A Bikkuriman Guide(?)
Enjoy a rare periodic post here, because I've been meaning to do this.
This is a slightly-modified copy/paste of something I wrote on Discord a little while back, trying to explain this franchise. It's been about a year since I got invested in Bikkuriman, through the 2023 Bikkurimen anime, and I went into it completely blind, as there's basically nothing about this series available in English. Thought it might be helpful for anyone else who's ever wondered about the franchise but also wasn't really sure what was what or what the whole deal was.
And heads up that there are some spoilers here, mainly for the original series, but kind of unavoidable in explaining a major recurring plot thread.
In Japan, a popular kids snack is chocolate wafers. You’ll see these all over in the stores, just a simple crunchy wafer candy, usually packaged with either a sticker or trading card, and often collaborating with popular characters. Ie: Pokemon, Demon Slayer, Sanrio, etc.
In the 80’s, the candy company Lotte created their own line of characters, with their own lore, which were released as stickers packaged with wafers. In 1987, the first Bikkuriman anime, which was produced by Toei and aired in what I’m pretty certain is the same timeslot which has been airing Precure since 2004, debuted.
The series focused on the battle between angels (led by the powerful but womanizing Super Zeus) and devils (led by the hammy, buffoonish Super Devil). The two have of course been rivals for years, though occasionally have a more friendly relationship, and some seasons do make Super Devil considerably more threatening than his original incarnation.
The main characters are a group of seven young warriors (technically eight, but one ends up dropping out of the party early) called the Wakajinshi, who fight on the side of the angels, each themed after a different mythological hero. The main one is Prince Yamato, the green-haired boy with a cat on his head. They work together with the angel Saint Phoenix as they try to reach a place known as the “next world”.
Their most prominent ally is Cross Angel. While not a Wakajinshi herself, she fights alongside them and has the ability to purify those who have been turned into devils. She has a huge crush on Yamato, and starts off as a crybaby but is eventually able to become stronger.
One interesting mechanic of the Bikkuriman franchise is that the characters will evolve at different points, not unlike Pokemon. Often they’ll have similar names, but sometimes will take on a completely new name in their powered up form. For example, Saint Phoenix later becomes Head Rokoko.
The series ran for 75 episodes, the first 13-ish were half-length and the rest were normal length for a TV anime. Notably, the series ends on a downer end, despite being a kids toy commercial.
The character of Saint Phoenix/Head Rokoko that I mentioned above became extremely popular, especially gathering a lot of fangirls. And beloved to many fans (myself included) is the romantic subplot between Rokoko and the devil Satan Maria. And well, it’s not exactly a sweet and wholesome romance. It’s… complicated. Mainly because Maria is an absolute psychopath. Not the kind of character you’d think to be romancible. Rokoko knows full well how dangerous an enemy she is, and they have a rivalry since early on, Maria becoming basically obsessed with him as a result. Rokoko, being very much kind-hearted and compassionate, eventually tries to make peace with her and hopes to unify angels and devils. Well, stuff goes down, leading to the depressing ending I mentioned. But while Maria is almost killed as well, Rokoko saves her life. Afterwards, Maria agrees to unify with Rokoko, the two merge into a single being, and they magically create a son, the half-angel half-devil Pia Marco.
Because of the popularity of Rokoko and Maria, their relationship has been basically a constant throughout the franchise. An alternate ending was created for the TV series in the form of the OAV, Rokoko and Maria’s Miracle, which retells the main events of the series, focusing on the relationship between the two.
There was also a shoujo manga, set in a different continuity from the anime, called “Warrior of Love, Head Rokoko”. I haven’t been able to read it, unfortunately, as it’s old and long out-of-print. But it centers of course on the relationship between the two. The black-haired girl on the cover is Aizen Kaguya, who is Maria’s love rival.
In 1989, the second series was released, called Shin Bikkuriman. The series is a direct sequel, centered on Marco. However, due the the circumstances of his birth, he grew up completely unaware of the identities of his parents. Marco is just a bratty little glutton, but like his father, he’s a very compassionate person who would even reach out to terrible enemies.
Marco is joined by the angel Oz, the devil Cocky, and a mysterious girl named Orin, who eventually becomes his love interest. The gang gets into some big trouble right from the onset and wind up being fugitives on the run from a group of angels known as the Bay Girls, who also have ties to characters from the first series. Like Marco, they’re also unaware of their origins at first.
While the first anime was rather on the repetitive side, Shin is a much more plot-heavy series. Also, despite being a sequel to the ‘87 series, Shin can stand on its own pretty well, due to mainly being about different characters.
In 1992 came the 3rd series, Super Bikkuriman. Its continuity with the previous two seasons is questionable, it can easily be watched as a standalone, but it very much draws from the same lore.
The hero of this series is also Phoenix, but he’s not the same Phoenix. He’s said to be a descendant of Head Rokoko. Given that he’s a pure angel, it does draw the question as to whether Rokoko had any side lovers (as Maria was still his true love in this season), or it’s just so far down the line that the devil part of the bloodline was reduced to near non-existence. Signs point to the latter.
Phoenix is joined by three other heroes, Tiki, Asuka and Amuru. Amuru is a descendant of Maria and is a devil/angel hybrid like Marco was. The series, comparable to toku shows or even like Saint Seiya or Spider Riders, has the heroes transform into armor to fight. At first, only Phoenix and Tiki are able to transform, but Asuka and Amuru get the ability later.
