Baku is one of the antagonists in the original Onegai My Melody and its sequel. He's a purple tapir (often mistaken by humans for an eggplant) who serves as a sidekick to Kuromi. He tends to end his sentences with "zona". His name, while meaning "tapir", is also a reference to the folkloric creature of the same name that fed on dreams and nightmares.
Personality
Despite his looks, Baku is overall a friendly man. He gets along with people easily and even acts nicely towards My Melody and her friends when not helping Kuromi, to the point he sometimes apologizes to My Melo. Apart from Kuromi, he gets along particularly well with Chika-chan, and the owner of the oden stand, who he feels bad about when Kuromi uses the Melody Key on them.
He seems to dislike and envy those who are successful only for their looks and wishes to be in ``the winning team of life´´ like them. He dislikes being compared to eggplant and being a doggone loser, and this reflects in a more negative aspect of his personality: he sometimes takes pleasure in seeing members of the winning team of life become losers, and even mocks them in the case of Kakeru and Keichi. He can also rarely cause some mischief himself to these people, as seen when he interrupts Kakeru's song by hitting him with a fan in episode 38 of the first show.
He is a hard-working man, always waking up at four o'clock in the morning to deliver newspapers in the human world. That way he can earn money to pay for his and Kuromi's rent at Keichi Hiiragi's mansion, this is despite Hiiragi not asking any money from her (only Baku). At seven o'clock he always wakes up Kuromi despite the trouble she gives him. He also likes spending time at the kindergarten playing with the children, whom he talent taking care of and a soft spot for due to his role as the eldest brother in his home.
One of Baku's most defining traits is his crush on Kuromi. He cares deeply for her well being, even to the point of trying to stop the heroes from preventing the end of the world when Dar takes her life hostage. This love is due to her fiery personality, and her hidden kind side. In the end, while Baku desires to be in the winning team of life and be considered good-looking, his biggest desire is simply to be loved.
Trivia
- Like Kuromi, Baku has a journal where he writes down his moments with her. Hiiragi burns it in the middle of the first season, but he somehow retrieves it in the second season when they break out of jail.
- His first Doggone Loser beam is shot in episode 26 of the second season.
- Although Kuromi comes first for him, he also has a crush on the Tennis player Charapova-chan and on the kindergarten teacher Chika-chan, and just seeing them is enough to keep him refresh and help him go forward when things go bad for him.