Time Bokan 24

This review will cover the 24 episodes of the original airing.

Not many people are aware this series is a reboot of the 1975 Time Bokan or known as Time Fighters in English. Time Bokan eventually became a long running series spanning more than 200 episodes of content by having numerous sequels such as its most popular incarnation Time Bokan 2 Yatterman. As a result, the Time Bokan series is one of the main highlights of Tatsunoko's superhero lineup such as Tekkaman, Casshan & Gatchaman.

This anime is a great improvement over the original but offers a fresh insight to the style of the ... entire Time Bokan series. While it's not as good as Yatterman 2008, Time Bokan 24 still delivers the episodic formula but filled with ridiculous creativity. Each episode features a new mecha, a new transformation and ludicrous content but that's the point; the series has always been a silly thing. You don't go into this show for historical accuracy like Time Squad, Dr. Who & such. This is a superhero comedy or perhaps a supervillain show. The original Time Bokan & Yatterman were responsible in creating the trope of a comedic trio of villains (Team Rocket) hence the show's greatest appeal. The Akudarma gang are the best thing of the series while poking fun in itself by dissing how bland the main heroes are. Meanwhile the villains are so pathetic you feel sorry for them much in the same vein as Florshiem from Astro Fighter Sunred.

The show itself can vary in quality & I wish certain events became more engaging by raising the stakes but it's still pleasant. I personally like how the anime attempts to be naughty despite the times being different in contrast to the 1970's where a lot of nudity & violence weren't censored. On a similar note the 2nd ending theme pays huge tribute to the original Time Bokan ending which really surprised me especially when 24's song is much better. Unfortunately, not much of the other Time Bokan series are licensed so this anime possibly serves as the first real exposure to new audiences. It's not the greatest superhero anime ever but it's a little slice of fun; the episodes do improve as it keeps going but it never really peaks into something as great as its predecessor Yatterman 2008. The final episode (EP 24) does meet that expectation especially when the villains are aware that their time slot is taken away by My Hero Academia Season 2. But in comparison to the 1975 Time Bokan, Time Bokan 24 excels in mecha designs, humor, style & definitely in its villains the Akudarma Gang.

Similar superhero/supervillain recommendations include Astro Fighter Sunred, Yatterman 2008, Yatterman Night, Zannen Onna Black General San Manga & Zvezda Plot.

Imagine a series build on bad puns. Not even puns so bad it’s funny, but uninspired, almost randomly assigned puns. That’s Time Bokan 24.

Each episode has our protagonist traveling back in time to discover that certain events in history happened in a different way than recorded. Like Cleopatra being a comedy duo Cleo Patra, Seaton’s Animal Chronicle being Seaton’s Donuts Chronicle, Galileo Galilei being a rapper working as a construction worker tilting the Tower of Pisa or Pythagora working on a restaurant menu instead of a theorem. Those are the puns. Where are the puns you might ask? Well, half of the ... time they get lost in translation (but believe me, they are still terrible) and other half of the time I have sincerely no idea what was going on in the creator’s head.

The whole plotline caused me headache. The substitution isn’t something plausible, something that could be explained how it was recorded wrongly, no, it’s literally completely random bullshit that makes no sense at all, nothing though out, just like if the script writers drew lots from hats to determine what replaced which historical event. And what’s worse, it’s not even entertaining. It’s just stupid. And it’s not even funny – the comedy ranges from non-existing to cringe. It’s all around awful.

But wait, you might say, this is for kids, just don’t think about it too hard. Wrong! This being for kids makes it even worse. You have to realize the context, that this is teaching kids that the history in textbooks is wrong and villains literally work for a textbook company to keep the real truth from us. This anime for kids tells kids to not trust textbooks and instead stuff like moon landing being stage and such. This is absolutely terrible morals to get from a show for kids. And I guarantee you some of the kids who watched this will actually believe that. Kids are stupid and this is going to confuse them.

So, Time Bokan 24 fails at being entertaining, fails at being funny, fails at making sense and fails at being a kids series. What it has is okay animation, alright mecha designs and villainess with tits. So yeah stay away from this unless you’re deliberately looking for bad anime.