This series also features a far more sinister Devil, who has trapped Zeus inside his body. The objective as first is to rescue Zeus, but things get messy, and it turns out that both Zeus and Devil make up the last two of the six legendary heroes. There’s also a girl named Manya who also happens to be a descendant of Maria and plays a major role in the story.
After Super, Bikkuriman went off the air for a while, only to return in late 1999 by a new animation studio (Comet rather than Toei). This season was called Bikkuriman 2000. And yes, crummy picture. Don’t feel like finding a better one, because I didn’t really like this season. Sorry.
Aside from Zeus being a main character, and Rokoko appearing later on, the series has almost no connection to any previous lore. It focuses on two angels, Takeru and Pochi (and a 3rd boy but I can’t remember his name) who encounter Zeus and join him as allies. For a chunk of the series, they’re repetitively harassed by a Team Rocket-esque trio, but they eventually make a Heel Face Turn. The final arc of the series, which follows a time jump, is by far the most interesting part, but to the point that it almost feels like a different show.
But yeah, enough about 2000. The following series, 2006’s Happy Lucky Bikkuriman, is much more interesting and finally goes back to the original continuity.
This series is about two friends, Genki and Jero. The pair end up meeting the legendary Prince Yamato and Cross Angel by chance. But how? Because time travel antics, as this series is set before the ‘87 anime chronologically. It turns out, Super Devil decided to write his own fix-it fic. So he sends the Wakajinshi and others back in time. Of course, the beginning is about finding all the original gang and bringing them all back together.
But then they encounter a devil girl called Himiko, who looks suspiciously like Maria. It turns out that she’s Maria’s ancestor. And while initially an enemy, she winds up befriending Genki and developing feelings for him. However, Super Devil has his own plans for the poor girl, and decides to send Maria’s soul back in time into Himiko’s body, which ends up turning her evil again. Well, things eventually work out.
There’s actually a love triangle between Himiko, Genki, and Jero, the latter realizing they had feelings all along for their childhood friend. And despite Jero’s very feminine appearance (the one wearing blue with the glasses in the key visual), Jero is a boy. Or at least grew up thinking so. Jero is actually genderless, identifies as male, and turns into a female after evolving. And ultimately, the end feels like the love triangle is almost resolved as a threesome of sorts. Or I’d like to see it that way, though clearly Himiko has to end up with a devil for Maria to be born one day. ><
Also, this season has an Italian dub, which is possibly lost media, and maybe a French dub as well. I’m not sure why they chose this season to dub, as it does require familiarity with at least the first anime to fully understand everything. But still a neat piece of trivia. There were even attempts to sell it for an English dub, with a promotional trailer existing in English, but obviously nothing came of it.
Then, all of a sudden, Bikkuriman came back in 2023, this time being produced by Lesprit and Shin-Ei Animation. The most recent season was called Bikkurimen.
The premise here is that the main characters from the original series have been reborn into modern day Japan. The catch is that most are unaware of their past lives. We’ve got a high school boy named Yamato who notably looks just like Prince Yamato, but goes about his days ignorantly, working as a delivery boy part time. (The cat on his head is a pet cat in this version)
But speaking of deliveries, the hot commodity in this world is Bikkuriman wafers, or rather, the stickers that come packaged in them. In this anime, they’re a pure craze, like Pokemon cards back in the 90’s. And there’s some basis to this in reality, given that certain Bikkuriman stickers really do sell for hundreds of dollars on the secondhand market. But anyway, a big shipment of wafers is attacked, and Yamato gets caught up in the mess, learning that when he places a sticker of the character who is his factor onto himself, he can temporarily transform into that character, and do battle.
Due to being set in the real world, the battle between angels and devils is represented between two rival convenience stores. Yamato ends up joining the Angel Mart crew, made up of Wakajinshi members Jack and Ushiwaka, as well as the store’s manager, Phoenix.
The rival devil store is run by a mysterious man named Maris. Note that the name is one letter off from the other iconic character in the franchise. This is because, despite being a man, Maris is the factor of Maria. Maris and Phoenix have a relationship mirroring that of the original Maria and Rokoko. Like Maria, Maris is a psychopath (who happens to be just a tad obsessed with his enemy). And like Rokoko, Phoenix is a sweetheart who just wants the two of them to join together. They have an official line stamp to express this.
So basically, they made Rokoko and Maria into a gay couple in this incarnation. Maris can transform into Maria, effectively making him a gender-bender, but he sees himself as distinct from Maria, so it’s sort of like sharing a body. Actually, this being the first series I watched, I started shipping the two through this series, but now I love every incarnation of them. RokoMari is the true power couple, from the 80’s to today.
As for watchability, Bikkurimen has subs, though they apparently came from some foreign streaming service and have some grammatical issues. But at least it can be watched in English, unlike the other seasons. And there are subs for the first episode of 2000. Haven't watched it personally so no clue of the quality/accuracy. However, if you have the ability to watch raws, the rest of the seasons are relatively easy to dig up via torrents/shady pirate sites/Internet Archive. Actually, most if not all the series are streaming legally through Japanese sites last I checked, albeit region locked and probably mostly paywalled.
