Late Night! Genius Bakabon

**Late Night! Genius Bakabon** (深夜！天才バカボン *Shinya! Tensai Bakabon*) is a 2018 anime adaptation of Fujio Akatsuka's The Genius Bakabon. It was produced by Studio Pierrot+.

## Overview

Done as a tenth-anniversary remembrance of Fujio Akatsuka's death and as a belated project for *Bakabon*'s 50th anniversary, this anime updates the setting to 2018 while keeping certain elements (Papa's lack of job, Bakabon's kimono, etc.) the same. With the anime now being in a late-night time-slot, there is more free reign for crude humor as it was felt that a "sharp edged" *Bakabon* work wouldn't mesh well with the usual prime-time or day slots.

However, it also marks a stark departure from previous adaptations in that rather than adapting any of the manga's source material, it opts to do its own new, mostly meta-humor skits relating to Japanese society and pop culture and how out of place some characters and their behavior may be. Takayoshi Minematsu of Fujio Pro served as one of the producers, seemingly being one responsible for why many guest characters recycled designs from the *Bakabon* manga or otherwise had the "Akatsuka touch".

Since Pierrot's offshoot Pierrot+ handled the series and it was decided on a low budget, the animation is often limited and is produced in Flash, though experimental maneuvers are also employed through some episodes. Much as the first episode of *Osomatsu-san* had a parody of the original Childrens' Corner/Studio Zero animation for Osomatsu-kun, the first episode of this series contains a Flash reconstruction of the Heisei Genius Bakabon character designs and animation.

As Eiko Masuyama was now in her 80s and had retired from regular anime roles, this anime (as well as the *Reviving the Dog of Flanders* film years before) broke the pattern of her being cast as Mama, using Noriko Hidaka in the role. As with the last few adaptations, the rest of the family were cast fresh. This version also marked another departure in not retaining Shigeru Chiba in his roles of Rerere and the officer, instead preferring to also cast them anew.

### Controversy

The kick-off of the anime was not been a smooth one, however, due to the director-screenwriter Toru Hosokawa's anecdotes shedding some scandalous light on how Pierrot had hired him for what would become *Osomatsu*-*san* but had compromised his vision and caused him to leave the project, as well as how he had always truly wanted to direct a *Bakabon* anime from the start. Prior to this and his abortive attempt at *Osomatsu-kun/Osomatsu-san*, Hosokawa had a history of adapting Akatsuka's works for the stage with both a *Bakabon* stage show as well as ***Men's! Let's La Gon***. He had also been screenwriter and director of ***Polar Bear's Cafe***, which was a series that had lead to Pierrot's very aim to utilize him for an Akatsuka work (and for what inspired the edict to cast "voice actors popular with young women" for -*san*).

The very greenlighting of *Late Night!* itself had only been due to the success of -*san*, with Pierrot's president Yuji Nunokawa noting that it had seemed like the perfect time to re-imagine *Bakabon* as well, after having thought of remaking both it and *Osomatsu-kun* for several years. Takahiro Sakurai and Miyu Irino were thus carried over from -*san* to this series in the respective roles of Unagi-Inu and Bakabon, as a way to build hype and in hopes to attract the same kind of popular demographics. Actors from Pierrot's previous adaptations of Bakabon were also utilized in bit guest roles, including Megumi Hayashibara appearing in the final episode as Kitty White of "Hello Kitty", and other *-san* voice actors were also cast in episodes.

However, *Late Night!* was not promoted highly by Pierrot and Avex, having been treated more as a fill-in for the more popular *-san* in the meantime, and ended its run quietly with very few collaborations or merchandise tie-ins. The character designs and stories having been criticized for lacking the "womens' appeal" -*san* had, plus the low sales and ratings it had through its short span, may have significantly contributed to the series being swept under the rug and disregarded in the wake of its home video releases. Hosokawa's own anecdotes about the series' origins had also, though not by his intent, created bad blood on Twitter from *-san* fans to where he attempted to apologize and delete the offending tweet thread. This also aggravated the disdain that had already been brewing before the series even launched.

