My Taste in Anime · 9:57pm Feb 8th, 2015
So, I'm going to let you guys in on a well-kept secret of mine: I like cartoons.
To those of you who guessed this before now, I am shocked and want your mind-reading powers.
Now, quality cartoons are a little more difficult than just "turn to this channel." I liked a lot of cartoons when I was a kid, but they weren't generally a favorite of mine. I never liked Spongebob, but the kids at school kept referencing it so I watched it so as not to be an outcast. Go figure. I could write an entire blog post on cartoons of the non-Japanese sort, but this is about the Japanese sort.
There's not all that many animes that I have seen from beginning to end; those that I have are typically short in nature. Trigun, Neon Genesis Evangelon, Eureka Seven... uh... Green Green... Escaflowne... Love Hina... I, uh, can't think of any more. Except one, and the topic of this blog post.
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo.
Yes, that one.
This is probably, by and large, the longest anime that I have ever seen from beginning to end. It is the epitome of unique to me, and I hope, by the end of this blog post, that you guys, while I fully expect you not to watch it due to its niche interest, will understand that things are not always what they seem.
There's an awful lot of work that went into developing the background of this story, and while it looks like generic crazy off-the-wall anime #12 that just tries too hard to be funny, there's a deeper layer reminiscent of Dragonball Z. I had to get over this hill while watching it where I didn't understand what was going on or why and it just wasn't interesting for me to watch it.
For those who haven't seen the show or have seen it and didn't understand it due to its chaotic nature, let's go into some depth about the fighting.
Scenes like this are incredibly common in this series (the uploader added some dumb sound bites, by the way). Like, there's a solid 10-15 minutes of this random crap going on at the start of basically every single fight.
This was the primary adjustment period that I had to figure out. Why? Why all the random crap that's constantly going on? There's about half of every episode dedicated to nothing but random stuff happening.
Well, it functions very similarly to the grunting sessions of Dragonball Z: It's sort of filler before the big action happens. The weird part about this, and how it differs from DBZ grunt sessions, is that the random stuff is a part of the fight.
The random sessions are known as "wiggin'." Wiggin' is necessary for every single battle they do, and it's basically what Bo-bobo and company have over every single challenger they fight. That being said, there are other challengers who can use wiggin'.
Captain Battleship, Bo-bobo's rival, uses wiggin' as one of his core abilities. The harder you wig out, the more advantage you have when the real fighting happens.
It's definitely a different kind of dynamic... but you can eventually see what purpose wiggin' serves and why it's so necessary for the battles if you stick with it. Bo-bobo is strong, but he's not that strong without wiggin'.
So, what it boils down to in the end is out-randoming who they're fighting. If the person they're fighting can out-wig them, they get an advantage in the battle; if they out-wig the enemy, they get an advantage.
Not all enemies use wiggin', either--the enemy fighting wiggin' with wiggin' is actually pretty rare. They're typically naturally stronger than Bo-bobo, who is forced to use wiggin' to whittle them down so that he can finish them off. So, what you tend to see is the villain put into ridiculous scenarios where they are forced to play along in the random strange moment they got thrust into, and the scenario somehow puts them in a position to get punched or have a one-ton block dropped on them or let Bo-bobo use one of his special abilities on them when they're wide open.
For example, in the first video I put, when they're up against Lord Over, Jelly Jiggler wants Over to sample some of his soup, but what he ends up doing is slamming Lord Over's head into his soup, hurting him and whittling down his strength. There can be, like, a dozen of these wiggin' scenarios packed into a single multi-episode fight, and they just come hard and fast and they typically involve the villain getting hurt from wiggin'.
The second example video with the Honorable King Nose Hair is a good example of what can go wrong with wiggin'. Wiggin's greatest strength is in its random factor, and that occasionally means that things you didn't want to happen end up being what happens. As strange as it sounds, the Honorable King Nose Hair is on their side, yet he's getting the crap beat out of him by his allies. Wiggin' can easily be a double-edged sword, and something that you see the party struggling with quite often. Bo-bobo is a master of wiggin' (established very early on), but even he can only turn it to his advantage more often than not. It's a very unpredictable factor, and that they have to rely on it in order to win fights increases the uncertainty factor for victory somewhat.
