Reviews

Apr 14, 2025
Keita Aono is your average teenager. He’s 17, he likes playing video games, he’s a military nut and he’s just crashed his scooter into an abandoned subway terminal. After regaining his composure, he discovers he’s at Bottom World, a brand new underground amusement park that is set to open that very same day. But something is… strange. The lights are off, the place is seemingly abandoned and something is very very wrong with the animatronics. After being chased down by the park’s mascot, Keita comes face to face with a giant bipedal robot called a Neuronoid. As it turns out, the pilot is his childhood friend Hinoki Sai. Scrambling into the second cockpit to escape the danger outside, the pair find themselves cornered before being saved by a mysterious transforming being that Hinoki seems to recognise. His name is Lamia - Betterman! Now employed as a pilot for the manufacturing company Akamatsu Industries and their backers Mode Warp, Keita finds himself in the midst of a battle against a mysterious disease known as Algernon, one that is seemingly the cause of a recent outbreak of mass murders and suicides across the world. But how does this illness relate to Betterman? And more importantly, how does Betterman relate to Hinoki? From there on out, things get weird. Very weird.

Betterman as a show is primarily known for two things. 1. Its connection to the Brave Series anime King of Braves GaoGaiGar, sharing the same world and many of the same production staff. 2. For being labelled as an Evangelion clone by the wider community. In reality, it’s barely connected to GaoGaiGar and it’s barely got anything in common with Evangelion outside of both of them being really fucking weird. No, Betterman is so much more than that. In fact it’s so different that it’s almost indescribable (it’s a hell of a lot goofier too). A surrealistic fever dream that mixes aspects of mecha, horror, superhero, psychodrama, dark fantasy, comedy, sci-fi and mystery into a truly one-of-a-kind concoction. Now, whether or not it succeeds in mixing those separate genres together is really in the eye of the beholder, but Betterman deserves props for at least trying something different. There really isn’t anything quite like it, for better or for worse.

Now on the surface, Betterman has a relatively simple premise. The manufacturing company Akamatsu Industries and the shady research organisation Mode Warp are working together to uncover the mysteries of Algernon, a type of virus (Mutation? Natural development in the body? Physical being? Who knows.) that causes those infected by it to descend into homicidal insanity. As such, reports of mass murders and suicides have become common place with large scale terror attacks by those infected now an increasing threat to humanity. So, in order to combat whatever is thrown their way, the two groups have developed the Neuronoids: giant mecha that are controlled by a pair of pilots known as Dual Kinds. With me so far? By using a strange luminescent liquid known as Linker Gel, the Dual Kinds are able to move the robots as if they were their own bodies, albeit with a strict time limit. At the same time, there’s Lamia - a being known as Betterman to those in Mode Warp. By consuming a variety of strange seeds, Lamia is able to transform himself into a series of different gigantic monsters in order to fight off the numerous threats brought about by Algernon. For some reason though, he seems to be shadowing Hinoki and Keita and protecting them at all costs. Oh and there’s also Sakura, a strange young girl who lives at Akamatsu Industries and has the power of telepathy through the use of the Limpid Channel, a flow of consciousness represented by a glowing dot on the user’s forehead. To manage the extreme influx of thoughts that endlessly bombard her, Sakura spends most of her days strapped up to a large chair known as the Manage Machine that doses her with Ritalin and other sedatives (she has “extreme ADHD” according to the show) and which allows her to streamline and focus her abilities. You got all that? Now most of this is brought up in the first couple of episodes and it isn’t even covering the numerous other bits of technobabble that get thrown at the viewers (Dual Impulses, Break Synthesise, G-Set, I could go on).

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Betterman is one of THOSE shows. Ones that smother you under piles of esoteric gibberish, cryptic remarks that may or may not mean anything and vague background elements that are actually vital to the plot. As such, your enjoyment of Betterman entirely hinges on your ability to put up with such things. If you’re adverse to that kind of writing, then this is probably the single worst show I can think of for you. If you DO like that sort of stuff, then… I still don’t know how to recommend it considering how tonally strange it can be. It’s a show that’s bound to put you off in one way or the other, be it the body horror, the comedy, the mecha or the psychological drama. But, for the enlightened few that enjoy all of those disparate styles and genres, you’re in luck. Betterman definitely feels like a show that was made to appeal only to an extremely niche group of people (in this case I’m assuming the director) and that in turn is one of its biggest selling points. But it is also one of its main detractions. As said prior, your enjoyment of this show hinges on your tolerance for esoteric bullshit, of which Betterman has plenty. Though beneath the chaos and confusion of its overall plot and setting, there is a fairly simple thematic core about overcoming trauma and fear, something basically everyone can connect with in some way.

