Zettai Karen Children

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In the 21st century, people with psychic powers (espers), have become fairly common, and the BABEL is the branch of the Japanese government responsible for esper affairs. Japan's 3 most powerful espers are a trio of 10-year old girls, the Children. Hilarity ensues, along with a very awesome plot.

Amidst it all, trying to stop a 100% likely apocalyptic future, is a mentally-gifted but otherwise normal 20-year-old, Minamoto Kouichi. And seriously, if anyone deserves his perfect harem ending as a replacement for that bad future, it is this man. Literally his entire life is lived for the sake of helping his charges, ... the Children, grow up to be helpful, productive members of society. He endures all manner of hardship over the course of the manga, including but not limited to: 1) Getting taken for a pedophile because he was 2) being sexually harassed by a 10-year-old 3) when the same 10-year-old wasn't slamming him into a wall with her psychic powers (he actually works out several hours a week to build abs to withstand this) because she failed 4) throwing a full-blown temper-tantrum to get him to buy her a toy, all of which pales in comparison to the time when 5) he was possessed by a psychic fly and dunked headfirst into a toilet. He endures this, largely without complaint (even putting his career as a researcher on hold), and does an amazing parenting job, raising the Children the best he can. He doesn't fear them getting angry and will teach life lessons when needed, but he is very conscious of their emotions and avoids hurting them. He gives them a real chance to live like normal kids, which, ironically given their non-normal status, is something they very much needed. His methods come into sharp contrast with those of the Children's previous supervisor, Suma, who had shock collars on them and used them often. Not only that, the manga continues long enough that we do get to see the Children begin to understand what he went through and show their gratitude, in a few heartwarming scenes.

And then there is his nemesis, Hyobu Kyouske, who does something similar – bringing persecuted espers, especially children, into his pro-esper extremist faction (PANDRA) and giving them a home. Hyobu is Minamoto's opposite, something of a Fagin archetype – sure, he's a terrorist, but he's protecting the children of PANDRA from a society that has severely persecuted them. Plus, there are far worse alternatives for a child esper, demonstrated in-universe by Black Phantom, a criminal syndicate that takes traumatized young espers and turns them into killing machines. Some BABEL-side characters recognize this and respect him because of it (to the extent that they pass up some legitimate chances to kill him and end the conflict), and some recognize the good he does but also believe that he does still represent a menace to society and needs to be stopped nonetheless, but their enforcement methods are limited because acting too harshly in dealing with esper criminals might persuade friendly espers (especially the Children) to defect. It's all a very tenuous and tangled moral balance. And it is delicious.

That's the thing about ZKC; the emotional depth is there, but only if you want to look for it. You don't need to look deep into the morals driving each character in order to enjoy the story or the comedy, but it enhances the serious aspect of the story significantly.

It is somewhat difficult to quantify the comedy of ZKC, but it will keep you laughing most of the time. There is certainly a lot of high quality material there, from the one time Minamoto got kidnapped and, ever the dutiful parent, gave his kidnapper a lifestyle makeover, to the other time where the guy with the animal possession ability gets forced into an extremely huggable baby seal body. The variety of character personalities plus the virtually limitless possibilities given by the various types of available superpowers plus an author not afraid to get creative makes for a nearly-flawless humorous repertiore, and this manga delivers. Brilliantly.

This manga is very, very enjoyable, and I recommend it to anyone who isn't totally turned off by lolis, because that might admittedly be it's one sticking point. Even if hate lolis, let this be your one series in that direction. There is fairly little loli fanservice, and there's a lot of fun to be had in reading this manga. Seriously, go read this manga for yourself. It's just crazy awesome both in terms of how hilarious it is and how much sense the characters make.

