Betterman

This is one of the weirdest, most screwed up anime I've ever seen. And in a medium such as this (plus, considering the amount I've seen), that's saying a lot.
But I mean that in the most positive way and I think this title deserves far more attention than it gets. There's simply nothing else I can think of that's quite like it.

This is a spoiler free review.

*Story* 9/10

Down to it, It's about a couple of teenagers who join some secret organization to pilot crude looking mechs and fight against weird creatures they know nothing about, alongside a macho pretty boy with rainbow colored hair who ... transforms in to a giant monster when he eats fruits...
I'm sure that no drugs were consumed during the making.

Alright, In all seriousness, the first thing you'll notice is that the atmosphere in this show is very weird. It's somewhat lighthearted and cartoony, but very dark and creepy at the same time. I'm gonna guess that this is the primary reason this series isn't popular, but I for one found this atmosphere to be very refreshing and exceptional. I can't think of anything that's quite like it and it made me feel all weird inside... The reason this tone works here is because it rarely becomes particularly dramatic or edgy so the lighthearted silliness that while creepy things are going down doesn't have much to clash with and it also helps humanize the characters in various ways.

Another thing you'll notice is that it's not focused as much on the mecha as you'd expect, it's a lot more about its science fiction which also happens to have horror elements in it, while we follow a group of characters in their journey of encounters with the unknown. It feels like the creator threw all of his childhood nightmares in to it and was able connect all of them in to a pretty massive story with rich lore behind it.

The main theme here revolves around genetics and evolution and as implied by the title, making humanity "better" by stepping in to its next stage of evolution. The story also has a strong scientific foundation where nearly everything from how the mechs function to where the creatures came from can be explained through scientific terminology that gets thrown around and is usually excused with some analogy to a fun fact from real life biology.

Although there is a lot of terminology used here, the exposition delivery of it is fantastic. It's always motivated by the characters delivering it and the context of events, it is used exclusively for explaining the science (as opposed to events, which are always shown, NOT told) never feels forced, or like it overstays its welcome and is accompanied by great visuals and fun character interactions.

In terms of the actual story that unfolds, everything that happens eventually feels significant, since many early events that don't seem that important end up triggering ones that come much later. It is pretty complicated, but it's not that hard to follow since they explain most things pretty well.
Some episodes might confuse the hell out of you, but it won't leave you confused for long. It does an excellent job of consistently raising and answering questions as the scope and scale of the series keeps growing. In the end it also wraps things up in quite an epic and solid manner while leaving no loose ends behind and connecting everything that happened previously.

It isn't without its issues though.. It does get a tad chaotic in terms of pacing at certain points (seriously, sometimes major events happen within minutes of each other). Another thing that could be troubling for some is that there's subtle foreshadowing that is purely visual from time to time, which is cool, but might make things confusing for first time viewers. Lastly, the Betterman character interferes in many battles which also means that the weak main characters seem somewhat safe or plot armored, while very narrowly escape death in some cases (there is an ability as well as a motivation that allows him to do this though).
With that said, I think all this is just a small price to pay for such an outstanding narrative.

*Characters* 8/10

It has a fairly colorful cast consisting of a military geek, some cool old man, a hot scientist chick, some disturbed teenage girl and of course the manliest pretty boy anime has to offer - Better-man himself (and a few others).

The character interactions are quite fun and they generally have very good chemistry together which is what really pulls the characters through in the end.

The cast is a little big and they all play certain roles in the story. All of the major characters have complete arcs and we delve in to them pretty nicely as well as develop their relationships while making them feel more comfortable with one another. Eventually they also have backstories which are revealed that are actually very relevant to the story as well.

With that said, I would still argue that the roles they play do seem to overshadow who they are as characters to an extent because the priority of this show seems to be more on the atmosphere and the events themselves and doesn't bother much to give character drama which normally results in more character defining moments. There is some drama, sure, but it's fairly subdued since a lot of it comes in the form of subtle hints throughout the series about the nature of these characters and their relationships with one another. They usually get along with each other pretty well and the instances in which they don't are resolved fairly quickly because of the urgent situations they're in.
So it may be a little more difficult to connect with some of them in your first viewing.

