Bomberman Jetters
(Or Bomberman Jetterz, alternatively, but we Spell My Name with an "S" around here, just like in The Other Wiki.)
The Jetters are an intergalactic police force apparently formed for the sole purpose of fighting the Hige-Hige Bandits, a spacefaring criminal organization with the single goal of amassing all the one-of-a-kind objects in the universe. The battle against the Hige-Hige Bandits is going well, until the leader of the Jetters, the infallible Legendary Bomberman Mighty goes MIA after the first episode. The Jetters need a new Bomberman for the team, and believing badassery to be In the Blood go straight to Mighty's younger brother, White Bomber.
Problem is, White Bomber is Just a Kid, and the Jetters suddenly find themselves on the losing end of the fight. This isn't helped by the appearance of a new secret weapon the Hige-Hige Bandits are fielding: a sinister Bomberman called MAX, whose techniques are highly reminiscent of Mighty's...
Make no mistake, Bomberman Jetters really is a kids' show, but for all that, it's pretty well done. The writers have skillfully avoided the problems associated with The Anime of the Game by doing their absolute best with the source material, which turns out to be quite a lot as the series moves from a Strictly Formula Monster of the Week show into compelling drama with more Character Development than you can shake a stick at. You kind of even stop hating White Bomber in the end.
Highly recommended for children and the childlike, as well as Bomberman fans who can get over the fact that Max is the bad guy now.
- The Abridged Series: Jetters Abridged By Team Bulge Bomb, a sister group to the creators of Sgt Frog Abridged. Notably an Abridged Series that various goons at Something Awful have actually liked.
- The Ace: Mighty is portrayed as this at first--only for it to get deconstructed later as it is revealed that he fell for Mechadoc's Xanatos Gambit and died as a result. Other of his screw-ups and Fatal Flaws come to light during the series.
- Adaptation Distillation: You'd be surprised at what they can do with an Excuse Plot franchise.
- Aloof Big Brother: Arguably subverted by Mighty, as he is aloof only geographically and is about the kindest person in the world.
- The Anime of the Game: Of Bomberman, of course.
- Bad Guy Bar: Mama's bar.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Mighty; aside from height, this is about the only thing that distinguishes White Bomber from him.
- And his boots, but a lot of people miss those at first.
- But his are nothing compared to Thunder Bomber's.
- Break the Cutie: Both White Bomber and Shout get this around the halfway point on discovering Mighty's death.
- Calling Your Attacks: "BOMBER SHOOT!"
- Character Development
- Coming of Age Story: The whole series arguably works to make White Bomber less detestable.
- Cosmic Keystone: The Bomb Crystal.
- Crash Into Hello: Literally done when White Bomber crashes his ship into Shout's scooter.
- Dead Little Sister: Missing Big Brother for White Bomber.
- The Dragon: Mujoe
- And the dragon gets his own dragon, Thunder Bomber.
- Empathic Weapon: The Bombermen's bombs: "The power of the bomb does not lie in the bomb itself...it lies in your heart!"
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Hige-Hige Bandits' headquarters: a tower INSPACE!!
- The Faceless: Shout's father, Twist.
- There is a single episode where his entire face is shown. He's about the most normal-looking person on the show.
- Fairy Tale Motifs : Mermaid Bomber's storyline has paralells to the Non-Disneyfied The Little Mermaid.
- Five-Man Band:
- The Hero: White Bomber / Mighty
- The Lancer: Birdy
- The Big Guy / The Smart Guy: Bongo
- The Smart Guy / Team Pet: Gangu
- The Chick: Shout, also The Captain after Mighty's disappearance.
- + The Mentor / The Professor / Mission Control: Dr. Ein
- Four Is Death: The Bomber Shitennou
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Kōji Ishii and Tetsuya Yanagihara, Mujoe and Gangu's seiyuu, play card games these days.
- Rui is also Mai Valentine.
- White Bomber is Calumon.
- Mighty has recently gotten a thing for throwing Hadoukens and Poundcake.
- Thunder Bomberman is Miles Edgeworth.
- Mechadoc sells furniture in exchange for Bells. (Movie only, mind!)
- Dr Ein is also Ebisumaru.
- Misty is Ash.
- Identical Grandson: Mighty and his grandfather, literally.
- Idiot Hero: White Bomber, oh so much.
- Joke Character: Seagull Bomber
- Kid Hero: White Bomber, very much as well.
- Large Ham: Mujoe. Grand Bomber also.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: subverted: Everyone from the viewers to the cast is led to believe that MAX really is Mighty...and turns out, he isn't. Double subverted in that an earlier prototype, MA-0, has Mighty's soul. Then triple subverted when MA-0 realizes that even with Mighty's soul and memories, he's still the android who killed Mighty, not White Bomber's missing brother.
- Minion with an F In Evil: Mujoe (possibly Grand Bomber as well)
- The basic Hige-Hige minions also qualify. On several occasions, they actually helped White Bomber overcome some distraction (can't find the bathroom, overcoming his fear of needles so he could be cured of an illness) that was keeping him from stopping them. Immediately after, Mujoe would scold them and White Bomber would kick their asses.
- Mecha-Mooks: The Hige-Higes, apparently, but they are Ridiculously-Human Robots in that they need to eat, enjoy recreation, and pursue the attention of the other gender.
- My Hero Zero: MAX's first prototype, MA-0, or just "Zero" among friends. Is also Mighty, which is where The Hero comes from.
- No Export for You: Unfortunately, the series never got a dub. (the localized, Macekre rendered video game notwithstanding).
- No Kill Like Overkill: Flame Bomber almost kills White Bomber while he was playing around in their first battle.
- No Mouth: Any of the Bomber characters.
- No Waterproofing in the Future : Episode 2 starts off with White Bomber's spaceship crashing, the reason, juice spill.
- Old Master: Momo / Grandma Bomber
- Parental Abandonment: White Bomber and Mighty's parents are never ever mentioned, leaving them both under their grandmother's care. It appears from the Flash Backs that Mighty had also received a Promotion to Parent, but then he disappears, too. Man, not a happy family. Shout's mother is dead, too.
- Perpetual Poverty: Despite being a highly trained special unit, the Jetters apparently have notoriously poor funding; many of its members hold other jobs just to get by.
- Punny Name: Twist and Shout.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Mujoe and his subordinate Hige-Higes.
- Recursive Adaptation: The show also has a game based on it.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: MAX's eye cover things are red, the first sign that he isn't like his game counterpart (where they're blue)
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Thunder Bomber after his brothers and sister are killed and Mujoe has been demoted from commander to mail delivery.
- Space Police: The Jetters
- Spoiled Brat: Mermaid Bomber, boy howdy.
- Strange Salute: The Hige-Hige Bandits have a highly...idiosyncratic salute.
- The Syndicate: The Hige-Hige Bandits
- Wham! Episode: 23, 24 and 25 are all this. White Bomber discovers his brother died a horrific and lonely death, Shout's tearful backstory is explained when she resigns from the Jetters and Max is revealed to have been the one to kill Mighty, all with lots of crying. Needless to say, you'll want tissues.
- Wham! Line: At the end of 23;
"Your brother is dead!"