Alternative TitlesEnglish: Zetman Japanese: ゼットマン
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 13
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Apr 3, 2012 to Jun 26, 2012
Duration:
24 min. per episode Rating:
R+ - Mild Nudity
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.061 (scored by 15240 users)
Ranked: #27832
Popularity: #629
Members: 29,042
Favorites: 81 1 indicates a weighted score
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SynopsisThe story starts off with a face-off between two rival heroes, ZET and ALPHAS, and then traces their origins - Jin Kanzaki, a young man with the ability to transform into a superhuman being known as ZET, and Kouga Amagi, a young man with a strong sense of justice who uses technology to fight as ALPHAS.
The fates of these two men and those around them intertwine as they fight to protect mankind and destroy monstrous abominations known as Players, who ironically are the creations of the Amagi Corporation, the company founded by Kouga’s grandfather, Mitsugai Amagi.
(Source: ytv ENGLISH) |
Related AnimeAdaptation: Zetman
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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Stark700
74 of 125 people found this review helpful
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13 of 13 episodes seen
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| Overall |
7 |
| Story |
6 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
"To be the man, you gotta beat the man".
- Ric Flair
Being a superhero is never easy, especially when you try to live a double life. Superheroes like Batman, Superman, and Spiderman deals with the dangers they get exposed to on a daily basis. They feel like it's their responsibility to protect the innocent and deliver that strong sense of justice. After all, justice is the judgement of truth and to uphold such a sense comes at a great responsibility, sacrifice, and lives.
Then there comes a hero at the darkest hour. He is ZET. Enter Zetman.
The story is set in the modern times with technology that passes our own in the real world. Such technology of course brings forth wealth, prosperity, hope, but also crime and monstrosity. Luckily for the good folks, we have heroes.
Now, to call Jin a superhero would be an overstatement. He is in fact some of us see as a dark hero of vengeance. Or maybe, we should call him a dark angel. Because of his efforts, lives are saved but not without a cost. That's the price of being a hero. Sometimes, you just can't save everyone. Yet Jin is an interesting character if we look at him carefully. He is quite the mysterious figure and for most of us, difficult to read. After witnessing the tragedies of his past, Jin swears vengeance and to never let anyone else close to him die again. Now that my friends makes him the dark hero, the dark angel, and the holder of justice in a different light.
Then, we have somewhat of the antithesis of the story, Kouge Amagi. Both academically and sports-inclined, he is also popular and has nearly everything he's ever wanted...wealth, admirers, and a family. Yet, there's one thing he seems to be missing and always wanted. That would be his dream of becoming a hero of justice, one that people admire, one that people respect, and one that helps the helpless. Unlike Jin however, Amagi's desire to become such a hero is quite on the opposite globe. (rather than for vengeance to say the least) In his mind, justice should be delivered and enemies of justice will be terminated. Bu it's a lot said easier than done.
We also have some of the other characters that lighten up the gloom and doom story a bit. The all innocent Konoha Amagi, and sister of Kouga, who has known Jin since their childhood times. The tomboy Hanako who has a curiosity in our dark hero (who also holds a dark secret) and among others. They tend to balance out the dark atmosphere and brings a little light as well as entertainment into the story.
Now for the story. I'll best honest here, it's not really well performed. There's always a risk of making an anime adaptation off of a manga but even more so in this case because the amount of material it covers. There's a lot of potential and believe me, I want to see it at its finest form. Yet what I see so far is a rushed story based off a manga of over 150 chapters. It doesn't also help with the fact that the series only runs for 13 episodes. Thirteen episodes I'd repeat again! With that unlucky number, my hopes for the overall story is a little bit down with its rushed sequences. All in honesty, it kinda feels like reading a story with chapters missing. Oh yes, there are some awesome fights and blood gore if you can take it in the stomach. However, it feels that a piece of excitement is missing. This series could become a real blockbuster made for mature audiences with its old school action and violence. Yet with only 13 episodes, I just don't see how it could out perform some of the other longer series of this Spring. Maybe our heroes can save this series from being sent into turmoil.
As for the art, the series seems to adapt a bit of old school. With the old school-like art, it certainly spawns some nostalgia in some of us who have been anime fans. But this is a R+ rated story and a reason for that. There's bodies being torn opened, blood spilled, and showing what our heroes do best: delivering justice (even if it comes at a cost).
The sound is just "meh" in my opinion. It does contain drama and conveys the dark mood of the story but not something too noticeable. I do admit that the OP song, "dots and lines" by You Hitoto feat. Mummy-D, is performed well and give us a more suburban type of feeling. With the word "Zet" being mentioned several times, the songs brings out the dark hero out of the characters.
Well, it is also not surprising that Masakazu Katsura was involved with the work of this series. He is Batman's biggest fan and we all know who he is. (at least I hope you do). As such, it is one of the possible main influences of his work. In fact, his influences can be even traced to another superheroes series that debuted last year. Maybe, Tiger & Bunny ring a bell?
Overall, I'd say that this series just fits into the "so-so" for the Spring Season. It has entertainment value especially if you're into some fan-service and hardcore action. But if you can't take the violence and sexual content, then just hit that drop button and try something else. This series blends in the idea of a hero at the darkest hour and shows the cruelty of the world. Its approach of the dark hero genre will give you a strange feeling of both justice and also cruelty once you start watching. Yet, the story is blend and too rushed so for those looking for a complex storyline, then that little glimmer of hope may be crushed faster than a Player. However, if those aren't your criteria, then this series might be worth a shot. Try coming home from school or work, and watch this on your computer or TV with a nice cup of coffee (or w/e it is that you drink) and get into the OP song (while keeping up with the rhythm) after a tiring Monday. You might smile wishing that there are more heroes like Jin and Kouga to save you from all the tiredness of work/school. Or you might feel sad that there are such enemies of justice in the Zetman world. Yet, we all know one thing.
