Dowalski Yotanov is the stocky 32 year old brute of the Ojamaman seeking to be renowned for his strength like the legendary Hercules. Still a slow, short, and stocky man that controls the movements of the mechas, he benefits from a bit more backstory than usual.
His mother Warunya was a famous wrestler who excelled at every measure of strength and wanted her son to follow in her footsteps, so she subjected poor Dowalski to a brutal training regime since birth. He wasn’t able to get far though and was later stuck on Atasha’s under-performing team on the Time Patrol.
Dowalski’s actual activities when not acting as a Ojamaman consists of mostly eating with a bit of sleeping and only a small amount of exercise. He does appear to be the weakest of the muscle archetypes as he’s often crushed by even the simplest of objects. He’s also nearly as girl-obsessed as Sekovitch and infatuated with Atasha, though he doesn’t make any advances on her.
Due to being under his mother’s shadow, Dowalski has a deep feeling of insecurity and feels pressured to prove himself. Two episodes specifically show him pushing himself more than usual and nearly cracking due to not wanting to be a failure in his mother’s eyes.
Not helping matters is that both times he was singled out for punishment at the end. (mopping in the dark by his lonesome while the rest of his team ate the first time, and being smacked down by his own mama the second)
Donjuro Naniwaya provides the strength and manpower of the Akudaman trio following Walsa and Tonzura. After their relatively low-key performances, Donjuro is the first muscle to get a significant show of character. An alter-ego, Donno Juroshi, co-spectates the matches between the Zenderman and Akudaman during the second half of the series.
As with Walsa and Tonzura, Donjuro is a simple-minded brute that’s supposed to be very tough, and he’s only slightly better in that respect. Distinct to Donjuro is his habit of performing kabuki gestures, which reflects his desire to become a famous kabuki actor once more. He harbors deep feelings for his boss Muujo, although for more personal reasons than Toboke.
The 32nd episode of Zenderman sheds some light on Donjuro’s past. Early in his life, Donjuro had a career as a wrestler and then attempted to become a Kabuki actor, only for it to end in failure. During this period he was found by Muujo, and has been part of the Akudaman for four years since (three of those years possibly spent as the Gaikottsu and Dorombo gangs, but that’s a can of worms for another post)
In the same episode Donjuro finds himself abandoned in favor of the warrior monk Benkei to take on a group of mobsters speculated to have the Elixir of Life. However the mobsters, in addition to the Zenderman and Yoshitsune, send the Akudaman running and it’s up to Donjuro to save them.
However his bad luck continues as not only do the Akudaman lose again, he’s singled out by the Judgement Machine and subjected to a “debut performance” of falling from a huge height. That said, he was only punished ten times throughout the series, the least of any Akudaman member.
Tonzura Sutakora (alternatively spelt as Tonzra or Tonzler) is the 30 year old brawn of the Dorombo gang. Formally a professional wrestler, Tonzura’s ambition is get back in the ring once more with the supposed fortune the Dokuro Stone is said to bring.
Like Walsa before him Tonzura speaks with a Kansai dialect, adding to his thuggish nature. He also follows Doronjo and Boyacky’s orders without hesitation. That said he does regard them as good friends and even calls the latter “Boyayan”. He’s also fond of eating large quantities of food, although this aspect of his personality is fairly low key in the original show.
Tonzura does relatively little in comparison to Doronjo and Boyacky, although he controls the basic functions of the mechas and is rather helpful with a couple of scams, even headlining some of them. Despite Tonzura’s supposed strength, he usually attacks the Yatterman with weapons and gadgets and usually gets defeated without much hassle. In the few times where he does use his brute strength he’s still on the losing side.
He does get some prominence in Yatterman’s 30th episode “The Island of King Mong, Koron!“. Due to stomach problems during a con, Tonzura coincidentally leaves as Dokurobei appears to inform the Dorombo gang about a possible Dokuro Stone fragment belonging to the giant King Mong.
This leads to Doronjo and Boyacky, ignoring that Tonzura was there with them every single other time, believing that he is Dokurobei and treating him like a king. Tonzura takes advantage of this and bosses his friends around throughout the episode, but after the Dorombo gang lose again Dokurobei exposes him and singles him out for a stoning punishment.
