Tensai Bakabon (天才バカボン) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fujio Akatsuka, which began publication on April 9, 1967, in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. It is about the misadventures of a dim-witted boy (Bakabon) and his idiotic father, the latter of whom eventually becomes the central character. It has been adapted into five anime television series. The first two series produced by Tokyo Movie were broadcast in the 1970s for 40 and 103 episodes respectively. The third and fourth series were produced by Studio Pierrot and broadcast in 1990 and 1999–2000, for 46 and 24 episodes respectively. The fifth series was produced by Pierrot+ and broadcast for 12 episodes in 2018.

Characters

Minor characters

Characters from Akatsuka's other titles

Media

Manga

4 bilingual Japanese-English volumes have been released of the manga as The Genius Bakabon.

Anime

Four anime series have been produced, with the first two series produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha and the second two produced by Studio Pierrot. Tensai Bakabon (天才バカボン) aired for 40 episodes on Yomiuri TV from September 25, 1971, to June 24, 1972. Three years later, Ganso Tensai Bakabon (元祖天才バカボン) aired for 103 episodes on NTV from October 6, 1975, to September 26, 1977. In India this show was broadcast by Hungama TV. The original series was heavily rerun on Animax during its first few years on air, as it was centred around classic anime at the time. The two Studio Pierrot series aired nearly nine years apart, with Heisei Tensai Bakabon (平成天才バカボン) airing on Fuji TV for 46 episodes from January 6 to December 29, 1990, and Rerere no Tensai Bakabon (レレレの天才バカボン) airing on TV Tokyo from October 19, 1999, to March 21, 2000, for 24 episodes. A late night anime titled Shinya! Tensai Bakabon (深夜！天才バカボン) premiered on July 10, 2018 on TV Tokyo and other channels. It ran for 12 episodes.