ZETMAN - Episode 4

Most artistic shot of the episode right here.

What? Another time skip? It's as if the producers thought the story wasn't moving along fast enough. I mean, seriously, give the viewers some time to digest what's happening before moving on to the next part. The rushed-pacing has made it hard for me to enjoy the show and there were times during this episode where I wasn't even sure what was really going on. The new girl barely got any screentime, making her introduction quite weak. Her character doesn't seem interesting at all to me; to put it bluntly, she's just a typical klutz that's there for comic relief and to contrast with Jin's serious personality.

The only interesting new character was the mysterious Sweeper. While he doesn't seem to be on the Players' side, the ending shows that he isn't on Jin's either. To me, the Sweeper seems like an enforcer of some sort, with his job being to watch over the battles between the Players and ZET/ALPHAS in order to make sure they're fair. The white cloak he wears may symbolize both authority and purity, which further backs up my claim about the Sweeper being an enforcer. And although this isn't the first time the Sweeper has made an appearance, I doubt his identity will be revealed anytime soon. In fact, I expect him to show up a few more times in the future before someone exposes him. The blue sparkles that appear when he stabs someone is what I'm the most curious about.

The next episode preview gave me some hope and temporarily stopped my slowly declining interest in this series from dropping any further. With Konoha seemingly in danger, I'm quite sure that Jin and Kōga will end up seeing each other again. Furthermore, there'll probably be another disagreement in regards to ideals between the two, causing the pre-existing rift in their relationship to grow even larger. However, for the time being, they'll be forced to put their differences aside to save Konoha, just like how "they" (mostly just Jin) saved that family from the burning building in Episode 2. The breaking point for the relationship of the two will surely be the most entertaining part of the series and I will definitely look forward to it.