In the years following the disbanding of the Dorombo gang, Tonzura did become a wrestling manager and head of the “WHH” organization. Although he claims to still be a bachelor at this point, in Heisei Time Bokan he contradicts himself by stating he had a fully grown daughter.
Starting with a race against the other Time Bokan villains, Tonzura has reunited several times with Doronjo and Boyacky for several wacky endeavors. The Dorombo gang still don’t catch a break, but Tonzura can’t resist the chance to have fun with the crew again.
Walsa (Walther or Warusa, Birba in Italy, or as the dub called him Mungo) provides the raw strength as part of Marjo’s gang in the original Time Bokan. Taking great pride in his strength the scowling 35 year old brute serves as a bodyguard for Marjo. There’s conflicting information regarding the origin of his name, either being based off the Japanese word for “evil behavior”, “warusa” or the name of the “Walther” firearms.
When the trio are out searching for the Dynamonds Walsa’s usually called upon to deal with someone that threatens the gang, although how well he does varies on his opponent. He’s also afraid of snakes and supernatural entities and he’ll often run away before Marjo and Grocky do.
Ironically, despite being the dumbest member of the gang he’s also the most observant, often quick to notice the Time Bokan crew or small details the other two would overlook. Walsa also serves as the co-pilot for the Gaikottsu, controlling it’s movement while Grocky handles the gadgets and weapons.
He seldom thinks for himself and most of the time he’s on the beck and call of either Marjo or Grocky. He shows the utmost respect for Marjo and appears to be pals with Grocky, although Walsa’s not above ridiculing him at any given moment.
He really didn’t contribute much to the overall plot compared to the rest of the gang, the most I can say is that he continued to follow Marjo to the bitter end of the series and subsequent spin-offs. But he started the series tradition of a minuscule muscular moron that Tonzura and others would later follow.
Atasha Hysterina is the 33 year old head of the Ojamaman, the Time Patrol team that attempts to change history. Her dream is to be the world’s most beautiful woman renowned in the same vain as Cleopatra. It’s with this villainess that the more sympathetic traits are really played up going forward.
While at a spaceport with her mother at a young age she played on a baggage carousel and accidentally wound up onboard the Time Patrol station. Unable to find her mother and return her home, they adopted and raised her as a member of the crew. In spite of this Atasha was something of an underachiever and was paired up with the bumbling Sekovitch and Dowalski.
Because of this she strongly feels a sense of loneliness in her life, despite the efforts of the entire Time Patrol crew to try and cheer her up. In addition to this Atasha’s also very insecure about her body and age. Sekovitch’s remarks don’t help in the slightest, while Gekigauski is somewhat oblivious in his unintentionally insensitive remarks. Atasha still retains the usual tropes her predecessors has though, being vain, reckless, and blowing a fuse quite often.
She is the one responsible for the costumes they wear as the Ojamaman, and often refers to the rest of the team by short nicknames like “Seko”, “Dowal”, and “Gekiga”. She also constantly flaunts a pendant of the one she claims to love the most which draws the curiosity of her teammates.
In episode 34, Atasha’s Tearful Reunion Between Mother and Child, two women named Gutasha and Yotasha appear before Atasha, both claiming to be her mother. This issue is put on hold while the Time Patrol are sent to the Edo period to intervene in a similar event where two women are fighting over which one’s the mother of a little girl.
Once that’s over with, it’s discovered that Yotasha led the Time Patrol on and Atasha finally reunites with her mother Gutasha, who’s shown to have the same temper as her daughter.
(minor spoilers for the last episode are ahead. Don’t look or something…)
In the final episode, it’s revealed that the person in the pendant is Atasha herself, showing a bit of vanity but also a bit of tragedy as it was her means of self-motivation and the only thing she could hold onto after her dreams of becoming renowned were crushed.
Dogurin (also known as DokiDoki Dogurin) is a mysterious being that guides and sponsors the Flower Detective Trio in Kaitou Kiramekiman. Appearing as a clay dogu riding a unicycle, he monitors the trio’s efforts to capture the Kiramekiman and prevent them from finding the Gold Eye.
