I'm writing this review after watching both Eat-Man 97 (this) and Eat-Man 98. When I began watching it, I had different expectations, but I soon learned that this series was not made after the manga, but instead it was random stories by a different person who uses Bolt Crank as a centerpiece of his stories.
So this is an anthology series loosely based around Eat-Man's character Bolt Crank. Each episode is its own story and they aren't necessarily very engaging, at least not for me. The personality of Bolt Crank is more or less in line with what the original character is - silent, stoic, enigmatic, mysterious, hard to read and hard to predict. On a few occasions he is shown smiling or making weird faces, which, I learned is not canon for his personality.
As for the stories, I found them to be rather boring for the most part, but Bolt Crank is an interesting character and somehow he kept the plot going. I ended up watching the better portion of the series on x1.5 speed, if it wasn't for the protagonist, I would have probably dropped it.
I decided to write this review after seeing the sequel, because I thought it will give me a better idea on the character and the universe and I was not wrong. If you decide to watch this series, definitely watch the sequel right after and form an opinion only then.
Overall, I think the series is not horrible, but the lack of continuity between episodes really made it hard for me to stay interested, it's not a bad series, just difficult for me to watch, you may feel differently. I kind of recommend it, but with a grain of salt, beware.
If you are interested, see my review for Eat-Man 98.