Baka-Chan (愚かな友人, Stupid Friend) is an movie/manga by Manta-bee. It follows the adventures of 15-year-old Juno Shikuta and an alien girl named Ku and their very colorful friends.
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The Right Stuf International |
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Release date(s) |
May 15, 2011 (Japan) |
Plot
Juno Shikuta, a 15-year-old girl, goes to the arcade after school. A space pirate girl named Symola drops what looks like a small girl off at one of the arcade games, saying she's relieved to have the girl out of her life forever. Juno finds it when she's about to play the game, and believes it's someone's stuffed toy. She asks around if it belongs to anyone, when it starts to talk, saying "Symola doesn't like me anymore..." Juno notices and asks it "Did you just talk?" Ku is devistated at being left behind. Juno takes her outside and they introduce themselves. The small girl says everyone called her "Baka" and says that Juno can call her "Baka-Chan". Juno asks the girl where she lives, and she points to the sky. Juno then sees Baka-Chan really has no home nearby and offers to take Baka-Chan to hers, much to the small girl's delight. Symola gets a page from her comrade Tammer, and she tells him she dropped off the "Baka". Tammer tells her they needed the girl, due to a chemical component in her body needed to power up their weapon, as ordered by Imball, and orders Symola to get her back at once. Tammer picks up Baka-Chan's coordinates, as she had a chip inside her that would tip them off to it.
All their attempts to retrieve Baka-Chan fail when Juno is on to strange things going on and ends up rescuing Baka-Chan from the trio's attempts to bring her back with them. So Imball hatches a plan. And the plan is to have Juno drink a stupidity serum, as he figures she's "too smart" to get things past and will ruin their plan.
The next day, when Juno goes to the bowling alley after school, she is worried about Baka-Chan, but tries to take her mind off of her when she hangs out with her friends. When her friends Timmy and Hilda depart, Juno sits at the bar, where a conspicuous bartender approaches her and notices her worried expression and offers her a fizzy berry-flavored soft drink "on the house". Juno guzzles it, but then gets dizzy and faints.
Imball feels accomplished and returns her to her home where they found Baka-Chan's coordinates. The next morning in school, the stupidity serum has taken effect and Juno is blurting out random things in class and fails all her schoolwork. Her human friends are concerned for her.
When Juno is trying to return home, Tammer kidnaps her and takes her to their base. On the way, Juno makes silly observations. They intend to interrogate her, but to no avail, as she's still stupid from the serum. Symola arrives with Baka-Chan, and straps her into a device where a laser or some sort of gun will extract the chemical needed. She reverses Juno's stupidity serum effects, and Juno finally knows what's going on. Juno sees Baka-Chan and realizes they stole the small girl from her house. Juno asks how they found out where she lived, where Tammer explains his coordinate seeker, to which Juno reacts in revulsion, calling him a stalker.
Baka-Chan makes herself bigger, breaking the restraining device on her, then saws off the rope restraining Juno by making her nose like a swordfish's, and the girls attempt to escape.
As Juno runs for it, holding Baka-Chan, Symola tries to stop them, and jumps and kicks Juno. Baka-Chan runs for it and Juno ties Symola's shoelaces together before the woman notices Baka-Chan is headed for the "shiny buttons" on the control pannel. When Baka-Chan gets her hands on more controls, she activates the trap doors beneath them. Juno tells Baka-Chan to jump into her arms. She jumps but misses as Juno falls and Baka-Chan jumps after her.
Juno lands in a pile of mud below, and sees that Baka-Chan is still falling. Juno yells that she's got her and she catches the small girl, who crashes into her and pushes them both in the mud.
Juno says she is glad she's safe. Baka-Chan says she still doesn't have a home. Juno says that Baka-Chan can stay with her as long as she wants. Estatic that she's got a new best friend, Baka-Chan jumps around with excitement. And Juno says she doesn't want to call Baka-Chan by that name, and insists on calling her Ku, which the small girl reacts with joy from having a second nickname.