Though this isn’t revealed until later on, Dogurin first appeared to the trio at a snowy outpost on the northern part of the world. He told them that if they went straight to Orgon City and captured the Kiramekikman their fortune would turn around and they would become globally famous heroes. Thus he set them on the path to becoming the Flower Detective Trio and antagonizing the Kiramekiman.
Dogurin is very similar to Yatterman’s Dokurobei in nearly every manner. They have the same deep, menacing voice, a verbal tic (dongu in this case), and a mysterious identity. He has eyes which switch from normal to glowing green, and when flustered he emits steam from his mouth. In spite of being an non-organic object Dogurin is capable of eating and drinking, even getting drunk once!
Dogurin can contact them at any given time at any given area or through the component of the Wonder-Bull usually reserved for gag robots and check on thier progress. If he’s angry with them he’ll drop a bomb on them, though he’ll never punish them for failure. Once he’s done chatting he vanishes into thin air, often by spinning in circles.
(Spoilers for Kaitou Kiramekiman below)
In the penultimate episode, Dogurin is quick to congratulate the Flower Detective Trio for finally capturing the Kiramekiman, and oddly singles out Hieru (the brains of the group) as the one responsible. The celebration is short lived due to the heroes escaping, and Doguin is extra determined Hieru gets them. Why?
His real identity is Dokku Ringo (spelt Doku Ringo onscreen in one instance, the name itself being Japanese for Poison Apple). He is a very childish and cocky master criminal from 500 years into future who stole an item crucial to Dr. Liquid’s well being and hid it in the Gold Eye, risking the world as well. He then sent the item back into the past, instigating the entire motion of events.
Despite being an infamous thief he wanted to be the leader of the International Police Force. To that end he discovered he was the descendant of Hieru (and apparently the other lanky geniuses of the Time Bokan series, though that’s debatable) and had been masquerading as Dogurin to make the Flower Detective Trio great heroes. Dokku Ringu specifically tried to give the Gold Eye to Hieru, but his ancestor effectively buried it within the police station and dragged this out longer than it needed to be.
The buffoonery of the trio only made things worse, and his attempt to help them in the final battle simply results in their two mechas crashing into each other and exploding. With the Flower Detective Trio fired and Dokku Ringo stuck in the past, he opts to have them become a group of notorious thieves on the run from the now future police force Kiramekiman.
2-3 (pronounced as the English “two three”) is a robot that works for the Time Lease and the companion of Gou, Ran, and Harubow. He pilots the Tokkyu-Saurus (and later the Tokkyu-Mammoth) and notifies Ran and Harubow of what they have to do when they get to their destination.
Partially inspired by C-3PO in regards to design, 2-3’s chest has a built in tape-deck that allows him to sing the Tokkyu-Saurus theme (along with any other Time Bokan songs performed by his VA Masayuki Yanamoto) He has a bad tendency to run his mouth off sometimes, and has a hard time keeping his personal feelings or someone’s secrets private because of it.
While 2-3’s role was small to begin with, it actually diminishes somewhat in the second half of the series. Ran and Harubow get more plot importance and get to man the turrets of the Sankan-Oh, all 2-3 gets to do is drive the dinky Relief-Car which hardly factors into any given situation.
He did get one episode in the spotlight, “2-3 is a Spy”. Trying to find a ball lost during a game in the park, 2-3 encounters a robot named Piroko and is immediately smitten by her.
This robot is actually part of a trap made by Kosuinen (a rather obvious one, most of her lines are “My name’s Piroko, I really like you!”) who proceeds to trap 2-3 in a van and render him unconscious.
Clean Aku trio to perform “surgery” on him by opening 2-3’s faceplate and inserting a spy cassette into his head, allowing them to spy on the Time Lease’s every move without anyone being aware of it.
When the Time Lease crew later try to escape an ambush set up by the trio, Kosuinen triggers the “main event” by having the tape rewire 2-3’s programming to drive the Tokkyu-Mammoth off a cliff, attempting to take Ran, Harubow, and himself with it.
Gou / Ippatsuman shows up just in time to stop the mecha, but 2-3 leaps out and tries to kill him. Ippatsuman’s psychic powers enable him to spot the tape and eject it from 2-3, briefly incapacitating the robot. He later returns back to normal after the Clean Aku trio are defeated, albeit oblivious to what had transpired.
