Anime: Zetman 103h6r

Zetman is probably one of the largest letdowns in (very) recent history. It starts off as a Japanese attempt at a Western-style superhero with mature drawings and themes but then falls into the trap of mad plot rushing and juvenile idealism (yes, roriconfan's comment on Naruto-ish idealism is well founded). While the show does feature quite a bit of random killings, decent action, and a pretty interesting back story, the actual execution of the adaption really leaves much to be desired- especially in the final episodes.

Do yourself a favor, try the first two or so episodes of the series and if you like what you see, pick up the manga.

Animation:
The animation style is fairly unique, for once we're not spammed with overly cute looking characters. In fact, half of the cast is full of old, wrinkly dudes who seem to be unable to express any facial emotions other than contempt. While the character styling may take a little getting used to, the overall animation is fairly good. There's lots of detailed backgrounds and lots of battles. If you don't see someone get impaled or dismembered in a fight, you're probably watching some other series. Oh, there is also occasionally nudity thrown in as well- for the lolz I guess.

There are two complaints I have towards the animation. At some points the violence seems to be quite random with people being slaughtered by the dozen, which brings me to the quote "A Single Death is a Tragedy; a Million Deaths is a Statistic". There's just so much killing that you become desensitized to it all- so maybe when someone important meets his/her end, you don't really care. Second, this series has way too many barely-identifiable-yet-somehow-important characters that you're supposed to keep track of. All the old dudes just blend together in my mind to form the unidentifiable angry old dudes association.

Sound:
The OP and ED are both unique, which in my case was a good thing. The OP (at least the first part of it) gave the series a mature, dark feel. The ED was more of a relaxing, retro song that had a decent melody. The BGM, on the other hand, was nothing standout.

VA cast was mixed. Some of the VAs were good while others weren't. I felt that Jin had a bit of a cool flair but was a bit too melodramatic at times. Mamoru Miyano, on the other hand, was probably the right choice for Kouga given his infatuation with a heroic sense of Justice ("ore wa Gundam!" still rings in my head). As for the old dudes, I was never able to tell any of them apart, they just all sounded like... well... old dudes.

Story:
The back story is fairly simple to pick up, and is explained prior to anything else in the story- rich dudes genetically create creatures to fight to the death for their own enjoyment. Eventually these creatures (that can apparently morph into human form) decide to free themselves of their fate and end up living amongst humans- except that their craving for killing doesn't go away. Thus a prodigy creature called Zet is created to hunt and destroy other misbehaving creatures- called Players. Thus we follow Zet and his other (human) childhood friend, Kouga, as they strive to learn what is just and right in the world.

All in all, this story had great potential. The early episodes had a nice, dark touch with a very mature focus, there were lots of interesting character relations tying together all the main characters, and the pacing was brisk but manageable. Unfortunately, this is a case of "oops... out of episodes gotta hurry it up." So while there are lots of interesting side stories and developments, many are concluded in a very haphazard way (others aren't concluded at all), thus metalotaku's comment about the series leaving a "bad aftertaste".

Worst of all is the abused use of idealisms. For example, the Players apparently are happy going around blaming the humans for the Player's own actions- invoking another quote, this time from GTA - "don't blame me- blame society". Really now. The depth at which the story engages in these potentially philosophically stimulating ideologies is pitiful at best.

Character:
The primary characters, Jin and Kouga, are portrayed as two different types of heroes- one that never compromises and tries to save all and one that will make sacrifices for the supposed better good. It's an interesting relationship as these childhood friends are both friends and enemies at varying points in the series. These are both dynamic characters that change, for better or for worse, based on events that happen to them.

However, every other single entity in the series (and there are way too many of them) have very little exposition, and many of them play significant roles in the plot. It's extremely difficult to identify which ing characters are actually important- and betrayals come left and right throughout the entire series (be it political or romantic). As with the overdose in violence, you just stop caring at one point. Luckily, in the end most of the character relationships don't have any lasting significance in the series whatsoever, thus making you wonder why they bothered creating all the relationships in the first place.

Value:
I thought that this series would highlight the shades of grey between good and bad, and would develop interesting and lasting character relationships. Neither of these two expectations were met. While the early parts of the series were entertaining, the latter episodes just totally ruined whatever good will was developed in the earlier parts. I hear the manga is much richer in character development so I'd try my luck there if anything seems interesting.

Mazakazu Katsura offer us many great titles overs the last 3 decades and many have excellent anime adaptation: Wingman, Video Girl Ai (Absolute Classic), DNA 2, Is Pure... But this time it's an unfortunate case of ruined manga adaptation. The anime start looking promising but fall deep into mediocrity after that. Instead of select a smaller part of the story arc (or give the show a decent number of episode), they decide to pack as much story as they could wich lead the story to be so rushed that it's loose almost all dramatic and emotional impact. Plot is clumsly manage, scene change feel uneasy and character devellopment lack the time necessary for us to be able to relate to the character. After a rediculous climax, the epilogue somehow does a decent closure but the aftertaste is very bad. Too see so much potential ruined by poor way of adaptation is always sad, expecially considering it was the first tv anime adaption of a Mazakazu Katsura over 15 years... Plus the opening is one of the worst song I've heard in a long time. Awful hip-hop is never a good match for real anime! So definitly not recommended!

