Bruno

Bruno is a Japanese anime series created by Fuji Television and animated by Fujiko Fujo. The show was popularized in Mexico with the title Bruno y los Bananamigos with the original cast of the syndicated cartoon series, El Chavo del Ocho and popularized in the United States with the title Bruno in the Banana Bunch featuring voices by famous actors. The cartoon was a success through the Spanish and English versions and has been popular through the internet. Bill Burnett (of Chalkzone) contributed the music score of both versions.

The second season premiered in April 7, 2012 featuring a brand new opening sequence and a new theme song for both English and Spanish variations. The Japanese version's theme song still remains.

Plot
The show is about a young teenager named Bruno who was an ex-cobbler that turns into a famous street performer, known for his circus clown acts and pantomime talents. Each episode consists of two 12-minute episodes, accompanied at the end by a music video sung by the cast (was not included in the Japanese version but was Spanish dubbed in the Spanish version). Many running gags is that during Bruno's shinanigans, he would cause pain to others, he would misunderstand Ami's Japanese dialogue, call people names including a scene showing them as the names they were called and involving Bruno fighting. The cartoon's theme song in the first season was called "Bruno y los Bananamigos" and was later English dubbed. The show's second season featured brand new opening sequences and a new theme song, from El Chavo. The show takes place in Little Tokymexico, a utopia-like vecinidad neighborhood that is based on Little Tokyo and Mexican barrios in which the customs and cultural references are both Japanese and Mexican. The text in the series in the English version are Japanese, Spanish and English. The neighborhood's slogan is: "Combination of Hispanic and Oriental culture". The main foods that are served in the series are ichiraku ramen, sushi, ham tortas, souvlaki, tacos, sashimi and other Asian and Spanish foods. There is a lightrail train in the town called "Conjunction Junction", based on the song from Schoolhouse Rock! where it connects the two points of the town to both Tokyo, Japan and Mexico City, Mexico. Some of the characters speak Spanish and English. Minimum characters speak Japanese and some of Asian descent or Japanese ethnic speak fluent Japanese. The cartoon is known for it's diversity of races involving sharement of Mexican customs, Japanese cultures and Americanism.

A movie, animated by Fujiko Television and Anima Estudios with Warner Bros. Animation was made titled Buruno to Kobura/Bruno y el Zapatero ("Bruno's Big Movie" in English version). The movie featured all Spanish, Japanese and English voice cast reprising their roles in the movie. The movie is about Bruno defeating an evil wizard from stealing three lucky golden balls. In the movie, Bruno does not have any spoken dialogue in the newly made scenes, except for the end. Most of the scenes in the movie are recycled clips from episodes. The movie only aired in the internet on Youtube.

Characters

 * Hector Juan Cornelius "Bruno" Julio Cortez: Voiced by Ari Orikasa (Japanese), Jesus Guzman (Spanish) and EG Daily (English). A Mexican-American 12-year old teenager who gave up working as a cobbler and became a street performer in the circus and performing as a mime. He is distinctivly known for the nails in his mouth which he almost never removes, even talking with them, due to being a cobbler, similar to Tack from the Theif and the Cobbler. Because of his mime talents, he can make any imaginary and/or invisible objects he mimes into reality (example, he mimes making a skateboard and an actual skateboard appears after he was done building). His main weapon is the Mimepault, which involves grabbing one of his tacks and flings it at the exact target with an invisible slingshot (or rubberband), although the tack flies out of nowhere, the tack appears back on Bruno's mouth with no explination. In the Spanish version, he is most talkative while in the English version and Japanese version, he speaks less but makes wise-cracking remarks in later scenes. He is nicknamed "Chavitio" in the Spanish version. In the Japanese version, he has three nails instead of two but it was painted out since the Spanish and English version requires the character to have a speaking role. He always have a craving for ham tortas, a popular kind of sandwich in Mexico and souvlakia, a popular gyro-like food in Greece. He also tends to like empanadas, chocolate cake and chicken soup. When he is not as a performer, in a rarely basics, he has dark skin, sports a Mexican brown poncho, wears a red shirt, jeans and wears sandals opposed to his sneakers. In the pilot episode, Jules de Jong voiced him in the English version.
 * Maruko/Jhack Lemon: Voiced by Meiko Nakamura (Japanese), Mario Castaneda (Spanish) and Steve Valentine (English). A British-American singer who is based on The Beatles' leader, John Lennon and is a rock star musician. His name, Jhack, means that he's of Hispanic descent but it's uncertain as he makes less appearance. He can understand Japanese, Arabic, Turkish and Yiddish.
