Late Night! Genius Bakubon / Shinya! Tensai Bakabon

Review by: John Fragglepuss Evans

Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy, Parody

First Aired: Summer 2018, 12 episodes

Summary: It has been 18 years since the last Bakabon anime series was released. It is back and more outragious than ever! Bakabon and his family are constantly getting themselves into trouble. The Bakabon family and friends include:

• Bakabon’s Papa – An airheaded troublemaker that steals the show, both figuratively and literally
• Bakabon – A mischeivious boy that works as a shoeshiner attends Elementary school
• Bakabon’s Mama – A University graduate that is a good wife and mother, despite the troublesome behavior of her family
• Mister Rerere – The confused neighbor constantly saying “rerere”
• Mr. Policeman – A series regular that has been around since the beginning
• Eel-Dog – An unusual neighborhood animal. As you can imagine, it is a mix of an eel and a dog

Late Night Bakabon continues with the series legacy of being off-the-wall and bizarre. They are constantly breaking the fourth wall in terms of speaking with the audience or speaking about the audience. From the first scene they discuss how they are aware they’re in an anime and how they need to differentiate themselves from previous Bakabon iterations. The amount of parody in this anime is up there with the best of them. There are constant references to other anime as well as Japanese culture in general. The animation stays true to the original Bakabon series, which is kind of jarring if I’m honest, but once you get used to it, it’s fine. After all, the series is all about comedy and satire.

You might enjoy this if: You are a self-proclaimed Otaku with a vast knowledge of anime in all its forms.

You might not like it if: You are a casual anime observer. Trust me, if you don’t watch a lot of anime, you won’t get most of the references and the show will seem boring.

Similar Series: Osomatsu-san, Pop Team Epic, Space Patrol Luluco, Nichijou – My Ordinary Life, Himouto Umaru-chan, Plastic Nee-san

Note to the Viewer: The original English translation for the Bakabon property was: “Meet the Boneheads”. A more recent translation changed it to “Genius Bakabon”.

Late Night Genius Bakabon Trailer

Fragglepuss.com