They generally seem to react accordingly to the bad things surrounding them, but I wouldn't say they're particularly scarred that badly by anything they see. Which may have been warranted at points.

Better-man himself is a cool character that is easy to get behind because of his mannerisms and appearance. But we don't discover what his true motive is until it is revealed late in the series which means we only discover who he is and so he remains fairly static throughout the whole thing.

The series also shows off some disturbing and memorable villains that may not have that much depth but they come off as quite menacing and each of them have motivations that mirror each other and further compliment the central theme of the series.

All in all, this is a great cast of characters. Each one works on their own as well as in a group. They can be campy, they can be serious and each one has a wide range of emotions. They also all get fitting closure by the end of the series.


*Art* 8/10

As one of the last examples of cell animation before everything went digital, The art-style here has a semi cartoonish look to it and with character designs all looking quite colorful and with somewhat silly designs which give you a clear idea of their personalities and allows for them to be very expressive. There's a large variety of creepy and dark locations that contrast a bit with the characters, and yet still fit perfectly due to an excellent use of shading/lighting effects. In terms of animation and the level of detail it's pretty solid but nothing particularly special and there's even a little reused footage a couple of times (that are used purposefully btw) . On the other hand, it has quite a variety of weird looking creatures, character expressions that are always on point, as well as a great deal of action.. The mecha designs are pretty crappy, but when Better-man himself shape shifts in to his different forms, each of his designs look really cool and you get a lot of opportunities to see him duke it out with other monsters/mechs/tanks and whatnot. The creepy imagery in general is stunningly shot with very unique compositions and creative editing techniques to the point where you can easily recognize this anime and distinguish it from others just by watching it for a few seconds.

I should also mention that Betterman is a landmark series since it is the first tv anime to be shown in widescreen or 16/9 aspect ratio, something that was unheard of at the time of its release and didn't become commonplace until the late 2000s. I have a theory for why it had this privilege and it has to do with its horror elements and a possible desire to make the locations look bigger in relation to the characters. But it may just be a simple tech demo with no deeper reason for it.

So overall it really has its own visual identity which is more than I can say about most modern anime and its visual style compliments the bizarre tone of the series perfectly.

*Sound* 8/10

In terms of the (Japanese) voice acting there's an excellent cast here with some famous voices that seasoned anime fans should be familiar with. a wide range of fitting voices, everything from the geeky , to sexy, to incredibly creepy to the badass and the acting is always on point (it's also pretty anime-ish and doesn't attempt to sound too realistic). The only time it might feel a tad dry is in some instances when there's a lot of technobabble, but there's also a great deal of emotion when it needs to be there and that includes pretty much all the characters. The creepy sound effects and the mostly ominous sounding tracks play a significant role in the atmosphere, so it generally sounds very nice, with some outdated effects here and there. Though as effective as it is for the series, I'm honestly not sure how well some of these tracks hold up on their own.

The series also eases you in masterfully with a very quiet and soothing OP song just to make sure you're comfortable before the mind frak kicks in. And the ED song (much like the series as a whole) is weird, intense and simply one of a kind. I can confidently say that it is THE BEST ED song I've ever heard! I can't even describe it, you have to listen to it for yourself.

*Enjoyment* 10/10

Love it to the point of obsession! I've been watching anime for a very long time so coming across something like this made me feel like I was still in my early days because of how unique and strange it is. It was creepy, thought provoking, weird, action packed and it even had some light and tasteful fan-service. The weirdness might not be for everybody.. But seriously, if this turns you off why are you watching anime in the first place? For the cute girls? Well then frak you! I'm watching it for weird stuff that I can't find in western mediums, thank you very much.

*Overall* 9/10

Honestly, this review was quite difficult for me to write since this is a very tough series to review properly and do it justice.. It's just strange to such a degree that makes it hard to talk about it.
All in all, Betterman is one of a kind. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anybody, but it's really something you have to see to believe.