2-3 shows up in the first Royal Revival OVA as one of the commentators for the race between the various trios. He’s the only one not (intentionally) affiliated with the villains of his series, and he begrudgingly supported the Clean Aku trio.
Since he appears several times throughout the Time Bokan series with different goals each time, I’ll be covering his bio bit by bit, starting with the original 1977 Yatterman.
The self proclaimed god of thieves, Dokurobei (alternatively spelled as Dokurobey or Dokurobee) is the enigmatic man who leads the Dorombo gang on a hunt for fragments of the Dokuro Stone (or Skull Stone if you prefer). Claiming the stone to be a family heirloom that contained a map to a huge gold deposit, he promises to share half the fortune with the trio if they can find the fragments for him.
Dokurobei possesses a deep and intimidating voice and for the majority of the show his true appearance is shrouded in mystery. He is very self-centered and egotistical, and is prone to getting angry at any sign of trouble or disobedience from the Dorombo trio. He also has a crush on Doronjo, something she’ll occasionally try to exploit to get him to reveal to his face to no avail. The Dorombo gang, Boyacky especially, have a habit of calling him “Doku-chan” or some variation much to his annoyance.
He tends to add “Beh” at the end of most of his sentences, much like how his name is simply the Japanese word for skull, “dokuro” with “bei” added at the end. He also tends to shout “Akapontan” at the Dorombo trio, a combination of the Japanese words “anpontan” and “sukatan” which equates to “idiot”, “nitwit”, and the like.
Dokurobei delivers his messages to the Dorombo gang in the form of robots or devices disguised at food, animals, or such, usually in relation with whatever scam the gang was pulling. He informs them about where a Dokuro Stone fragment is possibly located and supposed facts about the area and the fragment is there. This information tends to be faulty at best, which he later acknowledges but unfortunately cannot do much about.
After he’s done explaining, whatever he used to relay his message explodes. At first these were harmless, but it wasn’t long before they blew up the Dorombo gang. Later on in the series the trio would try to avoid getting caught in the explosions with varying degrees of success.
Every time the Dorombo gang failed, Dokurobei would give them a punishment “worse than their mama”. His excuses were them not finding a Dokuro Stone fragment or losing to the Yatterman, despite his misinformation being partially to blame. Even when they actually got a fragment, he still punishes them anyways seemingly out of habit. He signaled the punishments with a music cue, usually the opening notes of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5
Dokurobei can be seen as a parody of Gatchaman’s Sosai X (Leader X). Both are unseen forces that have others do their bidding, and it’s through their advice that their subordinates act on and wind up taking the blame for when they lose.
(Spoilers for a 30+ anime ahead)
Eventually the Dorombo gang encountered Dokurobei with the completed Dokuro Stone in an abandoned castle. He looks like a short, portly man with glasses and a long handlebar mustache, balding with tuffs of hair on the sides and a little skull on his forehead. He also wears a purple shirt and skirt, dark purple gloves, boots, and cape, and either tan coloured pants or no pants on at all.
However even his “human” form was yet another robot decoy, and his true appearance was none other than the Dokuro Stone itself.
“Dokurobei” was an alien from the Dokuro planet, renamed Planet XYZ in subsequent media, who had visited the Earth when it nothing more that a ball of magma. The extreme heat split his body into four pieces, and he has spent eons trying to put himself back together.
When nobody would aid him, he made up the story of the Dokuro Stone to sucker somebody into retrieving pieces of his body, and that turned out to be the Dorombo gang. Back in one piece, Dokurobei went back to his planet and left the trio with nothing but broken promises, causing them to disband shortly afterwards.
This too parodies Sosai X. Both were aliens that were stranded on Earth that turned out to have different goals in mind and left when they were seemingly completed, although Sosai X’s were far more cruel and malicious in nature. (ie. blowing up Earth.)
Although Dokurobei’s intentions were innocent enough, his way of going about it and his treatment of others was harsh, and every subsequent appearance made him more villainous than before.
Zender-Lion is the primary mecha of the Zenderman used to travel accross the Time Tunnel and often fight against the Akudaman trio. Compared to the Yatter-Mechas in the previous show, he’s a bit more prominent and err… sings a lot, for lack of a better word.
