Forum - View topicREVIEW: Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (manga)
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VTShaftBG
Posts: 6 Location: Viginia Tech or Bowling Green, OH |
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I'm glad you cleared up the bit about what volume they used. I had read scans of the first volume before it was licensed and wondered what Viz was doing.
While some people may think the wording in this review is harsh, it is unfortunately (even for me, a moderate fan of the series) true. I think that this series is a nice, albeit insane, break from my manga of choice (Gantz, Freesia, Bleach). A nice and even review. |
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kollivier
Posts: 15 |
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I just wanted to point out that it's not uncommon for joke manga (or family-oriented manga) in Japan to purposely look 'amateurish and unfinished', for example, the art of Crayon Shin-chan, Chibi Maruko-chan, Bakabon, Atashinchi, etc. could all be described this way. I took the crudeness in Bobobo-bo (from the preview, I haven't seen this volume yet) to be like a five-year old's rendition of highly detailed action scenes from shonen manga like FotNS.  As such, I thought the crudeness was part of the humor and found it pretty funny at times.
That being said, I do agree it can get to be too much. It can be quite funny at times, but with no real plot or character development, it's hard to digest in more than very small doses. |
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Starwind Amada
Posts: 981 Location: Easton, PA, USA |
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My friend showed me this manga and there's a scene where spoiler[Yugi Moto from Yu-Gi-Oh!] pops out of Bobobo's afro.
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domino
 Posts: 373 |
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I don't think the manga would be half as funny if it had "good art" or the usual art we see in manga (big eyes and impossibly beautiful characters). It's sloppiness makes it amusing.
I recently bought Viz's version, but haven't read it yet. I did flip through it and note that it was stupid that they Americanized names that were left unchanged in the manga (The character DonPachi is "Don Patch" in the American dub, but "Poppa Rocks" in the Viz manga). I just hope Bobobo gets popular enough to have subbed DVDs released (though that might take a miracle... but it was a miracle that it even got licensed, so who knows). The Japanese version is a lot funnier and a lot less corny than the dub. And I doubt that they decided to release this volume instead of volume 1 first because it has more action. I think they were aiming for the Yu Gi Oh/DBZ parodies to attract readers. I also think they're a bit scared of selling the first volume to kids since it has a chapter that's kind of perverted (a villian in the first volume wears a pair of underwear with a duck's head growing out of it, and it looks kind of perverted, as one character even points out). I wonder if Viz will publish the bonus Death Note chapter that was drawn by the Bobobo mangaka. :D One chapter of Bobobo was also drawn by the Death Note/Hikaru no Go artist. |
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VML
Posts: 28 Location: Southern California |
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Wow, I did not know that they changed names in the American version. Honestly, I have never seen the Japanese version but I enjoy watching the English version. |
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Useless Kitsune
 Posts: 5 Location: San Antonio, TX |
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Kind of a gamble Viz took releasing the manga half-way through the series, but it sort of payed off. I have unbalanced feelings on how this title was handled, but Viz some how kept the spirit of the series intact. The english anime is okay for newcomers, but it pales in comparison to the Japanese version (this coming from a dub lover).
Bo-bobo won't be liked by everyone, but fans of randomness and stupid humor will be in heaven. I hope Viz releases more Bo-bobo. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15573 |
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The review summed up my feelings of the preview of Gintama I just saw in Jump. (Except for the comment about the artwork, which is better than Bobobo.)
