Ask John: How Popular is Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo?

Question:
I’ve heard a lot about the Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo manga and TV anime coming to America in the fall. I’m curious to know about how popular this series is in Japan, compared to enormously successful Japanese fighting TV anime like One Piece and Naruto. Also, how much of this series there is (manga, TV anime, movies, TV specials, OVAs, video games, etc.)

Answer:
Yoshio Sawai’s Boboboubo Boubobo manga series made its Japanese debut in 2001. The manga series currently has 17 collected volumes with an 18th volume scheduled for Japanese release in August. Boboboubo Boubobo has also been adapted into four Gameboy games, a GameCube game, and a pair of Playstation 2 games. The Boboboubo Boubobo anime television series premiered on November 8, 2003 and its still going strong with 67 episodes (as of this writing).

But while Boboboubo Boubobo must be popular in Japan to support a long manga and anime series and so many video games, the anime series, at least, doesn’t seem to be remotely as popular in Japan as other popular family viewing shows like One Piece and Naruto. For reference, according to the May 2005 issue of Newtype Magazine, the ratings for Boboboubo Boubobo ranged from 2.4 up to 3.2. The ratings for Naruto for the same period of time ranged from 7.1 up to 9.6, and the ratings for One Piece varied from 10.6 up to 11.5. So by rough estimate, as many as three times the number of Japanese viewers watch One Piece as watch Boboboubo Boubobo.