Time Bokan Series: Yatterman

I usually find it hard to truly enjoy a repetitive episodic show, but Time Bokan: Yatterman takes all the tropes of such a formula and perfects it through self-awareness, great characters and absurdity.

Allow me to explain, each episode has the same pattern of Doronbo gang running a scam, being informed of the location for the Skull Stone (the shows MacGuffin) by Dokurobei, heading to the location to get the stone in their mecha, mecha fighting the Yatterman gang and then being punished. Despite the pattern, each episode has a unique twist.

To start with, the opening scam would be unique each time and the ... theme of the scam would often be reflected in the resulting mecha. The gang will be tasked to find the stones in a wide range of locations, often inspired by history or by fairy tales. For some reason, the names of these places and characters will be modified, for example Everest will be Marvelest and the Alps are the Halps. I am unsure why this is done, as I think it takes away with the potential educational aspect of the cartoon, however it is easy enough to identify the place or person who is being referred to.

Following it is the best part - the mecha fight. Each fight would start with a simple mecha vs mecha battle before quickly evolving into a mini-mecha vs mini-mecha battle. These start off quite generic. However, in the second half of the series they begin to get more and more surreal - from stationary battles to vegetable beauty shows and mecha marriages. I could go on and on highlighting all the memorable battles. If you enjoy surrealism, absurdity and parody you will love this part of the show.

My only minor criticism is that the weekly characters often do not get involved with the battle and simply disappear for the duration of the fight, however the benefit of this is that we get more times with the Doronbo gang and the mechas.

Outside of the formula Boyacky and Doronjo are two of the most entertaining villains I have ever seen, full of fourth-wall breaking (even taking phone calls from viewers to ask them for advice) and signature gags. The Yatterman gang are a bit more of a blank slate, but have some great dynamics with the Doronbo gang.

Overall, it is a great show which will reward you for watching it and investing in the time it takes to enjoy its self-awareness and absurdity.

Dude, yo, Yatterman?
Amiright?
Pretty classic bro.
Pretty old bro.
But it's still got some kick yo.

Meeehn, I dropped it.



In some sense, Yatterman is an educational show. It targets young children with the aim of teaching them about geography. I think. The thing is that, while all the locations the main characters travel to are based off of real locations, the locations are given dumb names. Just think about being some ... poor Japanese kid in the 70's. Your teacher calls your name.
"Kousuke, where is the Sphynx found?"
"In Smeelgypt."
I understand that the show is more or less taking motifs of famous locations to build an interesting setting, but, if I remember correctly, the show is still advertised as being somewhat educational.
The boy main character uses a kendama as his weapon which is pretty original, and I like it. It's fits well with the toy theme present in the show. Now, the girl character, on the other hand, uses a hecking police stick/tazer combo. Is it sexist that the show gives the woman self protective gear? It would be like if they gave her just a can of mace or something, just a straight can of mace. Though, I think it's called something cute like "the sparky stick." It's funny.