 * Eiichi Kite/Lippington Charles: Voiced by Mayumi Tanaka (Japanese), Sebastian Llapur (Spanish) and Corbin Bleu (English). An African-American rich entreprenuer child who tries to outsmart Bruno. His first name is a homage to his distinctivly cleft lip which is alot seen during his nose-in-the-air clump routine.
 * Mojari & Mojaru/Beaver and Pighead: Voiced by Sanae Miyuki & Megumi Hayashibaru (Japanese), Jesus Guzman & Juan Carlos Tinoco (Spanish) and Mike Judge (English). Two anthropomorphic animals who are a deep parody of Beavis and Butthead. Beaver (real name Beaverton) is a fan of KISS and Pighead (real name Hogginton) is a fan of Hot Chelle Rae. They watch on a Japanese channel called TokyoV! (Groovesicle in English version, as a homage to MTV) which features music videos. They were created to promote the revival of the classical Beavis and Butthead series. Unlike the previous series, their disgustingness and rudeness were toned down for children viewers. They occasionally help Bruno with his situations.
 * Pieteko/Ernie Fredrickson: Voiced by Wataru Tagaci (Japanese), Victor Delgado (Spanish) and Mike Judge (English). A nearsighted man who is hopelessly confused. He is based on Hank Hill from King of the Hill and Tom Anderson from Beavis and Butthead in which all three characters feature the same character design, voice and distinctive characteristic features. He tends to have trouble with his shed breaking down due to Beaver and Pighead. Bruno often visits him to help him with chores in exchange for his wife's cookies (kaak in Spanish version).
 * Lucky: Voiced by Junko Hori (Japanese), Alfredo Lead (Spanish) and Tom Kenny (English). An Irish-American boy who dresses in Irish Leprechaun attire, similar to Lucky the Leprechaun from Lucky Charms.
 * Pierre: Voiced by Junk Hori (Japanese), Roberto Carrillo (Spanish) and Jeff Bennett (English). A French-American chef who cooks proposterous dishes and is known for his steroetypical chef attire. His best friend is Lucky.
 * Kazuo Takahata/Warren Stirrecube: Voiced by Hiroyuki Shibamoto (Japanese), Pedro D'Agullion Jr. (Spanish) and Tom Kenny (English). An English-American poet and actor who speaks in Shakesperian English, even his name parodies William Shakespear.
 * Juro Sakura/Vlad von Vlad: Voiced by Hiroshi Masuoka (Japanese), Carlos de Campos (Spanish) and Jeff Bennett (English). A Russian-American loner who enjoys reading and loves selling antiques.
 * Mami Sakura/Bell Tammy: Voiced by Keiko Yokozawa (Japanese), Diana Perez (Spanish) and Tara Strong (English). A Southern Bell girl who's partially Western, sometimes a tomboy and speaks with a Southern accent. She is the only main female character in the series.
 * Konpoco/Godinez/Paco: Voiced by Akari Hibino (Japanese), Armando Coria (Spanish) and Dee Bradley Baker (English). A dog with the appearance of a raccoon dog, tanuki and German shephard. In the Spanish edition of the show, he is named after a rarely seen character of the same name from El Chavo. He is the only character, known to date, with three different names from each edition of the "Bruno" series.
 * Ami Onukia: Voiced by Yuka Mita (Japanese) and Janice Kawaye (Spanish and English). A Japanese-American karate warrior who wears a sailor fuka uniform. She transferred from her home in Japan to the United States and is close friends with Bruno. Ami speaks in fluent Japanese with subtitles and not much characters understand her except Bruno. She is the only character in the series with two voice actors/actresses. Her parents only speak Japanese as well, being accopanied by an antropomorphic robot named Otto (voiced by Mugihito (Japanese), Juan Carlos Tinoco (Spanish) and Casey Kasem (English)) who translates their dialogue. Ami can understand English and Spanish but does not speak it. Bruno has a crush on Ami due to her adorable face and uniform. She deeply hates Bruno and wishes to kill him but Bruno is unaware of this due to him not being able to understand Ami. She can also speak Russian. Ami is also a soft-spot to cute animals and loves tormenting some people. She learned karate from her father and she usually eats with chopsticks. She never speaks English, only Japanese, but some people can understand her. Her father, Koji Onukia, is the chairman of a popular cooking show, Steel Chef. It is shown that she is not afraid of Bruno as in an episode where they found out she was rich, she ended the discomfert once and for all by beating up Bruno. Bruno is also kind of afraid of her. During the music videos, she is capable of speaking English, meaning she refuses to speak English. She also has special powers that transforms her into Sailor Sentai. Ami also has an older brother named Toshiro (voiced by Daisuke Suzuki) who is at the age of 15, speaks in fluent Japanese also, adores science-fiction and is very overprotective to her. Toshiro's appearance is based on common Japanese anime characters.
