Ranked #664

Zettai Karen Children

A fairly enjoyable series which has either been watered down too much, or not enough.


Overall - 6/10

From the Animesuki thread, I read that the manga is more hardcore with blood and depth in comparison with the anime. While I have not read the source material, I can already sense in the anime that things have been watered down to an extent. This has all to do with the series airing at 10am on a Sunday. I feel things are still too hardcore (i.e. targeted at Japanese Otakus) with the constant perv/service/loli references, to be suitable for kids.

On the other hand, the general over-action of the BABEL boss, and the limiter de-activation scenes have certainly been created to make kids laugh and enjoy. While I thankfully do not know the tastes of a hardcore Japanese Otaku, I found my attention span dropping in the scenes that are meant for kids.

So where exactly does this series want itself to be placed?


Story - 7/10

The story follows the daily lives and missions of 3 children who are exposed to events that usually, only grown-ups can comprehend mentally. Thus the events, missions, conversations and the experiences that the Children face are crucial in influencing the way that these children grow as characters. It is known in the story that these Children have an almost equal chance of becoming "good" or "evil" when they grow up and I liked the latter episodes where the events may greatly influence their mindset.

The style is standalone episodes with quick action and conclusions, but they follow a logical and linear timeline and the way they made it so episodic, yet so continueous in a smooth manner is commendable. However, the time constraints per episode may have compromised depth.

The scene is where a government organisation called B.A.B.E.L is responsible for policing and looking after espers, with their objective to show the world that both espers and non-espers can peacefully co-exist. B.A.B.E.L. faces against both extremes, organisations that are determined to create a world ONLY for espers, and those who want a world without espers. This creates a Gundam SEED-esque mess which I like because both sides have very "human" reasons for their opinions and objectives. Such a setup also creates potential for depth and involvement. All in all, the story has a very solid foundation.

The series ends nicely, but with lots of loose ends that were left untied. It seems to be implied that a sequel is possible, which would justify the loose ends.


Art - 5/10

Being a 52 episode season, one couldn't expect spectacular art due to budget constraints and indeed, the art and animation are nothing spectacular. I found the art and animation to be of fairly average standard where nothing really stood out. Animation had jerky moments but it was far from "framelaggy" as in the case of You're Under Arrest - Full Throttle. The art does its job and is fairly consistent. To sum it up, it was good enough.


Sound - 6/10

The music and sounds are fairly repetitive and what can one expect from (supposedly) a kid's show? I found the BGM to be fairly convincing and I definately liked the music where the limiter was deactivated. However, not much else really caught my attention aside from...

...Over The Future, the first OP. The voices sound a little weird because it had been transposed up a minor third for the TV series - the full song has a lower pitch. This song definately caught the spirit of the series and I really love the feel-good feeling. I do question the use of *real* kids to sing this. While it gives them opportunity to shine into stardom (and what a solid performance in the MV), this show screams "Japanese Lolicon" at times and I feel there's a moral issue. The seiyuu's could actually sing this to an acceptable standard as heard on Youtube.

I found the voicing of the characters to be very good, with excellent performances from cast of The Children - Hirano Aya, Shiraishi Ryoko and Tomatsu Haruka, all who have provided great performances in the past.


Character - 6/10

After the initial 10 episodes or so, when The Children are tamed down enough to be sent to school, I feel there was limited character development, save for Kaoru being subtly manipulated. I felt that the episodes in the runup to the finale would have a real impact in defining Kaoru's future (and turning evil or not), which I throughly enjoyed.

We however get to know the backstories of the major characters which were definately interesting and links in well with their current behaviour.

If there is a second season, then I would feel that the limited development is justified, as Zettai Karen Children by its nature is a dragged out series.


Enjoyment - 7/10

I actually enjoyed this. The dumb things and the abuse of power that The Children can get up to is just entertaining, including whacking people into walls, when there was a lesser option that is just as effective. Watching the antics of moderately bad kids is definately funny. Of course, I also got a lot of enjoyment from the story.

However, I didn't really feel as involved (glued to the screen) as I could have done. read more

Mostly it appeals to many loli fans and who like magic or esper or any kind of thing. The plot is okay just needs to be a little bit remodeled overall it is pretty good to watch. The humor spent on this anime is actually very entertaining mostly goes with the whole faction of it being loli and appealing to grown ups.

The action is pretty okay though not so hardcore that drags up to like two episodes like other animes, but yet its a quick and straight to the point anime. It actually has a solid plot and well so far it is developing itself for the climax, straight to the point with entertainment.

Overall its an 8, for any loli fans who love the humor this is one of the must see anime. read more

Before you start citing my review as "Not Helpful", read what it says in the asterisks. Thanks.

**Review Edited as of Episode 9**

Well, it's odd i haven't seen a review of Zettai Karen Children yet. Well anyways..

Story: - 8.2/10 (B-)
The story is about a trio of girls who have superpowers and save the world. Before you start accusing it of being like the Powerpuff Girls, i just gotta say this: The way they made it, it makes more sense than PPG. The first episode was hilarious, with Okami Muscle (Gay Muscle..? lol) just made me laugh in a good way. And Kaoru, man oh man she's hilarious. Acts like a perverted guy when it comes to boob sizes and weird fantasy stories. I really like this show already.

