(Or Bomberman Jetterz, alternatively, but we Spell My Name with an "S" around here, just like in Wikipedia.)
The Jetters are an intergalactic police force apparently formed for the sole purpose of fighting the Hige-Hige Bandits, a spacefaring criminal organization with the single goal of amassing all the one-of-a-kind objects in the universe. The battle against the Hige-Hige Bandits is going well, until the leader of the Jetters, the infallible Legendary Bomberman Mighty, goes MIA after the first episode. The Jetters need a new Bomberman for the team, and believing badassery to be in the blood, go straight to Mighty's younger brother, White Bomber.Problem is, White Bomber is just a kid, and the Jetters suddenly find themselves on the losing end of the fight. This isn't helped by the appearance of a new secret weapon the Hige-Hige Bandits are fielding: a sinister Bomberman called MAX, whose techniques are highly reminiscent of Mighty's…Make no mistake, Bomberman Jetters really is a kids' show, but for all that, it's pretty well done. The writers have skillfully avoided the problems associated with The Anime of the Game by doing their absolute best with the source material, which turns out to be quite a lot as the series moves from a Strictly Formula Monster of the Week show into compelling drama with more Character Development than you can shake a stick at. You kind of even stop hating White Bomber in the end.Highly recommended for children and the childlike as well as Bomberman fans who can get over the fact that Max is the bad guy now.Had a Recursive Adaptation in 2002 with Bomberman Jetters for the GameCube, which was largely a sequel to Bomberman Generation from earlier that same year. The game ended up being all that Western audiences saw of Jetters.This show provides examples of:
- The Ace: Mighty is portrayed as this at first — only for it to get deconstructed later as it is revealed that he fell for Mechadoc's Evil Plan and died as a result. Several of his screw-ups and Fatal Flaws come to light during the series.
- Adaptation Distillation: You'd be surprised at what they can do with an Excuse Plot franchise.
- Adaptational Villainy: Max is portrayed as a villain in this continuity for some reason.
- Adorable Evil Minions: The Hige-Hige Bandits.
- Aloof Big Brother: Arguably subverted by Mighty, as he is aloof only geographically and is about the kindest person in the world.
- Max, however, hits quite a few notes on the trope.
- The Anime of the Game: Of Bomberman, of course.
- Bad-Guy Bar: Mama's bar.
- Big Brother Mentor: Mighty. And later, Zero. Sadly, both fall prey to the Mentor Occupational Hazard.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Mighty; aside from height and boots, this is about the only thing that distinguishes White Bomber from him.
- But his are nothing compared to Thunder Bomber's. They appear to be made out of metal, and each of them is as long as his head.
- Break the Cutie: Both White Bomber and Shout get this around the halfway point on discovering Mighty's death.
- Calling Your Attacks: "BOMBER SHOOT!"
- Character Development
- Coming-of-Age Story: The whole series arguably works to make White Bomber less detestable.
- Cosmic Keystone: The Bomb Crystal.
- Crash-Into Hello: Literally done when White Bomber crashes his ship into Shout's scooter.
- The Dragon: Mujoe.
- And the dragon gets his own dragon, Thunder Bomber.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Thunder Bomber wants to avenge his siblings and kill Max at all costs. When Mujoe disagrees and tries to turn him back into a Kyarabon, Thunder Bomber, despite his Undying Loyalty, knocks him out with a wrench and runs away to pursue his goals alone. Can be somewhat of a Tear Jerker for his fans because he is killed before achieving either of them.
- Empathic Weapon: The Bombermen's bombs: "The power of the bomb does not lie in the bomb itself… it lies in your heart!"
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Hige-Hige Bandits' headquarters: a tower IN SPACE!!
- The Faceless: Shout's father, Twist.
- There is a single episode where his entire face is shown. He's about the most normal-looking person on the show.
- Fairytale Motifs: Mermaid Bomber's storyline has parallels to the non-Disneyfied "The Little Mermaid".
- Four Is Death: The Bomber Shitennou.
- Identical Grandson: Mighty and his grandfather, literally.
- Idiot Hero: White Bomber, oh so much.
- Joke Character: Seagull Bomber.
- Kid Hero: White Bomber, very much as well.
- Large Ham: Mujoe. Grand Bomber also.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Subverted: Everyone from the viewers to the cast is led to believe that MAX really is Mighty... and turns out, he isn't. Double subverted in that an earlier prototype, MA-0, has Mighty's soul. Then triple subverted when MA-0 realizes that even with Mighty's soul and memories, he's still the android who killed Mighty, not White Bomber's missing brother.
- Mid-Season Twist: 23, 24, and 25 are all this. White Bomber discovers his brother died a horrific and lonely death, Shout's tearful backstory is explained when she resigns from the Jetters, and Max is revealed to have been the one to kill Mighty, all with lots of crying. Needless to say, you'll want tissues.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Mujoe. Enough so that he helps the Jetters when Mechadoc takes over the Schumulvault.
- Grand Bomber doesn't just fail to defeat the Jetters, he befriends and temporarily joins them. In the end, he can't choose between the Hige-Hige Bandits and the Jetters, so he tells White Bomber to turn him back into a Kyarabon.
- The basic Hige-Hige minions also qualify. On several occasions, they actually helped White Bomber overcome some distraction (can't find the bathroom, overcoming his fear of needles so he could be cured of an illness) that was keeping him from stopping them. Immediately after, Mujoe would scold them and White Bomber would kick their asses.
- Mecha-Mooks: The Hige-Higes, apparently, but they are Ridiculously Human Robots in that they need to eat, enjoy recreation, and pursue the attention of the other gender.
- My Hero Zero: MAX's first prototype, MA-0, or just "Zero" among friends. He is also Mighty, which is where The Hero comes from.
- No Mouth: Any of the Bomber characters.
- No Waterproofing in the Future: Episode 2 starts off with White Bomber's spaceship crashing. The reason: Juice spill.
- Old Master: Momo / Grandma Bomber.
- Parental Abandonment: White Bomber and Mighty's parents are never ever mentioned, leaving them both under their grandmother's care. It appears from the Flashbacks that Mighty had also received a Promotion to Parent, but then he disappears, too. Man, not a happy family. Shout's mother is dead, too.
- Perpetual Poverty: Despite being a highly trained special unit, the Jetters apparently have notoriously poor funding; many of its members hold other jobs just to get by.
- Pokémon Speak: The Hige-Hige minions can only say variations of "hige".
- Punny Name: Twist and Shout.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Mujoe and his subordinate Hige-Higes.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: MAX's eye cover things are red, the first sign that he isn't like his game counterpart (where they're blue).
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Thunder Bomber after his brothers and sister are killed and Mujoe has been demoted from commander to mail delivery.
- Space Police: The Jetters.
- Spoiled Brat: Mermaid Bomber, boy howdy.
- Stalker with a Crush: Mermaid Bomber is this to Birdy. While this trait's not so notable at first, it shows itself a bit more later. For example, she sends one of the Higes to steal his phone so she can get his number.
- Strange Salute: The Hige-Hige Bandits have a highly... idiosyncratic salute
◊. - The Syndicate: The Hige-Hige Bandits.
- Taking You with Me: Zero attempts this with Max. He succeeds in defeating his opponent, but...
- Thunder Bomber was about to perform this before getting blasted by Max.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Flame Bomber almost kills White Bomber while he was playing around in their first battle.
- Wham Line: At the end of 23:"Your brother is dead!"
