Daisuki! BuBu ChaCha (だいすき！ ぶぶ チャチャ, lit. I Love! Bubu Chacha) is an anime by Akira Okeya, Iku, Takeshi Anzai and Tetsuro Amino, and produced by Daume and Japan Digital Entertainment. The series ran for two seasons with 26 episodes each season.
Set in Greenhill Town (heavily implied to be in America), ChaCha was a dog belonging to Buddy (real name Randy Rand), a curious preschooler. One day, Buddy wandered out to the streets and into the path of an oncoming car. ChaCha, seeing Buddy in danger, rushed out to save him, but sacrificed his life while doing so. Later that night, ChaCha was somehow reincarnated into a ride-on toy car, and that marks the start of the series, which takes a sharp shift towards slice-of-life (weird supernatural tones not withstanding). Additionally, more vehicle-animals were introduced into the series.
The series is as strange as it sounds, but it did gather a large enough fanbase to warrant a second season. The show has an English dub, as well as dubs for several other locales. Additionally, it even spawned a kiddie ride (complete with Chinese knock off of said ride).
Daisuki! BuBu ChaCha exhibits the following tropes
- Adventure-Friendly World: Greenhill town seems to be this to the cast of the characters
- Book Ends: Season 1 Episode 1 begins with Buddy almost getting hit by a car. This almost happens again in the end of episode 26 (the last episode of Season 1), but this time he has learned to stop and wait for the cars to pass.
- Chase Scene: In episode 7, Buddy and Chacha are chased by a truck seeking to kill them. The truck turns out to be another car-animal who envied their friendship.
- Chimney Entry: Chacha's method of going in and out of house if the door is currently out of the question for some reason.
- Cute Ghost Girl: Sarah
- Death by Newbery Medal: Plays with the trope- the death of Chacha happens right at the start of the series. But then he gets reincarnated into a toy car. Only then does the series really take off.
- Free-Range Children: Buddy and Chacha goes to a lot of places without adult supervision.
- Haunted House: Double subverted in episode 3. The titular characters finds out that the rumored ghost inside an Old, Dark House is just an old curtain by a window. Then a floating pillow follows them as they leave
- Haunted Technology: A non-horrifying example. A dog died from protecting a 3-year-old boy and possessed/reincarnated into a toy car. There are other animal ghosts who possessed other objects, too.
- The Kiddie Ride: A ride of Chacha was made, which was quickly copied by Chinese ride manufacturers.
- Kodomomuke: The target audiences are preschoolers.
- Old, Dark House: Episode 3 deals with the titular characters investigating one rumored to be haunted. It really is
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Randy is this to the audience, being only known as Boku(ボク), Buddy, or Bubu depending on the dub. His real name is briefly mentioned in episode 31, and in episode 41 a visiting relative calls him with his real name.
- Oxygen Meter: Chacha seems to have this, though seem to be replaced with Super Not-Drowning Skills at some point.
- Parental Substitute: Chacha is this to Buddy whenever his real parents are not around.
- Parents as People: Buddy's parents are properly loving ones with definite characteristics, but they are never aware of the mortal danger Buddy faces on frequent basis. Without Chacha, Buddy would be dead already before episode 1 ends.
- Past-Life Memories: Chacha, despite being reincarnated into a toy car, still retains all his previous memories from when he's still alive.
- Reincarnation: Chacha gets reincarnated into a toy car
- Once an Episode: Quite a number.
- Catherine crashing her bicycle to the mail box of Buddy's house.
- Mary calling Buddy's name wrong.
- Mary preaching on Buddy about random things, which most of the time kickstarts the plot of the episode.
- A bearded man roaring loudly.
- Nick and Terry rap-talking.
- Sick Episode: Episode 9 for Chacha, episode 33 for Buddy.
- Slice of Life: Supernatural tones notwithstanding.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: All car-animal characters have this, as shown in episode 52 where they work together to dig out a cargo plane from rocks under the ocean.