Zender-Lion almost always talks in a singsongish tone similar to an enka singer and takes great pride in his vocal talents. So much in fact, while going through the Time Tunnel he likes to perform karaoke and sing along to his self-titled theme song. Many times he has had guests (either fans or family of the staff) sing along to his theme song, one instance had Tetsu and Sakura sing the original Time Bokan theme.
Zender-Lion can use his mane to unleash a powerful Lion Beam that can quickly heat up anything in it’s path, and he’s capable of breathing fire or shooting ripples of energy out of his mouth. Of course he also weaponizes his singing as well, since it’s loud enough to destroy solid objects entirely.
Regardless the Akudaman trio are always able to overwhelm him, especially by turning his own singing against him. As a result, a support Zender-Mecha is dispatched to save his sorry hide and Tetsu has to use a “Whip of Love” to snap him back to his senses.
Right afterwards, Zender-Lion deploys a “system mecha”, bit and bobs of pieces remotely controlled and assembled by Amattan that form together into an object that destroys the Sharekobe Mecha. These range from pipes to bamboo to Legos and even Space Invaders!
From episode 36 onwards Zender-Lion was put on the sidelines in favor of Zender-Gorilla and his support crew. He still escorted everybody through the Time Tunnel, and he got a new but not as catchy theme song which was quickly dropped towards the end in favor of his original theme.
Parrosuke (or Perasuke, simply Cotorrin in South America, Squawky in Time Fighters) is a talkative green parrot in the original Time Bokan whose actions unwittingly kick off the plot of the series. He doubles as the announcer for the title of each episode and the preview of the next one as well.
He comes from an jungle dating back to an mysterious time period, where he was often at the mercy of his wife Otake-san, a vain parrot who effectively criticized him at every given moment.
One day he and his were fighting as usual when the Time Mechabuton appeared and Dr. Kieta popped out of it to explore. While the doctor was examining a pile of Dynamonds, Parrosuke decided to enter the time machine to hide from his wife, unwittingly activating it and sending him forward in time while leaving Dr. Kieta behind.
Parrosuke arrived at the doctor’s laboratory in the present where his assistants, Tanpei, Junko, Chorobo, and Grocky were quick to question him. While most of them are curious as to what happened to Dr. Kieta, Grocky, actually a member of Marjo’s nefarious gang, is more interested in the Dynamond the parrot is wearing and swipes it from him.
With Parrosuke being the only lead to Dr. Kieta and the Dynamonds, both the Time Bokan crew and Marjo’s gang follow his questionable information to find the time period he came from to find the doctor and the gems.
He’s initially a selfish, cowardly parrot, wanting nothing more than to lay about and avoid going back to his wife and could care less about others. Parrosuke’s other defining trait is his huge appetite, his favorite food being cream puffs. He constantly ends his lengthy sentences with “pecha” which is taken from the Japanese word “pecha kucha”, or “chitchat”.
He and Chorobo have a strong dislike of each other, not helped by having Chorobo supervise him, and despite treating him better he’d get on the nerves of Tanpei and Junko, especially if he purposely tricked them.
Parrosuke would often send the Time Bokan crew on wild goose chases throughout time, either out of foggy memory, wanting to go sightseeing, or just straight out wanting to abandon them. His unreliability would land the Time Bokan crew in rather nasty situations and he’d sometimes switch sides if tempted, joining Marjo’s gang despite knowing better.
However, by the time Dr. Kieta is rescued and returned to the present Parrosuke does wish to reunite with his wife and considerably improves his behavior afterwards. Although he genuinely can’t remember where he came from, he alerts the Time Bokan crew on Marjo’s activities and even helps out whenever possible.
It isn’t until the final episode where Parrosuke finally reunites with Otake-san in his time period, which turned out to be the present at a park. Towards the end it’s shown that they’re arguing once more, although the experience truly has changed their lives for the better and that they sincerely loved one another.
Parrosuke also appears in Arashi’s animated “Believe” video alongside band member Ohno Satoshi, mainly to tie him to the original Time Bokan’s Tanpei since he didn’t have a signature weapon. Here he squawks like a normal parrot as opposed to a talking one, and alerts Ohno to the drones deployed by the Dorombo gang.
Operation Time Bokan 