Yatterman 1977 Character Biography: Dokurobei (Part 2)

As with the rest of the Yatterman cast, Dokurobei makes an appearance in the Time Bokan: Royal Revival OVAs. He first appears at end of the first episode to congratulate the Dorombo gang for winning the race. He then “rewarded” the trio with a trip to a lava pit in order to train for the next episode.

Dokurobei shows up again in the second episode posing as Togurobei, (Toguro is Japanese for coil) sending the Dorombo gang to the Tatsunoko Kingdom to get the Toguro Stone. When all’s said and done, he once again punishes the trio since he states it’s to be expected by Time Bokan fans. This time he does it by unleashing Matatabinga (Catnip Man in the dub) on them, the character from Dorombo’s fake OVA at the beginning of the episode.

Oddly enough, Dokurobei is entirely absent from Heisei Time Bokan, which might explain why the Dorombo gang try a good natured “social reform” at first. Even their return to criminal activity in the second story arc is fairly laxed without Dokurobei breathing down their necks.

He makes a brief cameo at the end of Bokan to Ippatsu: Dorombo, where as usual he punishes the Dorombo gang by firing a missle at them. Due to the low budget this game had, Dokurobei wasn’t voiced by his usual VA Junpei Takiguchi.

Dokurobei takes on a more prominent role in it’s sequel Bokandesuyo, where on the game’s hard difficulty he orders the the Dorombo gang to defeat all the Time Bokan protagonists, with the promise of making the trio the main characters of the next Time Bokan series. He even gifts the Dorombo gang with a vehicle in his likeness (the Dokurobei Car) if they manage to get through the bonus stage.

It’s later revealed that Dokurobei’s true motive is to take over the Time Bokan series himself and make it “Time Dokurobei”, and he promptly casts aside the Dorombo gang. They don’t take this lying down, so they stage an assault on his base and fight Dokurobei in a mecha of his own.

Although they managed to win, the trio’s humiliated by the Yatterman shortly afterwards, and Dokurobei gets the last laugh by launching a bomb at them from orbit as “punishment”.

In Bokan GoGoGo, Dokurobei commands all the villanous trios from the entire series (barring Kiramekiman) to find and locate a pair of magical tulips. The first group to obtain it will get another chance at the spotlight, hence why it’s another race.

In every ending, Dokurobei never gets to obtain the tulips either due to the greediness of the the villianous trios or the heroes arriving to stop them. I’ll go into more details surrounding these endings when I write the summaries for these trios as a whole, but here’s what happens to Doku-chan in the Dorombo gang’s ending:

Time Bokan Gag Robots: The Fanfare Skulls / Highlight Skeletons

In episode 16 of Time Bokan, tiny robot trumpeters signaled the Gaikottsu crews’ “highlight” attack of the week. They were the first gag robots, and two episodes later were refined as the Fanfare Skulls, also known as the Highlight Skeletons.

They continued this routine throughout the remainder of the show, although there were times where they deviated, such as doing the three wise monkeys pose or being absent altogether prompting Grocky to “perform” the fanfare.

They would briefly appear a few times in Yatterman, with a Dorombo red look, before being phased out with the Dochirake Skeleton. Amusingly, the concept of tiny robots playing a fanfare before a big attack was given to the heroes’ mechas from Yatterman onward. One does make a comeback in the live action Yatterman film.

Time Bokan Character Biography: Dr. Kieta

Dr. Kieta (Dottar Kida in Italy, Professor Von Spock in Time Fighters) is the inventor of the Time Mechabuton and later the Time Kuwagattan. The former was designed with the aid of his granddaughter Junko, and his assistants Tanpei, Chorobo, and Grocky. Deciding it was too risky to have any of his assistants test the Time Mechabuton out, he opts to go by himself during the initial run.

After taking a few detours such as meeting the Wright brothers he landed in a jungle in an unknown time period, where he came across a crater full of valuable Dynamonds. While he wasn’t looking, Parrosuke entered the Time Mechabuton and activated it, leaving the poor doctor stranded seemingly centuries away from his friends and family. Feeling regret for letting his greed get the better of him he spends his time with Parrosuke’s wife Otake-san, clinging on to the hope that Junko and Tanpei would eventually find him.

Dr. Kieta is a friendly chap with a strong sense of justice who’d be willing to help anyone in need, and treasures his granddaughter more than anything else. He also has a better understanding of various eras of time better than any other character. Normally he wears a white or blue lab coat, but when he travels in the Time Bokan he wears a pair of coveralls concealed under said lab coat.

In episode 27 a strange turn of events occur. A time machine resembling a grasshopper appears before Dr. Kieta and Otake-san, and out of it appears a race of grasshopper people. Claiming to be from the future they take the doctor with them as their slave.

Dr. Kieta distracts them long enough to guide the machine back to the present and makes a dash towards his laboratory with the grasshoppers in pursuit. He’s saved when they are disintegrated, but his rescuers turned out to be Marjo’s gang, of which his “assistant” Grocky was working for all along. Threatening to harm Junko if Dr. Kieta doesn’t tell them where the Dynamonds are he lies about their whereabouts being in Hell and attempts to walk away. Unfortunately, Marjo takes him along just to make sure his information is correct.

They land in an era where a cave resembling a literal hell lies, and within onis torture humans with various devices. A failed attempt by Marjo’s gang to flatter the onis results in Dr. Kieta taking the blame and getting strapped to one of the torture devices, with the gang still asking him to reveal the true location of the Dynamonds.

Luckily for him Parrosuke had witnessed his brief return and abduction and informed Tanpei and Junko (who were not present when it all happened) about it. Although they’re able to locate him Marjo’s gang take off with him once more through time. Dr. Kieta manages to sabotage their Gaikottsu letting the Time Bokan crew catch up and defeat Marjo’s gang, followed by a tearful reunion between the doctor and his granddaughter. Upon returning home he modifies the grasshopper mecha into the Time Dotabattan.

Although Dr. Kieta was back safe and sound there was still the matter of finding Otake-san and preventing Marjo’s gang from getting the Dynamonds. Unfortunately the doctor forgot what period he was stuck in, but he would join Tanpei and Junko for most of the subsequent adventures. While he really didn’t do much afterwards, he’d sometimes used his knowhow to resolve a conflict and he’d use the Time Dotabattan to provide backup in the event he didn’t tag along.