CIV: "Bomberman Jetters"

Fans of Hudson Soft's Bomberman franchise should be familiar with the Gamecube title Bomberman Jetters. Why I bring this up is because this game is adapted from the anime of the same name. It's not in the US yet (not officially, anyway), but I managed to catch a peak at it, after owning the game for a while.

Alright, when fans think of Bomberman, they usually think of bad guys, a nasty plot, and heroes wielding dangerous Bombs. This anime doesn't deviate from that much. I'm guessing picking up from its predecessor game Bomberman Generations, the story tells of the Hige Hige Bandits and their leader Bagura. Common for antagonists, they are foiled constantly by the titular protagonist team, the Jetters. One of the original members, the leader Mighty, makes a brief return to Planet Bomber, his home, to see his younger brother Shirobon, commonly addressed here as the White Bomber. However, his reunion is short, and somewhat bittersweet, as he is called for a sudden mission. After his mysterious disappearance, the Jetters are short one Bomberman. Dr. Ein, frantic to fill the hole, accepts Shirobon as the new Bomberman of the Jetters.

At this point, the story unfolds first as a lighthearted comedy, then takes a much darker turn, adding a bit of drama to it later in the anime. While the objective is to stop the Hige Hige Bandits, Shirobon also seeks out bomb starts, which helps him use new bombs, as well as seek the whereabouts of Mighty, who he feels is still alive. A couple of running gags are seen, and in terms of characters, more notably for the character Max, there are seen differences between the game and anime. In fact, the game appears to be set some time after the anime, as both Shirobon and Rui appear older in the game. With this reason, it's possible that the anime and the game coincide with one another (much like the Devil May Cry series, save for the recent game in making), the only thing raising doubt being the character Max, the antagonist in the anime who serves a more heroic role in the games.

The anime itself runs for 52 episodes, and features some original characters, as well as those from the other games. Of all the Bomberman media, this title is claimed by viewers as the only adaption that stays true to the games, even with its differences from the video adaptation to the title. Made in 2002, the same year the game released in Japan, it was created under Studio Deen, and even with the voices heard in game for English in the 2004 Gamecube title, the anime is still unlicensed. Shirobon, or White Bomber is voiced by Tomoko Kaneda (seiyuu in Japan), while it's generally unclear about his English voice in-game. Bomberman Jetters uses the same animation in the anime and the game's opening sequence. However, the difference comes in as far as the music used. The Japanese vocal theme "Boku wa Gakeppuchi" was replaced by a similar sounding American rock music in the game.

Bomberman Jetters wasn't well received game wise, and as far as the anime coming here officially, after nearly 9 years, that's still uncertain. Though as an anime derived from it's namesake game franchise, I saw little problems. The anime gets a 8.2 of 10.