ZETMAN - Episode 1

That is one messed up hand...

For an introduction to the story, the first episode of ZETMAN didn't do so well. The flow of the plot was messy, with settings changing quickly and seemingly randomly, and the character designs weren't too great. The information regarding ZET and ALPHA, which I'm sure are the focal points of the story, was not even mentioned. There were a lot of things left half-explained, like who the Amagi kid was and about the families of both Jin and Akemi. First impressions are very important in terms of hooking viewers and it's unfortunate that ZETMAN didn't rise to meet expectations.

Upon reading other people's thoughts on the episode, the common consensus was that the manga was adapted poorly. One excerpt from the manga shows a totally different explanation behind Akemi's face injury. Personally, I found the manga scene to more fitting as the appearance of the random lizard-human in the anime was too sudden, especially since there was no prior reference to anyone of his kind. Despite this, I don't plan to read any more of the manga since I'd most likely be ruining the anime experience if I did so.

One thing that surprised me was the integration of drama into the story. What I thought would be a story solely focused people killing each other turned out to be different, and better than expected. Despite the fact that she's a prostitute, I really liked Akemi's character. She wasn't obliged to pay Jin for rescuing her, let alone care for him, but did so anyways. It is implied that she once had a son but had lost him somehow. Jin, on the other hand, had never known who has parents were. The bath scene, although partially for fanservice, I assume, was very heartwarming to watch since the two inadvertently filled the voids in each other's heart by becoming the one whom the other didn't have. Akemi's devotion to Jin shone even brighter when the two were confronted by that lizard-human as she seemed willing to risk her life to protect this child whom she has no relation to and had just met a couple of days ago. Her actions definitely reminded me about not judging a book by its cover; despite being a prostitute, she is probably a better human being than many others out there.

I was honestly surprised (and a bit relieved) by the lack of gore in this episode. Blood flying everywhere was about the worst it got, which was not gut-wrenching at all. However, the BDs may prove to be a different story. Anyhow, the first episode of ZETMAN was mediocre, at best. The story, which is a point of concern right now, is what needs to start improving. I'll give it a few more episodes before making a decision on whether to drop the show or not.