 * Hiroshi Atomi/Viktor Gorring: Voiced by Mugihito (Japanese), Sebastian Llapur (Spanish) and Steve Viksten (English). A Czechoslovakian man who was unemployed except an episode where he finally gained a job as a paperboy. He speaks in a heavy Eastern European accent which will best fit his unidentified Japanese dialect in the Japanese version. His voice resembles to that of Yakov Smiroff, even sporting his catchphrase "What a country!". Viktor is a con artist who is mostly hated by all characters. His English surname is based on German World War I soldier, Hernan Gorring. Viktor tends to con some people off their money and is known for his light pink skin, yellow teeth and guttural laugh ("HEhehehe!!!"). He also tends to borrow some money from other people and does not pay them back and has many fights with his wife causing him to sleep at different locations. He is also afraid of guns and knives, which gave him the excuse of getting more money by pretending that he got mugged. He is also known for his sad yawn ("Ehhhh???!") when disappointed and usually says another catchphrase "I am sorry" when he is busy. Viktor usually hums when he eats and his favorite food is sukiyaki.
 * Sabao/Franklin: Voiced by Rain (Japanese), Jesus Guzman (Spanish) and Candi Milo (English). An athelte who enjoys playing football and seeing the world. He can speak fluent Hawaiian due to living in Hawaii for several years and has a broken knee. He tends to be very sneaky, getting away with mostly everything. His father is the landlord of the apartment that Beaver and Pighead live in. It is stated that he is Norwegian-American and also loves bubblegum.
 * Bruno-5550: Voiced by Ari Orikasa (Japanese), Jesus Guzman (Spanish) and Junior (English). An android manufactured by Professor Tashimi as a replicate of Bruno, including his talents and agilities. He is the only character not to be voiced by a human actor in the English version, having his synthesized voice being provided by the Macintosh Macintalk voice, Junior (known for Robot Jones).
 * Tyrone: Voiced by Pedro D'Agullion Jr. (Spanish) and Tyler the Creator (English). An Anglo-Afro American gangster and rapper who is a deep racist. He works as a hip hop singer in a rapping crew that usually have rapping contests in several streets and public parks. He made less appearances due to racial controversy.
 * Mr. Wun Hyingh: Voiced by Sebastian Llapur (Spanish) and Baoan Coleman (English). A Vietnamese-American man who works in a Mexican restaurant. Her distinctive Vietnamese accent makes some restaurant cashier's difficult to understand, which makes it unlikely for her to get a meal. She speaks in broken English and wishes to talk to someone in fluent Vietnamese. He has lots of money, making him a big time gambler and is also a musician.
 * Cleokin: Voiced by Roberto Carrello (Spanish) and Jeff Bennett (English). A Nordic waiter who was born in Northern Scandinavian and speaks in gibberish approximating the Scandinavian language. He is the inventor of Fladoodles, moose hoove-produced foods manufactured by New York and shipped to Korea. He dresses in viking attire. He made less appearances due to lack of intrest.
 * Gin Ishimaru/Sydney "Sid" Wotan: Voiced by Koji Yusa (Japanese), Jesus Guzman (Spanish) and Tara Strong (English). A fox-faced inventor who is the "bad-boy" of the gang and likes making many gadgets. He isn't afraid of getting dirty and even has a pet frog named Sydney, after his owner. Sid lives in a motel with his drunken father and his caring mother. His surname (English version) is based on the supervillian comic character of the same name.
 * Kon/Ra'ad: Voiced by Mitsuaki Madono (Japanese), Roberto Carlos (Spanish) and Yuri Lowenthal (English). A mysterious lifeform who is the friend of King Kurodo (King Dudacus in English). He was created by Kisue Uehara (King Stoked in English version) who mysteriously passed away. Ra'ad is the official mascot of Okinawaland (Radopolis in English version). He was departed in the second season due to copyrighting issues.
 * Yasutora Sado and Nozomi Kujo/Texas Tom and Sassy Sue: Voiced by Hisako Kanemoto & Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese), Mario Castaneta & Diana Perez (Spanish) and Roger Craig Smith & Grey DeLisle (English). Two rich entreprenuers from Texas who plan to make businesses around the world and wish to spend their money by buying anything they get their hands on. Their bulltruck can transform into a robotic monster but both of their weaknesses, and the robots, are Texas music that makes them dance uncontrollably. They tended to make their own food restaurant but it caused many weight problems and causing bankruptcy with noodle shops. The two aren't neccesary evil but are misunderstood on running businesses on foreign countries and cities.
