TP Bon (it's hard to include the "・" everytime so I won't be doing it from this point on) is an interesting anime for me, because I always had a fascination of the past and thus consequently an interest in time travel fiction. And before you question me, yes, I have watched Steins; Gate. But I kind of skimmed through Steins; Gate 0, which I'm not very proud of, and perhaps I'll watch 0 from beginning to the end someday, and when that day comes, I'll definitely write about it here. Oh, you don't know what I'm talking about? Well, I could give you a run-down on Steins; Gate real quick and tell you the watch order but that's a bit too much for a post about TP Bon. I think you can look up Steins; Gate yourself, the reason I mentioned it is because it's a time-travel anime, and genuinely one of my favorites of all time (El Psy Kongroo!).

Some background on TP Bon is necessary, because guess what? TP Bon (or Time Patrol Bon) is a manga by Fujiko F. Fujio, the author and creator of the Doraemon series! Is that exciting for you? It sure is for me. Doraemon holds a special place in my heart because it's the show I enjoyed the most as a kid, it was my introduction to anime (at the time I didn't know it was called anime), and the Fujiko Fujio duo have generally been a huge part of my childhood. So, when TP Bon's trailer dropped a month before it's release on Netflix, I was shocked, I didn't know TP Bon was a thing, I clicked on the trailer solely because I recognized Fujiko F. Fujio's artstyle. My heart started pounding when I saw this:

Aha! So it is related to Fujiko F. Fujio. Also it's his 90th anniversary! I did some digging and found out that there was an old TP Bon anime that came out in 1989. So I suppose this new adaptation is a tribute to the king of mine and many other kids' childhoods, perhaps the people at Studio Bones too. Wait a minute, I didn't mention that yet? Bones is one of my favorite studios, particularly because they made two of my most favorite animes: Mob Psycho 100 and FMAB. And many other animes that I really want to watch in the future. Bones animating the work of Fujiko F. Fujio seems like the stars aligning, at least to me. Another thing I want to mention is that this new adaptation is more faithful to the manga than the 1989 adaptation.

Whew, that's a massive intro. I'm sorry, but it's just a habit of mine. I just, love writing. Ok, time to take a deep breath and start writing again.

Namihira Bon is an average middle-schooler. Doesn't get the best grades, but also doesn't get the worst grades. Isn't the most popular in class, but also isn't the least popular. But being average isn't an issue to him. It's fine for him. When starting this anime, if you have watched Doraemon, then you might think Namihira is similar to Nobita. He is, to some extent, but I didn't really feel it. Namihira felt more admirable. Though, I'd say there are way more similaries between the two if we take Nobita from the Doraemon movies. Though a lot of this might seem like gibberish text to you if you haven't watched/read Doraemon. So I'm gonna stop for now.

Minor spoilers ahead.

One day while studying, Bon encounters an anomaly, day was turning into night and night was turning into day - extremely fast. It happened for a few seconds, and then everything went back to normal. Bon thinks this is a side-effect of him studying too much (yeah, nice one! I also do this to slack off, I mean, sometimes studying for even 5 minutes is tiring, y'know?!). Some things happen, all of which lead up to Bon thinking he's going crazy. So, he goes to the big stump in their town to chill out for a bit. Did you know that the tree is actually 800 years old? Well, it has been cut now, but it was a mighty tree. Bon finds a strange vehicle, and upon trying to ride it, he ends up in.. well.. somewhere. Soon we find out that he's in the 13th century, in the same, where his town is now. One indicent to another, and we find out that vehicile is of a Time Patrol agent, Ream Stream to be exact.

The Time Patrol organization also appears in the Doraemon series, so it might ring a bell. They try to keep the flow of time stable, enforce the Time Navigation laws and also save people who died an unfortunate death. But they can't save people who are relevant to history. So, they can't just go and stop Julius Caesar from getting assasinated. Their existence is a secret, thus, when Bon finds out, and because of certain events that caused Time Patrol's another special piece of equipment, the "Forgetter" to not work on him, Time Patrol Headquarters decide to erase him from existence, by making sure his parents never met. But, fortunately, they find out that Bon is actually relevant to history, so they can't erase him, but it's also an issue because he knows the existence of the Time Patrol. So, what's the most logical solution here? Turning him into a Time Patrol agent, of course! Under Ream Stream, he becomes a Time Patrol trainee, and we see their adventures as they venture through time and save a lot of lives. There's also this cute lil guy called Buyoyon, who comes with them in every adventure.

But are you wondering why Bon is relevant to history? Well, I'll leave finding that out to you.

I finished it today. And there is a very particular reason why I liked this one a lot. The past few days, I'm haven't been really, how do I say this.. feeling good. You know, we all have such times in our lives. In TP Bon, you get to experience multiple eras alongside Bon, Ream and Buyoyon. And since each time they're there to save someone, you also get to learn about the struggles of that person, and eventually what led to their death. That's just one story from each period, imagine the countless people who lived in those eras. They had their own lives, their own set of challenges in life, their own sadness, their own happiness, their own embarrasments, their own pain, their own traits, their own looks, their own likes and dislikes, their own reasons to work hard, their own reasons to slack off, their own reasons to cry, their own reasons to smile, their own reasons to be mad, their own fears - in short, their own stories. They aren't here anymore. New stories took place, and this cycle went on for thousands of years. It doesn't mean their stories didn't mean anything, what I'm saying is that - their stories are oddly similar to ours, and in that sense, we're all connected even through the vastness of time, and through us they are immortal. It was a comforting show for me. I went into each episode knowing I'm gonna be free of my problems for 20 whole minutes.

Also, Buyoyon unironically has to be my favorite character. The little blob's just got so much personality.

Unsurprisingly this anime meant a lot to me, and I hope you can find it as entertaining as I did. And there's a second season coming out on July 17th, 2024.

Also, the two main characters of this anime do appear in a Doraemon movie, "Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan (2016)" to be exact. I haven't watched it yet, but I plan to soon.

Oh, wow. I've written a lot, haven't I? Did I succeed in getting my point across? I hope so. If not, then I'll reiterate: WATCH. IT. I'll rate it a 9/10 for emotions, but an 8/10 overall.

Thanks until we meet again, goodnight.