Boy Bakabon ( 少年バカボン Shonen Bakabon ) is a gag manga by Katta Yoshi, serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's childrens' gaming magazine Dengeki BAZOOKA!! from 2014 to 2016.
Overview[]
Boy Bakabon can be considered a "parallel world" sequel or reboot to the classic The Genius Bakabon franchise, with its narrowed and different worldview focusing on Bakabon himself as the protagonist, as opposed to his Papa. This was a way to explore the idea of Bakabon taking back the lead role, as well as tailoring the series to a modern kid audience.
The work starts with the very threat of Bakabon possibly becoming too intelligent after he gets 100 points on his test, leaving him in danger of eventually becoming material for the University of Tokyo as an adult. Papa, to prevent such a future, brings his son to Bakade Elementary and puts him through a series of trials that result in Bakabon losing his "mind screw" (as what happened to Papa before in his youth) and ensuring that he'll stay a stupid fool as intended.
From there on, Bakabon takes up his father's fashion and the chapters follow his day-to-day life at school and all the dysfunctional happenings that occur with him or his classmates. Katta Yoshi employs many style shifts throughout the manga, homaging not only Akatsuka's "graphic novel" (gekiga) art shifts, but also dropping in parodies of Boys' Love, shojo, occult, and other genres into the mix. Many new characters are introduced for the world, with more of an Akatsuka impression than characters in GC Nyarome! previously had.
Unfortunately, Katta Yoshi would later state that in crafting the series, he was still left with many limits as to what he could do and was not able to emulate the classic Bakabon formula or gags due to the demographic and editorial demands; indeed, classic characters rarely get use and Bakabon's family are treated as rather minor characters. He would note that many gags from the original series, while not intentionally malicious, were considered unacceptable for him to re-use. He would look back on the series as one that was "difficult" and "didn't work" due to that, and that remaking Akatsuka manga would be difficult in the 21st century but that he still encouraged other authors to give it a try.
Characters[]
See List of characters in Boy Bakabon for more of these people and more information
Bakabon[]
An elementary school boy who is incredibly cheerful and stupid, though his Papa is the dumbest genius of all. Due to a temporary distraction, he was aiming for the University of Tokyo but Papa helped straighten him out and return him to his original foolish self.
Ahoya[]
A classmate and eternal rival to Bakabon. He is an ultra-rich boy that lives in a millionaire mansion. He envies Bakabon's Papa, as his own dad is an ordinary and boring rich guy.
Ahona[]
A classmate of Bakabon, who is the chairman of the journalist department but often mispronounces the world "journalist" as "journalits".
Principal Bakazura[]
A junior classmate of Papa from Bakada University, who now runs this school. He looks up to Papa as the "Legend Senior". He wears a metal toupee atop his head, that can get knocked off by force.
Mr. Nakaji[]
Bakabon's homeroom teacher, a man who is always smiling. It is rare to see him mad. He loves another teacher, Hinmitsu.
His name derives from Katta Yoshi's magazine editor Nakajima.
Serialization[]
There are 17 chapters in the series. Dengeki BAZOOKA!! itself was discontinued with the April 2016 issue, leaving Boy Bakabon and the rest of the serialized manga to reach their ends, if prematurely in some cases. Other than the Bakahaza (Biohazard/Resident Evil) parody mobile game, the concept has not been revisited since.
Dengeki BAZOOKA!! also once had a website that would publish low-resolution versions of the chapters whenever they would release in the magazine, but it was unfortunately never successfully saved in caching systems like the Internet Archive.
Reprints[]
To date, Boy Bakabon has only been reprinted in a 1 volume eBook form by Kadokawa on October 6, 2016, and can be bought through sites like eBookJapan.
Media[]
The series received various game tie-ins during its run.
Butt-In-Front Man -OSIRIUS-[]
(おしり前マン～ＯＳＩＲＩＵＳ～)
This app game is based off Takashi Taniguchi's gag manga Butt-In-Front-Man, which also ran in Dengeki BAZOOKA!!. In September 2015, a collaboration with Boy Bakabon was announced and Bakabon could be unlocked as a character in the game.[1]
Pocket Footballer[]
(ポケットフットボーラー)
A Bakabon collaboration with this game was announced in December 2015, with Bakabon and Papa unlockable as characters.[2]
Sumapic[]
(スマピク)
A collaboration with Sumapic was announced in December 2015, but ended around the time the BAZOOKA!! magazine was announced as discontinued.[3]
BAKAHAZA- Boy Bakabon x Biohazard[]
(バカハザ ～少年バカボン×バイオハザード～)
During a field trip from Bakade Elementary School, Bakabon and his friends get lost in the forest . They discover a mysterious corpse and are attacked by a strange wild dog. While running away through the forest, they come across an old Western-style house, but...
The most significant gaming tie-in, released on October 25, 2016. It could be downloaded for the Android or iPhone up until the discontinuation of the app on May 23, 2024.
It is a parody of Resident Evil (original title Biohazard), featuring Bakabon and his class winding up involved in the events. After a number of Bakabon's classmates die during their school trip, it is up to him and his remaining classmates to figure out the mystery and to escape safely.
External Links[]
- Shonen Bakabon at eBookJapan (Japanese, requires account to sign up and buy)
- BAKAHAZA official website (Japanese)