 * Kilroy: Real name Robert Orin Charles Kilroy, he is a futuristic man who believed in rock-and-roll and was prisoned by MMM, an anti-rock and roll group led by Dr. Righteous. He goes incognito as one of the robot guards to meet Jonathan Chance, a musician who plans to bring rock-and-roll back. As in the original Japanese and Spanish versions display Kilroy as a mute, due to being fused by the machine, he was given a voice in the English version being both voiced by Dennis DeYoung and the Macintash voice "Ralph".
 * Seoul Ling-poo: Voiced by Hisako Kanemoto (Japanese), Roberto Carrello (Spanish) and Steven Blum (English). A Chinese-American teenager who works as a delivery boy in an Oriental takeout restaurant. He is a fan of sci-fi movies and is the inventor of the Jiangshi Remote, a universal remote control that can work on anything and anyone.
 * Adobi no Kimodo/Adobe Kid: Voiced by Noriaki Sukiyama (Japanese), Mario Castaneda (Spanish) and Kevin Wu (English). A teenager who was raised in an adobe after his mother left him there. He is based on "Stoop Kid" from Hey Arnold!. As soon as he grews up, he tends to adore his adobe, terrorizing people who ever even looks at his stoop. He learned how to fight from learning from nature. During experiences with him, Bruno realized that Adobe Kid is afraid to leave his adobe after taking the football back and him not chasing after him. Soon, everybody hears about this and they mock him for his fear. Adobe Kid cries because of his fear and so Bruno tries to teach him about the world and show him how to conquer his fear. As soon as he finally went off his adobe, he changed. He still hangs out at the adobe but now, he can torture people on and off his stoop. Adobe Kid adores mint and strawberry ice cream with whipped cream, chocolate syrup and a cherry on top. He also enjoys reading "The Little Engine that Could" which also influenced him to get off the adobe. He has a public-free cable access television set that's portable. His English voice actor, Kevin Wu is known for Youtube as "KevJumba" and Cartoon Network for appearing in the Flicks block on the channel taking about the movies that will premiere in the channel. In fact, his appearance resembles to that of Kevin Wu and Kevin was recording Adobe Kid's dialogue during a filming production of a Flicks pre-commercial.
 * Dada/Schnulley "Wishbone" Goebbels: Voiced by Ryuuzou Ishino (Japanese), Antonio Banderas (Spanish) and Curtis Armstrong (English). A struggling teenager who does not have any money. He tends to fight alot, haves an infinity for explosives and lives in a trailer. He seems to be the opposite of Ami: being poor opposed to her being rich, loving explosives to hating explosives, living in a trailer to her living in a mansion and him being a nerd to her being popular. He gained his nickname, Wishbone, for collecting wishbones for luck. He seems to be friends with Viktor since there both feature the same qualities. His surname is based on World War I general, Joseph Goebbels, meaning he is of German descent.
 * Ssoso/Antonio Cortez: Voiced by Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Jesus Guzman (Spanish) and EG Daily or Carlos Alazraqui (English). Bruno's cousin of Mexican or Spanish descent. He is a television actor known for starring on novelas and cartoons. His appearance is based on Fez from That's 70s Show. In fact, his father (Bruno's uncle) is voiced by Fez himself, Wilmer Valderrama. He has a crush on Ami, just like Bruno. Instead of having nails in the mouth, he has bolts in his mouth. He was originally voiced by Carlos Alazraqui but due to fear of Latin stereotypes, EG Daily (voice of Bruno) voiced him, making him sound exactly like Bruno.
 * The Feather Line Gang: Voiced by Kenji Nojita (Cheng), Maomi Inoue (Sasha) & Masami Kikuchi (Wang) (Japanese), Sebastian Lluper (Wang), Jesus Guzman (Cheng) & Diana Perez (Sasha) (Spanish) and Bill Mondy (Cheng), Louis Chirillo (Wang) and Shannon Chan-Kent (Sasha) (English). A trio of gypsy crooks who do petty crimes to win easy money. They also have worked with Viktor for quite a short time. They are: Bingurre or Clown Cheng (a Chinese-American clown who left the circus due to low humor), Jumong or Shaman Wang (an Okinawan-American bungling magician who is the right-hand man of Jing-Jing) and Jing-Jing or Cheif Sasha (a Korean-American girl who is the leader of the gang). Jing-Jing has a crush on Sid.
 * Carly: A 22-year old librarian who is deaf and cannot talk so she communicates with American Sign Language and can read other people's lips to conversations. Antonio seems to know Carly very well. Carly has a brother named Brent who is blind and handicapped, due to a car accident. She has no voice actor due to being deaf-mute.
