Kazuya Tatekabe was the man behind Walsa, Tonzura, and the other muscles of the Time Bokan series. He was probably the most reoccurring Tatsunoko voice actor outside of the Time Bokan series, voicing the lazy dog Baron in Hurricane Polymar, Braiking Boss’ minion Barashin in Neo Cyborg Casshan and King Ibaruda in Gold Lightan.
His most notable role outside of Tatsunoko was Takeshi “Gian” Goda for the majority of Doraemon. Oh, and he was Cesar the Gorilla in the Animal Crossing movie.
Alongside Noriko Ohara, Tatekabe enjoyed doing work on the Time Bokan series and frequently participated in special events related to the series, making a cameo in the live action Yatterman and reprising Tonzura for an event celebrating Tatsunoko’s 50th anniversary.
Omochama (also known as Omotchama, Robbie Robbie in Italy) is a small dice shaped robot created by Gan-chan to serve as the mascot for his father’s toyshop. His proper role is that of the sidekick to Gan-chan and Ai-chan when they’re the Yatterman and he is also the announcer for the title of every episode in addition to the previews for the next episode.
As with the rest of the Yatterman cast and their predecessors, Omochama has some of Chorobo’s quirks, such as being somewhat childish and even cheeky at times. He is dedicated to fighting crime and can be very supportive of both Gan-chan and Ai-chan when they need it, though he can find some of their antics questionable and teases about the romance between them. He prominently has the verbal tic of adding “koron” to the end of his sentences, and as such every episode title ends with “koron” because he announces them.
While lacking much in terms of gadgets, Omochama has a propeller that allows him to fly and can retract his head and limbs into his body. His face consists of three cogs, two grey ones for eyes and a red one for his mouth. He can easily be knocked back by the simplest of blows, best shown during the Yattermans’ victory pose where the Yatter-Mecha makes him fall over nearly every time. He is also powered by batteries which need to be recharged every now and then, although this only appears to affect his propeller.
Omochama was initially the one who discovered the Dorombo gang’s hunt for the Dokuro Stone, and usually spies on their activites afterwards with or without Gan-chan and Ai-chan. A couple of times Omochama actually exposed the Dorombo gang’s scams, though most of these scams were harmless like a magic show and Omochama’s sabotaging actually endangers the trio’s lives.
By the time there were three established Yatter-Mechas, Omochama would be rolled like a dice in a cup to determine which one would be deployed, with one and two for Yatter-Wan (later Yatter-King), three and four for Yatter-Pelican, and five and six for Yatter-Ankou.
From the 58th episode up to the 80th, just before a fight with the Dorombo gang, Omochama would pick a mecha by conducting a game of Musical Chairs with the Janken Trio, robot girls who represent the Yatter-mechas via janken symbols (or rock-paper-scissors). Gu-ko (rock) for Yatter-Panda, Choki-ko (scissors) for Yatter-Dozilla, and Pa-ko (paper) for Yatter-Bull. The one that wins has the mecha they represent called out into action.
Over the following ten episodes afterwards, Omochama would deploy a small robot known as the Miai Duck (or Matchmaking Duck) that walked on a string of paths that led to three doors displaying the Yatter-Mechas. Again, the path the duck followed determined which mecha was being sent out. For the last few episodes this was dropped entirely, and the Yatterman would use whatever mecha (mostly Yatter-Yokuzuna).
Omochama appears in the second episode of the Royal Revival OVA, where as usual he overhears the Dorombo gang’s plans and sets out to inform the newly-wed Yatterman. However, they’re too lovestruck to notice and it takes a while before they finally take off. His troubles don’t end there, as later on Jun the Swan falls on top on him due to the Yattermans’ brief lovesick daze.
Omochama also cameos in the various Banpresto games, as an enemy in the shoot-em-up games and again spying on the Dorombo gang’s activites in Bokan GoGoGo!. This time the Yatterman are all ears and even spread the word to the other Time Bokan heroes since thier respective villains are involved.
In all versions of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Omochama can be found in the background of the Yatterman’s Workshop, cheering on the fighting and chasing off a spying Odate Buta. In Ultimate All-Stars, he can be summoned by Ai-chan/Yatterman-2 to assist in attacking her opponent for a brief time. If he’s still out when Ai-chan wins the match, he’ll do the Yatterman’s typical victory pose.
Let me explain, Kei Tomiyama (1938-1995) was the somewhat snarky narrator of most of the Time Bokan series, as well as some of the gag robots, namely Odate Buta. He was also Reporter Sasayaki in Yattodetaman and Sokkyu Go / Ippatsuman himself in the series of the same name. A caricature of himself occasionally appeared throughout the series.