Point by point
Animation: Good Animation. Not outstanding but leave up to TMS standard.

Sound: Decent Voice Acting and BGM. Irritating opening. OK Ending

Story: Rushed, clumsy witch leads to lack of dramatic and emotioal impact.

Character: Somewhat likable character (Mazakazu Katsura great touch at time is perceptible) but the lack of time for devellopment cruely ruins the serie.

Value: Watchable once, nothing more.

Enjoyment: At first high, after that not very, in the end so-so..

Animated by Studio TMS, which never produced an above average work (its best attempts were Hundred Stories, Kenichi, and D.Gray-Man). Directed by Nabeshima Osamu who has directed all sorts of shows over the years, from children’s, to mahou shoujo, to fighting shounen. None of them managed to be above average either (the most famous amongst them are Saint Tail, Hamtaro, D.Gray-Man, and Lost Canvas). Can’t say there is much to expect from all that.

Zetman seemed very promising at first to me. It was dark, it had rather realistically drawn characters, it was very violent, and had people turned to monsters and using lots of gruesome superpowers. It would be a nice change from the average superpower shounen with its comical goofy kids and never-dying cast. And yet the anime managed to make me lose interest just from the pilot episode by being nothing but a parody of Power Rangers. By parody, I don’t mean it is funny but rather that it makes fun of the genre than being the mature seinen show I thought it would be. It is just than it is obviously poking at the stereotypes and saying “We will have more violence and sex than Naruto but it will otherwise still be like Naruto.” So yeah, it is still just dumb and it is not going to require any brain cells to figure out what is going on; the storyline is just what it appears to be. Idealistic good-hearted kids taking on evil organizations run by adults. They are just more selfish and violent than usual; something that hardly offers more depth to those who got bored of the easy going violence of normal fighting shounen and want more gore.

So, what is the story all about? There are these people who can mutate to monsters and are used by the rich and powerful in death matches for amusement. Some manage to escape and believing they are better than the rest, they start causing several deaths and mass destructions. The hero is a poor orphan who lives in some slum and after his friends and family are attacked by said monsters he decides to protect them by turning to a slum gang leader who transforms to this macho monster and kicks ass of bad monsters who mess with his buddies. Plus, there is this rich kid who thinks it’s a paragon of justice and forms a team of school kids who protect the town from the monsters. There you have it, the protection complex strikes again and that is all you get. Oh, and there are token cute girls in there just for the sake of having some piss poor platonic romance. They are as important to the story as sand is to Bedouins. YAWN!

The cast is not any more complicating or realistic than your typical Power Ranger characters; they are still easily divided into good guys (always dumb teenagers) and bad guys (always ambitious old dudes) and it is just the depressing and violent backgrounds that make them appear to be a bit unusual. The illusion breaks very easily when you figure that they are not doing much with all that other than having them as dressing. Heck, just listening the more than corny dialogues is enough; they all talk like their IQ is around 80 and repeat the same 50 words over and over again (protect, power, superiority, stronger, love, etc).

Also, although I never read the manga (and after seeing the premise in the anime I probably never will) everybody who did, claim that it messed up the character depth of the manga source (whatever depth you could get in such a story that is) by rushing through several events instead of investing time to flesh them out. So the pacing of the plot is extremely fast, to the point lots of important events happen without the proper duration. That tends to make you not care if people die and stuff blow up in a few seconds. I mean, seriously, the first episode alone felt like a summary of six episodes instead of one normal one.

The artwork is definitely the best part about it… and still bad compared to the manga. It looks detailed and mature until you start looking at the fine details. The facial grimaces for example will feel way too off for such a setting to the point it feels like comedy. They react in very woody ways like it is all a bad theatrical play. And the action scenes are flashy on a very superficial level but otherwise lack any great fighting choreography. They are just dised simplistic attacks and the hero is unbeatable, so they lack excitement entirely. You may enjoy it for the gore but even that is censored and doesn’t last too much; so again YAWN!

The soundtrack is also nothing memorable. Despite sounding like an old fashion ballad at times, it is still far from ear catchy. It feels colourless and having to endure all the corny dialogues of the characters your impression won’t improve much.

So in all the only thing I liked is the rather detailed and realistic artwork. Nothing else seems to be above your dumb Power Ranger level, despite the show boasting to be a dark and violent seinen. Its ideology is still shallow and there have already been several other similar titles over the years that did far better; some of which are the following: Devilman, Guyver, Parasyte, Tekkaman Blade, and Soul Taker. I liked those far more in their early stages than Zetman and it’s not because I grew older or I don’t like buckets of blood anymore. The presentation simply sucks in this one; it is lifeless and shallow. Nobody with above minimum demands should give it a try or expect anything other than a forgettable time waster.