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B-Daman Bakugaiden Returns... in ENGLISH (Again)

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  Once more, the lesser-known spinoff of Bomberman receives new life internationally through a now completed subbing process. Much to the surprise of many, one of the Anglosphere's oldest Bomberman archivists, Steamy Jimmy, actually came through with his promise to sub the entirety of B-Daman Bakugaiden's anime run (Bakugaiden IV and V). For context, the project's prospects were called into question when his uploads of IV's subbed episodes (and subsequently channel) were nuked around the end of 2023. For a second, it was even wondered by many if those uploads were archived or not, and thankfully they were.  For some quick context, the B-Daman series of marble-shooting toys actually started here. Around 1992 or '93, toy producer Takara and Hudson Soft collaborated to create these things, initially as loose tie-ins to games like Super Bomberman , which had just been released at the time. Starting in October 1996, the toyline would become one of the series' first s...

The Best Spots to Find Bomberman Info [EDITORIAL]

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For as long as the civilized world has existed, there's always been a need to bring together large clusters of information about what's around us. But how many of these can we really trust? Through tablets, word of mouth (I guess), and eventually books, we have always been putting together some repository of everything we know about, well, everything. This has it's clear benefits, such as allowing people to find answers to whatever questions they have and generally contributing to the preservation of culture, especially when a diverse set of perspectives are brought into the picture. From written encyclopedias of older days to the online wikipedias most teachers complain about, there's always been an issue, however, with what guidelines to put in place and what that means for a publication's legitimacy.  This much especially applies to any fanmade 'wiki' dedicated to specific media franchises. Because fandoms are bound to have a plethora of people who may se...

Bombergirl: ENTER Hiiro!

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 Bombergirl returns yet again with another new character, further confirming Konami's insane self-awareness of both itself and its many franchises, both new and old, for this addition easily has the strangest origin of them all by far. I'm a month late again, I know. Described as the maiden of the Karasuba Shrine and a demon [yokai] hunter with the blood of the Karasuten Sutei, this otherwise fairly cheerful and incredibly tall (clocking in at 220cm, or 7 feet fall) woman uses her family's techniques and her body to engage in battle and protect her village. If she isn't tending to her shrine, then she's playing with the children who visit it. It also appears, however, that she has a dark side to her, with a few quotes referring to a more gluttonous (though to what extent is left to the imagination, given her usage of the word cute) side referring to eating people, especially her master with their demon blood and their organs up. Being of the blocker class, she uses ...

Bombergirl: ENTER Dark!

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  Bombergirl continues with yet another new character, though with a somewhat surprising twist. ...and as in 'twist', I really mean Konami doing the thing many English fans were expecting them to do to begin with: add more girls based off of Bomberman characters. Anyway, meet Dark, a character based off of Regulus- specifically his Bomberman 64: The Second Attack counterpart.  (I started writing this back in April, then admittedly forgot about it prior to earlier today) His Bomberman 64 appearance His Bomberman 64: The Second Attack appearance Having come from space to take on Shiron, the fill-in for Jetters' version of Bomberman, she's someone who wants to take on the strongest person in the room and be recognized by everyone. Being a literal kid here, though, her big words and declarations of being the best are immediately shrugged off by literally everyone.  Alongside her is her partner, Rabbidel, which she sees as both a pet of sorts and a weapon. It's design is...

B-Daman Bakugaiden RETURNS!

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In an unexpected turn of events, Konami pulls a power move and buys back the rights to the B-Daman Bakugaiden anime. Credit: Kaleidoskopical (I just needed a spread for this article, okay?) I'm unsure if this is anything I've ever outwardly acknowledged, so if not-- Konami has been surprising me with their numerous callbacks to legacy Bomberman content. I suppose it makes sense, given the series' better reception in Japan. For whatever reason, I mostly figured they were just going to treat the series as some cash cow they could pump a bunch of half-baked games and glorified live-services out of... which, to be fair, isn't wholly untrue. Anyway, up until now, the first major Bomberman spinoff (because Robowarrior/Bomber King and any tertiary connections to Lode Runner more or less died off after two or three games), B-Daman Bakugaiden, was more or less stuck in some legal limbo with Hudson Soft refusing to do much with it in their latter years. Resultingly, they were mor...

Super Bomberman VINYLS Announced!

Out of nowhere, Konami and Ship to Shore PhonoCo. have announced a new vinyl, though it's subject is, at least to me, quite unexpected: *** Yeah, the Super Bomberman games: all 5 of them. This now makes 3 releases, alongside the Bomberman NES duology and Hero, which were both released last and earlier this year, respectively. While people like me who have played through all 5 of these games via emulation are delighted, I can't help but wonder about how this comes off to an average Joe who's only played a couple of the games, usually in quick multiplayer spurts. Putting aside any preconceived  notions about what the series is about, there's also the concern that not a whole lot of the series has been available outside of Japan, meaning that there's no legal or easily accessible way to play a lot of it. Only Super Bomberman 1 and 2 were ever released in the U.S., with 3 being available in Europe and Japan before becoming wholly exclusive to the homeland for 4 and 5. W...

BOMBERGIRL CONTINUES! Enter: Brass

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  Well, it seems that I was wrong last time in saying that Bombergirl was going to end soon because of the introduction of another new character, as well as a shadow update to the website nobody pointed out. Meet Brass, the first Bombergirl character to immediately make me uncomfortable. While this also applies to all the other literal CHILDREN this game has, just looking at her actually made me cringe. I think the only other time where I had a similar reaction was when I learned of the game for the first time and saw Shiron (this game's take on Jetters' Shirobon).  Let's make this quick. For all intents and purposes, she's described as an angel who likes making people happy with her music. As her name suggests, she mainly plays with air-based instruments like trumpets. The only other notable detail is that she wants to be like Sepia and ["Bubble Girl"; will update this later]. Otherwise, I suppose that she's supposed to be a by-the-books kind of person wh...