Ku is introduced to the Ratz Girls (The Gals in the Japanese Version), a group of airheaded valley girls (Kogal in the Japanese version), who immediatley take a liking to her because of her light hair and dark skin, and treat her like their new best friend and a new member of their group (though this might have been plainly out of spite towards Juno to hurt her by stealing one of her friends). Ku seems delighted that she has new friends but Juno warns her about their nasty ways. The Ratz try and get Ku to act, talk and dress just like them, but in the end, Ku infuriates them with her lack of Earth knowledge and jepordizes them on a field trip at the space museum, causing her to get kicked out of the Ratz's group. In the end, Juno and her human friends are glad to have Ku back.
In the city, a tabby cat with an eye piece scanning a sign. The Ratz walk by it and attempt to prove they're smarter by reading the sign. Unable to read it as it doesn't have any words "worth reading", miffed at being outsmarted by the cat, they try to scare it away, but the cat attacks.
The next day at school, the situation is discussed by the students. Hilda and Juno are happy to hear this.
After class, when Mr. B's head has come undone and is a balloon floating around, the two girls head back to the park, but Ku shrinks herself and Juno down and climb a tree and meet its inhabitants, and that includes a red squirrel named Alicia, who tells them about a dragon that she knows, who she hatched from an egg and raised. After class, Juno and Paul set out to do a school project at the mountains near the local park and prepares with Ku to set sail on the creek on a raft made completely of foam noodles tied together. The Ratz try to interfere, and get pulled along. After getting ambushed by gummy bear pirates, the noodle falls apart. The three friends are saved by Twitty, but The Ratz get pulled in by the current.
The gang travel to another planet and meet the king. His daughter, Molly, a half-cat, half-girl alien being, is moody and sour. The planet gets invaded by space pirates and the gang and Molly get captured. The pirates happen to work for a ringmaster for an intergalactic circus where they force the creatures to perform
They later get news that Mali crash landed on a gooey planet and got stuck in the flub while it slowly sinks into the bubbling mess. The gang sets out to rescue her, and when they try to get off the planet, Juno puts on sunscreen, as they're taking a shortcut behind the sun, and when she offers some to Mali. After Mali's face had melted due to the quick trip behind the fiery ball, she is revealed to be one of the clowns from the circus. After his prank that involved fooling them into a rescue mission, his next prank involves sending the gang into an mirror universe where their opposite counterparts reside. But with the help of the mirror-Ratz and unwittingly of their counterparts, they pull the ultimate prank on the guy.
Up in space, wanted posters with Ku's face are put up everywhere. With the intergalactic Interpol questioning citizens if they've seen her. Tammer and Imball, in jail, revealing that they know where Ku is. They're taken to an interrogation room and tell their side of the story from the first episode, giving away the fact that she is on earth, and that she was last seen with a human girl. After knowing this, they set out a search for Ku.
When they reach earth the next morning, they abduct Mr. B, who tries to tell them he's changed, but they shoot a ray at him that changes him back to his old, brutish and rude self he was before (while restoring his long hair). While flying in the police spacecraft, they tell him who they're looking for and Mr B. says that Ku is his "daughter" and wants her back.
Mali the Catgirl is revealed to live on Earth now because her dad loves pudding so much, he came to stay there. She also says she found a strange, shiny yellow hump-shaped rock, which is revealed to be a lump of gold, and don't know why people want it so much, which she sings a song about. Mr. B. tries to grab the rock for himself, but Mali smacks him away with it. Not getting anything out of her, they set out again. Mr B. reveals he still has his memories as a teacher and says he knows where the human girl Juno would be, to which the officers say "Why didn't you tell us earlier?!"
When the kids are in for their last day of class, they notice their homeroom teacher is missing, to which Twitty (outside a window) whispers that it's party time. Ku takes on a rockstar form and sings a song about partying, until the principal comes in and tells them that they can't find Mr. B and he hasn't called in sick or made any excuse not to show up, which concerns her, due to not knowing whether they need to get the authorities involved.