Interestingly, for a psychological anime, the characters are sort of all over the place when it comes to development and getting to know them. The star of the show is more or less Hinoki as she’s the one who gets the lion’s share of attention and development. A moody young woman with a ridiculous multicoloured hairdo and a dark past that switches from cold indifference to haughty angst at the drop of a hat. While she’s mostly pretty reserved, the show does a good job in detailing her growth as she gradually comes out of her shell and opens up to those around her, while also exploring the trauma she’s carrying around with her. For the rest of the cast we’ve got Shigeru Akamatsu, CEO of Akamatsu Industries, team dad and owner of an impressive mustache. There’s Sakura who usually speaks in cryptic riddles and ominous forewarnings and spends most of her days hooked up to the Manage Machine (and occasionally piloting one of the two mecha). Miyako Asami, the go-between for Mode Warp and Akamatsu Industries. Team technicians Yamajii and Ri-chan and finally there’s Shou Yanagi and Kaede Kurenai, an esper couple who pilot the Tyran mecha and who have their own assorted neurosis and emotional damage to sort out. It’s a varied and interesting cast, particularly Shou who is probably the most emotionally fucked up next to Hinoki. Most of them get their mini-arcs that explore their past and have them grow as people, but even the characters who lack much in the way of progression can still be enjoyable to watch. Asami for example is pretty much the show’s designated exposition dumper, always ready to technically and scientifically explain the strange happenings that the cast are put through. While she does receive some character development, it’s fairly minor compared to the rest of the cast. Despite that, she winded up being my favorite character next to Akamatsu. A smart, forward-thinking and practical woman who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. In simpler terms, even its lesser developed characters are fun to watch which is always a good sign for a show like this.

But then there’s Keita. As our main character and audience surrogate, Keita has a lot of work to do in order to fit in with the other characters. Unfortunately the show doesn’t really commit to that. Keita is the comedy relief of the cast, which is a problem as he’s also the lead character. He’s nerdy, easily scared, a bit of a lech and completey out of his element, frequently failing to impress Hinoki and frequently the victim of slapstick gags. As such it feels like he was transported in from a completely different show, one where things are far less grim and considerably more goofy (dare I say, GaoGaiGar). It’s understandably a bit of a mood killer when something shocking or dramatic happens and Keita reacts like a gag manga character, full of exaggerated facial expressions and prone to over the top freak outs. While this DOES help elevate the tension in some cases, it often ends up killing the mood in various others. He also doesn’t really get much development or have much of a character arc, outside of a completely insane side plot about his piloting abilities that I won’t get into here. That’s not to say Keita is a bad character. He can be fun to watch and his genuine love for Hinoki is quite touching. Plus it helps to have some lighter elements in the show to keep it from being completely and utterly depressing, but that also comes at the cost of an uneven tone that frequently bounces from comedic and silly to bleak and morose, often in the same scene. He’s definitely the weak link of the cast which is a shame as most of the rest of the characters are fairly on point.

Animation wise, the show looks solid for the era. While there are some instances of reused footage (mainly when it comes to the Neuronoids transforming), the art is consistent and visually pleasing with a memorable and unique style. Some episodes are visually worse than others but the animation never totally collapses on itself like some other shows of the era (cough Lost Universe cough). While the budget is clearly much lower than GaoGaiGar’s, the staff make good with what they have and manage to use the show’s lack of expenses to pleasing effect. Slow panning shots and live action footage are occasionally used in place of more traditional animation which adds to the creepy and surreal atmosphere the anime gives off. Interestingly, Betterman was animated in widescreen, a rarity for the time period. In fact, I think it might actually BE the first widely seen TV anime to be done like this, though the original broadcast and DVD release were letterboxed. Like GaoGaiGar, the show also uses elements of CGI and digital coloring in some scenes. This can be a mixed bag however as while some scenes have stood the test of time, others have aged terribly and look downright garish on modern setups.

Betterman’s biggest issue though is that it’s dark. Too dark. As in, I can’t see what’s going on half the time. While the lighting in certain scenes improves over time, the first half of the show can be outright hard to watch in some cases because of how visually dark everything is. This is especially noticeable in the first 8 episodes which mainly take place in dimly lit locations. Cranking the brightness up on your monitor isn’t going to help either as this shit is baked into the animation cells. The question is, how much more black could this possibly be? None, none more black.


