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.
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.
Junko (aka Selena in the Spanish dub or Starr in Time Fighters) is the main heroine of the original Time Bokan and the granddaughter of Dr. Kieta. Sporting a pink helmet and jumpsuit with bell-bottoms and a vest decorated with hearts, this ten year old girl endures many dangers throughout time to find her missing grandfather.
Junko is gentle, kind and compassionate, and she’s better at reasoning with others and figuring out problems than Tanpei, who tends to rush into things. Junko’s innocent nature alone was able to make a Gaikottsu seal/walrus mecha, fitted with an AI to better react to commands and it’s surroundings, opt to destroy itself rather than hurt her in any fashion. Despite her more calm and reasoning personality, she can get as easily startled by something as much as Tanpei does, possibly even more so.
She takes Dr. Kieta’s absence for the first half of the show more personally than the others, and although side material suggests that Junko does have other family members besides him, he’s the only one that deeply cares for her enough that she briefly expresses concern over losing him again once they find him.
Junko also has a crush on Tanpei, who more or less feels the same about her, and she was the only crew member Parrosuke barely got along with at the beginning of the series.
Compared to later heroines in the series, she hardly engages in any action role, and most her time in a Time Bokan mecha is infamously spent screaming whenever it gets hit. That said, she will pilot and fight in one of the Time Bokan mechas if need be and she even had to save Tanpei on a few occasions where he got captured.
Regardless, Junko and her role in the original Time Bokan would set things in motion for future female protagonists in the series such as Ai-Chan, many of whom would take up more direct fighting in order to preserve peace and justice.
Chorobo (alternatively C-Robot or Chorobot, Tonk in Time Fighters) is a clockwork robot with an insect motif that serves as a sidekick to Tanpei and Junko in the original Time Bokan. Initially conceptualized as a little boy akin to Kurio / Spritle from Mach GoGoGo / Speed Racer, he was redesigned as a robot to match the themes of the show and to serve as a marketable character. Traces of his original role are still evident in his personality and being the “caretaker” of the parrot Parrosuke.
Created by Tanpei, Chorobo resembles a a big windup toy with legs that let him dash across the ground instead of running, a drill-like nose, and antennae that blink when he talks, though he does have a mouth. Personality-wise he is quite cheeky and childish and he can either be insightful or insensitive depending on the situation because of it.
In the first half of the show Chorobo was usually the one actively looking for leads for the era Dr. Kieta was stranded in, and he’d find and deal with any eavesdropping attempts by Marjo’s gang, often by accident. He has a strong dislike for Parrosuke, constantly berating the parrot for getting the crew into trouble and wasting their time. They do get along more as the series progressed, but his dislike of the parrot does linger on somewhat.
When put into action he’s capable of stretching any part of his body, conducting electricity through his body, and shooting out flames from his nose. In addition, he’ll sometimes pilot one of the Time Bokans’ sub-mechas and has been the one to foil Marjo’s gang on a few occasions. After a given period of time Chorobo will power down and rendered immobile yet still active, and needs to be wound up with the key on his back in order to move again.
While Chorobo was mostly a tagalong to Tanpei and Junko for the majority of the series, Episode 30, “Take Care, Little Red Riding Hood! Pecha!”, was an episode largely dedicated to him.
As the episode begins Chorobo greets the morning and even exercises for a bit before deciding to see what Tanpei, Junko, and Dr. Kieta are up to. He overhears the crew talk about something being defective and needed to be junked and comes to the conclusion that it’s him.
Upset and furious he runs away in the Time Dotabattan to the past. The crew was actually talking about Dr. Kieta’s computer, and after Parrosuke alerts them to Chorobo’s actions they hop in the Time Mechabuton to find him before he gets into trouble. Having put tracking devices on both Time Bokan machines Marjo’s gang take notice and proceed to follow them.
However, Chorobo has no experience controlling the Time Dotabattan and he crashes into a flowery field. Shortly afterwards Chorobo meets and befriends Little Red Riding Hood, and helps guide her to her grandmother’s house.
When he heads back to find more flowers for her, Tanpei and Junko show up (while Dr. Kieta was repairing the Time Dotabattan) and he starts to panic. After a short-lived chase that ends with Chorobo unable to move due to being wound out, they’re able to explain the misunderstanding and everybody has a good laugh about it.
During those events Little Red Riding Hood encounters Marjo’s gang (disguised as wolves and with Marjo posing as her grandmother too, obviously) and is tricked into revealing the location of a sparkling lake, which supposedly contains Dynamonds. Upon noticing wolf tracks leading to the grandmother’s house Chorobo urges Tanpei and Junko to follow him and help his new friend. Both Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother are safe, but Marjo’s gang has already left for the lake.
Anticipating the Time Bokan crew to follow them the trio use the Gaikottsu Tapier’s ray to make the crew imagine monsters and fighting the nonexistant creatures. Chorobo is unaffected since he’s a robot, but he’s unable to stop them from crashing the Time Mechabuton into boulders, nearly attacking Dr. Kieta, and falling to the bottom of the lake.
When the crew come to Chorobo informs them about the ray and they quickly retaliate when Marjo’s gang drops a bomb into the lake. They’re able to bend the Gaikottsu Taiper’s nose and turn the ray against Marjo’s gang, resulting in them seeing their bomb as a Dynamond and picking it up, exploding shortly afterwards.
Despite the trouble he inadvertently caused, they all thank Chorobo for saving their lives and helping them stop Marjo’s gang.