There is a hero, a hero living in all of us. read more
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Dusk252
52 of 104 people found this review helpful
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13 of 13 episodes seen
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
5 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
Zetman is one of those series that could have been much better than it actually was. In fact, it had everything in its favor. The premise of genetically modified beings escaping and trashing about around the city, severely endangering humans is nothing new to western viewers, but it’s still something rather uncommon in anime. With a rather refreshing premise, a cast of characters that, due to their circumstances, personalities and upbringing, had plenty of potential to develop and a nice and different artwork, Zetman had the main ingredients for success, right from episode one.
However, it didn’t succeed. The series got worse with which new episode, mainly due to its overly paced story, and tried to do more than what was possible in a the time it had been given. The result is a highly convoluted narrative that requires the viewers’ suspense of disbelief in a rather high number of moments.
Story aside, the characters themselves were a big disappointment. Besides the two main characters, who serve as a contrast to each other and whose views of justice – the main theme in this show – are challenged and change throughout the series, everyone else is as shallow as a cardboard, especially the antagonist (who’d be better compared to a sheet of paper), whose motives are never fully explained and just comes across as being plainly evil. Something worth mentioning as well is the relationship between Jin and Hanako, which ends up playing a big role in the final episode, yet its development is as rushed as one can imagine, and I didn’t really care about it at all, for the protagonist’s feelings failed to evoke any emotion on me. In sum, while two of the characters are indeed interesting from an objective point of view, the lack of development for other characters ends up detracting from any possibility of attachment on the viewers’ part.
Despite all the problems it had, Zetman wasn’t a total waste of time. Both main characters are interesting enough to be worth analyzing, as both have really different views on justice, probably highly impacted but how they grew up and how shielded from the world they were (or weren’t), yet they still respect each other. Kouga, in particularly, stroke me as the most layered character, and watching him develop was probably the highlight of the series for me, despite my preference towards Jin’s personality, views and design.
Overall, Zetman wasn’t a bad watch, and was artistically balanced, as while it didn’t have that great animation or soundtrack, both were above average and served their purpose quite well (I’ll never forget how awful a OP this series had, though). Besides, when compared to the mess that most middle episodes were, the finale was well paced and directed, managing to leave a good final impression. I did love the first episode and this turned out to be way bellow my expectations. It’s a shame something with this potential gets wasted due to an overly ambitious adaptation. Well, it’s not the first one and it won’t be the last series with this problem. It’s something I don’t consider a waste of time, but it’s also something I’d prefer not to have picked up if I knew it’d end up like this.
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Recommendations
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-An Organisation That Organizes Death Games.
-A Plot That didn't want To Get Involved.
Both series feature rather dark themes and share the motif of justice. Also, both anime adaptions are subpar to their manga counterpart.
Both of these series shares the similar dark atmosphere involving supernatural violence and obtaining justice. In both series, the MC is fighting a "war" against an enemy and survival is a must to win.
There is tons of action, gore, and violence in both series so expect blood to be spilled. There is also some romance in Zetman and more drama later on. Both series also contain sci-fi elements. All in all, both series are quite violent so be aware of that if you're keen on checking both of these out.
Both anime have similar dark themes. Both have various forms of destruction caused by super powered beings created to fight for sport and the entertainment of the elite. Both are well animated and have good action scenes. If you like one you will probably like the other.
both have someone who have great power hidden inside and both very graphic
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It's not hard to say what those two series have in common:
• surely the first thing you can notice is that the art is very similar, well of course it does. Masakazu Katsura is a great manga-ka and author of Zetman, he in fact also worked as original character designer for Tiger & Bunny. His great art is already something that might catch you to watch both.
• still, both series are about superpowers and the concepts of hero & villain, justice & crime, honesty & corruption.
Overall the stories, those concepts play a dominant part.
• the main characters in both series are the heroes and fight against the "evil" in their own way.
Both series are interesting, although i have to say that Zetman is way much better in the manga version rather than anime.
A big difference i can say so far about those two series is:
while T&B takes place in a megalopolis modeled after the american New York city and has a bunch of "typical american heroes", Zetman is located in Japan and has a brand new vision of the word "hero" (as in fact, the main character, can be seen more as "not your typical hero"..)
Anyways, if you liked one of those, give a try to the other as well! You might be happily surprised!
Two superhero-like series, with one being darker and the other lighter. The animation and character design almost had me believing it's the work of the same studio, but it turned out false. Zetman is more about the titular Byronic hero, but can be as invigorating as the heartwarming Tiger & Bunny, whose main guy is anything but typical--a middle-aged, wifeless father named Tiger.
Being a hero is not easy and in both of these series, it proves just that.
The theme of saving people from the villians is a major theme in both anime thus has plenty of action and supernatural elements. Both series' protagonists are striving to become heroes for what they believe in.
Tiger & Bunny contains more comedy while Zetman has much more violence. Nonetheless, both anime(s) are something to keep an eye on if you're interested in the superhero/dark hero genre.
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Opening Theme"dots and lines" by You Hitoto feat. Mummy-D
Ending Theme"Tomeru (とめる)" by You Hitoto
Fansubbing Groups
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Related ClubsSeinen Brasil, Animanga Club :3, MAL Tokutaku, AnimeServ Club, The Waiting-For-Uncensored Club, Twisted Sadism Bakery of Light!（￣ー￣）, Hanazawa Kana's Fans!, debates de animes temporada, Daisuke Namikawa Fan Club!, Spring 2012 Game: Will it get dropped?, DARK AND BRUTAL ANIME CLUB, Secret Paku Romi Fan ClubXD
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