Game Center CX 1986: Mighty Bomb Jack - 53% New Footage (?)

Game Center CX 1986: Mighty Bomb Jack - 53% New Footage (?)

(This is after seeing the movie one time)

The movie starts with a Kan-narrated overview of what the show is all about played over famous clips from the show. It than cuts to an edited version of the Mighty Bomb Jack challenge, up to where Inoue is about to tell Arino how to warp in the game.

(After this, the movie cuts back and forth between the Mighty Bomb Jack challenges and 1986, so I'll just summarize the 1986 parts).

The movie then cuts to 1986, where the protagonist, Daisuke, is playing Mighty Bomb Jack in his home, lamenting having school tomorrow (a calendar from 'Sasano General Store', the candy store featured in the movie, is on the wall.)

The next day at "Kan City, Toujima Ward Junior High School" (I'm serious) the students are getting a stern pre-summer vacation talk from the principal (Masanobu Endo, creator of Xevious). While talking about Dragonball and Shonen Jump comics with his friends Makoto and Keita, Daisuke notices that Kumiko Kinoshita is looking, and even smiles and waves at him, making him if wonder if this pretty girl likes him.

A conversation in the classroom later on reveals she likes NES games, having played "Something-Bomb-Something" at a relative's house and having a console herself. She and Daisuke both think its Mighty Bomb Jack, so (after some planning and fantasizing), Daisuke says he'll loan her his copy tomorrow.

Hanging out with his friends at Sasano General Store after school, Daisuke's friends tell him that if you go to the back shutter of the store on a Friday, you can get next Monday's Shonen Jump early. The next day, Daisuke forgets the game on purpose, as part of a plan on how he'll loan it to Kumiko, and gradually win her over. After school, its games at Makoto's house, while vaguely chatting about how Makoto read "If you use three medals on Stage 13 of Mighty Bomb Jack, something happens" in a magazine. Unable to remember exactly, they keep playing.

Still fantasizing on Wednesday, Daisuke takes Mighty Bomb Jack out to loan to Kumiko, but the class bully Kato and his underlings see it, and Daisuke 'lets' them 'borrow' it. Daisuke realizes Kumiko saw him loan the game he promised to loan her, takes critical damage in an RPG-style menu, and collapses. After school as his friends copy a game from a Disk System machine, they talk about another class's Tsuruoka, who had his copy of Kung-Fu Master perma-borrowed by no other than Kato.

After a sleepless night of fretting over how to confront Kato, Daisuke decides to just ask for his game back, only to have Kato say he loaned it to the legendary upperclassman delinquent, Abe. Later, while picturing a life of being a man who let a game be perma-borrowed, including a scene of him as an old man being asked what ' perma-borrowed' means by his granddaughter (played by Toujima's daughter, Karen), he decides he can't let this happen. Envisioning fantasy game-style scenes of getting his game back and saving Kumiko, he's hit in the head by a soccer ball, which shakes him back to reality as the soccer player apologies.

Friday dawns and Daisuke asks Kato for his game again, only to be told to 'Go ask Abe for it yourself'. After school, he does just that, going to Abe Motors (all motorbikes, and Abe's father is played Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of the Yakuza series). After Toshihiro yells for his son, Kouichi (so yes, the big villain of the movie has the exact name as Cameraman Abe), Daisuke enters Abe's Yuyu poster-decorated lair. There he sees that both Kato and Suda (the VE guy's name) are small fry in a big group, as well seeing Abe struggle with Stage 13 of Mighty Bomb Jack.

After thinking of how to ask for his game back and fantasizing of a kung fu showdown, Daisuke meekly asks for it, and Abe says he'll return it if Daisuke beats the level. After some Arino-level play, Daisuke grabs his game and flees.

A chase scene (with a piano cover of 'Last Continue') ensues where Daisuke's fleeing is overlaid with Mighty Bomb Jack's evading enemies, and as he reaches both Sasano General and his limit for running, Daisuke realizes it's Friday, and sees the 'early issue of Shonen Jump' shutter from before is open. Desperate, he enters.

Daisuke is then standing in the audience of Hitotsubashi Hall, where Arino is challenging Mighty Bomb Jack. Unable to grasp what's happening, Kan tells Arino to choose a helper from the audience, so Arino chooses "The kid over there!" Daisuke then takes the place of the nameless kid from the Mighty Bomb Jack live challenge (albeit without the glasses...). Remembering what Makoto said from before he, uses three of Arino's coins as he challenges Stage 13, fails to play well, and leaves the stage.

After the live challenge, he exits confused into 1986, and encounters Kumiko. About to lend her his game, the soccer player from before exits a store and joins her. Realizing they're a couple, and that the game she played was Bomberman, not Mighty Bomb Jack, Daisuke parts, and later cries as he runs down the shopping district as the credits roll. After the credits, the 4th wall is shattered as Arino stops him and gives him a bouquet, thanking him for his hard work on the movie.



Kibe's original script/book's influence is still there, in the settings, and especially the internal monologues and fantasy/RPG segments. Overall it was a good movie that made me smile and laugh some, but as a GCCX fan, I'd rather have seen more of the 1986 segments and less of clips from a challenge I've seen many times before.