By Yoshio Sawai. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.
It’s a bit difficult to know where to begin with a review of this title. I mean, it’s not as if I can talk about plot or characterization!
The history of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo in Japan is fairly straightforward. It’s a shonen gag manga that began in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2001. It ran for 21 volumes, not bad for a gag manga, and also had a popular anime. There was then a 2nd ‘New Bobobo’ manga series, that was not as successful and ran for 7 volumes. Even for a gag manga, Bobobo is over the top, with non-sequitur gags and overreactions almost every single panel. It had an anime in 2002, that was quite popular. (I was introduced to Bobobo through seeing the anime at Otakon one year.)
In North America, the history is a lot more complex. In late 2005, Viz published a one-off Bobobo volume, which comprised half of Volume 9 and half of Volume 10 of the original Japanese version. This was likely done for 2 reasons; to test the waters to see if it sold anything, and because Yu-Gi-Oh made a cameo in one of the chapters. Toonami then bought and dubbed the anime in 2007, and it was a mild success on television, though the redubbing almost reaches a Samurai Pizza Cats level.
So in 2008, Viz decided to serialize Bobobo in their monthly Shonen Jump magazine, likely as the magazine needed a gag comic to offset all of the FIGHT TRAIN GROW STRONGER! manga that litter it most of the time. (Admittedly, Bobobo is one long fight scene most of the time, but you can’t really call it similar to, say, Bleach or Yu Yu Hakusho). After a while, Viz quietly dropped the manga from the magazine and began putting it out to graphic novel only. They’ve started with Volume 11, so the first 8 1/2 volumes have never been released in America (rumor is the artist dislikes them).
To be honest, I can’t imagine this sells well at all. I’m going to assume that this title is being published in North America at the request of the Japanese publisher, which sometimes happens over here. Volume 4 is solicited for June 2010, so apparently whatever caused this volume to be delayed for 10 months is fixed.
And so we come to this, the Japanese Volume 13, being released here a mere 9 months after Volume 2 (Japanese 12). In it… things happen. Honestly, sometimes you hear the word ‘indescribable’, but rarely is it actually true. You can’t really sum up Bobobo except to say ‘wacky stuff happens’. Heck, I can’t even describe most of the gags themselves! Viz has opted, with this new ‘reboot’, to translate all the signs and Japanese, which was not done earlier (Jelly Jiggler’s ‘nu’, for example). It doesn’t really make much of a difference.
I’ll admit, I like this series. In small doses. It’s so over the top stupid and insane, and was basically perfect in little 14-page snippets for Weekly Shonen Jump. It also, I felt (though I am apparently in the minority) worked well in Shonen Jump over here. Unfortunately, collected into a 200-page volume, it’s just too much. You get burned out, and then irritated. If you are going to read this series, I recommend sticking it by your desk, reading a chapter a week, then putting it back. Then you can let the insanity wash over you, and won’t drown in it.