 * Hadetoshi/Mr. Limburger: Voiced by Mugihito (Japanese), Sebastian Lluper (Spanish) and Doug Erholtz (English). An unemployed widower who works as a mechanic on some cases due to his talents of fixing things. He is based on Don Ramon from El Chavo del 8, even sporting some of his catchphrases. He tends to appear at the wrong time during one of Bruno's shinnanigans and usually gets slapped in the face by Dona Florinda. When Bruno says something out of lime, he hits him in the head while saying "Toma" (Toshi in Japanese and Bam! in English version). He is one of the funniest characters of the show.
 * Mikko/Dona Florinda/Mrs. Lemon: Voiced by Ikune Ohani (Japanese), Diana Perez (Spanish) and Kate Higgins (English). The mother of Jhack Lemon who is always seen with curlers in her hair. She runs a restaurant called "Fonda Dona Florinda" (Lemon Cafe in English version) where it provides food such as spaghetti and meatballs, soup, dessurts and others. She is based on Dona Florinda from El Chavo del 8 and she tends to slap Mr. Limburger when he gets out of line.
 * Mrs. Yoshida: Voiced by Janice Kawaye. The 22-year of Japanese teacher at the Sashimichurro program and is Ami's mother. Like her daughter, she speaks fluent Japanese (even to her students) and her husband is a rich entreprenuer. She is a teacher of helping her students learn the Japanese language. Ami comes to the program everyday for support. Mrs.Yoshida is young and tends to get payed alot as well as her husband. Ami and Mrs. Yoshida are the reason that Jhack is fluent in Japanese. She is the only character that has one actor for three variations of the series.
 * Jaimito el Caitimo/Manuel "Manny" the Mailman: Voiced by Kenji Nojita (Japanese), Roberto Carrerlo (Spanish) and Doug Erholtz (English). Little Tokymexico's postman who immigrated from Tagamandapio (Upsidedowntown in English version) in which he talks about. He owns a bicycle but never rode it since he never learned how to ride a bike. He is 78 years old and is of Spanish descent.
 * El Chapulin Colorado: Voiced by Jesus Guzman (all versions). A Hispanic superhero with the appearance of a grasshopper who saves the day along with Spanish puns. He is Bruno's idol and has his own comedy show in the series at Channel Ocho (a channel consisting of cartoons). He is based on the El Chapulin Colorado created by Roberto "Chespirito" Gomez Bolanos.
 * Federico "Rico" Constanimas: Voiced by Masashi Ebara (Japanese), Irwin Daayan (Spanish) and George Lopez (English). An immigrant from Puerto Rico who is known for animating the famous cartoon "Mad Grandad" (parody of the fictional Angry Dad webisodes from the Simpsons). He created the internet cartoon based on his insane and heavily tempered grandfather: Ramon. He has a brother named Quico, known for his name as Tiny Tim who voiced some backgrounders in the cartoon and a sister named Popis who can play accordian.
 * Carmichael: Voiced by Koji Yusa (Japanese), Pedro D'Aguillian Jr. (Spanish) and Lee Tockar (English). A kid who smoked cigarettes on the streets (Tootsie Pops in the English version and Tutsi Chupa Pop in the Spanish version) and is usually on the scene if the show needed an extra kid. He is known for his shirt that says "Sai" and for his beanie cap with a propeller in it. Carmichael is a good enginner; turning his bike into a well-oiled motorcycle. He makes rare appearances but when he does appear, he's the most lovable.
 * Professor Innocino Jirafales: Voiced by Mitsuiki Madono (Japanese), Pedro D'Aguillian Jr. (Spanish) and Bob Bucholtz (English). The professor at Escuela, the school at Little Tokymexico where Bruno and his friends attend. He is known distinctivly for his long neck, his mustache, his coat and his crush on Dona Florinda. Whenever he gets annoyed, he shouts "Ta-ta-Ta-Ta-Ta-TAAAAAA!!!!!!", his catchphrase. He is based on Professor Jirafales from El Chavo del 8.
 * Toshiro Onukia: Voiced by Daisuke Suzuki (all versions). Ami's 15-year old brother who attends "Gakko", a Japanese high school at Little Tokymexico and Sashimichurro program (where his mother works). His appearance is based on Dragon Ball and Gundam anime characters. Like his sister, he speaks fluent in Japanese. He is very overprotective through his sister at in the Halloween episode "Kowai Hanashi/Historia de Horror/Horror Stories" as he demanded Bruno to bring Ami back home by sundown, in which he does not follow, in which he tracks down both of them, in his samurai costume to kill Bruno.