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Zetman |OT| Better Batman than Chinese Electric Batman

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The players are on the loose and we need a hero... or should I say DARK HERO! One of the highest profile shows of the spring anime season has arrived!

Story

There are two forces in the world: the Zet, who are entrusted with the survival of humanity, and the Alphas, who have chosen an extreme form of justice. In a certain city, Jin lives under a bridge with an old man, struggling to pay off debts. He carries the destiny of humanity's survival. Kouga lives on a hill and stands to inherit vast wealth. In his admiration for heroes, he seeks out the meaning of justice. They don't know it now, but they are destined to one day meet.

What it be

An adaptation of an ongoing seinen manga by Masakazu Katsura. Got a lot of cool fight scenes, likable characters and poignant moments. Lot of tension as well. Anyone looking for an action anime should check it out.

Characters

Jin

SyxtV.png


Kouga

nBfof.png


Seiji Haitani

7FbpH.png


Akemi

ANiEZ.png


Mitsugai Amagi

gEzak.png


Number of episodes

13 as of now. Might get another season down the line though, especially considering it's a rather long series that's still going.

Studio

TMS Entertainment

Where to watch

Hulu has it and should be airing new episodes Monday.
 
the character deign art is better than the manga due to the anatomy. That alone has me interested so i don't read the manga.

Any idea what studio is handling this and can I expect quality animation?
 

Lulubop

Member
The manga is pretty amazing at times, but as a whole it's pretty lackluster. The pacing is pretty terrible.

I haven't checked out anime in awhile, but this season has a few interesting titles.
 

Parallax

best seen in the classic "Shadow of the Beast"
Who is supposed to be the better batman? Amagi? Jin? Because neither are really like him. I am looking forward to the mansion arc though. There's a lot to live up to and i hope its animated well.
 
the character deign art is better than the manga due to the anatomy. That alone has me interested so i don't read the manga.

Any idea what studio is handling this and can I expect quality animation?

Are you crazy? It's unambiguously worse, none of those poses make any sense. Not to mention that gross color work.
 

Tomat

Wanna hear a good joke? Waste your time helping me! LOL!
I miss Chinese Electric Batman. I never figured out who he was.
 
Who is supposed to be the better batman? Amagi? Jin? Because neither are really like him. I am looking forward to the mansion arc though. There's a lot to live up to and i hope its animated well.

I would say Amagi in character background and gadgets, Jin in action and dark heroness. It's kind of a combination of the two.
 

Lain

Member
Haven't watched the first episode yet, but the art on that poster image in the OP doesn't make justice to the original art, imho. Hope i won't be too disappointed when I do watch this.
 

Tokubetsu

Member
Haven't followed the manga in ages (quite a few boring stretches) but if the show ends up doing half the shit the manga covers, it's gonna be dope. It's violent and batshit crazy awesome.

I could totally see a tokusatus made out of it as well.
 
Edd5H.png


Jin's pose slinks straight down with gravity along the curve of his spine like you would expect of a person slouching.

vs.


SyxtV.png


What is he doing here? Keeping his legs perfectly straight, kicking his waist out while leaning against a wall? His pose doesn't make logical sense. It's lazy.
 
Anyway, here are the impressions I posted in the anime thread.
Zetman 1

Okay, wow, this is like super SUPER condensed. I fear there really wasn't enough time to flesh out the old man
before he died. Makes it a bit harder to care.
There's also A LOT that got cut out, some vital stuff, some not so vital stuff. Kind of miffed Jin's first act of "heroism" got cut out because it was awesome. Same regarding the
Player that killed the old man, because Jin was present during that and even fought the guy for a bit.

They also changed
Akemi's assailant from a common robber to the Player that killed the old guy.
I would say it was much better in the manga since it was more intense and really made you care about Akemi.

They also made Jin and Kouga acquaintances, something that didn't happen in the manga while they were kids; something that may cause... complications later on provided there aren't some drastic changes.

Anyway, what they did adapt was still very good. Fights were well animated and they had the atmosphere down. I think I would have rather they take 2 episodes to cover the childhood arc faithfully instead because they could clearly pull it off considering the manga's pacing, but this isn't bad either. Definitely watching to the end even if they decide to completely ignore the source material. Though at this point, I would still say the manga is exponentially better.
 

Parallax

best seen in the classic "Shadow of the Beast"
I would say Amagi in character background and gadgets, Jin in action and dark heroness. It's kind of a combination of the two.

Amagi is kinda the flipcoin batman. Both parents, not driven by vengeance, I can give that one. Jin isn't really vengeful, or dark for that matter, just brooding.
 
The action animation is quite stylish. (first episode spoilers)


http://i.imgur.com/Edd5H.png[/im]

Jin's pose slinks straight down with gravity along the curve of his spine like you would expect of a person slouching.

vs.


[ig]http://i.imgur.com/SyxtV.png?2

What is he doing here? Keeping his legs perfectly straight, kicking his waist out while leaning against a wall? His pose doesn't make logical sense. It's lazy.
not gonna argue with you on that.
 

shira

Member
Edd5H.png


Jin's pose slinks straight down with gravity along the curve of his spine like you would expect of a person slouching.

vs.


SyxtV.png


What is he doing here? Keeping his legs perfectly straight, kicking his waist out while leaning against a wall? His pose doesn't make logical sense. It's lazy.
Spines aren't straight
 

Piecake

Member
Edd5H.png


Jin's pose slinks straight down with gravity along the curve of his spine like you would expect of a person slouching.

vs.


