ZETMAN - Review

Blogger's Note: Surprised I wrote a series review? Well, don't be. I know that I have five, including this one, on the backlog now and aim to write about one per week starting now. Episodic reviews (SAO & Hyouka) will come shortly.

What is the true meaning of justice? Is it doing the right thing no matter the situation, or achieving the right result no matter the cost? This is the question that ZETMAN centers around. What may seem like the right thing to do can actually end up not being the case and vice-versa, as shown many times throughout the series. The decisions that one comes to based on their kind of justice will undoubtedly vary from person to person. Thus, ZETMAN attempts to illustrate the effects of various viewpoints on justice within a city that is riddled with evil and crippled by the conflicting mindsets that its inhabitants carry.

ZETMAN - Episode 13

"Finish him!"

Remember back when I guessed incorrectly (twice, in fact) about when the conflict between Jin and Kōga would arise? Well, it seems like I was wrong once again (this time, only partially) with my guess that Kōga would side with Jin. While it seemed for a moment that Jin would lose control of himself after seeing Kōga kill Hanako, I was surprised when he still chose to target Seiji instead of ALPHAS. The fight between the two was not as intense as I had expected, with Seiji barely putting up a fight. In fact, I found it disturbing that he'd be willing to "give up his life" just to see Jin become the "Charisma". Even though it seemed like Jin delivered a deadly finishing blow to Seiji, I doubt this is the last we'll see of him (if the story continues).

ZETMAN - Episode 12

He's back.

Well, it's now official (although it had already been pretty obvious a few episodes back): Jin vs. Seiji to end off the series. While the latter has already gotten his wish of seeing ZET in its complete glory granted, the former now seeks to reach his goal of preventing the evil, sadistic mastermind of the Players from wreaking any further havoc. The twists and turns in this fast-paced episode weren't really "shocking" given the recent happenings so I found them to be a bit plain and weak. Nonetheless, I didn't expect that Kōga would actually shoot his father and that Hanako was actually a Player (those headaches of hers were actually a sign). Looking back, all of this might have just been part of Seiji's plan, showing just how intelligent he is; it's too bad he's a villain.

ZETMAN - Episode 11

You deserved it, Hayami.

Everything happened a little too quickly for my liking but it was an enjoyable episode overall. In a way, the test brought out a different side of Kōga. For once, he was able to climb out of his own pit of weakness and get the job done. But this newfound energy was ironically given to him by Jirō out of all people. The old man's criticism regarding Kōga's view of justice was just the nudge that the Amagi Corporation's heir needed in order to break free of his own anxiety. Furthermore, my previous hate for Jirō has turned into sympathy after he revealed the truth about him and his son, and how the Amagi Corporation turned its back on them. On another note, I found it amusing how Kōga realized he had made the "right" choice (according to Jirō) back in Episode 2—before everything even began—when he and Jin argued over whether to save the mother or not.

ZETMAN - Episode 10

Fatality!

As of now, I think it's very hard not to feel sorry for Kōga. Although he may be stubborn and immature at times, the bottom line is that his intentions are pure and that he truly believes that he can bring justice to the world. It's unfortunate how he's played like a fool by Jirō. And because of these frequent "tests", there's almost no doubt in my mind that there'll come a time when Kōga will be transformed into a cold, heartless, and selfish individual who cares only about himself. But in terms of what's currently happening, I find it utterly painful to watch the physical, mental, and emotional suffering that Kōga is going through.

ZETMAN - Episode 9

Things are getting interesting indeed.

Similar to how waves continually crash against the shores of land on a stormy day, the overflowing emotions of many of the characters were put on display in this episode. From them, we learn of each person's ideals and motivations; their thoughts as well. Some end up clashing with one another, while others slowly merge to become one. Episodes like these show that entertainment does not always have to come from 24-minutes of high-throttle action, even in shōnen anime. I personally found this episode to be one of the better ones thus far as the absence of a long fight scene or two freed up time for the story to develop.

ZETMAN - Episode 8

R.I.P. Kanzaki Gorō

Toss aside all the extra fighting, add in a couple of plots twists, and ZETMAN becomes an interesting anime once again. In the last episode, I had complained about the lack of substance in terms of the story, citing that the excess in battle scenes took away the opportunity for the plot to progress at a good pace. Amusingly enough, this episode gave me exactly what I had wanted, especially with the events near the end and the ominous, cliffhanger scene before the ED.