On the audio side of things, we’ve got an excellent OST by Kohei Tanaka returning from GaoGaiGar. In sharp contrast to the triumphant soundtrack of that work, Betterman’s music is far more moody and atmospheric. Dramatic string parts, clashing drums, blaring horn sections. In many ways it’s instrumentally similar to GGG’s music though flipped on its head. Darker and more intense, which I suppose is fitting of the show and its strange relationship with GGG. Opening theme is ‘Yume no Kakera’ (Fragments of a Dream) by Wuyuntana, an accomplished Mongolian throat singer who had previously starred as Sharon Apple in Macross Plus. It’s a gentle and rather haunting little piano ballad, ill fitting of an opening theme. Even weirder is the animation that goes along with it, consisting of scuba diver footage with images of the show’s cast superimposed on top. It feels fittingly low budget and cheap, though I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t intriguing and strangely hypnotic. Ending theme is ‘Chin ~ Requiem’ by ※-mai-, which is actually the stage name of the show’s director and series planner Yoshitemo Yonetani. That’s right, the director sings the closing theme. And he does a pretty damn good job to be honest, providing a fittingly demented vocal over a pulsing techno-industrial track.

Voice acting in the sub is mostly on point. Takehito Koyasu plays Lamia and gives a cool and mysterious performance fitting of the character. Kyōko Hikami does a nice job as Hinoki as does Shinichiro Miki as Shou. Elsewhere Houko Kuwashima plays Asami, one of her first major roles after Martian Successor Nadesico (and also pulls triple duty voicing the Super Soldier Chandi and Hei-chan, one of Akamatsu Industries’ technicians). Junko Iwao gives Sakura the typical ‘creepy mysterious girl’ voice that’s common with these kind of characters, though there are moments she gets to drop the act and do something different. The strongest performance outside of Koyasu comes from Chafurin who gives a gruff but warm portrayal of Akamatsu himself. The weakest performances come from Yuko Minaguchi as Kaeda, who gives her character a rather air-headed and ditzy sounding voice that makes the character come off like an idiot at times (though that may have been intentional) and, unfortunately, Kappei Yamaguchi as Keita. While he certainly brings a lot of energy to the role and his voice definitely fits the character, his shrillness and constant screaming becomes grating after a while. Considering Keita spends most of his time shrieking like a banshee, this naturally becomes a pretty big issue. Yamaguchi’s performance isn’t actually poor from an acting standpoint, he’s a very talented seiyuu after all. It’s just that Keita’s endless yelling means he’s forced to make the most annoying sounds possible, episode after episode. You can see why this is a problem.

The English track was taped at Ocean’s Blue Water studios with their b-team and is serviceable for an early 2000s anime dub. Matttew Erickson voices Keita and while his voice fits the character, he also tends to strangely enunciate some of his lines to the point of making Keita sound like he’s never spoken to another human being before. Everyone else does a mostly decent job, though of note is Jonathan Love as Lamia whose performance of the character notably contrasts with Koyasu’s. While the original Japanese was deep and mysterious, Love’s rendition is higher pitched and more twee sounding which ends up slightly changing the tone and vibe of some scenes, though not to the point of distraction. In comparison his performance as Shou is more in line with the original Japanese so it evens out at the very least. Overall the dub isn’t bad though it’s hardly mindblowing either. It gets the job done and for a show as batshit insane as this, that’s kind of a necessity.


Betterman isn’t a show that you can just sit down and casually watch. It’s a dense, cryptic and unrepentantly strange anime that demands your full attention to crack whatever the hell it’s trying to say. Combine that with its strange mix of genres, messy tone and incredibly loaded plot and you’re left with an anime that appeals only to a niche subset of people. However if all those things DO actually appeal to you, then this is a truly distinctive experience with a lot of heart and soul buried beneath the haze of strangeness. It might not be perfect, but there’s nothing else like Betterman.

Pros:

- Unique, one of a kind premise
- (Mostly) likeable and varied cast
- High quality action scenes
- Interesting blend of horror, sci-fi and action
- Strong OST


Cons:

- Enjoyment of show hinges on tolerance for complex and oblique storytelling
- Second half is noticeably more cluttered with erratic pacing
- Very slow pace and lack of a centralised antagonist for most of the run can turn off some viewers
- Show is visually way too dark


Betterman is currently licensed by Sentai Filmworks who rescued it from Bandai Entertainment when they went under. They haven’t done anything with the license though and it is still currently OOP and expensive.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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