SyxtV.png


What is he doing here? Keeping his legs perfectly straight, kicking his waist out while leaning against a wall? His pose doesn't make logical sense. It's lazy.

He's also playing pocket pool, that kinky bastard
 

Lirlond

Member
So much stuff cut, hopefully it was just for the childhood stuff. Also, I thought the Sweepers "blade" looked more like a stinger in the manga, rather than this odd retractable sword thing.
 

Cwarrior

Member
Zetaman 1

huh having only read a few chapters of the manga this is quite different, with some scenes skiped to get straight to the action, also some added earler on
justice bro kid being a childhood friend
, important that should of stayed was the
heart warming scenes with grampa, without that it's hard to care about his death

Outside of that good opening episode.

-excellent art, lots of detail on the characters especially on there faces(dat old man face), quite uncommon theses days.

-really nice animation with some stylish action scenes
 
Main characters design, at least that pose and hair remind me of Ivan Karelin/Origami Cyclone in Tigrer and Bunny, just recolor the hair and a look alike.Same artist? Regardless really compelling character.

Regardless, Ill probably watch the episode today, hope its what Im looking for.
 
Main characters design, at least that pose and hair remind me of Ivan Karelin/Origami Cyclone in Tigrer and Bunny, just recolor the hair and a look alike.Same artist? Regardless really compelling character.

Regardless, Ill probably watch the episode today, hope its what Im looking for.

I actually thought of Zetman when Watching Tiger and Bunny for the first time.
 

Instro

Member
Got around to watching the first episode, it was so-so. The whole episode felt like they were rushing through material, kind of hard to get attached or interested in what is happening when events are just flying by so quickly. The interactions between Jin and everyone else were just kind of stupid. I can't say I can't say I particularly like the art either, some parts look good and others not so much. The animation is good however.

I'll give it a couple episodes to see where it is going.
 

iavi

Member
I just realized that the OP shows Akemi with
a glasgow smile,
wow. I think I can see where this is going.
 
Got around to watching the first episode, it was so-so. The whole episode felt like they were rushing through material, kind of hard to get attached or interested in what is happening when events are just flying by so quickly. The interactions between Jin and everyone else were just kind of stupid. I can't say I can't say I particularly like the art either, some parts look good and others not so much. The animation is good however.

I'll give it a couple episodes to see where it is going.

Yeah, I'm a little disappointed that they cut out or condensed a lot of Jin's early interactions. It really did a lot for shaping his character and I'm worried the lack of certain information will make plenty of scenes later on a lot less effective. They already
messed up the old dude's death scene
, so I'm definitely not as hopeful as I was before this started.

Still gonna watch it to the end though.

I just realized that the OP shows Akemi with
a glasgow smile,
wow. I think I can see where this is going.

I don't think you do :D
 

maomaoIYP

Member
Argh, the manga is way better. For those complaining about the pacing, Zetman's target audience isn't the Naruto/Bleach/Magister Negi crowd. The point of the slow plot is to have a long overarching storyline with lots of character development. The author has a tendency to remake his own short stories, Zetman was originally a short story about a computer programmer who designs a video game where the main character is Zetman. He get's sucked into the game and becomes Zetman in real life. He also expanded on his Shadow Lady short story many years ago.

Main characters design, at least that pose and hair remind me of Ivan Karelin/Origami Cyclone in Tigrer and Bunny, just recolor the hair and a look alike.Same artist? Regardless really compelling character.
Tiger and Bunny's character designs were by Masakazu Katsura.
 
Argh, the manga is way better. For those complaining about the pacing, Zetman's target audience isn't the Naruto/Bleach/Magister Negi crowd. The point of the slow plot is to have a long overarching storyline with lots of character development. The author has a tendency to remake his own short stories, Zetman was originally a short story about a computer programmer who designs a video game where the main character is Zetman. He get's sucked into the game and becomes Zetman in real life. He also expanded on his Shadow Lady short story many years ago.


Tiger and Bunny's character designs were by Masakazu Katsura.

The pacing felt pretty awkward. It felt like all important details regarding the o thing and powers was glazed over. Only when we got Ms Akemi did it feel nicely paced and enjoyable.

Ultimately action felt like an afterthought...hope that changes in the future.
 

iavi

Member
Zetman 2

Enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the first ep, though there was a palpable nose-dive in animation quality this time around. It was as fast as the previous ep, but as coherent so I still have no complaints.
R.I.P Akemi.
Done absolutely wrong.
 
Zetman 2

Something felt off about this episode.

Maybe it was the pacing or the time skip or my lack of understanding about wtf is going on.
 
Ross-posting

Zetman 2

Okay wow, this is moving WAY too fast. Not enough time is being given to flesh out the characters at all. Kouga in particular really needs more time to truly display his own deluded brand of justice and just how detrimental it can be. He and Jin being childhood friends also COMPLETELY changes the meaning of the burning building segment.

I did like the scene for what it was though. Cool fight scene at the end there even if they skipped over a lot of the more impressive portions. Oh well.

And it looks like I was wrong, Miri. The final scene does happen in the manga. Though I accidentally spoiled what really happens by implication, so sorry about that. Read the manga anyway though because it's better.
 
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