Let me tell you what made me want to read this (long) manga series. I'm really like when a character in a story grows. I also like things which have action, comedy and romance. In comes in Zettai Karen Children - a 20 year old in put in charge of three precocious 10 year old girls who have superpowers, all of them whom develop a crush on our hapless hero. But wait - the series also has three time skips in which the same girls are 13, 15 and 20 respectively. There has to be character development here, right? I was sold! And here is ... what I have to say after I've read 17 volumes so far in the past two months:

Unless Takashi-san (the mangaka) decides to change the tone and pace of the manga drastically in the upcoming volumes, this series will get bracketed among those series which are a good way to pass time on a lazy weekend only if I have nothing better to read or watch. And the reason for this is that this series suffers from serious pacing issues. It doesn't flesh out the scenes or the plots to deliver the knockout punches it could if the author has decided to do so. There are moments of humor, action and slivers of taboo-romance/affection (between a 20 year old well minded hero and three 13 year old girls) but none of these elements takes center-stage.

A single chapter or arc (which usually last from 4-6 chapters) will have moments of comedy, action and drama all rolled into one. Moments of gag are also thrown in for added measure - sometimes in the middle of an ostensibly serious scene to lighten the tone. The end result is a manga that never takes itself seriously enough to become a page-turner. By the 18th volume, the reader starts to expect that nothing serious will happen (like a character getting killed or injured, or actually falling in love) and the next arc will simply reset and begin somewhat 'anew'.

Now, that is not in and of itself a bad thing. It makes the manga fun to read on a lazy Sunday (which is what I ended up doing today) and easy to put down after reading 4-5 chapters. However, it doesn't really impacted the reader how something like Full Metal Alchemist or 20th Century Boys do. It remains fun and puts you in a good mood while you're reading it and as soon as you put it down - there is zero recall. I have an analogy to offer for potential readers of this series - expect "How I Met Your Mother". Don't read this with the expectation to read/watch "Breaking Bad".

Psychic Squad, also known as Zettai Karen Children in Japan, is one of the long manga series in terms of volume count. Lengthy manga series can be daunting to read for obvious reasons, such as time constraints. However, one of the positive aspects of Psychic Squad is that the manga is clear and explicit about its nature right from the start. It heavily caters to fans of action and superpower genres and can arguably also be considered a magical girl manga that draws inspiration from the famous American cartoon, The Powerpuff Girls. Despite its positive reception and large cult following, the manga falls short in ... several areas and fails to provide a satisfying reading experience due to a lacklustre plot, uninspired artwork, and weak characterisation that does not justify its long run.

The plot of the manga is very simple, it revolves around three young girls with supernatural abilities who are recruited by a government agency called 'B.A.B.E.L.' to fight against other people with superhuman abilities. The story takes place in an urban setting where people with extraordinary abilities, known as 'espers', coexist. The power system is explained (numerously) in the first volume, where the espers are classified into various 'power levels'. Level 7 is the highest level and denotes individuals with god-like abilities, such as the three main girls, so we know from beginning they are overpowered protagonists. Fortunately, each of the three girls, Kaoru, Aoi, and Shiho, as well as the antagonist, Kyousuke, possesses distinct abilities that distinguish them. Shiho has psychometry and can read memories, Kaoru can move objects psychokinetically and Aoi can teleport. Kyousuke, on the other hand, umm, has everything. Throughout the series, the girls are assigned different missions and must battle against people who have other superpower abilities, so you know from the start the manga is going for an episodic and arc-based format, which may not be to everyone's taste because works in this format tend to become repetitive. Psychic Squad attempted to address this issue, but unfortunately, it did so by introducing another problem; the manga relied heavily on incoherent randomness, which ultimately created its own set of issues. While it did introduce new ideas for arcs, they often felt disjointed and loosely connected. In fact, some arcs and episodes could easily be swapped without much impact on the overall story.

One of the main problems with the Psychic Squad is the lack of character development; despite what appears to be a gradual maturation of characters into sexier beings with sporadic time jumps, except for their chests, the characters are still flat, one-dimensional, and lacking depth or complexity. Kyousuke and his band of psychic henchmen are presented as being overly powerful, which makes their victories seem undeserved and unimpressive. Furthermore, their motivations and backstories are poorly developed, which makes it challenging to empathise with their struggles or support their achievements. Their personalities are poorly defined beneath the surface, and their interactions with one another frequently feel forced and unnatural. The manga fails to provide a compelling reason for readers to care about these characters, making them difficult to emotionally connect with. Some may argue that emotional investment occurs naturally over time as readers become acquainted with the characters, even if they retain their initial personalities. This could, however, be a false effect caused by nostalgia or simply becoming accustomed to the same old characters after enduring such a ridiculously long manga. Reading it all at once can be an agonising experience.

