-doo-doo- house." - Squee:
- Mechadoc makes one when revealing his robot ostrich.
- Mujoe has one at the prospect of Bagular taking him to the Father-Son Dance.
- They Called Me Mad!: Dr. Mechadoc, for his "giant metal ostrich". The usual use of this trope is subverted, due to Mechadoc going through with making the ostrich because people thought he was crazy."People called me crazy... so I did it!"
- They Killed Kenny: Louie, who dies in every episode, sometimes several times. Though his death is never seen and often happens with no viable explanation, the characters will usually acknowledge the death, and after the first episode it's pretty easy to tell when Louie has died.
- Unusual Euphemism: "Oh peanut butter and suck!", "Oh, jelly and balls!" and "Oh, banana fuck pudding!"
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Episode 5 shows that Mujoe has a very strained relationship with his father and hopes to find a way to make him proud.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Shiro lampshades Mighty's awful behavior in the first episode:
- "You don't have a moral compass, do you brother?"
- Verbal Tic: Two carried over from the original anime:
- Bongo ends most sentences with "Bongo", even if it's just a one-word sentence.
- Top Bomber says (with rolled R's) "Guru guru", the Japanese onomatopoeia for spinning. The abridged series adds him ending every sentence with "-ururu", which annoys Mujoe so much that he sends Top Bomber to a nebula.
- Visual Pun: The channel name Team Bulge Bomb comes from the Bomberman series and Mujoe's prominent crotch bulge. In the title sequence of Episode 2, Mujoe's bulge explodes like a literal bulge bomb.
- Vocal Dissonance: One of the Higes is named "Deep One" for good reason. He's also the only one who can speak English.
- You Monster!: Shiro has this about himself and his own team after they kill Bajira and feast on his cooked flesh.Shiro: *smiling* "We're horrible people."