Don't ask about the cover picture of this video. It'll make sense later. From 3:28 to 4:50 in this video, you see what can happen when wiggin' is used against Bo-bobo and the gang. Captain Battleship sticks Softon into a wall through wiggin', effectively defeating him before the battle even started.
Now that the reason for wiggin' has been established, it's time to move on to the more standard fighting.
This is about as standard as fighting gets in Bo-bobo.
What's being depicted in the picture is Bo-bobo using his martial arts style--of sorts. It's called the Fist of the Nose Hair. Most characters, especially villains, have a type of Fist technique that they use in the battles. It makes each battle unique, getting to see the mechanics of their Fist technique and how it interacts with wiggin', and eventually, how wiggin' overcomes it with sheer random factor and Bo-bobo finishes them off with a Fist of the Nose Hair technique.
To give an idea of how diverse the Fist abilities of the series are and how often they're used, let's just do a quick Fist listing of the characters in order of appearance from the title sequence.
Bo-bobo:
Fist of the Nose Hair.
Don Patch:
No Fist technique. His only powers are in wiggin'.
Jelly Jiggler:
Fist of the Wobble Wobble.
Gasser:
Fist of the Back Wind.
Beauty:
None. She is mostly the commonsense character who often gets confused or asks funny questions in relation to wig-outs.
Dengakuman:
Also no Fist powers. He's got powers in wiggin'.
BoboPatch (fusion of Bo-bobo and Don Patch):
In addition to the Don Patch Sword (a leek), he uses Fist of the Nose Hair.
Denbo (fusion of Bo-bobo and Dengakuman):
She has Fist of the Nose Hair, but primarily uses karaoke to defeat her enemies.
Softon:
Initially, he has no Fist technique and utilizes his relationship with the Goddess Blabs-a-Lot in battle, but later learns the Fist of the Black Sun.
Hatenko:
Pretty sure he uses what's called Fist of the Key.
Captain Battleship:
Fist of the Nose Hair.
Torpedo Girl:
She has no Fist technique, but is known as a Joke Killer, a society of assassins who find and kill wiggin' specialists.
There are, of course, numerous villains not seen in the opening.
Rice uses Fist of Rice.
J uses Fist of the Black Sun.
Halekulani uses Fist of Gorgeousness.
Rem uses Fist of Nighty-Night.
There's a ton of these, and the Fist techniques are incredibly diverse, just as wiggin' is. It really adds a great dynamic to the fights, and watching villains get worn down with wiggin' while trying to execute their Fist techniques is pretty unconventional fighting.
And, finally, my favorite character from the series:
The infamous Sad Sack, introduced here:
Fall, don't fall... what difference does it make?
Now, I know what a lot of you are saying right about now: "What the fuck, Scootareader?" Yes, what the fuck, me.
I honestly think it should be pretty sad that Bo-bobo is the longest anime I've ever seen in its entirety. I was also pretty disappointed by the end, and despite my enthusiastic enjoyment of the anime, I have not deigned to start reading the manga just yet. There are a lot of factors in this, but the fact remains that I enjoyed Bo-bobo from beginning to end.
Why? Now, that is a good question.
Bo-bobo doesn't teach anything. It isn't suffused with very clever humor. It doesn't offer much apart from a relatively long series with goofy action and a silly story that mostly lives battle to battle.
In essence, it's Dragonball Z if it was to be made into a WTF comedy anime.
That, I think, is why it appeals to me. It isn't romance (most of the time), it isn't giant robots (most of the time), and it isn't samurai (most of the time). It's like DBZ's episode model (living battle to battle, not pointless filler everywhere) had sex with Family Guy's random humor. Is that a bad thing? I think not.
Apart from shedding some light on this very different and unique series, I guess this was intended to be what I look for when I watch things. I've seen romance anime, I've seen giant robot anime, and I've seen samurai anime... but the longest anime I've watched in its entirety, and the one that has left the biggest impression on me, is the one that isn't a romance anime, or a giant robot anime, or a samurai anime. It's a man with a golden afro fighting with WTF scenes and occasionally his nose hairs.
