Introduction[]
So I was telling Metal a bit about Bo-bobo and realised that it would be easier if I just had a blog explaining some of the concepts instead of having to re-explain to people over and over whenever I wanted to discuss Bo-bobo, seeing as almost no one else has read the manga. The anime does not do a good job at explaining these concepts, seeing as they try to avoid them, probably due to them being in Japanese, and the English anime adaptation was made to entertain American children, not to have a good plot or to be an epic action/adventure/comedy series.
First of all, I'll note a bit of history about Bo-bobo as a series. I'll admit, it can be confusing. I'll warn in advance, everything about Bo-bobo, in-series and out of series, is probably confusing to some extent, which is why I'm explaining it.
History as a Series[]
So the Bo-bobo manga began serialisation around December of 2000, if I recall correctly, and it had a good run. The manga is amazing. The only problems occur when the manga tries to adapt to other media. First of all, when it comes to fan translations, the translations have finished, but the scanlations only go to chapter 154 out of 230 in part 1 of the manga, but for some reason are finished, 76 of 76 in part 2 of the manga. They are also more accurate translations than the official Viz Media English localisations.
So, like, Viz is a prick. They literally only localised volumes 11-15 and even called them volumes 1-5. They started at a really confusing part and ended at a major cliffhanger. There are 21 volumes, and 16 of them never got officially localised.
Part 2 of the manga called Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo was never localised or made into an anime at all.
Speaking of the anime, the anime was made for children, but the manga probably would be rated M. When they made the manga, they took out curse words, killing, blood, guns, all sorts of stuff, they don't even mention the word death. They also dumb down at lot of more complex things, and this is also the reason that the anime ended early. They ended around where chapter 177 in the manga would have been, because after that point, things just got too dark to change it to be suitable for children.
If that wasn't bad enough, the anime didn't make an effort to change the ending. They literally just ended at a major cliffhanger right before the battle with what seemed to be the final villain.
Even basically every video game for Bo-bobo besides J-Stars itself never made an English localisation. J-Stars is also made by Yoshio Sawai, by the way, the writer of Bo-bobo.
Speaking more about the writer, what's interesting is that he was actually a teacher to some manga artists who became more famous than him, and these students of his are the writer to One Punch Man and the writer to Assassination Classroom. This is probably enough of the tragic history, now onto more explanation of concepts.
Shinken[]
If you have read the manga to Fist of the North Star, you might remember the Hokuto no Shinken, which is the Divine Fist of the North Star, Kenshiro's main fighting style. Well, Shinken in Bo-bobo use kanji that imply "True Fist" instead of "Divine Fist", but they are indeed a parody of the Hokuto no Shinken.
Shinken in Bo-bobo are more than just fighting styles, they're a set of abilities attached to other things. Some Shinken involves manipulating specific things, some Shinken involves manipulating parts of the body or use certain parts of the body to perform attacks and abilities, some Shinken revolve around fighting styles to perform techniques, and some Shinken even revolve around concepts to perform techniques. Most of the main characters possess at least one Shinken, and to possess more than one Shinken is considered deadly in the series.
Yamiken are like Shinken. Translating to "Dark Fist", Yamiken are three times stronger than Shinken, and Yamiken users can even fuse with their Yamiken to gain absurdly more powerful transformations.
Some examples of Shinken include the Hanage Shinken(True Fist of the Nosehair, used by Bo-bobo, and is a lot cooler and more powerful than it sounds), Purupuru Shinken(True Fist of the Wobble-Wobble, used by Tokoro Tennosuke, the blue jelly man), Gokuaku Zanketsu Shinken(True Fist of the Horrible Bloody Murder, yes, I know), Sanbukuro Yamiken(Dark Fist of Three Sacks, used by the Three Sacks).
Many Shinken have attacks divided into "Ōgi", or Secret Attacks. These are the techniques used by each Shinken, and sometimes further, more powerful Ōgi such as "Chōōgi", or Super Secret Attacks arise. These can be things ranging from Pocket Realities where they hold most control to something just as powerful or tactical.
