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.

Zettai Karen Children is a shounen action-comedy focused on a government organization called BABEL tasked with serving as mediators in hostilities between espers and humans. Among the organization and main focus of the series are a trio of powerful esper 10-year old girls called "The Children" who are chaperoned by Koichi Minamoto. The series explores the developing bond that occurs with Minamoto and The Children, as well as the group and BABEL coming at odds with several enemy organizations who have differing views on the future that espers can bring to humans to the world.

Zettai Karen mixes around comedic and serious moments in exploring its ... world and characters. The comedy mostly comes in the form of parody and the eccentric quirks of the cast. It makes nods at points to other anime titles and pokes fun of elements to sentai shows with the over-the-top introductions, commands and attack names being called from BABEL and other espers. The series also milks the eccentric quirks of the characters for its humor at many points such as Kaoru's perversion for attractive women, Muscle Okama's stereotypical gay character and Ichiro's lusting for partner Naomi. Many of these comical bits left me feeling rather indifferent or feeling some of the quirks were on the obnoxious side, particularly anything involving perversion of the characters being shown or teased. Still, there was some stuff that got me giddy such as series anti-hero Hyobu Kyosuke trolling Koichi for his personal amusement and an episode that parodies Death Note.

The series also has its serious developments in exploring the hostilities between espers and humans. In spite of his trolling, Kyosuke's character is fleshed out to explore a rather tragic back story that led to his mentality to become a Magneto-like figure in trying to aid espers and prepare for a possible war between his kind and humans. The pasts of the Children are also explored with how they became part of BABEL and their complicated pasts with their family members. The positions of organizations and individuals on esper abilities and how those with such power utilize it are also focused on at points throughout the series. While the series is comedy-driven throughout a good chunk of its first half, it does come to gradually tone down on its humor as hints to a possible dark future for Kaoru and the presence of another enemy organization rear their head in the second half.

Still, the series lacks a proper ending as the mentioned enemy organizations are still at large and things with Kaoru's future are left uncertain. Plus like a good number of action titles of its kind, Zettai Karen Children still dabbles fairly heavily in cliches typical of shounen anime with a number of adult characters behaving childishly for their age, many characters within the series filling certain archetypes and a good amount of black-and-white morality being milked in regards to some of the enemy organizations.

Overall, I suppose my thoughts on Zettai Karen Children are a bit mixed. I liked what it explored with its esper premise when things got serious and some of the humor to it did get me laughing, especially with moments where Hyobu was behaving like a troll. However, a good chunk of the show's humor did not really appeal to me and it still dabbles fairly heavily into the typical cliches and character types that one would find with a shounen title. I guess like the majority of titles aimed at the demographic, the series is best worth checking out if you're fairly new to the cliches offered for action-comedies geared toward younger male fans.

I'm rating this story based on what I have only watch. I dropped this midway. Not a fan.

Story: 7/10
I find the story typical almost cliche from all the anime I've watched already. the difference though was how it was presented. And of course ESP plus anime is always ALWAYS fun to watch.

Animation: - 6.5/10
I've seen better, well done animation.

Sound: - 6/10 (C+)
Not as catchy as hope it was.
...
Characters: - 6/10
Typical three main characters, almost those magical girls genre anime (Sailor Moon and the likes). Almost borderline to harem, which I don't like too much. Typical naive powerful female lead and the other two as mere support. Reminds me of Magic Knight Rayearth, but the MKR was done, plotwise and animation, better. Now Kyousuke's a different thing. The main antagonist of the story. The reason probably, I find this story's sequel much much likeable since he was the main lead.

Enjoyment: - 5 /10
I was able to watch until mid, even though I'm developing wrinkles as the story progresses. The most I enjoy here was the villain. Most of the time, I'm cheering for him.

Overall (Averaged): 6/10
Without the main villain, I would've rate this 4. I'm probably not suited watching stories like this.