One of the themes you probably realized by surfing on this website, is my adoration for a fictional character called J from the anime Bakusou Kyoudai Let's & Go!!
In this page you will find (in my opinion, filled with my own point of view and feelings) the story of J and later on what this character means to be. Get ready because we are going for a ride!
J's introduction starts with a simple whimper that allows the main characters Go and Retsu to upgrade their machines and grow as people. J is the last of the 5 main characters that is presented to the audience, but he is presented as an antagonist. His introduction episode shows him as a serious boy that is used as the means to show the potential of battle racing, a concept by the first season's main antagonist Ohgami.
As the brothers decide to accept the racing invvitation against Ohgami, J is presented to them as the one they will race against. Silent, focused, J wields Proto Saber JB, a car with the unfair advantage of being able to change forms because of a built in mechanism that can be manipulated by the built in controler on his arm. Even with this unfair advantage, the brothers get the upper hand, just to be defeated by an unfair move by Ohgami to stop their cars. Because of this loss, their cars are destroyed by J himself, that kicks them into the active volcano underneat the racing track.
This plot point is incredible because it links to the fact that the brothers, having experienced a major loss, start losing interest in their hobby, a feeling that can be mirrored by children that live such extreme situations. Thankfully, Professor Tsuchiya helps the boys to rebuild and upgrade their Mini4WD, a stample of many toy based anime to come.
J's next appearance, and probably one of the most important turning points of his character, happens at the Tokichi cup. This race is open to everyone, Ohgami makes J enter this race to show the capabilities of his battle machines to a bigger audience. As the race starts, J's first main character theme is presented: the fact that he can control the wind (even stated by himself). The major weapon his machine is it's air canons that can be charged and hit other Mini4WD to destroy them. With this power, J creates havoc around the tracks, destroying many machines without any remourse, even destroying Ryo Takaba's Tridaggear once he claims that he can control the wind.
He catches up to the Seiba brothers that try to call to his humanity, and it is during this race that a metamorphisis is seen in J's character. He, and you, the viewer, start getting flashbacks of a younger J, in shabby clothes, playing a wooden toy car. As quickly as these flashes appear, J disregards them, racing and trying to destroy their Mini4WD at any chance he has. He hits Retsu's Sonic, that gets damaged but stays on the race, and Go's Magnun keeps taking hits from J, his areodynamic chassis managing to take the blow of some of the hits. J's car ends up getting our of the track after Go stops its attacks and falls out of the track.
As the Seiba brother's celebrate, they are shocked to see J just jumping in the water to save his Mini4WD. This uncharacteristic action from someone that just seemed to be focused on destruction is a weird contrast, even more pronounced when you can see the angry expression from Ohgami.
To the viewer as for J, this is a big turning point for the character. Finally, the glimpses of flashbacks that had been are shown are explained. As J plunges holding his Proto Saber JB as a precious treasure, and we are transported back to a young toddler J with shabby clothes and a wooden toy car. Not much can be truly be said about J's past life now, but it can be guessed that J comes from a poor upbringing, but has joy none the less with his cooden toy car. No familiar figures are present in this flashback. This innocent joy is stopped when Ohgami comes in to picture, trying to smash the wooden toy car with his foot, having the small J leaping quickly to save his toy and having his hand stepped on, this act of violence is just recognized with a praise from Ohgami about J's fast reflexes, accepting the child to be trained.
The next part of his flashback, you see a young J, racing against teenagers, clearly in disavantage as the other boys go past him in a violent manner, disregading his safety. After that, you see the active bullying of J from those boys, as they throw the wooden toy car in between each other, J is trying get his toy back, but being uncapable to stop him. As this point, the observant viewer, can understand the importance of this toy. The wooden toy car is the only object that J can call its own. He does not have any other possessions (maybe because of his upbringing, or because of Ohgami's training, such answer is left to the viewer to decide.), this explains how protective he is of his toy, accepting being over and over again used as other's entertainement. Even if we only see this behaviour once, it can be guessed by the viewer that these actions were a recurrent thing under Ohgami's training. In this flahsback, the wooden toy car ends falling on the ground, getting destroyed and causing J pain as he starts tearing up. Such pain is only accentuated by the fact that Ohgami disregards it and scolds J for not being on his way to train.
A clear switch on his personality is seen after that. Like the toy was the last link to his innocence. J starts going up the ladder of Ohgami's child soldiers. Becoming has brutal as them, feeling no remorse about destroy their possessions, as these same people destroyed his. A stark contrast to the once innocent and empathetic child he used to be. As this flashback comes to an end. J is in tears, the realization that he did the same as his bullies, specially to innocent racers like Go and Retsu hits him very hard. With Proto Saber JB in his hands, he hears from the surface the voices of the brothers calling from him, snapping him out of his painful past memories and making him resurface both phisically and now metaphorically, because things would never be the same from now on...