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.
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.
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.
Marjo (also spelt as Majo or Majyo, Lady Margot in Italy, Ratavari in South America, Lucinda Skullduggery in the Time Fighters dub) is the head of a gang composing of herself, Grocky, and Walsa, and she is the main antagonist of the original Time Bokan series. Her name is play on the Japanese word for witch, “majo”, and it also reflects her personality.
A 30 year old woman living in an luxurious mansion, Marjo is obsessed with obtaining Dynamonds for wealth and power, absolutely nothing else will suffice. She planted Grocky with Dr. Kieta and his crew with the intent of using the Time Mechabuton to find the elusive gems. Marjo is not satisfied with the one Grocky obtains from Parrosuke, the parrot that took off in the time machine during Dr. Kieta’s test run of it, so she and her goons attempt to hijack the Time Mechabuton and Parrosuke away from Tanpei, Junko, and Chorobo to no avail.
Shortly afterwards, Marjo and her minions travel around their own time machine, the Gaikottsu, to find the Dynamonds before the Time Bokan crew and possibly eliminate them as well. When traveling around in the Gaikottsu she tends to lounge around in the sofa-like backseat, though she’s usually standing in-between Grocky and Walsa during a battle with one of the Time Bokan mechas.
Although she is quite attractive, her beauty masks a cruel, spoiled, self-absorbed witch. (I know, I know.) Marjo cares for nobody but herself, and relies on theft, deceit, and if given the chance, even murder on her quest for the Dynamonds. She’s also extremely impatient and will get hasty in tense situations, more often than not condemning her gang to failure.
Although she’ll congratulate Grocky and Walsa on a job well done, she thinks lowly of her henchmen and becomes very aggressive towards them when they screw up or things aren’t going her way, even when they try to be supportive of her. She also greatly despises the group that pilot the Time Bokan mechas, especially Tanpei since he tends to directly interfere with her plans.
Marjo can be very manipulative, and she uses her charms to either deceive people and turn them against the Time Bokan crew or gain the favor of a villain or a higher up in a era. These tactics tend to be short lived, as her “allies” either don’t have Dynamonds or were shown the truth by the Time Bokan crew.
In the final episode, Marjo is overjoyed when she finally finds the Dynamonds (all this time in a park in the present) and attempts to take off with as many as possible, much to the protest of Tanpei and crew. But when the Dynamonds begin to turn to stone, she suffers a breakdown and begins to throw an epic tantrum. Absolutely furious, Marjo challenges Tanpei to one final showdown between the Time Dotabattan and the Gaikottsu.
Although the battle is in favor of Marjo’s gang, they lose anyways purely out of dumb luck. Driven insane by these turn of events, she’s last seen prancing around in a childlike state of glee over the “Dynamonds” in the night sky. (Though if one takes Royal Revival, Bokan GoGoGo!, or Kaitou Kiramekiman as followups, she becomes relatively sane again.)
The Time Mechabuton (better known as Time Bokan I or simply just the Time Bokan, Scorpion-2
in Time Fighters) is the primary mecha of the original series, created
by Dr. Kieta and his assistants. Although it’s primary focus is time
traveling, it’s also capable of flight and it does have some combat
capabilities should the crew encounter a threat.
Upon completion,
Dr. Kieta took it for a test run by himself, which resulted in
Parrosuke traveling back in it without the doctor and thus setting off
the plot of the show.
The
Time Mechabuton’s based off a species of rhinoceros beetle native to
Japan, in fact it’s name is a combination of the words “mecha” and
Japanese word for beetle, kabutomushi. And for the “Bokan” in Time
Bokan, it can be an Japanese onomatopoeia for an explosion (ボカン), and it
can also be the word for carrier (usually spelt as ぼかん)
The
biggest quirk about the Time Mechabuton (and the other time machines in
this show) is that it time travels by exploding, opening up a hole in
time and space for it to travel through. Initially traveling can make
the passengers onboard disoriented, tossed around inside the cockpit,
and even lose consciousness for a period of time, although this issue
was seemingly ironed out by the 20th episode.
It and the later Time Bokan mechas all carry two smaller mechas that
can perform functions that it cannot, and they are often used to turn
the tide in a battle against Marjo’s gang. Although they also can also
carry two people, most of the time only Tanpei is in one.
The Tentouki
(combination of the Japanese words for ladybug, tentoumushi and time,
toki, essentially Time Ladybug) is stored on top of the Mechabuton.
Normally a flying aircraft, it has an extension that gives it wheels to
drive on land and can also deploy two arms that contain various gadgets
and weapons.
Because
of it’s multipurpose use it’s often used to handle several situations
such as fights with the evil trio’s Gaikottsu mechas, even without
leaving the Time Mechabuton. Interestingly, it’s depicted in the intro
to have the ability to time travel on it’s own, although this is not
actually shown in the show itself.
The Yago-Marine (basically Dragonfly Larva Submarine, may also be a pun based off the real life carrier ship Algomarine) is kept within the Mechabuton and is deployed from the bottom. As suggested it’s primarily a water based mecha, although it’s shown to be capable of flight. It was used rather sparingly compared to the Tentouki, possibly because it has more or less the same features.
While
not as popular as the later Yatter-Wan, the Time Mechabuton is still
quite iconic to the series as a whole and tends to make cameos across
subsequent series, as a callback to the original show and/or tying into
an episode’s insect motif.
Operation Time Bokan 