Cool Shock B.T.
Cool Shock B.T. (魔少年ビーティー, Mashōnen Bītī, lit. Devil Boy B.T), or Magical B.T, is a short Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was first published as a one-shot in the 1982 Issue #3 of Fresh Jump, and then serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump (Issues No. 42-51) from 1982 to 1983. Cool Shock B.T. is notable for being Araki's first weekly serialization.
The manga is split into six chapters consisting of several short stories featuring the titular character, B.T., and his borderline-criminal escapades and misadventures with his often unwilling friend, Koichi. A volume compiling all the chapters was released on October 1, 1984.
The one-shot is also included in the volume release of Araki's succeeding manga, Gorgeous Irene.
Summary
Here's BT!
The first chapter narrates Koichi's meeting with B.T. and his grandmother. At school, Koichi meets with the two and is asked the direction to the principal's office to which Koichi obliges. B.T. playfully plays a trick on Koichi, pretending to spit many marbles out of his mouth when in reality he only spit one and had the rest of them in his sleeves.
The Summer Camp Incident
Koichi presents a disturbing incident that happened the last summer. In a summer camp, the present children were bullied by two upperclassmen, Kuroyama and Akagawa. However, B.T. was the only one immune to their taunting and was even defiant so the bullies decided to beat him up. For trying to help B.T., Koichi too was beaten.
Afterward, the children were shown playing by the lake, with Kuroyama putting a dragonfly in Akagawa's swimming pants for kicks. Koichi surprised B.T. with a sedated Japanese hornet in his hands. B.T. put the hornet in Kuroyama's jacket, also finding a knife in his clothes. However, it was Akagawa who was stung by the hornet which he found in his pocket instead, confusing Koichi. Later that night, Kuroyama was found stabbed in the guts with a knife. At first, Koichi believed that B.T. was the culprit but the boy explained that Akagawa did it and that he would get away with it since the camp's staff would silence the incident. Indeed, B.T. pushed Akagawa to stab Kuroyama by telling the bully that he saw his "friend" put something in his clothes earlier, referring to the dragonfly but letting Akagawa assume it was the hornet.
The Prank Corpse Incident
One day, Koichi surprises B.T. and an upperclassman named Ninomori plotting against another student named Date. Showing off his ventriloquy skills and how to fake a cardiac arrest by squeezing a ping-pong ball in his armpit, B.T. plots to swindle $1000 out of Date. It is revealed that B.T. is jealous of Date because he was courting a girl named Aiko whom B.T. had a crush on. For his part, Ninomori couldn't stand Date being better at kendo.
Koichi accompanies the two and witnessed Ninomori confront Date for a fake revenge. Ninomori notably breaks and stomps a memento from Date's grandfather, angering the man and causing him to make a serious strike. Ninomori falls and hits his head on a rock. Date is convinced that Ninomori is dead and B.T. barges in to blackmail Date, seemingly making him run to get the money. In the meantime, B.T. and Koichi discover that Ninomori really looks dead. Worse, Date comes back with a crowd and accuses the boys of having murdered Ninomori. Nonetheless, B.T. turns the situation around by using Date's memento and making it look like his grandfather is accusing Date from the otherworld. Ninimori actually comes to his senses, having unwittingly fooled everyone because his concussion from a sparring match made him fall unconscious.
Nonetheless, B.T. gets his wish as Aiko now looks down on Date for falsely accusing boys of murder.
The Two Old Guys Incident
Koichi and B.T. go fishing in the countryside, but their day is ruined when two strange men confront them. Those men are two thugs disguised as soldiers who kill animals for the kicks and take the kids prisoner. B.T. adopts a defiant attitude, amusing the leader who decides to make a bet. The soldier ties B.T.'s foot to the rear of a parked car nearby and asks B.T. to choose whether it will go left or right at the next intersection. If B.T. guesses right, a knife on the way will be available for the kid to free himself or else B.T. will be dragged across a harsh rocky road. B.T. chooses the left and the car does turn left; far from being lucky, B.T. has only analyzed the car's license plate and guessed its town of origin to know its most probable trajectory.