The plot suffers as well, with poorly executed storylines that feel random, disjointed, and occasionally confusing. The manga always seems to try to force action with supernatural elements, but it never manages to create a coherent narrative. The pacing is inconsistent, with slow, meandering chapters followed by sudden, rushed plot developments that lack proper build-up, particularly the ending, which felt like it could have happened at any time because the build-up began near the end anyway. The overarching plot is poorly defined; it has an aim, but lacks direction. One could argue that it's purely for comedy, but the manga's attempts at weaving in elements of humour often fall flat, not to mentioned it got worse later on; I enjoyed the comedy about the young girls' innocence, who, despite their exceptional esper skills, are simply easily manipulated children who do idiotic things, but as the characters get older, this type of comedy begins to lose its meaning. Overall, the story arcs lack cohesion and direction, creating a sense of aimlessness in some arcs. It often feels as though the story is being made up as it goes along.

The artwork is another area of concern. While the manga has some visually stunning panels, the overall quality is inconsistent. Characters are often drawn in awkward, inhuman poses, and their facial expressions sometimes don't match the contextual atmosphere, which can be distracting and takes away from the overall reading experience. Additionally, the background art is often sparse and uninspired, with even the art in spreads lacking creativity and filled mostly with empty white backgrounds. This adds to the overall feeling of a lack of effort and attention to detail in the art.

Let us now address the elephant in the room; the paedophilic fanservice:
With shameless panty shots being the least form of sexualisation, the manga features a significant amount of fanservice, particularly in the form of sexualised depictions of the three underage protagonists. The manga's portrayal of female characters is demeaning and disrespctful; the female characters are often objectified and portrayed in a sexualised manner, with their bodies being the focus of many panels, with Kaoru constantly acting like a horny bisexual pervert, and it did not help that Kyousuke was acting like an obsessed lolicon chasing after Kaoru. It does not stop there, because Minamoto is portrayed as a father figure to the young girls, but you can not ignore the obvious age gap romantic subtext. Sure, the girls get a little older towards the end of the manga, but the romance is still unsettling, and it felt like child grooming even if it was not intentional.

Overall, Psychic Squad falls short of its potential and is a complete waste of time. Character development is lacking, the plot is random and perplexing, the artwork is often below average and is inconsistent, and the occasional fanservice makes you lose respect to the work unless you were a horny lolicon who likes softporn in their plot, I gave up my time reading this garbage to tell you that if you want a well-crafted and engaging story, you should avoid this manga.

< Manga vs Anime >
The anime skips a lot of the useless chapters, making it more streamlined, but slower paced. It also has less of the overt sexualisation and fanservice that is present in the manga, although it still has plenty of it. However, I appreciate that the anime includes original comedic scenes and is often better at delivering punchlines than the manga.

For instance, in chapter 46 of the manga, the three powerful girls were manipulated and convinced that injuring themselves would make their love interest, Minamoto, realise his feelings for them. The manga ends abruptly with the girls getting caught red-handed throwing tomato sauce and faking a knife stab. In contrast, the anime actually shows the girls putting the fake blood and preparing the knife before being caught. This highlights the exaggerated nature of the situation and the extent of how far they went in fabricating the injury.

Overall, I don't recommend either version. However, if you are interested in the plot and a more complete picture of the story, I would recommend reading the manga. On the other hand, if you're looking for a Powerpuff Girls with Japanese twists and flavours, the anime might be enjoyable, because it doesn't delve into the later serious parts of the plot, and I have noticed that it skips some early tragic chapters. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and what you're looking for in the work.