Some of his well known works beyond Time Bokan include Sabu / Sparky in the original Mach Go Go Go / Speed Racer, Naoto Date the titular Tiger Mask, Susuma Kodai in the original Space Battle Yamato series, and Duke Fleed in the Mazinger Z spinoff Grendizer.
He tragically passed away in 1995, with the Time Bokan Royal Revival OVAs being one of his last works.
The bad news is that brand new biographies and articles are going to be coming to an halt for a while. Most of what will be uploaded will be stuff that was uploaded on Tumblr, with some refinements and higher quality images.
The good news is that’s because I’m fully resuming my intended fan translation of the original Time Bokan series! It was halted early on due to IRL issues, but now that I’m back in the Time Bokan funk I want to give this another crack and see that this gets the localization that’s long overdue. See the Fan Translation page for more information!
Also, you can join this site and post articles yourself! All you need is a WordPress account. Check the Contribute page to see how you can help there.
Lastly, I’ve updated the Links to include the Time Bokan Discord and sites from good friends that you should support if you haven’t already.
SokkyuGou(alternatively spelt as Go), better known as Ippatsuman, is the main protagonist and title character of Gyakuten! Ippatsuman. He’s a radical departure from previous Time Bokan heroes in that he is a grown man who acts alone when he is needed initially through the use of a robotic double. As with most of the other characters his name is based off a baseball term, in this case “gousokkyu”, or in English terms “heavy ball”, a throw that can catch batters off-guard.
Gou was abandoned shortly after his birth and taken in by an orphanage where he found himself developing psychic abilities. This eventually led to him to work at the Northern Ostendel division of the Time Lease, operating in public as a maintenance worker and in secret testing the Psychic Robot program led by Kozou Higeno. When not working he spends time with the company of Ran, Harubow, and 2-3.
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Gou is kind, caring, and compassionate as well as incredibly altruistic, spending free time taking care of the orphanage he grew up at and lending help to anyone in need. He’s also attracted the attention of many ladies, in particular Ran and later Mun-Mun. Though Gou avoids the random girls, he appears to be clueless to the advances of Ran whereas it’s obvious to everyone else.
Whenever Ran, 2-3, and Harubow encounter trouble in the form of the Clean Aku trio Gou is contacted by them to summon Ippatsuman, his friends initially unaware of the connection between the two.
When called Gou drops whatever activity he was doing and travels to an undersea lab below the Time Lease building, where he uses his psychic powers to control a Psychic Robot with enhanced strength and power than that of any human being. But since Gou is linked with the robot, he can still feel pain through it.
Other features as Ippatsuman include brief flight and being impervious to low-end weapons. His specialty are the Rainballs, special quick baseballs that can break through the toughest material. Even with all of this though, he seldom fought with those and had his limits against the giant mechas the Clean Aku trio would deploy.
Whenever a mecha would and did overwhelm him he would use his psychic link to combine his ship, the Dangan Head Unit, and the body of the Tokkyu-Saurus into the Gyakuten-Oh. This turnabout would often make short work of the Clean Aku trio’s mecha, after which Ippatsuman would vanish without a trace.
(Spoilers are contained in the next few paragraphs, view at your own discretion!)
Things take a nasty turn when Tamashiro, the president of Skull Lease’s Western Ostendel branch, catches a glimpse of Gou’s Psychic powers during a scuffle on the beach. On top of that Kosuinen, a member of the Clean Aku trio, had been analyzing Ippatsuman’s abilities and attempts to counter Ippatsuman through various means.
This leads to a trap set by Kosuinen and seized upon by Tamashiro, where the former takes a Time Lease client hostage specifically to lure Ippatsuman out. Gou is nearly killed when Tamashiro fires diamond tipped bullets into the Gyakuten-Oh and into Ippatsuman’s Psychic Robot body, leaving the former incapacitated, the latter destroyed, and Gou himself in critical condition.
This shocking event elated the Skull Lease and disheartened the Time Lease crew, whom had recently concluded that Gou was Ippatsuman. To everyone’s surprise, during another Time Lease hijacking Ippatsuman returns and stops the Clean Aku trio from disrupting another Time Lease contract.
After Gou’s friends reunite with him he also directly reveals his identity as Ippatsuman to the rest of the Time Lease crew, and they agree to help guard their secret. However, his apparent closeness with the Time Lease’s newly transferred managing director Haruka slowly begins to cause a rift between him and his friends.