B.T. breaks his watch to get shards of glass and cut his bounds. The two men go at him, but B.T. uses a large array of tricks to keep them off him until the soldier grabs him and throws him into a truck's way. B.T. is almost run over, but mysteriously makes the thug run away by making him believe he's an ostrich. B.T. then performs a disappearance act to confuse the leader and throw a rock at his head, taking him out. It is explained that B.T. put a string around the soldier's tooth and tied it to the passing truck as he was flying, forcing him to run. B.T. also threw a rubber band at the leader's eye, blinding him for a moment and using a stick in his hands to throw himself up into the branches. As compensation for his watch, B.T. robs the leader of his money.
The Dinosaur Fossil Thief Incident
One day, B.T. and Koichi infiltrate a museum at night. It is revealed that Koichi has paid a visit to B.T.'s home, meeting an unknown woman on the way. More importantly, B.T. learns about and plans to steal the skull of a spinosaurus whose skeleton is being exposed at the museum. B.T. and Koichi enter the museum during the day and break into a storage room. A guard named Saiko catches Koichi, but B.T. distract him, allowing the kids to hide in a crate. In the process of stealing the skull, the boys trigger an alarm and Saiko comes to catch them.
B.T. sprays Saiko with a fire extinguisher to blind him, allowing the boys to run away. On their way to the exit, the boys cross path with the woman from earlier, but their interrogations are cut short when the woman goes away without explaining herself. B.T. and Koichi try to take an elevator but several guards come out of it. B.T. and Koichi nonetheless manage to enter the elevator without being caught, but are intercepted by Saiko. As a final ploy, B.T. bluffs Saiko into believing the stuff from the fire extinguisher and a hairspray will chemically react to create acid, and the guard is intimidated into letting the boys go.
The next day, B.T. confronts his grandmother about last night and she reveals that she manipulated B.T.'s fascination with fossils to goad him into stealing the skull. The ensuing chaos would then let her own agent, the woman, go into a safe room and steal the jewels stored there. B.T. can only acknowledge his grandmother's mastery, although he later tells Koichi that he did snatch a few jewels from the deposit point of the treasure by using Saiko's keys.
The Kid with the Creepy Freckles Incident
One day, Koichi's family is about to go out. Incidentally, B.T. discovers Koichi's well-trained dog. Just as it exits the garage, the family's car bumps into something and the family sees that they've hurt a freckled boy. The boy is fine but Koichi's parents feel guilty and invite him inside their home, hoping to not let the police know about the incident. The boy quickly overstays his welcome, eating directly in the fridge and "borrowing" Koichi's clothes but Koichi's family do not know what they ought to do.
The next day, the freckled boy takes a liking to Koichi's dog and tries to make a bet. B.T. accepts on Koichi's behalf and the two boy each place a candy near an anthill to see whichever candy the ants will go to first. Amazingly, the freckled boy's candy is picked by the ant and he wins the dog. It is explained that last night, the boy has placed insect repellent near the anthill and made it so B.T. would put his candy here. Next, the boy's family comes but instead of picking up the boy, they pressure Koichi's family into letting them stay. The boy eventually privately gloats to Koichi and B.T. that his family has already intimidated the father into servitude and is planning to ruin him. B.T. decides to save Koichi's family.
This evening, B.T. serves a plate of sashimi to the boy's family, only to reveal that it was blowfish sashimi. The whole family except the boy collapses, angering him and pushing him to pursue B.T.. After the family is taken by an ambulance, the freckled boy sees the dog and foolishly follows him. The freckled boy eventually sees B.T. and throws a knife at him, but he's then bumped by a truck. Thus, the whole family of intruders has been pushed out of Koichi's home. B.T. reveals that he hasn't fed blowfish to them, but instead slipped cyanamide in it. The cyanamide prevents the digestion of alcohol, causing stomach pains and explaining why everyone save the boy have been affected. The series ends here.
Pilot
The story begins with B.T. and Koichi walking together when an upperclassman suddenly appears. B.T. and the senior play a game (which they seem to have been playing for some time) in which B.T. tosses a coin in the air and catches it, and the senior tries to guess in which hand the coin is. However, the senior loses again and must give 100 yens to B.T.. As he angrily throws the coin at the ground, he demands a rematch but B.T. refuses. When the senior leaves, B.T. cheekily shows to Koichi that he had been hiding the coin behind his fingers to trick the senior. Then, an upperclasswoman gives the coin to B.T.. It is Fuyuko Nakagawa, a girl B.T. has a crush on. Seeing B.T. frozen still because of his shyness, Koichi teases his friend about Fuyuko.