ZETMAN - Episode 7

And they finally meet...

The episode basically went like this: Talk a bit, kill a lot, power-up, talk a bit, kill a lot, power-up, end. Now, for avid fans of blood and violence, this might be exactly what a good episode consists of. But for me, although the episode was enjoyable, I still feel like it lacked any content that required me to analyze or think about. And because of this, I find it really easy to forget what happened during the episode; as I'm writing this review, I'm finding it difficult to remember the significant parts of the episode, even though it has only been an hour since I finished watching it. Whether you blame that on my bad memory or something else that is unrelated to the show itself is valid, but I truly believe that ZETMAN is just your average, gore-filled, shōnen action anime.

ZETMAN - Episode 6

At long last, it's finally here.

This was arguably the best episode of ZETMAN thus far. The whole episode kept me at the edge of my seat as I was anxious to find out whether Jin would end up transforming, and whether Konoha and her friend would survive. While Kōga's arrival at the last minute is typical of superhero-esque characters, the lack of conflict between him and Jin was surprising. My guess is that their common goal of saving Konoha and protecting the other innocent citizens made them forget about their differences at the moment.

ZETMAN - Episode 5

How Kōga will manage to see in this thing is still a mystery...

From the start, "justice" appeared to be one of the main themes of the story. As an adamant believer in upholding justice, Kōga constantly tried to do what he thought was "fair" or "just". However, this episode was, in a way, the start of what I believe to be major character development for him. With one of the EVOL members toying with him, Kōga's vision of justice is now blurred. The decision he was given - whether to save his sister or three of his fans - was undoubtedly one that tests a person's view of justice. Unfortunately for Kōga, his decision was apparently wrong and resulted in the death of three of his peers. And as these "tests" grow harder in difficulty, it won't be surprising if Kōga ends up becoming traumatized, given that a wrong decision results in the death of others.

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.

ZETMAN - Episode 3

I see you~

Blogger's Note: So apparently SFW dropped all shows due to one of their staff members getting a full-time job. Thus, the switch to WhyNot? has been made.

The episode itself felt a bit fast-paced to me. A lot of things seemed rushed, especially the explanation about the Amagi Corporation's involvement in the matter involving the "Players" and Jin's past. Despite this, the struggles that Jin and Kōga were shown to be dealing with were portrayed well enough to the point where the audience's emotions could've been stirred. With the amount of manga material there is left to animate, I'm starting to worry that the producers might be trying to fit everything into 13 episodes, which I believe would be a very, very bad choice.

ZETMAN - Episode 2

A new rivalry literally emerges from the fire!

Random timeskip is random. Aside from that, I'd say this episode was better than the first. Although information about ZET and APLHAS (e.g. Jin and Kōga, respectively) still hasn't been revealed, it's easy to see that they're more or less going to become rivals in the future. The premise of "former friends become enemies/rivals" is not uncommon so it'll be interesting to see how ZETMAN manages to execute this type of story. This episode also provided quite a bit of character development for both the two aforementioned characters.

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.

ZETMAN - Preview

Gore, more gore, and even more gore. That is exactly what I'm expecting from ZETMAN. The character designs look interesting so that's a plus. While the premise of two rivals working towards a common goal can make for a decent story, I doubt that is what people watching ZETMAN are looking for. Since I'm not a big fan of bloodshed myself, I still question why I decided to watch this show. Nonetheless, I'll give it a few episodes to see whether I can take the gore and whether the episodes have enough content to actually write a review on.

Spring 2012

It's been a bit over a year since I started this blog and it has been satisfying to see the page views rising every month. Having expanded my genres of interest a bit further, I have quite the list of planned to watch shows for the Spring 2012 season. With that being said, I'm only planning on reviewing some of them as I learned from last season that it's harder to review some genres than others (e.g. It was extremely hard for me to come up with an interesting review for each episode of Kill Me Baby).

Therefore, I have split the post into two sections: Will (Possibly) Review and Will Watch but not Review. Note that each show can be interchanged between sections depending on how the first few episodes are.