What the fuck, indeed.
you clearly need to watch more animu.
2779808
I downloaded a few more after googling "weird anime" and grabbing some of the more promising candidates.
I'm watching Yakitate Japan right now because an anime about bread sounds great to me.
Just not motivated to watch them all like I was with Bo-bobo. Strange, isn't it?
Shoot, I remember watching Bo-bobo on Saturday night, right after Zatch Bell. I remember when they took it off and replaced it with re-runs with Naruto as if never was there. Good times. I think I might have watched the first twenty or thirty episodes before it vanished. I wonder if all the episodes are dubbed now...
Edit: I used to think of Beauty to be another version of Sakura from Naruto or her great-great grandmother/daughter.
I have never liked anime....
2779819
I watched the entire English dub. Not sure if the Japanese dub has gone any further. It would actually be good to check on that.
2779832
Not everyone appreciates the art.
2779877
Google tells me they dubbed the whole thing. I'm kinda surprised but I think I watched Bo-bobo out of order.
2779883
Yeah, it's all dubbed. I'm actually somewhat disappointed by that knowledge.
2779817 ever reconsidered watching something that actually made sense?
2779968
Bo-bobo does make sense, though! That's what I explained in this blog post.
2780554
Is following you close enough?
dev.bukkit.org/media/images/42/870/Marry-Me-520x345.jpg
2780562
You could have just edited your old post instead of deleting it.
2780578 you saw that? I deleted it like as soon as I posted it because this looked better in my opinions and I though you might not notice and OH MY GOSH YOU FOLLOWED ME
2780697
Well, except when I don't see it. But that's not the case this time. 
I see errything.
I tend to watch anime that have odd, questionable premises (*coughincestandothershitcough*) because it intrigues me, though i'll also watch comedy anime. I'll delve into other genres too if they catch my interest, but I mainly stick to this as, well... There are lots of animes that are kind of... Fucking stupid, let's be honest. I appreciate shows that are dumb and realize their stupidity; not ones that take their stupidity seriously.
If I had to make a suggestion if you want some comedy anime, i'd suggest Cromartie High School. Loved that show.
2781295
Already seen all of Cromartie.
Bo-bobo is weird to me in my head. It doesn't seem like as much comedy as it does unconventional action. I don't see the wiggin' as funny moments, but a part of the action, as wiggin' is a fighting style of sorts and used as such in the series; it just so happens that it manifests in random scenarios which are often humorous.
I never watched DBZ for its educational value, and I expect to be as enlightened by Bo-bobo because it's just a different brand of action anime. Cromartie uses random humor in a clever manner to make intelligent jokes, but Bo-bobo is presented and meant to be taken as action, with comedy being a secondary effect. If you're expecting pure comedy, you'll get sick of it fairly quickly. On that note, I got really sick of Cromartie about ten episodes in and nearly never finished it, despite its shortness, because I just got tired of it. Bo-bobo is something weirdly different in my head.
omg nu wai
2783544
lh5.googleusercontent.com/-19E6mp1uW0w/VNf9YjiFa2I/AAAAAAAADxg/DKqWdAnfBQM/w500-h282-no/tumblr_nieju6v7R51rz6w0do1_500.gif
2783581 Saw an ad for that last night. Is it airing yet? What the hell is it called?
blogcdn.com/slideshows/images/slides/257/577/1/S2575771/slug/l/2425-d032-00147r-1.jpg
c1.staticflickr.com/3/2448/5729825837_e3d4a6acc4.jpg
image.blingee.com/images15/content/output/000/000/000/450/292928081_1495741.gif
2783599
Here, have a link!
I used to wach Bleach but found it boring, now I just watch DBZ, and GT they are good wonder why people hated GT I know its not not canon. but really only watch 2 things mlp DBZ XD I need to find more anime I actually dislike Death note as well. (Wow i'm kinda like pinkie I talk about 3 different subject's at once XD)
2978643
I keep seeing The Devil is a Part-Timer on Netflix and saying no way. It seems too gimmicky to me.
Stop enjoying things, you fucking nerd. I hate having to read through this much bullshit going through all your antiquated blog posts whilst taking a shit.