Note: This review is based on all 77 episodes of the show. Yes, ALL episodes.
Heh, Bobobo is one of these shows that should have never left Japan. It concentrates on pure Japanese humor so strongly, that for nearly every single person from overseas it becomes simply incomprehensible. So it's no wonder that Bobobo is trashed everywhere in english speaking society while being immensely popular and loved in Japan itself. Frankly, if you are determined to watch Bobobo there are at least three points you have to pass, otherwise you will probably hate the show. 1. Be able to speak Japanese language. 2. Know a great lot about japanese culture and err.. daily life traditions -_-;;, I'm not even sure if this is possible if you haven't lived in Japan. 3. Have watched at least more than hundred different anime shows. If you don't pass all three then you'll wont get most of the parody jokes and you wont be able to watch more than 6 episodes of Bobobo, since only that much is subtitled. Oh and watching this anime dubbed is no less than retarded, I even found subtitles distracting, I wonder what sick mind even got the idea to dub this show.
Bobobo is certainly not for everyone and I actually encourage most of the people NOT to watch this show. As I've said before, unless you are pure blood otaku and pass my mentioned points you should keep from this show as far away as you can. I myself was actually forced to watch this show by my fellow otakus in Japan, they've persuaded me saying that it was the best anime comedy created so far, and now, I myself do agree with them.
Animation:
Okay, animation is certainly not the strongest part of Bobobo. Character designs are somewhat cartoonish, some of them look like... errr, deformed food? While retarded character designs are part of the funny idea, it doesn't change the fact that animation is somewhat ugly. Backgrounds aren't the greatest thing either...
Sound:
Both openings of Bobobo are catchy and really good songs. Endings aren't that bad either. As for background music itself, while there are quite a few enjoyable tracks, they do not really deliver much of an emotional impact by themselves. Well, seriously, Bobobo has more than enough emotional impact without its music already. Anyway, as long as its needed music does a good job at keeping up with the show's atmosphere.
Voiceacting is also notable. Most of the seyuu do a perfect job at conveying the insanity of Bobobo characters. Each character has various voices for every personality hop he gets through.
Story:
I'm not crazy, don't worry. I know that the story is somewhat retarded. Yet, I decided to rate this section this high because of the great quality of the jokes in the show. A comedy show can't get any better, it can't create a better story either, if it stubbornly strives to remain completely funny that is. Bobobo packs a tremendous amount of parody jokes in a single episode, actually, one episode of this show has somewhat similar amount of jokes to 20 episodes of One Piece (I've seen both of these shows and I'm not exaggerating, Bobobo simply jumps from one joke to another without any break, so if you don't pay attention things start to look insanely hectic). While I of course agree that the jokes are random, they are NOT stupid, actually, I believe there was a lot of planning behind quite a few of them. Pretty much every single joke parodies either japanese inside culture or another anime, obviously, the creator of Bobobo is a sworn otaku himself. The best thing though is that through the span of 77 episodes there was nearly no repetition of same jokes in Bobobo and if there was, it was just to make them look even funnier.
Rather than something constructive, Bobobo is simply a massive compilation of various parodies of Japan. And it should be viewed as such.
Characters:
What makes this show even funnier is its great characters. Bobobo himself pretty much represents the biggest anti hero in any anime history. He uses his friends as shields from enemy attacks, he makes fun of his enemies, he uses cheap tricks, finally, he laughs at the philosophy and "good guys" morals a lot of animes previously had tried so hard to create. For example there's a scene where he explains his opponent that friendship and love are the most important things in life, and then he runs away with his opponent's money leaving his friends to die from enemy's hands. ^_^;
Don Pachi is the most moronic character I have ever seen, and he works perfectly in this show. He obviously has a serious case of schizophrenia, changing his personality every 2 minutes from simply retarded, to extremely retarded or just retarded. In episode 75 he even suddenly becomes cool and kicks everybody's ass. O_O
Pretty much all of the other characters, including villains, are mentally challenged people. The only one, who is normal is Beauty, who accompanies the group of the main character. Basically, her job is to explain what the hell is happening and show realistic reactions to insanity other Bobobo characters cause. Without her, it would be certainly impossible to understand a single thing what's happening.
For ones who know what I'm speaking about, Bobobo does a great job at making fun out of japanese language dialects as well. There are men who speak in women dialect, while Don Pachi has loads of different dialects for his different personalities. Seriously, even from the sound I would've dropped down laughing at many jokes in this show.
Value:
This is the best comedy anime ever created, obviously the value is tremendous. You could say I have already watched every single episode of Bobobo three times at least. For that I had a great load of things to repeat, either to try to understand what the hell's going on, or to laugh again at a great joke. I will certainly rewatch this show many times in the future. Up until this day, I haven't found a single thing funnier than Bobobobobobobo.
Again, unless you are from Japan, or you know how to speak japanese and are experienced otaku, don't even bother with this show.
