Barom One

A pretty flaccid reimagining of an obscure manga, Barom One has some of the lowest production values I've ever seen in an anime on top of some pretty barebones character writing.

Set in the distant year of 2014, The show follows two high school boys. One is sharp and level-headed and the other is a little dim-witted but well meaning, and one day they gain the ability to fuse and become the superhero Barom One. Fighting a variety of monsters and possessed humans alike, they aim to protect their loved ones and the world from total catastrophe.

Sounds cool, yeah? Well in execution it's ... pretty lackluster and it sadly falls short of being a so-bad-it's-good anime you can enjoy ironically. The animation starts out bad and it only gets worse as the series progresses. On top of that, the art direction has that crusty early-2000's look to it, meaning low saturation and a homogenized approach to character design, which is especially disappointing considering the original manga was illustrated by the author of Golgo 13, Takao Saito, and had a memorable look to it in comparison. The redesign of the titular Barom One is similarly pretty whatever, it looks alright but you can tell it's derivative of something like Go Nagai's Devilman, which wasn't something I would say about the original look. The attempt to update the setting is similarly half-hearted, the only difference between 2014 and 2003 is that cell phones have holograms, it's really lame.

The two boys, while distinct at first, slowly lose their defining characteristics and become generic action heroes and are totally uninteresting to watch. The side characters aren't much better, the three heroines the show seems weirdly keen on advertising barely do much and the love interest is hardly even a character.

Pointing out all the production mistakes and baffling background details is the highlight of the show, there's one episode early on where the animators left in a black frame that lasts for three seconds, the entrance to a zoo has a logo written in lower-case comic sans with ugly rainbow coloration, the fights at the end of every episode showcase some of the worst animation in the show, there are seven eyecatches per episode and some happen less than two minutes apart from one another, etc, but these funny moments don't justify watching all 13 episodes.


My verdict is to wait until someone compiles all the funny bits on Youtube, don't subject yourself to this.

I really don't know why,but this anime just got me.I just watched one episode after other until the end.I can't say it is a masterpiece,it's really far from it.But something about the story got me intrigued and i just wanted to see more.

negative points:

1-The art sometimes made me laugh,frames bad,also the anime is not well animated at some parts.
2-The characters are just like robots for me,almost all of them act the same way,but i really liked the main duo.
3-The plot in the end wasn't bad at all,but i just wish it has something more,like a epilogue(it ended a bit sudenlly for my)

Well,my rating is mostly ... based in my own enjoyment of this serie,i really liked it,it have a weird charm that caught my atention,and i recomend it at all,it's a pretty generic 'bad anime'',but you still can enjoy its story.

Have you ever watched an anime just because of the OP song? Well, that's how I ended up here.

It really wasn't worth it. I thought if it did actually work out, it could go one of two ways from the premise, either being a so-bad-it's-good schlockfest, or a flawed-but-underrated hidden gem lost to time. Well, I can assure you, it's neither. It's too boring to be enjoyable as schlock, and it fails in nearly ever department otherwise. It looks bad, it's stupid and boring, and the fun premise quickly devolves into a monster of the week saturday morning cartoon with ... no compelling characters or conflict. Also, as a total aside, if you're looking at the cover and thinking any of those chicks are cute, stop your thoughts now; this is a total sausagefest. They're barely in it and when they're around they aren't doing much of anything, you're mostly gonna be seeing the main two (i don't even remember their names,) a couple of geezers and a bunch of literally whos jobbing each week. In all of the promotional material, dvd cover, and posters I can find, they're using the girls from the show to sell it but this is a completely unerotic show, it's hilariously misleading and transparent.

Check out the OP song and forget about this anime (idk if the manga is any good but after this I don't have any desire to check it out.)