J resurfaces, the brothers ask him if he is alright, showing him what is probably the first shreds of humanity he had in years. He nods only, showing them his Proto Saber JB. They throw a ladder to help him back in the track, J takes it. They offer their hands to hold. As J is about to take them, he is quickly stopped by Ohgami. With his abuser there, J recoils at first. The brothers try to get him out of it. But Ohgami, seeing J's behaviour, just tells him to go back to him, that he has embarrassed him enough.
Finally, with clarity from his ordeal, he makes a hard decision. For the time being, this decision is more important than expected. By cutting ties with Ohgami, it meant he could no longer have basic needs like a place to sleep or a meal, and yet, he decided to do it. J raises his arm and smashes against the floor the controler he had been using for his car. A clear act of defiance and breaking free from the ties that he had to both his car being used as a battle machine and the systematic abuse he had endured.
He accepts the brother's hands, finally breaking free from his abuse, accepting their kindness. Ohgami, defeated, just walks away from the situation.
With such actions, things change for the better for J. He is taken by Professor Tsuchiya and given a home. He uses his computer skills to help with tasks around the laboratory. But if all seems well, there is one thing that J still needs to do. He needs to deal with his guilt.
One of J biggest blemishes is the fact that he feels guilt for destroying other's cherished possessions. It is an entricate part of his personality after all. The last remourseful and evil act he did under the orders of Ohgami was destroying Ryo's Tridaggear.
The Takaba brothers share an everning near their tent by a campfire. Unknowingly to them, Ryo's Mini4WD is being stolen from under his nose. They get a glimpse of the shadow of the thief, but are unable to stop it. Ryo, is visibly angry by the fact that his destroyed car was stolen, and he wishes to deal with the situation by himself, something that is quickly changed by the worry of his brother Jiromaru to want to help, goes to the Seiba brothers to talk about the theft. Visibly upset at his brother, he is quickly told by the Seiba brothers to come to the Professor's lab for further clues.
Professor Tsuchiya declares to be uncapable to help, even if deep down, he knows what is going on, leaving the situation to resolve itself as the brand new father figure. Tokichi offers his help in a comical manner that is also not successful at the moment. And J enters the room. Quickly, something is not quite fine.
It is clear that Ryo's presence is a source of disconfort for J, that quickly explains that he can't help, just going back to his computer. The gang talks about the fact that J has decided to stop running, not fully understanding his feelings. And yet, there is a clear seed of doubt, since in between all of them, there is the suspicion of "What if he didn't truly change?" and this suspicion is raised to the viewer, with a shot of the professor seeing a sleeping J working on a broken down Tridaggear.
A new day brings new clues from Tokichi's detectives, he is sure that the culprit of the theft is J. Tokichi and the Seiba brothers follow J as he sneakly leaves the lab and makes his way to the woods, entering the Takaba's tent without a word. At the same time, he is caught by an irked Ryo, that is quick to stop him. As the scene dwelves into chaos, J is only able to speak when the Professor steps in and explains that he had decided to fix Ryo's Mini4WD using the parts of Proto Saber JB. As the younger children are quick to forgive him, Ryo has a different view of the situation.
In the series, Ryo is seen as calm, observant and direct with his words, and his actions speaks volumes. Instead of feeling pity or sadness for J's situation, he asks him to race him as an equal, showing respect towards him. J is unsure because his car is not in racing condition, but after getting parts to fix his own machine from Go, Tokichi and even Jiromaru, he finally accepts. The race is a clear mix of J being uncertain and feeling guilt about his own skills, but Ryo does not relent. He provokes J, wanting him to do his best. And once J gets his racer spirit back, you can see clear satisfaction on Ryo's expression.
Another big turning point in J's character is his complete defiance to being in debt. It is shown that his life was once saved by Rei, and that J feel that he owns his life to Rei. Using that debt, Rei instructs J to tell Ohgami about Tsuchiya's secrets. Something that J cannot bring himself to do, since now he is loyal to his friends and father figure. In the end, J ends up saving Gen's life. Rei understands that the debt has been paid and decides to give up on trying to manipulate J.
It is clear that J is incredibly greatful to be free from this situation, cutting as many ties as possible from his murky past.
The last big J moment from the first season is a slight retcon of his past (like he didn't have it rough already lol). As Ohgami manages to get as many battle racers in the finals of the Japan cup, the Seiba brothers ask J to participate in the race. J has helped Go in the past to upgrade his Mini4WD, and the brothers believe it's time for him to come back to racing. J complies, he uses his mechanical skill to create a new machine: Proto Saber Evolution. An all rounder Mini4WD that can be modified quickly to adapt to any kind of race. Unknowingly to him, Ohgami also has another racer that he wants to participate in the race.
