Cool Shock B.T. (魔少年ビーティー, Mashounen B.T.), also known as B.T. "The Wicked Boy", Magic Boy B.T., or Magical B.T., is Hirohiko Araki's first serialized series. Running from 1982-1983 in Weekly Shonen Jump, it's a collection of short stories featuring the titular character, B.T., whose name has been censored into his initials, and his borderline-criminal escapades with his (often unwilling) friend, Koichi Mugikari.
The manga received a two-chapter sequel by NisiOisiN and Demizu Posuka, set 60 years later. Titled Cool Shock Old B.T. (魔老紳士ビーティー, Maroushinshi B.T.), the now-older B.T. and Koichi are brought back into their old adventuring days after Koichi gets scammed.
A separate oneshot, written by Juichirou Hitsujiyama and illustrated by Yuta Matsutani, was published in 2024 for Saikyo Jump.
Not to be confused with the 1958 film Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke (relased as Magic Boy in the US).
Also not to be confused with the mecha anime B't X.
This manga provides examples of:
- 13 Is Unlucky: Koichi first encounters B.T. on a Friday the 13th, at 1:13 PM (13:13 in military time). After Koichi points B.T. to the principal's office to get acquainted, he's immediately pranked by B.T., setting up both their relationship in later chapters and B.T.'s general eeriness.
- Anti-Hero: B.T. tends to steal and manipulate people for his own benefit and when he does good things, it's usually to sate his own curiosity. However, he does hold a soft spot for Koichi and goes against those who hurt him.
- Asshole Victim: Everyone who attracts B.T.'s wrath except possibly Date, who probably snapped under pressure.
- Bad People Abuse Animals:
- In "The Two Old Guys Incident", the two soldiers set up an internment camp where they regularly torture cats and dogs. When B.T. and Koichi accidentally find their territory, they're happy to "graduate" to using live humans.
- Manabu takes zero care of Koichi's dog Taro after winning him in a bet, instead resorting to beatings for disobeying him.
- Batman Gambit:
- A lot of the tricks B.T. pulls off tend to rely on him predicting that his opponents would act in specific ways. An example is fooling a guard that was attacking him by coming up with bogus chemistry to make him surrender.
- Probably the best one is not by B.T. but by his grandmother. The reason B.T. robbed the mall in the first place is because she showed him an ad for an exhibit that would arouse his curiosity. When the guards were chasing the boys, the girl that was with her earlier broke into the mall owner's office so they can get proof of him stealing jewelry.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: At summer camp, Koichi was the only kid to help out B.T. when he first encounters Kuroyama and Akagawa. Because of this, he's the only kid B.T. lets in on the plan to put a hornet in his jacket.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: B.T. has eyebrows that extend past his face and onto his hair.
- The Case of...: From the second chapter on, each chapter is titled "The [X] Incident" based on cases Koichi and B.T got involved in.
- Character Tics: When B.T. gets mad, he touches his ears.
- Crying Wolf: A strange example: B.T. convinces Ninomori to attack Date and then pretend to trip and fatally injure his head, so that B.T. can blackmail Date with murder. Unfortunately, B.T.'s evidence of said blackmail gets accidentally destroyed, Ninomori dies for real, and Date has decided to accuse him of causing said accident. To top it off, Ninomori actually suffered a short coma due to brain trauma.
- Death by Ambulance: Manabu is ran over by an ambulance meant to help his family.
- Don't Try This at Home: When the narration explains how B.T. got hold of a hornet, it points out that this is extemely dangerous for kids at home to do and that they're not liable for any that get stung trying.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Alright, Date is kind of an arrogant jerk, but did he really deserve to be blackmailed for a fake, staged accidental murder because he dares to date the girl B.T. likes?
- The Dog Bites Back: Akagawa, after being constantly abused by Kuroyama, loses it when he thinks Kuroyama put the wasp in his trousers.
- Double-Meaning Title: In Japanese, the character "Ma" (魔) in "Mashounen" can refer to either magic, referring to B.T.'s magic tricks, or evil, referring to his less-than-scrupulous nature. The official English translation of the term notes B.T. as a "Wicked Boy" instead, preserving the magic/evil pun.
- Exact Words: "I saw Kuroyama putting an insect in your clothes." Akagawa thought that B.T. was talking about the dangerous wasp that stung him, which was placed inside his trousers. B.T. was talking about an earlier incident where someone put a dragonfly inside Akagawa's shorts while he was wearing them.
