Peps' Anime Wrap-up: Zetman

image from MyAnimeList
Four out of my last five anime blog posts from the 2012 spring season featured an element of romance, so it was quite refreshing to write about something that's entirely removed from all things gushy.

Don't get me wrong, there's a love story somewhere in Zetman.  It's just that it's not really entirely a pretty one.  And you wouldn't care so much for it, since the action is what they're really selling in the series.

Zetman is probably the most serious out of all of the titles that I picked last season, featuring a concept grounded in sci-fi (the monster kind, not the robotic) and characters that have a lot of drama courtesy of their personal struggles.

The Amagi Corporation used to host an underground fighting spectacle for the rich.  The fighters were creatures known as Players, monstrous in form and abilities, which were created while the Amagi Corporation founder and chairman Amagi Mitsugai tried to develop artificial humans.  One fateful night, the Players rebelled against their creators and their roles as mindless killing machines.  They escaped, killing many in their path.  Mitsugai, feeling responsible for the creation of the Players, decided to create a being that can hunt them down and kill them.  His research partner Kanzaki Gorou, however, thwarts his plan when he runs away with the final product, ZET.

Years later, a young boy named Jin lives in the slums with his grandfather Kanzaki, earning money by charging people who need help against thugs, robbers and rapists.  He has an unlikely friendship with rich siblings Amagi Kouga and Amagi Konoha.  Kouga, inspired by the anime character Alphas, has a strong sense of justice and is determined to fight alongside Jin.  However, due to a series of events leading to the death of Kanzaki, Kouga and Konoha lose touch of Jin, who ends up in the care of Kawakami Akemi for the next several years.  One day, Kouga decides to act out on his plans to become a hero by saving people from a burning building, aided by a trio of scientists who work at the Amagi Corporation.  That same night, Jin is led to the burning building by his sense of smell straight to the Player responsible for the arson.  After losing sight of the Player, Jin and Kouga encounter each other, and Jin decides to help an entire family, despite Kouga's belief that they can only save the mother.  Jin leaves to fight the Player, but is surprised when he transforms into a more powerful and evil looking creature, and ends up defeating the Player.  Jin returns to his human form and collapses, causing him to be sent to the hospital.  While visiting Kouga, who is being hailed by the press as a hero, Amagi Mitsugai discovers at the hospital that Jin has a strange brand on his hand and realizes that he has found ZET.

There's supposed to be a shorter summary out there, but the ones I found are not entirely accurate or are more applicable to the manga version that the series is adapted from.  With the little that I know about the manga and the subsequent comments made by the fans of the printed version, it would seem that there are differences, both minor and major, that affected the overall storytelling and certain pivotal character developments.  Fortunately, since I knew so little of the source material, I was able to focus on the storytelling of the anime version of Zetman, instead of making comparisons.

For the most part, Zetman is more than just a story of Jin/ZET trying to kill the monstrous Players.  While that premise makes for exciting action sequences, it's the reason for the battles that are meant to be the center of attention.  Jin accepts his role as ZET in order to ensure the safety of those he loves more than accepting that he was genetically designed to kill the Players.  Kouga feels a responsibility as a member of the Amagi family to dispense justice and help save everyone.  Mitsugai wants to end the abomination that he created and unleashed on the citizenry.  Even Kanzaki had a reason for running away with Jin when he was an infant, focusing on establishing humanity in his ward before Jin's instincts to indiscriminately kill can take over in the future.

image from kal01
Zetman aims to provide audiences with complex character developments, especially in the case of Jin and Kouga.  While not completely rivals in the anime as the summaries online suggested, their clashing views on justice is a major topic every time their paths cross.  Kouga, who is the most staunch of believers when it comes to justice, finds himself realizing that Jin has the clearer view on justice, despite his less favorable background and circumstances.  Even in his monstrous form as Zet, Jin still comes across as the bigger person, and has the bigger understanding and showing of humanity.  The last couple of episodes of the series particularly showcased how the supposed hero can be capable of monstrous decisions, while the supposed villain can exert his humanity over his expected nature.

Zetman is far from perfect, though.  The too short thirteen episodes of the series featured a rather frenetic pace of storytelling, giving the audience very little time or opportunity to get used to the overall concept and the characters.  Characters are suddenly resolved or taking action, instead of showing the audiences how they got to that point.  There's little to no build up to the major twists, particularly in the heartbreaking case of Tanaka Hanako, whose importance was eclipsed by how annoying her character was in the beginning. 

It was a good thing that they gave the series a great conclusion in the form of the final two episodes, because even if the token villains were about as bland as water and ineffective in conveying menace or plain villainy, the conflict experienced by Jin and Kouga in the epic final battle more than made up for it.

All in all, Zetman is an interesting anime title to consider if you want a fast paced action series.  Even if you don't consider it for your own must-watch list, it should at least interest you enough to give the still ongoing manga series a try.

Happy viewing!!

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