This is about the best cel of Bonobono (with his nearly always-present clam) I could hope to get. Bonobono is a 4-panel gag manga series by Igarashi Mikio (who also wrote Ninpen Manmaru). It's about an otter named Bonobono (the character in this cel). He lives in the sea near a forest with his father, and spends every day playing and hanging out with his two best friends, Shimarisu-kun (squirrel) and Araiguma-kun (raccoon); getting advice from Sunadorineko-san; pondering the meaning of life, the universe, and everything; and interacting with the other residents of the forest. There are two anime versions - the first is a movie, which takes a (slightly) more serious look at the characters and their lives. The second is a tv series that aired on TV Tokyo - each episode of the tv series is only a little more than 10 minutes long, and the plots are episodic. It's a really cute and sometimes very interesting series. Now, on to the rest of the cels!

Shimarisu is one of my favorite characters - he makes me laugh! He's so cute, in an evil sort of way. When he's being cute, he'll tilt his little head to the side and ask "Ijimeru?" (As Boy George might say, Do you really want to hurt me? Ijimeru means "bully" like kids at school do all the time.) And of course, most everyone except Araiguma would answer "Of course not." Araiguma, on the other hand, has made a hobby of picking on Shimarisu. And it's not like Shimarisu is completely innocent either - he's got a wicked little streak running through him, and he sometimes starts the fights with Araiguma just because he enjoys getting the better of the raccoon. Shimarisu usually carries around a walnut.

If you look really closely, you'll see that Araiguma has a mosquito on his nose! Araiguma's most obvious personality traits are his very short temper and tendency towards violence. He especially like belting Shimarisu (and sometimes Bonobono) into low earth orbit. But he's still not strong enough to win a fight with any of the adults in the series. The one person he's really afraid of is his dad, who has only a slightly better temper than his son.

The multiple sweat drops above Bonobono's head are characteristic of Igarashi's work. Bonobono's got a very simple personality, and is both easily amused and easily flustered. He's not particularly bright either, but he's the kindest and most innocent character in the series.

Even though Araiguma picks on Bonobono and Shimarisu, he really does care about the two of them. If someone else were to try giving them a hard time, he'd probably whatever he could to help them - it's one of those sorts of relationships.

In this episode, Shimarisu wanted to help the Beaver family's son learn not to be a cry-baby by belting him with walnuts until he learned not to cry. Kind of a twisted plan if you ask me. ^^

Shimarisu looks a little scary. He's got that determined look in his face, like he's about to lay the smack down with that walnut.

The pitcher winds up...

Flying squirrel attack!

Wow. This is Sunadorineko. He's an interesting character. He dispenses words of wisdom and advice to Bonobono when he needs help. Bonobono respects him; many of the other characters dislike him, especially the adults. He's basically the outsider who came to the forest, and who displaced the bear as the strongest animal. I think he's pretty darn cool. Nice shadowing on this cel.