- Framing Device: Each chapter begins with Koichi introducing the story he's about to tell either from somewhere in his house or at the location an incident took place.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Saiko zig-zags competence at his job throughout "The Dinosaur Fossil Thief Incident". He's alert enough to catch on to Koichi's presence in the museum warehouse, but focuses on him so hard that a quick distraction allows Koichi and B.T. to find another hiding spot. After hours, he resorts to catching trespassers with brute strength and swinging around his chain, both of which make a mess of the exhibit he was supposed to protect.
- Gaslighting: Near the end of "The Two Old Guys Incident", B.T. convinces the Commander that his Major Sergeant was hypnotized into acting like an ostrich, and gaslit him into thinking the boy could teleport.
- Invisible Parents: B.T.'s parents are away for work, resulting in B.T. staying with his grandmother. Averted with Koichi's parents, who are seen throughout "The Eerie Freckled Boy Incident".
- Morality Pet: Koichi is this for B.T. Notice that B.T. gets serious whenever Koichi gets hurt.
- Never Mess with Granny: B.T.'s sole caretaker. Not even he's fully sure of what she's capable of.
- No Name Given: B.T., due to investigations still ongoing.
- Out-Gambitted: Manabu makes a bet with B.T. that a group of ants will go to a piece of candy either 30 centimeters above or below their anthill. At the last second, B.T. decides to switch his piece with a white one, knowing that the ants are more likely to favor bright colors over dark. He's shocked when no ants bother touching it—because as he later learns, Manabu rigged the game in his favor by spraying the spot B.T. was likely to take with pesticide beforehand.
- Psychopathic Manchild: The Major Sergeant.
- Shout-Out:
- B.T. owns a ventriloquist dummy dressed like Alex DeLarge.
- ‘’Cool Shock Old B.T’’ is absolutely loaded with references to Jojos Bizarre Adventure, to the point where it’s all but stated that they take place in the same universe. B.T’s car is full of artifacts like Caesar’s headband, the Red Stone of Aja, the Stand Arrow and the taxi driver’s charm, Rohan Kishibe is mentioned as having illustrated the cover for Koichi’s book about B.T, Koichi’s “new villa” is located on Boiyoiyoing Cape, and “The 'Say Hi To Old Virginia' Incident” has B.T travelling into space in search of a meteorite containing an "ultimate lifeform" that’s said to bestow immortality - and those are only a few examples (These
pages offer a more exhaustive look).
- Silver Fox: ‘’Cool Shock Old B.T’’ shows that B.T has aged pretty gracefully◊, in contrast to the short, rotund Koichi.
- Staged Pedestrian Accident: The Mugikaris initially are distraught over accidentally running over a young boy with their car, but as they let him stay to recover, Koichi finds that he faked getting hit to mooch off his victims' hospitality and guilt. Once his family shows up, it's revealed that they regularly pull this con to gain easy access to their marks' possessions and throw them out of their own home.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: As Manabu stays with Koichi's family to "recover", he raids their fridge, steals Koichi's clothes for himself, and abuses the family dog. By the time his family shows up, they're glad to see him go...until they decide to move in with him and make an even worse mess of the place.
- This Is Unforgivable!: "I'll give you the punishment you deserve!"
- Those Wacky Nazis: In "The Two Old Guys Incident", the title characters are a Commander with a toothbrush mustache and his Major Sergeant. They've declared the area near a lake their territory, setting up an "internment camp" to torture the local strays until Koichi and B.T. decide to fish there.
- Visual Pun:
- The logo for the series is a demon head performing magic tricks, playing on the Multiple Reference Pun of "Mashounen" (see also Double-Meaning Title): he's a "magic boy" (a boy associated with magic) as well as a "devil boy" (a boy associated with evil/the supernatural).
- Chapter covers frequently have arrows point to and away from B.T., indicating his penchant for misdirection.
- What a Drag: The Commander hog-ties B.T. to a car, betting that if its owner takes a particular turn, a nearby knife in the correct direction will catch onto the rope and cut it in time for B.T. to not get dragged to death.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In "The Eerie Freckled Boy Incident", this is Manabu's MO: pretend to be accidentally injured by a family, accept hospitality from said family, move his family inside the house, and take everything from inside.