With the Psychic Robot destroyed and the Gyakuten-Oh in a state of disrepair, Haruka is brought in to assist Gou with his transformation. He now wears an enhanced suit based off the previous Psychic Robot data and a new mecha called the Sankan-Oh, formed from the Dangan Booster Unit and the Tokkyu-Mammoth. With Ippatsuman stronger than ever, Tamashiro’s diamond bullets are no longer effective and the Clean Aku Trio have to order more powerful mechas to keep up.
However, though the suit is more durable it comes with a greater risk due to both Gou having to actually fight in person and any potential issues with the psychic link between him and Haruka. Her psychic wave is needed to summon the Sankan-Oh, and any interference between the two is painful and can be deadly.
From here on out Gou not only had to deal with not only the Clean Aku trio but now Tamashiro and Agent 000, who wish to destroy him and obtain the Psychic Robot data on the behest of the Skull Lease chairwoman Con Cordo. This also leads to Ran being captured and tortured by the Skull Lease, Haruka nearly being assassinated, and Gou himself constantly being led into traps, prompting his friends to rescue him.
This comes to a head when he breaks with his friends, supposedly leaves the Time Lease and seemingly marries Haruka. It turns out the whole event was a trick to distract the Skull Lease and finish the Psychic Robot program.
Unbeknownst to the Time Lease however, Haruka was a double agent unwillingly working for Con Cordo, in reality a malicious alien, who steals the Psychic Robot data.
When the Time Lease gang go to confront Con Cordo, Haruka, wearing an enhanced Psychic Robot suit of her own, overwhelms the nearly powerless Ippatsuman. With the help of his friends he is able to break Haruka free from Con Cordo’s grasp and use the Sankan-Oh to destroy the evil alien once and for all.
With Haruka’s whereabouts unknown and Higeno resigning to look for her Gou becomes the Technical Director of the Time Lease and begins to oversee the Ostendel Branch, starting with overseeing the repairs of the Tokkyu-Saurus.
In addition to cameos in the Banpresto games, Ippatsuman appears in the Wii versions of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom as an unlockable character in Cross Generation of Heroes and by default in Ultimate All-Stars. His fighting style, while incorporating things such as the Rainballs and Gyakuten-Oh, was practically unseen in the show proper. He is also the only Time Bokan character that didn’t originate from Yatterman.
In both of his endings, upon seeing how dedicated the Street Fighters are with raw power, Gou decides to hone his fighting skills without the use of his suit, leading Viewtiful Joe, Hurricane Polymar, and Tekkaman to question how much they rely on their powered suits. Cross Generation of Heroes shows that Gou’s training leaves him immensely strong without the Psychic Robot suit alone.
Tamashiro Kakure is the president of the Skull Lease’s Western Ostendel Branch, and thus a secondary antagonist. In contrast to the bumbling trio that head the Northern Ostendel Branch (and just about most of the characters in the entire Time Bokan series) Tamashiro is calm and cool, and takes things seriously for the most part. It doesn’t stop him from getting into wacky situations though.
For the first half of the series he’s either showing up or brought up by the head of the Skull Lease, Con Cordo, to brag about how inept the Northern Ostendel Branch is and how he and his branch are superior. Mun-Mun especially hates Tamashiro since he tends to rub in how much of a failure she is as the president of her branch.
After witnessing Sokkyu Gou intruding on his private beach and deflecting one of his missiles with psychic waves, Tamashiro begins to suspect that Gou is Ippatsuman and begins training in secrecy in order to take Ippatsuman out himself.
Shortly afterwards Tamashiro managed to seemingly kill Ippatsuman and destroy the Gyakuten-Oh by sniping at him with diamond tipped bullets (though the Northen Ostendel trio take all the credit for this) However, what he “killed” was a robot psychically controlled by Gou. And with the assistance of Haruka, a Time Lease director who also has psychic powers, Gou gains a enhanced suit that prevents Tamashiro from trying the same tactic again.
From episode 40 onward, Tamashiro gets frequently involved in the conflict with Ippatsuman and the Time Lease, trying to assassinate Gou and Haruka and obtain information on the Psychic Robot suit. A handful of his attacks include time traveling to kill Haruka when she was a little girl, to setting up a trap for Gou that was inescapable, resulting in Haruka having to become Ippatsuman to save him.
His tactics kept the Time Lease on guard more often, but while he’s more of a threat than the Clean Aku trio Tamashiro’s just as ineffective when directly confronting Ippatsuman. His overall image as a cunning businessman begins to gradually crumble towards to the end of the series.
Gou, Haruka, and the Clean Aku trio decide to investigate Tamashiro’s background, and discover that the real Tamashiro was a portly person who attempted to lose weight by trapping himself in a room full of heaters without food or water. This act resulted in his death from malnutrition.