A brainchild of the late 90s, Betterman is a dark sci-fi about a very bleak future engulfed by twisted technology. Like most b-grade anime of that time, the budgets were not the best and the animators were often resorting to simple tricks such as using live action footage instead of bothering to animate something. It’s why the opening looks so weird, combining the actual ocean with generic anime designs. And yes, they are generic despite having weird multi-colored hair like Yugioh characters. It was a trend at the time.

Following the path brought forth by Neon Genesis a few years back, whenever you don’t have the ... money to show something, go for minimalism and keep things vague or unfocused. The lead monster definitely looks and usually moves around amazingly, but everyone else is very cartoony with very choppy animation. The addition of low brow fan service and slapstick humor don’t help either, since they are used to chew time and excuse the lack of fluent animation by making it seem it is some sort of gag comedy. When it isn’t; it’s psychological horror.

It excels at maintaining a thriller atmosphere for as long as it’s keeping the monsters hidden from the viewer. Remember how creepy the fog effect was in the first Silent Hill games? Well, think of something similar but with darkness. You never see something as it really is because it is either hiding in the dark, behind a wall, or looks intentionally blurry. It makes it ten times scarier, and adds to the dementia. Unfortunately this trick is ruined when eventually they show the monsters, and they are not that scary in broad daylight.

The characters are as I mentioned already overall plain. So are their designs. The protagonist is your generic beta male dork with glasses, paired with a tom boy girl, whose only distinctive feature is a multi-colored lock of hair, that is somehow an inherited trait, since her brother has it too. The same plainness extends to how all other characters and monsters look. They are also so colorful compared to the mostly dark sceneries and stick out like a sore thumb. They also do typical anime ero-crap that feel very out of place with the eerie tone of the story.

The plot is all over the place. The set up is quite generic; teenagers with sexual awkwardness and a dramatic past, become part of a secret organization that fights genetic freaks with a mecha. On one side it is usually semi-episodic, meaning that elements from one event cross over immediately to the next one, like a slowly developing detective mystery. On the other hand, the majority of the duration is spent on silly school comedy and battles with monsters of the week, which almost always have a very predictable outcome; this macho dude always pops up and saves the good guys when they are in trouble. Also most of the cool ideas don’t last more than a single episode. Here you are with a great bio-ultra-killing worm that can annihilate all life on Earth and you hardly see it for more than two episodes. There are a hundred awesome concepts for recurring villains and world threats that last less than 30 minutes each. Meaning that the mystery part is done quite well but there is very little of it as a whole.

The themes of forced evolution of life and its dehumanizing effect are also looked into to a satisfying degree, I remember my pretentious overthinking younger self having a blast with the way they kept bringing up mythology, science, religion, and philosophy into the mix, making it feel far bigger than how it actually plays out. What can make a man better than he already is? The initial approach is genetics; enter gruesome biological experiments. Then there is the state of mind. You can’t have a great body without an appropriate mind to come along. Revelations and master plans come up. And then we have the perfection of the soul, so here comes enlightment, shedding of the physical boundaries, and disgust for inferior beings by ascended beings. Really, the story gives a lot of food for thought, and it’s almost sad to see how they are treated as an afterthought for comedy and battles.

At least they bother to explain and explore all that, plus the ending is solid. Ok, it’s also vague since you are not exactly sure what happened to most of the characters, but it definitely wraps up all major plot threads. But I can’t defend the writing as crafty either; Betterman is a walking plot devise that exists to save the heroes in almost every episode with hax powers. There will always be a way to beat a super monster in 5 minutes, the villains appear and disappear at will, stunts get killed in a flash, but the main characters survive more effectively than cockroaches.

Not a great show by any means, it’s worthwhile for its atmosphere and philosophical concepts and passable for everything else.

While I will not spoil all the events of the series, I will state the concluding moral of the narrative, including slight reference to some particular events. So, if you want to hear that from the show rather than from here, I'd say end reading here. I have a beef, and I'm going to vent.