While I have yet to see it demonstrated by any Shinken other than Hanage Shinken, "Sandwi Gokui", or Three Great Essentials, are techniques even beyond Shinken, the most powerful ones that can be demonstrated. When used by Bo-bobo, the techniques directly involved the Nosehair Gods giving him further power from beyond the skies.
Hajike[]
Hajike, called Wiggin in the dub, is the art/philosophy of doing bizarre or unexpected things in order to confuse, fight, out-Hajike another Hajikelist, or as a regular way of life. Yes, one who practices Hajike is called a Hajikelist, or a Wiggin Specialist.
Hajike is easily one of the most powerful things in the series, seeing as even though Bo-bobo's Hanage Shinken was stated to transcend everything, and many other similar statements of that nature imply that the Nosehair is just above all, Bo-bobo himself says that Hajike is stronger. This is also probably why most of Bo-bobo's most powerful Nosehair techniques include Hajike.
While Hajike can just be an idea, art, or philosophy to some, it can even, by some people, be used as a concept or even as a law of reality. Low levels of Hajike are used to equate to Toonforce where moderately powerful users use it for Reality Warping, Size Manipulation, Shapeshifting, Duplication, and Regeneration ranging from Mid-High to Mid-Godly. Hajike can even change someone's biology and even their race. Hajike can change someone's mortality or bring people to life, or kill people. Hajike has been used for Probability Manipulation on high levels, and is also commonly used for Plot Manipulation. Most Hajike users have 4th Wall Awareness, and some uses of Hajike even treat it as energy. Hajike users as potent as Don Patch and Bo-bobo even have Hajike Souls. I'm convinced that Hajike governs the whole verse.
The greatest Hajikelists come together once a year for a competition to decide who is the best Hajikelist, and they're called the Hajike King. The Hajike King gets a necklace with a golden "H" on it that can take them to the Holy Hajike Land. Don Patch was Hajike King for 50 years in a row, despite only being 26 years old. After Don Patch, it was Rice, and after him, Bo-bobo.
Why is it weird[]
Okay, Hajike is the reason why most characters, notably Hajikelists are weird. Even though Bo-bobo is a Hajikelist, that doesn't explain why he has always been weird. First of all, Bo-bobo comes from the Hair Kingdom, and he has a pretty tragic backstory. Bo-bobo has a father, a mother who was never shown on screen and likely died giving birth to Bo-bobo, and he has four older siblings. Bo-bobo trained his whole life up until the age of 7 at the Hanage Dojo in hopes to become the 8th Heir to the Hanage Shinken, so that when the Hair Hunters came to the Hair Kingdom, that he would be able to protect the Kingdom.
Well, he DID become the 8th Heir, but when the Hair Hunters came, they destroyed the Kingdom he was supposed to be King of, they killed all of the other Hair Hunters, and he even thought they killed all of his siblings and his father.
Let's put you in the shoes of Bo-bobo for a moment. Hair Hunters are taking over the world, Hanage Shinken wasn't enough, they almost killed you, they kidnapped you, they killed all of your family, you barely escaped, basically that. Hair Hunters are only going to continue to do that, and you're a good person. Hajike is stronger than the Hanage Shinken, you begin to think. Hajike is an option...
And so Bo-bobo turns to begin his new life as a Hajikelist so he can become powerful enough to defeat the Hair Hunters and avenge his siblings.
But then as he's started his journey, having taken out some of the lower level Hair Hunters and has had a but of trouble with them, he not only realised that the more powerful Hair Hunters might be a handful, but he also finds out from a spy he sent to the ruined Hair Kingdom that it has been rebuilt by his two oldest brothers and that they started the Hair Hunt hundreds of years in the past so that they could rule the Hair Kingdom in the present, because Bo-bobo was supposed to be the Hair King. And so, he knows that his siblings are powerful. They know even more powerful Shinken than him. And again, he thinks, Hajike is more powerful than Shinken. So then he goes to get allies, bizarre ones.
So this should explain why almost all of Bo-bobo's teammates are extremely weird.
;-;[]
Well, this ends my explanation blog, for now, if you have any questions, I'd like to answer them, comment below.