T.P BON

Largely unfamiliar with the source material, but I am aware of Fujiko Fujio's impact on the industry and their heraled success with the iconic Doraemon. Bones' 90th Anniversary re-adaptation of a hidden classic covers familiar ground, which I think play to the show's strengths. The episodic nature captures a nostalgic viewing experience, while using exploration of historical time periods as the main hook, i.e. Magic Tree House, Time Warp Trio. Plots revolve around travelling backwards in time to save an ordinary person from demise. It's not a wholly original concept, but it's one I'm fairly certain was much more of a novelty at the time ... of the original's debut.

Each episode's narrative has you being spoonfed retroactive tidbits of human melodrama in the vein of, say, To Your Eternity. Bon is a fairly simple-minded protagonist and acts as a decent conduit for a child audience (clumsy, slacks off, but bursting with heart); yet, the series does delve into a lot of historical violence that gives the impression of a family show with surprisingly more adult themes. Its exploration of said themes, however, feel mostly surface level, intent on the resolution of children's programming that resets the status quo, rarely dragging conflict into the subsequent episode, with some exceptions, including the finale.

As a result, this is a difficult recommendation for the more hardened anime fan wanting a "mature" show, but its appeal is steeped in a nostalgic factor that is certain to capture the attention of audiences craving an accessible "comfort show" with mild educational value and a cutesy, "retro" artstyle thrown into the mix.

T.P. Bon (2024) was really fun to watch. It brought nostalgia with the familiar Fujiko F. Fujio feel that you would get with his other works, most famously Doraemon, but also adds a more mature element to it, incorporating vital elements of human history that include topics like war, discrimination, and religion. I've seem some people even mistake this work as one of Tezuka Osamu's. That being said, this show shouldn't be turned away from children. It has a ton of educational value for any child or teenager watching. All this is a testament to the author's love for history ... and science fiction. You could see a little bit of that love in Doraemon but nowhere as clear as what you see in T.P. Bon.

As far as the anime adaptation goes, it's a solid adaptation that didn't seem to make any blatantly wrong production decisions. For a plot-driven manga that focuses more on exposition and the historical educational aspect, they were able to bring out a lot of character traits for Ream. The setting was also modernized to include things like smartphones. At the same time, I didn't really notice anything that really surpassed my expectations.

Some drawbacks: The CGI work was hit or miss. Most areas seemed to work really well, while some other CGI scenes weren't produced very well. Not sure if different staffers worked on different episodes for CGI, but had the quality been more uniform throughout the series, I think the CGI would have really blended in with the rest of the animation a little bit better.
The music was also a little disappointing. The OP and ED were catchy, and I enjoy Michiru Yamane's work on her other anime and TV shows, but I couldn't help but think for about 40% of this soundtrack that I've heard something similar before in other movies or classical music. The more rock-oriented soundtracks during the action scenes were even more bland, but Yamane isn't really known for that kind of genre.

Overall, this show does really successful execution of the plot, great character designs, and smooth pacing of each episode. It showcases what Fujiko F. Fujio truly wanted to create with a science fiction manga. To choose this relatively obscure series as a commemoration of the 90th anniversary of his birth is really interesting, and the way they produced it shows a lot of respect for the author and the series. To date, this is the only anime apart from the long-running Doraemon (2005-present) series that's a posthumous Fujiko F. Fujio adaptation, so it's definitely worth the watch if you want to see his works in a modern light.

I'm a fan of remakes of older manga/anime, over the years had a lot of fun with Gegege no Kitaro, Akuma-kun, Time Bokan, Tiger Mask, Cutie Honey, Warau Salesman, not to mention Urusei Yatsura. I also generally enjoy Bones productions; yes, even those with original scripts. Time Patrol Bon, though, doesn't really do anything special.

It's a series commemorating 90th anniversary of Fujiko Fujio's birthday, a legendary mangaka whom many will recognize as the author of Doraemon. So why T.P. Bon was picked for that occasion instead of something more prominent? Your guess is as good as mine.
Time Patrol Bon is, unfortunately, not outstanding in any ... way. Pretty average, rather episodic, family-friendly plot is supported by basic characters and quite simple animation you probably wouldn't expect from Bones. I guess the historical trivia might be a hook for some, but that aspect is pretty run-of-the-mill as well. I suppose that explains why I didn't hear about the series until two months after its premiere despite being on the look out for stuff like this.

Easy recommedation if you're a fan of Fujiko Fujio, cautious one if you like series with retro vibes or light stories involving time travel, a definite pass if you're looking for something meaty with interesting ideas.

At the time of writing of this review (less than two weeks before the second half of the series would be released) there wasn't much buzz around T.P. Bon. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether it's because of series' mediocrity or Netflix's flawed model of releasing and promoting their anime OVAs.