Story:
Betterman is a Sci-fi/Horror series set in the Gao-Gai-Gar setting taking place a few years after that series conclusion. From its roots in that franchise it retains the same level of varied and well designed but not well developed characters, heavily detailed but not well researched or internally consistent technobabble, and ... well engineered but quickly and jarringly switched tones and atmospheres. Where GGG explored physical and technological sci-fi concepts, BM similarly explores biological and transhuman concepts. What BM does not carry over from its preceding story, however, is an attitude that the exploration of these concepts is a good thing.
Where GGG played with the ideas of the awesome things people could do with technologies like AI, space travel and physics bending machines, BM will go at lengths, stumbling at every turn, to show you how only petty people will actively explore biological technologies that veer things off the "natural course". It ends in a moral that trying to use life sciences to do honest good is likely futile, and anyone who tries to explore such venues for any other reason is explicitly doing so for terrible reasons. At only one point, during the final fight, does it even suggest an idea contrary to this narrative, but this was but a one-time gimmick to defeat the final enemy. Whatever ideas that could have been developed with that instance, of working together to ensure that mankind can surpass the limits of its own hubris and slippery slopes of technology misuse while still embracing the technology, were quickly ignored for returning to its narrative of leaving life alone. Instead of showing the hope of what mankind could someday achieve by following through with exploring the sciences depicted as GGG did, it attempts to spin a tale of how altering the organism is inherently wrong, and to interfere with the natural order or improve yourself in any way will only bring catastrophe. It ends with a message that if you just give up trying to improve yourself, and just embrace being an unaltered cog in the natural process, you'll be happy, without very strong exploration into the contrary, despite GGG having a variety of transhumans or otherwise augmented individuals with no detriment to their character or antagonism to their existence. While GGG depicted bad people using technology for evil, they never once really depicted any technology itself as inherently evil, instead playing with the motivations behind the uses for or against good, and I think that's where my beef here lies. GGG had fun with its science, while BM antagonized it, and I don't really think that should ever be cool.

In reference to an earlier statement, the series completely ignores or omits things like the Evolders or cyborgs to promote its anti-transhuman narrative, despite the former being well known figures in the world at this time, and the latter being something not uncommon at this point in time, supposedly. These are not the only things BM seems to forget, and in fact references the preceding franchise so rarely that it almost appears as though the references they do make are there solely to remind you that they are supposedly related. If I am to be honest, it almost feels forced, like with the Cloverfield films that weren't originally supposed to be Cloverfield films, and I have to wonder if the references are there for the same reasons.

Beyond the less than savory moral about augmentive technology, the story is your standard "mosnter of the week with overarching mystery and light romantic subplot" story, with little if anything new to add. If you like those kinds of stories, you'll like this, but if you don't like those, you're going to get nothing out of this besides horror. Horror, I would like to comment, that it does well. While the motives and morals behind why some of the things depicted in the show are "horrific" do not sit well with me, the spookiness, tension and grotesque designs are often quite on point, so I guess that's fine.

Art:
Really solid art. Looks older than it is, but this does not actually detriment for its art quality. I've complained a lot, but I can't complain at the way it looks. That, and them monster fights where hella rad, despite the sour narrative context. Only negative is the use of still frames was sometimes a little too noticeable, but honestly everything looks pretty swell.

Sound:
Some audio was fine, some sound effects were cheesy, and some of the music was better than average. Very little to comment here.

Characters:
The characters were quite diverse, and very few really fit into any specific stereotypes, but beyond that damn near none of them got any development, and the main character was of almost as little use to the plot as Indie was for Raiders of the Lost Ark. The cast functions better as a showcase for interesting and rarely used character concepts to be applied elsewhere than it does as the driving force behind this show. The only really distracting thing in the characters was the implication that Betterman's fucking pangolin hair was something inherited, but by that point the character could in no way be taken seriously, so it only added to the humor value.

Enjoyment:
Was down for the horror, and the humor of each episode having a goddamn dinosaur come out of nearly nowhere to save everyone, but as soon as it tried to articulate a message, and struggle to explain why its anti-science angle was totally right, my enjoyment started to dip, and after the very end it had me sitting there with a very sour taste in my mouth, especially after having watched GGG immediately before it.
But hey, if you share its moral opinion I'm sure you'll have a blast. In that case, I'd also recommend Earth Girl Arjuna, for a similar story, despite a dramatically different selection of genres.