The viewer will be presented to the Mini4WD American champion, R. R is a battle racer that has defeated the current American champion, and R is J's sister. This retcon shows that R and J had goals they wanted to achieve togheter: R wanted to be the best racer in the world, and J had to be the best racer in Japan. That seemed to be one of the reasons that they had accepted Ohgami's barbaric training, it is clearly seen that J feels bad about it, and it is R that remembers him to what their goal is when J feels like that.
In order to better herself, R decided to go to America to be the champion there. But after a plane crash, it was thought that she had passed away.
This was J's and most of the other character's version of the facts. To the point that J does not recognize a disguised R. It is only after the race that J manages to win, when R finally reveals her identity to a very emotional J. But instead of a warm reunion, she is quick to point out that he has betrayed them.
J and R's relationship is very murky, it is clear there is a lot of tension between them. R seems sure of her skill, she shows a superiority complex and is not afraid to point it out even to her allies. In the end, R accepts J's way of racing. There are no big goodbyes between them, as she simply just goes back to America to "enjoy the kind of free Mini4WD America has."
The character of R is a big icognito in the series, since her aparence is incredibly short, drops an emotional bomb shell, and as quickly, it's gone. It is important for J to understand that his sister is alive, but it anime (as expected since of the target audience) leaves this relationship as a second though, from the 5 main characters (that all have siblings), this is clearly the least developed one.
The second season, called Bakusou Kyoudai Let's & Go!! WGP, solidifies the five main characters of the show: Go, Retsu, Ryo, Tokichi and J. The five of them are part of the japanese team, the TRF Victoys, that enter the World Great Cup. This season is very Go centric. The majority of episodes have as a main character Go, to a comical point that even Retsu, that is one of the most level headed characters of the teams, is unable to see the cheating from the Italian team just to create "tesion" between the members of the TRF's, which unfortunely makes a bit of a less enjoyable watching experience when compared to the first season's interchangeable character growth episodes. They still exist in this season, they are far in between compared to Go's shenanigans. It is still an enjoyable view in my opinion, as the races were never this entertaining!
But I am here to talk, gush and go in full analisis about my favorite. There is one episode that, in my opinion, ends up solidifing J's character.
After Retsu's leg injury, J is nominated as the temporary leader. The TRF's are in a precaurious situation, as only 4 teams will advance to the finals, they are battling against other teams for the 4th position. This stressful situation will quickly explain J's awful decisions.
As a blemish from the past, Rei comes to pay a visit to J, understanding that he can be easly manipulated at the state he is at. Rei offers J the shark systems: a chip that will make a shark shaped sharp air current around a Mini4WD that can cut and destroy what it touches. J accepts it, but he does not use it. He even goes as far as trying it out, but removing his GP chip, so it does not retain information about this vile tool.
The race against the Savanna Soldiers doesn't go well. The team has a hard time securing the victory, J decides to use the tool. He places the chip on his car and quickly all hell breaks lose. Yes, he is fast, but he is creating chaos to the point of slashing in half Salima's Mini4WD. It is Go that calls him out about how wrong this is, that this isn't true racing. J manages to stop his machine, that thankfully does not harm him. He takes off the chip, defying Rei's manipulation once more and throwing it away.
As a reward for this, Proto Saber Evolution develops its own technique: Dolphin systems. Having learnt from the malicious technique it just had, the machine adapts. A air protective barrier shaped like a dolphin manifests around Evolution. It allows and helps J maintain balance and speed, it does not harm other cars. This symbolic special move brings us back to one of J's main themes: water.
Water is where J was "reborn", is when he decided to walk away from his evil manipulated past and be free. The themes of water, sea and dolphins will be integral to his character and some of the themes to make graphics and even merchandise about the character.
With the help of the dolphin systems, the team ends up securing the victory, that brings J to tears.
Who is J to me?
You might have read (or not, gosh i don't blame you, look at how much I wrote wtf???) my essay about J and think "Okay but why him???"
For me, J is a confort character. I recall the moment I first saw him diving to save his Mini4WD as a turning point for me. Yes, I was a young teen and I thought he was cute and all, and that the colors were pretty, etc. But the more I look at it now, the more I can see parts of J that blend with mine. I can see someone that had to become serious and apathetic because of his upbringing, someone that was allowed to be himself with time and a safe enviroment. Someone that was dealt a bad hand, but didn't gave up. Someone that is gender non conforming, that is understanding and gentle.
Okay, maybe I am not any of those, maybe I feel like I am some of those, and that's okay, because in the end of the day, the fact that J brings me confort, is all that matters.
The adult spin off Return Racers once more touches the fact that J can be manipulated, even if it's something as silly as being an idol TV host (whut?) in his adult years. But that even with such a thing happening, he still has passion for creating and racing.
J is many things to me, but most importantly, he just brings me joy. And if a piece of media can do that to you after so many years, it's because it's a good one.
Also let J and Ryo kiss, please, I beg you!