Intergalactic Interpol comes in and demands Juno hand over Ku. The principal says unless the officer is a substitute teacher, he should leave the premises, unless he has certification to visit the school. The officer fires out a tube, that shrinks and traps the principal inside, and Juno makes a break for it with Ku, and jumps out the window on Twitty's back, and they fly off. Timmy grabs the tube, and runs to, presumably, tell the office.
As the dragon and spacecrafts fly into the sky, it is shown that the school has been notified as to what happened, and is now running a safety drill.
Before the three girls can comprehend what just happened, the space police gain on them, just as they think they can evade them, the ship activates a strange, magnet-like force and attaches them to the back of the craft. They panic as they ascend, thinking they'll die in the airless atmosphere of space, but a bubble covers them.
Upon reaching their destination, they find that Mr. B has chosen Ku to be the next candidate for President. And they also learn that a battle is being held to choose the new one in charge. Ku decides she wants to be a nice President and if she wins and were elected, she'd stop this violence and make peace with the other planets.
Characters
Raka-kuma-nakimako "Ku" Beeblez (Biburuburozu)- An extraterrestrial from the vicinity of one of the brightest stars of Orion. She is hyperactive, ditzy and often takes things literally. She becomes good friends with Juno Shikuta.
It is revealed she budded off the neck of Juno's homeroom teacher, and the fact that she is actually genderless, but called by female pronouns (though in Japanese, she will occasionally refer to herself using male pronouns). The lack of complete hormone flow from her host caused her to have a feminine/androgynous appearance and high voice.
She even answered to "Baka" meaning "stupid" because she got on the nerves of some of the other lifeforms. Juno did not want to call her that so she simply called her "Ku".
Juno Shikuta (Tzi-ta Junko) - A 15-year-old Earth girl. She makes friends with Ku as soon as she found her on Earth. She comes from a wealthy family, but prefers not to flaunt her wealth. As an only child, her parents don't really pay attention to her much, which left her alone most of the time. She has a middle name in the English dub of the anime, "Irene", which is only mentioned in the first episode, then never mentioned again.
Twitdragon "Twitty" ('Twittu-Dragonu) - A blue female dragon, who has sarcastic wit. Often says "dude". She has the ability to fly and breathe fire or cotton candy. She delights in tormenting the Ratz Girls.
Twitdragon has long blue hair, yellow eyes, and cyan fur. She has wings, two horns on her head and prominent claws.
In her humanoid form when attending the school, she has the appearance of a pale-skinned girl with yellow eyes and blue hair. She keeps her dragon tail and wings (often tucked into her shirt) in this form. It is this form in which she posed as Juno's cousin when she went to her school.
The Ratz Girls (Za Gyarus) - They are four large-headed girls that heavily emphasize on fashion, make-up and putting down anyone who doesn't act, dress or talk exactly like them or live their exact lifestyle. They hate Juno because she dresses "weird" (not altering her school uniform) and speaks without a high-pitched voice with a valley girl accent. In Japanese culture, they are similar to Kogal. When they are angered, they will make faces similar to the angry faces of the One Piece characters. They are often used to deconstruct how shallow society and culture are.
- Zoe (Ichigo) has auburn hair. Very preppy and ditzy. She is the most prominent of the girls. In the Japanese version, she is a Ganjiro.
- Natasha (Sakura) is dark-skinned. Puts on an "I'm the queen" persona. Bosses her friends and other people around. She says she hates things she can't control. In the Japanese version, she seems to be in the Manba style, although in the English dub, it is implied that she is African-American. In the original she may be actually be Japanese, unless her race (or any other human characters') is never mentioned.
- Gem (Ayu) is dark-haired.Gem is dark-haired and makes fun of anyone who she considers a "fashion disaster". She is very absent-minded and this puts her in very many dangerous (and humorous) situations. In the Japanese version, she is a Ganjiro, but instead of orange or blonde hair, her hair is a dark indigo color. She says she dislikes people who try to dress like everyone else, yet this is contradicted by the way she and her friends deliberatley dress like each other.