The *Late Night!* designs and voice actors were used briefly, however, for a Pierrot-produced advert in 2020, showing that they still could get use when the opportunity was needed.

## Staff

* Director, Series composition- Toru Hosokawa
* Assistant Director- Takashi Yamamoto
* Character Design- Takaaki Wada
* Sound Director- Hiromi Kikuta
* Art Directors- Junichi Azuma, Junko Shimizu
* Art Setting- Junichi Azuma
* Color Design- Junko Tsukidate
* Cinematography- Shinichi Asakawa
* Editing- Hiromi Sasaki
* Producers- Yasuji Fujii, Kazuyoshi Ozawa, Makoto Hijikata, Genta Ozaki, Takayoshi Minematsu, Izumi Furusawa, Tomoyuki Saito
* Music Production- TV TOKYO Music, Avex Pictures
* Animation Production- Pierrot+
* Production- Late Night! Genius Bakabon Production Committee (TV Tokyo, Avex Pictures, Studio Pierrot)

### Voice Cast

* Bakabon's Papa- Arata Furata
* Bakabon- Miyu Irino
* Bakabon's Mama- Noriko Hidaka
* Hajime- Ai Nonaka
* The Police Officer with the Connected Eyes- Toshiyuki Morikawa
* Rerere- Akira Ishida
* Unagi-Inu- Takahiro Sakurai

### Guest Voices

#### Episode 1

* Bakabon's Papa ("Heisei Genius Bakabon" reconstruction)- Hisahiro Ogura, even though he was the voice of the *Rerere* Papa
* Himself and the lady version of Bakabon's Papa- Jun Fukuyama
* Herself- Masako Nozawa
* Doctor- Yohei Tadano
* Black Jack- Akio Ohtsuka
* Governor of Tokyo- Tetsuo Goto
* Passerby- Akio Toyama
* Yoshiki of X-JAPAN- Shinichiro Miki, as the real Yoshiki was unavailable in this episode (paid nod to in meta)

#### Episode 2

* Live Announcer- Yoshikazu Hirano
* Marin- Mariko Ota
* Juri- Yuko Sanpei
* Aika- Emiri Katou
* Yuina- Aki Kaneda

#### Episode 3

* Tsujio Tsujita, Father- Wataru Takagi
* Billing Bakada Junior- Hiroshi Iwasaki
* Himself- Katsunori Takahashi
* Bakabon's Ideal Sister- Minami Takahashi
* Pet Shop Owner- Shinya Takahashi
* Child- Tomoko Naka

#### Episode 4

* Billing Bakada Junior- Hiroshi Iwasaki
* Billing Upgraded Hajime- Hochu Otsuka
* Game Designer Bakada Junior- Takeshi Kusao
* Good Cop, "100 Million Yen E-mail", Tanaka, Swirly Poo Brothers- Junji Tachibana
* Divided Relationship, Hard Poo- Toshiyuki Morikawa
* Law of Inertia- Noriko Hidaka
* Fleming's Law- Ai Nonaka
* Boyle-Charles Law, Nadeshiko- Aya Endo
* Mike Virgin, Normal Poo- Takahiro Sakurai
* New Underwear, Diarrhetic Poo- Miyu Irino
* Barium Poo- Arata Furuta

#### Episode 5

* Producer Bakakata- Daisuke Ono
* Manager- Naomi Kusumi
* Boyfriend- Yoji Ueda
* Girlfriend- Momoko Saito
* Narration- Haruka Shimizu

#### Episode 6

* Mitsuru Adachi- Yuji Mitsuya
* Assistant- Miina Tominaga
* Editor- Minoru Aoyama
* Himself- Mitsuru Yaku
* Animator Bakada Junior- Yuji Ueda

#### Episode 7

* Himself- Hiroshi Kamiya
* Presentation Bakada Junior- Ken Uo
* Receptionist- Yuka Otsubo
* Recording Operator- Yumi Hara