This led to both parties questioning who Tamashiro really was, and the Clean Aku trio even confronted him and tried to blackmail him about it. While he dismissed it, the facts given to him did bother him to a degree since he couldn’t remember his past at all.
Later on an attempt to lure Ippatsuman into a trap backfires, resulting in a laser aimed at him being deflected back and piercing straight through Tamashiro’s chest. To his horror, Tamashiro felt very little pain and was able to recover only a few minutes later, despite being left with a big gaping hole in his chest that should have killed him with absolutely no blood or anything coming out.
Not long after Tamashiro, simultaneously with the Time Lease and the Clean Aku trio, learn the shocking truth: he was revived as a cyborg with his memories erased, something Con Cordo knew all along. The reason for this was a untraceable pawn to manage the Skull Lease and counter Ippatsuman. Tamashiro was utterly distraught about his condition and furious at the Skull Lease for being used, but he continued to fight Ippatsuman as it was the only thing that had any meaning to him at that point.
With the Skull Lease being bankrupt, the Psychic Robot data obtained through other means, and Tamashiro failing to eliminate Ippatsuman one last time, Con Cordo had no more use for him. After giving Tamashiro a glimpse of her true appearance she sent him drifting throughout time and space for all eternity. He was able to fire missiles that went unnoticed and destroyed the Skull Lease’s base of operations beforehand, but that did nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Con Cordo (spelt as Kon Korudo onscreen in one instance) is the head chairwoman of the Skull Lease and the overall antagonist of Gyakuten Ippatsuman. She usually sends the Clean Aku trio to sabotage Time Lease activity, although her overall goal is seeing that the Skull Lease dominates the world.
Cordo appears as a short, elderly Chinese woman whose face is partially obscured by her arms most of the time. Although she was initially obscured by shadows, whatever shred of mystery is dropped early on by the time her granddaughter Min-Min is properly introduced.
Unlike the other bosses of the Time Bokan series, Con Cordo has no particular verbal tic. She does open and end most of her messages with the phrase “Inai inai bababa!” which equates to “I’m not an old hag!”, which she sometimes alternates with “Inai inai eta!” or “I’m not a dirty person!”.
Cordo has an effective and ruthlessness personality that’s offset by her comedic appearance. She has little tolerance for failure despite putting up with the Clean Aku trio, and greatly commends success to employees that do their jobs well and encourages them to keep up the good work. For most of the series, the only people she respects are Tamashiro and Min-Min, although the latter’s hi-jinks throw even Con Cordo for a loop.
Whenever she’s about to inform the Clean Aku trio of Time Lease activity, she usually sends a signal through Mun-Mun’s ring to summon them. While most of these meetings are held in a secret computer room in Mun-Mun’s office, she’s capable of contacting them wherever they are through just about any device.
To spite and motivate the Clean Aku trio, she’ll sometimes bring up Tamashiro to check on his progress as a reminder of how pathetic they are. On many occasions she’ll get into arguments with Kosuinen over his treatment as the director of his branch, although sometimes Cordo will work out a deal with him in his favor (but not necessary that of Mun-Mun and Kyokanchin’s).
(Spoilers for Ippatsuman below, read at your own peril)
It’s revealed at the end of the series that “Con Cordo” and “Min-Min” were both aliases and one and the same, and her true form is that of an alien seeking control of the entire universe. Believing that humanity was too self-destructive and greedy to be allowed to explore the galaxy, she planned to get the Psychic Robot data from the Time Lease and enslave Earth first.
The Skull Lease was set up around eight years prior to achieve this goal, with the Northern Ostendai Branch and her disguise as Min-Min to monitor the Time Lease, and reviving Tamashiro as a cyborg to steal information and directly attack Ippatsuman.
Her trump card was Time Lease manager Haruka, who was under Con Cordo’s control all along ever since an encounter between the two eight years ago. With the Skull Lease dissolved due to bankruptcy and Tamashiro disposed of due to recent countless failures, Haruka still manages to obtain the complete Psychic Robot data and set Con Cordo’s final plan in motion.
Con Cordo lures the Time Lease crew and the Clean Aku trio to her hideout, a misty area full of jagged peaks, and reveals her true nature and plans to them. Shen then proceeds to have Haruka, wearing a Psychic Robot suit, to do away with Ippatsuman and eventually everyone else, using a staff frequently during the battle to both enhance Haruka’s power and keep her under Cordo’s control.
After Haruka breaks free from control with help from Ran, Cordo attempts to bring her back only for Haruka to lose her powers and suit. Con Cordo then attempts to flee in her UFO only for Ippatsuman to take control of his Sankan-Oh and destroy it, doing away with the alien once and for all.
