Animelab.com: Anime Reviews: Betterman

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MasterNaga

Posts: 0
Score: 1
Rank: 740

Rather than recounting the plot for BETTERMAN, I'm going to just highlight its good and bad points. I'll also point out that this review is geared toward people who have not seen the entire series, but are familiar with the plot and its main characters. Most of all, it's head up to anyone considering buying the show in DVD (released by Bandi).

On the good side, you have a nice basic storyline idea, some interesting characters, and nice soundtrack that includes a great opening theme and a haunting, unforgetable melody for next episode previews.

The series is dark overall. It starts out medicore, becomes highly enjoyable from about eps 6-10, and then starts to degenrate into a messy, uninteresting pile of crap. Everything is forced yet too easy. The script is shakey and the characters' lines are at best boring and at worst senseless. People complain about this show being hard to follow because of plot twists, I found it hard to follow becasue it does little to elict interest during its second half. Oh, there are a few good eps, such as "Forte" and "Poison", and there are a few support characters that are fun to watch, such as Beterman, Hinoki, Chandy and Yakosugi; but, they are not always enough to make up for the show's other problems.

Grant it, these trouble are negligible up to episode 11. After that, the show has little to redem it, beyond the the title characters transformations and selfless battles to save the main human characters. Keita is an unappealing dork who does a so-so job as the show comic relief. Hinoki is really the only memeorable human character besides Betterman himself, although Shou and Kaede could have been given more development. While Hinoki's multi-colored bangs are a bit goofy, her red anime-girl eyes (yes red, but it works surprisingly well) and design are eye-catching. Unfortuantly, Hinoki's a quiet, down-in-dumps misery chick with a sad past and lots of emotional insecurities. Still, she's one of the more likeable character on the show, if a little generic.

For me, the only eps that are worth owning in DVD are those eps featured on Volume 2 of the series. The first five eps of the series are a nice intro, but after that, your mileage is likely to vary. Some highlight eps: "Echo, Forte, Poison, Aqua, Life, and the show's epilogue. The soundtrack may be worth you time buying on CD if you really like the show. Otherwise, I advise new animers to avoid this show at first and pick up Cowboy Bebop, Escaflowne, Outlaw Star, Princess Monoke, or Monster Rancher before diving into this weird show.

Contributions: Reviews: 1

Kakusajin 1 AV mode

Posts: 0
Score: 2
Rank: 425

Betterman starts out in the year 2006 when a virus named algernon attacks humanity. The main characters are Keita Aono, a high school student who's kind of a dork but has the ability to pilot robots called neuronoids, & Hinoki Sai, Keita's childhood friend who later moves away but comes back when they're in high school. She also has the ability to pilot the neuronoids. Hinoki comes back with a group of people who are trying to gain more info about algernon. The leader of them is Akamatsu, a man in his mid-50s who's head of a huge coporation specializing in milatary type things. Also, Akamatsu Ind. is responsable for the construction of the neuronoid "Kakusajin #1". Some employees of Akamatsu Ind. that are along for the ride are Yamajii, Li-chan, & Heichin, who later becomes infected w/ algernon & goes crazy(only Heichin). Asami Miako, a scientist from the worldwide coperation "Mode Warp", was sent along to help gain info on algernon. Also there's Sakura, a 15 year old girl that has special abilities that enable her to sense danger & other things like that. Also she's a head diver, person who can pilot neuroniods, Keita & Hinoki, & she has a weak constitution which is her one flaw. Akamatsu, who you later find out is her father, built a special machine for her that allows her not to tire as easy. Also there's Kaiede, a head diver from the French team with a special psychic power called "dowsing" which allows her to sense danger before it can be seen, & Shou, usually referred to as Yanagi, He’s also a head diver from the French team & he also has a special ability that allows him to hypnotize people for lack of a better word. The characters that the series is centered around are the species of people known as Betterman. The actual name for them is “Somniums” but the humans know them as Betterman. They have the special ability that allows them to change their form by eating a special seed from a flower called the “Animus Flower”. There are many different seeds that come from the flowers but the ones on the series are, Nebula, this changes them into a dragon-type form, Aqua, this is the fastest form of betterman swimming at a speed of 600 knots. It’s a stingray looking sea creature. Forte is the strongest from of betterman. It’s a semi-human looking creature. It’s also the largest form. Terma is also a dragon-type form but it’s yellow & has different attacks. Also a different somnium named Bodaiju used that seed. Lumei is a female form of betterman used by the bird-looking somnium named Seeme. The name of the leader of the somniums is Lord Bakila. But the main somnium in Betterman is named Lamia. He used the seeds of Nebula, Aqua, & Forte. He also used a seed in the last 2 episodes that allowed him to destroy the actual “enemy” of the somniums. He used the seed of Altos to defeat Conkal. But if you watch the series you can see all of that. I just thought I’d give some basic info about it for the people that haven’t ever seen it, & if you haven’t I recommend that you do so. It’s a spectacular 26 episode series.

Harry Lauver IV
Contributions: Reviews: 2

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