#### Episode 8

* Clerk- Sachi Kokuryu
* Issei Takohashi- Masaya Onosaka
* Unagi-Inu's Siblings and Daughter- Takahiro Sakurai
* Producer Bakazumi- Kenichi Suzumura

#### Episode 9

* Condo Resident- Kimiko Saito
* Inspector- Nobuo Tobita
* Clerk- Kentaro Tone
* Adult Hajime ("Real Genius Bakabon")- Kouki Uchiyama
* Foreign Clerk- Ai Nonaka

#### Episode 10

* Telephone Voice- Junji Tachibana
* Yoshida-kun- Chika Sakamoto

#### Episode 11

* Fake Papa- Kelvin Burnes
* Baby Papa- Ikue Otani
* Bakabon's Papa's Papa- Kosei Tomita
* Young Woman- Haruka Shimizu
* Umeboshi Mask- Yuuichi Nakamura
* Different Mom- Kimiko Saito

#### Episode 12

* Herself- Nagisa Katahira
* Himself- Yoshiki of X-JAPAN
* Herself- Kitty White (in actuality Megumi Hayashibara)

## Episode List

1. ひさしぶりにアニメになったのだ
2. 総集編/本官の合コン
3. 映画に出るのだ/3人目がほしいのだ
4. 課金！天才バカボン/擬人化するのだ
5. 深夜の限界に挑戦する/テレ東からの呼び出し/模範的な深夜！天才バカボン
6. 漫画家になるのだ/アニメは大変なのだ
7. プレゼンしますのだ/人気声優になりたいのだ
8. 活躍したいのだ/ウナギイヌの法事
9. 本官の適性テストなのだ/リアル天才バカボン
10. 天才ハジメ
11. みなさん、さようならなのだ
12. ほんとうの最終回なのだ

## Manga Tie-in

A manga adaptation of the series by Miho Asada ran from July 19 to October 19, 2018 in Shogakukan's Monthly Sunday Genex as well as on its webcomic site Sunday Weburi.

The manga sticks close to the story of the anime, except for some differences in adaptation by Asada for the manga medium. It was collected into two tankobon volumes for Sunday GX Comics:

* Volume 1: September 19, 2018
* Volume 2: November 19, 2018

## Trivia

### Character Design Re-use

As mentioned in the overview, some of the new characters in this show were actually older Bakabon manga characters re-purposed rather than creating entirely new designs:

* Tsujio Tsujita (a seeming parody of Yoichi Fujita) is Nanataro Kashihyaku given a new purpose and outfit
* The manga editor is Machida, who even gets his hair lit by Papa as he did in his original manga usage
* Issei Takohashi is the octopus Takobon
* Bakabon's nameless friend is one of the bullies of the ugly boy Sandbag from a late 1970s manga chapter (although some pre-existing features of his face and the red coloration of his shirt may first bring to mind Gon of Let's La Gon)
* Yoshida is Bakabon's friend Hideki from another 1970s chapter

### More on the Voice Acting Connections

* Out of actors of the main cast from Pierrot's previous Bakabon adaptations, Shigeru Chiba, Eiko Masuyama (due to her aging and retirement), Aruno Tahara, Kozo Shioya, Yukiji, and Yoshiko Kamei remained unused in guest roles. It is not known why the decision was made to use Hisahiro Ogura as Papa in footage that was referencing *Heisei*, other than the fact that the unpopularity of *Rerere's Genius Bakabon* may have made using its style not a great idea (though using his actor from that version still creates an oddity).
* Nearly the entire main voice cast of *Osomatsu-san* wound up getting used in some form or another, along with two popular guest actors from it (Kimiko Saito, Kentaro Tone). The only exceptions of the main cast to not appear in voice roles in this show were Kazuhiko Inoue (who plays the sextuplets' father) and Kujira (who plays their mother). Prior to his roles in *Late Night!*, Junji Tachibana had also been voicing a few guest parts in -san season 2 as well.
	+ As with two of the bit parts they also played in the first two seasons of -san, Momoko Saito and Yoji Ueda are cast in the roles of a young couple for their only usage in episode 5.