Animation: - 8.6/10 (B+)
The animation is really well made. With the entrance for the trio, and Muscle's er..flashy attack. Of course, i need to watch more to fully review it.

Sound: - 7.7/10 (C+)
It's not the BGM is awesome or crappy, sometimes it fits and sometimes it doesn't. But the Opening, "Over the Future" is at some parts, really well sung and some other parts, kinda annoying. Each break of the song, and the singer's voice is way high-pitched. Haven't heard the Ending yet though.

Characters: - 8/10 (B)
Well we have Aoi, Shiro, Kaoru and Kouichi so far including the members of B.A.B.E.L. So far, so good. Hopefully i get to see some new characters soon. Now that more and more characters

Enjoyment: - 8.6/10 (B+)
For now, i really like Zettai Karen Children. As someone who is easily turned away from fanservice, i thought that Zettai Karen Children would be just that, but i was wrong. I think everyone should watch this show.

Overall (Averaged): 8.4/10 (B) read more

Currently this will be the 1st draft of this review. (I will make a better one after my Exam)

[Even though I gave it low grade, it comes from how hard I grade it and maybe it'll be bump up 1-2 points if graded by others]

To say it simple for simple understanding for simple people: Magical Girl

This show was really based on magical girls who were called ESPer instead and the main character of this show are the three Level 7 (highest level) children esper who luckily found someone who accepted them.

Story: (7/10)
I must say Zettai Karen Children really gives me high expectation at first sight. The story was about Esper, as known as people who have abnormal powers (e.g. psykic, mind reading, teleportation), which was obvious that they'll be hate by normal people. That's really the strongest part of this story; is how to lead normal people and Espers to live together. However, this story doesn't allow that to happen easily and the obstacle called "Normals" who hate esper and "PANDRA", espers who hate normal. The story level ups when we knew that the people who are holding the future were 3 Esper children (Kaoru, Shiho, Aoi) . That part is what I like about the story, children, who were the future for us adults. We are leaving the future in their hands either for them to be good or evil and saving the world or destroy the world is up to their choice. Then we had this 20-years-old guy name Minamoto, who was the key to those 3 children future and the future of the world.
The story will become fabulous if the main theme of "co-opporation" (since this story wants normal and abnormals to be together). Howeve, maybe due to the extremely long series (52 episode) the story does have some "not relevant" (extremely out of the blue) kind of episodes that doesn't makes sense. Thus, pulling it down from a 9 to an 8.

Art: (6/10)

We cannot expect much from art when they have 52 episodes to do, however, they still meet my expectation as albe to watch. There are no rag-doll and people move normally (well, most of them). However, their background sometimes totally fail and that also concludes to their characters. For conclusion their art was their weak point in this show. (No shining point at all)

Sound: (6/10)

Their sounds are good, but just barely good and not anything better. Their OP and ED are consider as above average (for only 2 OP and 1 ED) but still not good enough to make people remember it and want to listen to it again. Thus, pushing it down one grade from 10 to 9. Then sometimes they lack sounds at places where there should be sound effect there (even though most of the sound effect were heard and was good) and push it down to an 8. Finally is the character voice acting, as expected from high level voice actor (e.g. Aya Hirano) their sounds were very good, but when thinking "They're currently acting as a 10-year old kids" some part are not realistic enough to be 10 years old. Overall, their sounds made above average effect on the viewer.

Character: (7/10)

We did see a hell lot of interesting characters in the story. For Example, a guy name Muscle Okama (Muscle friends) who are gay and shoots laser beam from...ahem...that thing. The three main character have their character development from brats (sorry for rude words) who were spoiled to nice kids who were self-sufficient (a little). However, they do develop at some parts without any information leaving the viewers to questioning about when did they stop doing "....". The character did develop, but not to their critical yet and thus (also leaving the question of are they bad or good) only develop from brats to kids, but not to good children. They did show them at adult around 18 maybe. Next is balancement, main character were well balance with 3+1 however, the minor character just kept increasing and some are used only once and forgotten. If they can manage their character more (if they create a second season) then they'll earn more points.

Enjoyment: (7/10)

I can't believe myself that I'm saying this but I do enjoy this show to the level of watching it every 2 weeks after some episodes came out. Their series have loads of parody from many other animes (e.g. like Hayate no Gotoku) and some parody were clearly shown and not being the background image (e.g. Imitating of Death Note). However, they lack the timing of using their parody (the clearly shown one) and some ruined the moods of watching totally. Next was I enjoyed seeing how the children (girls) react to their supervisor (man) and also like seeing him get into many troubles ( funny, scary, gay-ish, almost dead). What really makes me annoyed the most was their acting like those Magical Girl series (ones where their transformation took the whole 1-4 minutes) and how some actions doesn't make sense. Overall I still see it as Enjoyable, but not to the extreme rate.

Overall: (7/10)

It is a show with a really interesting topic to do with. However how they express it from the anime wasn't sastified and I can't really give them anything more than 7 (Actually it should be a 6 but I gave them one more for interesting topic).
My suggestion is that if you're those kind of loli's, parody and comedy lover it isn't a bad anime to try. read more