Later on, B.T. and Koichi see Fuyuko being arrested by the police and learn that she's accused of having murdered a reporter. At the police station, a fat policeman interrogates Fuyuko, who confesses to the murder. Supposedly, the reporter had invited Fuyuko in his house because he had found her wallet but then had tried to assault her. She defended herself with a pair of scissors and accidentally stabbed the reporter in the back before fainting from the shock. A child and a pair of policemen stumbled upon the scene and Fuyuko was quickly arrested for murder, even if it was in self defense. Upon learning of this story through a policeman, B.T. decides to investigate the house and prove Fuyuko's innocence.
That night, B.T. and Koichi break into the reporter's house and stumble upon a secret envelope full of incriminating photos. The next morning, B.T. calls the fat policeman and accuses him of the murder. In truth, the reporter was merely hurt since he was able to rip his rug and it was the fat policeman (the only one who was present, alone and conscious when the reporter died) who finished him off. Moreover, B.T. shows a photo of the fat policeman working with the yakuza and concludes that the policeman must have had killed the reporter because he was being blackmailed. The policeman draws his gun to kill B.T. but the latter throws a rubber band at the policeman's eyes, blinding him for a second before hiding somewhere. Koichi and a second policeman reveal themselves and arrest the fat murderer. It is revealed that B.T. had hidden underneath a table and used two mirrors to cover his hiding spot.
Fuyuko is declared innocent and freed while the real murderer is imprisoned. However, Koichi has in his possession a photo of Fuyuko stealing a wristwatch. Koichi anxiously realizes that Fuyuko was also being blackmailed for her crimes. Worse, perhaps she actually intended to kill the reporter and made up the assault story to cover up her crime.
Characters
Volumes
| Volume 1: Cool Shock B.T. | Release Date: | ISBN: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (魔少年ビーティー Mashōnen Bītī) |  October 9, 1984
|
978-4-08-851018-7
| |||||
| Tankōbon Titles | Weekly Shonen Jump Titles | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Gallery
Chapter 1 Cover (Weekly Shonen Jump)
WSJ 1983 Issue 42 Illustration
WSJ 1983 Issue 42 Inside Illustration
- CoolShockBT.png
Clean Cover Illustration
Spine Art Illustration
- BT Cover Art.png
Bunkoban Cover Illustration
Original Paper Back Release
Bunkoban Re-Release through the "Bizarre Universe of Hirohiko Araki" Collection
Bunkoban Re-Release cover through the "Bizarre Universe of Hirohiko Araki" Collection
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Manga cameo in the anime
Dio & Magic Boy B.T Comparison
Jump Remix Edition featuring Cool Shock B.T and Baoh
JOJOVELLER Artbook (Inside Illustration)
Trivia
- Araki based Cool Shock B.T on Sherlock Holmes, mainly the series’ use of intellectual warfare.[1]
- Araki took inspiration from B.T. when designing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure main antagonist, Dio Brando's initial appearance and demonic nature as a kid.[2]
- The arrows featured during the internal monologue scenes in the anime are an homage to the arrows that appear whenever B.T. is scheming.
- During the ending credits of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, a copy of Cool Shock B.T. can be spotted on Rohan Kishibe's bookshelf.
- The series' publication happened much later than intended due to a misunderstanding between Araki and the editorial department. Due to the title's use of the phrase, Devil (魔), Araki had to persuade the department that the contents of the series had nothing inherently satanic in it, something that was not allowed at the time.[2]
- B.T.'s initials are a nod to famous mangaka Buichi Terasawa, author of Cobra.[3]
- The character Koichi Hirose from Diamond is Unbreakable is likely a nod to B.T.'s Koichi, as the two share the same first name and are the respective narrators of their stories.
- The guard Saiko from the 5th chapter bears a resembelance to Don Peckinpah from Araki's debut work, Poker Under Arms.
- B.T.'s grandmother resembles Erina's appearance in Part 2.
- The coin trick that B.T. uses in the opening scene of the pilot appears to be the same one shown in the end of chapter 2.