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TheHTRO
Posts: 330 |
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Okay, first of all:
It will only make you "nauseous" if you try to make sense of it, or if you take it too seriously (You all know who you are). Second: I don't think Viz is trying to appeal to the Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Dragon Ball/Z crowds, but rather, I think that Viz is personally biased against this manga, simply because it "doesn't make sense", and as such they either aren't sure, or blatently don't think the readers will enjoy it either. Oh, and by the way, they showed the "duck underwear" episode of the anime, and not once did I think it was "perverted". The thing of the matter is, this story isn't supposed to make sense. That's the whole point. In one of their SJ surveys, Viz asked if the viewers enjoyed the Bo-bobo preview. I think this might be a catch-22 situation. Saying "yes" would be the same as saying "yes, we are okay with having the manga released this way, whereas saying "no", would be the same as saying "no, we don't want this manga to be given a proper release". In other words, what I'm trying to say is, I think that this was a trick question, and that Viz has no plans (at this time) to give the manga a proper release (I'm sorry to say that I fell for it and answered no). This is how/why I think Viz is biased against this manga, despite saying that they are doing this to "test the waters". From what I understand, you don't "test-market" manga the way you "test-market" a TV show. In short, you won't enjoy this if you try to understand something that isn't meant to be understood. Also, while I am hopeful, it is unknown if Viz will ever give this manga a proper release. Also on a related note, there are no plans for a DVD release of the anime at this time by any company. |
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Izlude
Posts: 323 Location: Wherever The Wind Takes Me |
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I thought I was pretty sure Viz was gonna release Bobobo intil their Shonen Jump dvd line-up next year. Oh well, I can get a kick out of it on Toonami.
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domino
Posts: 373 |
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Exactly: I'm saying that I think that they thought no one would enjoy it so they tried to put in things that readers were already familiar with (Yu Gi Oh and DBZ) to make it appeal to readers more. And the "duck underwear" episode that aired on American TV was edited to remove the panties story. The duck underwear is also completely different in the manga. In the anime, the guy wears the duck underwear on his head so it doesn't look perverted at all. In the manga, the character wears it on his waist like a normal pair of underwear, which DOES look slightly perverted (the first thing Beauty screams when she sees him is "PERVERT!!!"). Last edited by domino on Wed Nov 30, 2005 6:31 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Do you have any evidence at all to back any of this up, or is this just wild speculation that you're presenting as fact? Because if it's the latter, I'd really rather you not do that on these forums. |
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Treeloot
Posts: 140 |
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[quote="domino"]
What the heck are you talking about? First off, if they were so biased against this manga, why are they releasing it? Second, there's already references to all kinds of other series in Bobobo-bo-bo-bobo. There's an entire chapter available scanlated consisting of almost nothing butDragonball Z parody. You're entirely wrong when you state that Viz just threw in Dragonball Z. Dragonball Z is still fairly popular in Japan (being #2 or so on a recent top 100 anime series survey can confirm that). Seeing how it's still popular despite ending 10 years ago, and ran in the magazine Bobobo now runs in, it's not surprising Bobobo makes fun of it or throws in references to it. |
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ACDragonMaster
 Posts: 405 |
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I think the thing with this series, is that it requires an extensive familiarity with anime and Japanese pop culture in general, and specifically a lot of the latest stuff as well as a fair amount of the "classics". It's also a lot of nonsense that isn't meant to be taken remotely seriously. The comments in the review kinda reminded me of when we watched Puni Puni Poemy in our anime club- several of my friends kept insisting beforehand that it was incredibly brain-breaking and to be prepared. However, as unlike them I was fairly familiar with Sailor Moon (which it does a lot of parody of), I found it hilarious. Bo-bobo strikes me as something in that same sort of vein, it's funniest if you know the source material it's parodying.
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domino
Posts: 373 |
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Of course it's just speculation; if it wasn't I'd point out otherwise.
And I never said that DBZ wasn't popular in Japan. It's popular EVERYWHERE - I just thought that Viz might be trying to use parodies of other popular Shonen Jump titles to lure in English readers. I don't work for Viz so I don't know exactly WHY they decided to release this volume instead of volume 1. I'm just taking shots at trying to guess why they decided to translate this absolutely random volume instead of the first volume, which is just as random and insane. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Then you need to present it as such. "I think", "I believe", "In my opinion" or "This is just speculation, but in my estimation.." all work wonders when presenting something that's pure speculation. |
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