This marks a rare death in the entirety of the Time Bokan series, and unlike other characters who are presumed dead she and her alter-ego Min-Min do not appear or are even mentioned in spin-offs at all.
While the Clean Aku trio are the most well known and hard working, the staff of the Skull Lease Northern Ostendel Branch consists of an additional eight employees that answer to them. Or rather, they goof off most of the time when their superiors aren’t looking.
Instead of getting any business sorted out, they are more interested in gossip and their own hobbies. Initially their bosses, the Clean Aku trio, try to get them into shape, but it gets to the point where they stop caring about their lazy nature. Apart from the first three mentioned (Chinami, Piiko, and Seko), the employees go by nicknames.
Chinami is a tall lanky man that’s rather talkative and known for starting most of his conversations by saying “chinamini” (meaning “by the way” or “incidentally”).
Piiko is a young woman that’s (barely) the least likely to slack off and the most social. Kosuinen is smitten with her and is obsessed over her panties, something she does not tolerate.
Seko is a portly woman who has a crush on Kosuinen, much to his chagrin. She spends most of her time talking with Piiko and Chinami, and she and the latter get married in the 40th episode.
Jukunen-san is a brash man who spends his time betting on horse races and lashing out when he disagrees with something. Because of this, he doesn’t chatter with the others as much.
OL-san is a woman who is always busy putting on makeup rather than doing any actual work.
Yangu is a perverted yet meek man, who apart from the Clean Aku trio themselves seems to have the worst of luck.
Madogiwa-san is an aloof old man who’s often seen talking to….
Otoshima-san, an elderly woman with a constant gloomy expression.
The guard at the front gate is a skeletal robot, one of several in service to the entire Skull Lease. He interacts with the other staff members from time to time, even going on strike with them once, and therefore I figured that he merits a mention here.
Kyokanchin, sometimes nicknamed Kyokan, is the chief manager of the Skull Lease Northern Ostendel Branch and the enforcer of the Clean Aku trio. He returns to a more traditional design after Sukando’s radical look but he still diverges from the usual archetype in many ways with two buck teeth and beady eyes.
In contrast to his predecessors Kyokanchin mostly speaks in a polite and informal tone, although he can suddenly become quite commanding to his workers while acting like a mindless servant to his superiors. This appears to be the byproduct of his time in the military, and it’s bad enough that if he was given control of the entire Skull Lease he would run it like the Third Reich. He also lives in the same complex Kosuinen does, though he doesn’t appear to worry about rushing to work on time.
Kyokanchin is on friendly terms with both Mun-Mun and Kosuinen and often tries to keep them from quarreling with one another. However he’ll side with one if the other’s not around, and if he had the chance he’d rather be a wrestler than a manager. Kyokan’s outbursts tend to disturb his higher ups whenever they occur, mostly on account of being so sudden. His superiors are not above messing with him, as they sabotage Kyokan when Mun-Mun’s rival Tamashiro had him trying to secure a client for the Western Ostendel Skull Lease.
He also harbors a crush on Min-Min, which briefly escalated during the 29th episode when she called him cute and winked at him. Kyokanchin then has a fantasy they’re married and he’s the president of the Northen Ostendel Skull Lease bossing around his superiors. However, Min-Min didn’t mean anything by it and breaks Kyokan’s heart while Kosuinen rubs it in his face.
After begrudgingly accepting a nikuman bun as his final payout and the following chaos regarding Con Cordo and the Skull Lease, Kyokanchin parts ways with his superiors/friends and boards a train to find a better life. What he doesn’t know is that his superiors are also on the same train on the same path.
Alan Sukando (Due Ottobre in Italy) is a member of Princess Milenjo’s gang, effectively serving as her bodyguard. As with many of the characters in Yattodetaman, he presents an interesting departure from past characters.
While fulfilling the role of a bad muscleman, Sukando is quite different in several ways compared to his other counterparts. He is tall with a huge build, sporting beedy eyes and an overbite with gaps in his teeth. Sukando also doesn’t talk too much and when he does he’ll sometimes pepper English phrases into his dialogue.
Unlike prior Time Bokan musclemen who were cowardly and easily brushed aside he’s actually quite intimidating and tends to be the biggest threat of Milenjo’s gang short of a mecha. It’s usually encounters with him that prompt Wataru to transform into Yattodetaman, whom Sukando can never defeat.
Sukando is also the focus of a reoccurring joke known as “Sukando’s Eccentric Oddball Corner” where Kokematsu demonstrates Sukando’s unorthodox abilities against a mustached man. Such feats, some of which occasionally factors into the plot, include drinking an entire pond to catch fish or making a headband out of his ears.
Operation Time Bokan 