- Yolanda (Yoriko) is orange-haired and the least prominent of the girls, but promises to be just as airheaded and irritating. In the Japanese version, she is a Ganguro.
Secondary Characters
- Juno's Parents - Unseen, only mentioned. Have not appeared in until the end, where be they have been seen as cat/dragon-like beings.
- Symola - An agent working for an intergalactic agency. She would usually be annoyed by Ku's antics, and dropped her off at an arcade, where she was found by Juno. When her associates, Tammer and Imball told her Ku contained an element crucial to their project, she seeks out Ku to capture her once more.
- Tammer - Another agent working for an intergalactic agency. He is insecure about his short height, and will get angry if anyone makes fun of it or even comments on it.
- Imball - He appears to be the commander. And ordered Tammer and Symola to capture Ku. He then poses as a worker at the local bowling alley's concession stand and offers Juno a potion, disguised as a soft drink, that dumbs her down, so she'd be helpless trying to keep Ku from them.
- Mali the Catgirl - A catgirl from Planet Frolick. She may seem emotional and like a downer, possibly even a bit snobbish. She is captured along with the gang for an intergalactic circus. During the rescue, she reveals that she just wants to be a normal human, due to all the Earth stereotypes of her kind, and hates her tail, ears and catlike abilities. She previously stated she hated fish, which was a lie.
- Alicia the Squirrel - A talking red (not orange) squirrel.
- Mr. Beeblez "Mr. B" - A balloon-headed teacher that is obsessed with unnatural politeness. Ku budded off of him, and was his second head for a while. It was also revealed he was the president of another planet, but lost his memory, and dropped his brutish ways to become a schoolteacher.
Johnny Hoops (Jyanni Hupuso) - A talking basketball hoop, who is very intelligent.
- Timmy Harris (Tembo) - Juno's best male friend. He may or may not take a romantic interest in her. It is mentioned the Ratz tried to steal him from Junko when they thought the two were dating.
Aliens
- "Dribblehead" - A mopey alien with a tear-drop shaped head. He is the youngest of his two older, more aggressive brothers.
- The Spongehead - A clown from the circus with a large afro who plays pranks that include altering the fabric of reality. His voice is autotuned, and he tends to shout randomly in the middle of his sentences.
Cast
Please note that the voice actor listings are just ideas by the author
Japanese
| Character | Seiyu |
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| Ku | Aoi Tada |
| Junko | Ai Kobayashi |
| Twitdragon | Mayumi Iizuka |
| Johhny Hoops | Nobutoshi Kanna |
| Aricia the Squirrel, Mali | Ryō Hirohashi |
| Zoe | Sayaka Aoki |
| Gem, Tembo | Mayumi Tanaka |
| Yolanda | Akemi Okamura |
| Natasha | Urara Takano |
| Dribblehead | Sayaka Aoki |
- Additional
(pending)
English (Right Stuf Dub)
| Character | Voice Actor |
|---|---|
| Ku | Wendee Lee |
| Juno, Mali | Elizabeth McGlynn |
| Twitdragon | Rachel Lillis |
| Johhny Hoops | Christopher R. Sabat |
| Alicia the Squirrel | Kari Wahlgren |
| Zoe | Tiffany Vollmer |
| Gem | Kate Oxley |
| Yolanda | Luci Christian |
| Natasha, | Allison Sumrall |
| Timmy | Sean Schemmel |
| Dribblehead | Colleen Clinkebeard |
Additional
- Troy Baker
- Jason Liebricht
English (Teletoon At Night [Formerly Detour] Dubbing)
| Character | Voice Actor |
|---|---|
| Ku | Melissa Bardin Galsky |
| Juno | Kim Manning |
| Twitdragon, Zoe, Gem | Ashley Shecter |
| Johhny Hoops | Carey Means |
| Alicia the Squirrel | Alicia Schmundt |
| Yolanda, Natasha, Dribblehead | Manta-bee |
| Timmy | Brendon Small |
| Mali | Janyse Jaud |
Video Game
A video game for the movie was published by Cannonball Games.