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Title: Zetman
Genres: Sci-fi, Seinen
Author: Masakazu Katsura
Artist: Masakazu Katsura
Publication: Young Jump
Start Date: October 31, 2002
End Date: Ongoing
Number of chapters at review: 90 Scanned, 110 raw
Number of chapters read by reviewer: 90
General Overview: Zetman is a story that follows two protagonists on roughly a 60/40 timeshare. The first hero is named Jin and he is considerably superhuman, especially in his monster from Zet. The second guy is named Kouga and he is prodigious in whatever his goals may be. The story progresses through both of their lives from childhood to teenage years, and consists mainly of fighting and preparing against enigmatic monster enemies.
Without spoiling too much, there is more to meet the eye when it comes to the various evil monsters in this manga, and their intentions range from living peacefully to magneto-esque supremity.
Category Ratings: (1-10 scale)
Art: 9.5
If I had to compare the art in this series to anything else it would most definitely be Gantz. The backgrounds always look terrific and the character designs are both Retro and incredibly fresh looking at the same time. Katsura is no slouch when it comes to vividly detailing every panel, and the result is a manga that looks great during both action and still sequences.
Plot: 7
What detracts from the current Zetman plot is it's relatively short run so far. A lot of interesting questions have been raised thus far and only in the current Arc our the readers finally starting to see the cogs of the manga turn. One great thing about this is that the story shifts between two main characters and focuses on them in depth for a long period of time, which creates a very unique flow to the story.
Characters: 9
Zetman shines because both of it's major characters are depicted so well. Because Jin isn't inherently human, and Kouga wants to be something greater than human, an interesting dichotomy is reached. There aren't a lot of characters in this series which is a good thing because everyone introduced is given motives for their actions, and a good backstory to give insight to how the character will act.
Theme: 9
The theme of Zetman is enjoyable because it isn't really common within the "I have a monster within me" archtype of manga. Jin is moreso "I have human in me" and Kouga flat out clearly wants to be a Superhero to escape his own humanity. What drives Kouga how Jin does the right thing in opposition to his ideal workings, and what motivates Jin is simply to find out more about himself.
The main theme I guess would be about knowing oneself, and then figuring out your place in the world. Of course there is a evil organization trying to muck all this up, but the point still subtly gets across.
Originality: 10
Let's just say everything progesses in a very interesting way. It's science meets evoluton meets demons meets evil corperation all rolled up into one giant burrito of innovation. There are similar story setups to Zetman, but none have the inginuity that surrounds the series.
Overall: 9
Along with Tenjou Tenge, this is my favorite manga of the new year. It has a very interesting story and some crazy crazy scenes. I wrote this review in hopes that more people will catch on to Zetman, and then its later chapters will get scanned up to pace.
I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good Seinen-Action manga along the lines of Gantz or even Hellsing. It's worth a read and at the very least it definitely deserves more readers than it currently has.
The first Chapter can be found here as a preview http://www.onemanga.com/Zetman/1/
Great places to DL Zetman are http://stoptazmo.com/manga-series/zetman/
and http://www.mangatraders.com/manga/series/63
Genres: Sci-fi, Seinen
Author: Masakazu Katsura
Artist: Masakazu Katsura
Publication: Young Jump
Start Date: October 31, 2002
End Date: Ongoing
Number of chapters at review: 90 Scanned, 110 raw
Number of chapters read by reviewer: 90
General Overview: Zetman is a story that follows two protagonists on roughly a 60/40 timeshare. The first hero is named Jin and he is considerably superhuman, especially in his monster from Zet. The second guy is named Kouga and he is prodigious in whatever his goals may be. The story progresses through both of their lives from childhood to teenage years, and consists mainly of fighting and preparing against enigmatic monster enemies.
Without spoiling too much, there is more to meet the eye when it comes to the various evil monsters in this manga, and their intentions range from living peacefully to magneto-esque supremity.
Category Ratings: (1-10 scale)
Art: 9.5
If I had to compare the art in this series to anything else it would most definitely be Gantz. The backgrounds always look terrific and the character designs are both Retro and incredibly fresh looking at the same time. Katsura is no slouch when it comes to vividly detailing every panel, and the result is a manga that looks great during both action and still sequences.
Plot: 7
What detracts from the current Zetman plot is it's relatively short run so far. A lot of interesting questions have been raised thus far and only in the current Arc our the readers finally starting to see the cogs of the manga turn. One great thing about this is that the story shifts between two main characters and focuses on them in depth for a long period of time, which creates a very unique flow to the story.
Characters: 9
Zetman shines because both of it's major characters are depicted so well. Because Jin isn't inherently human, and Kouga wants to be something greater than human, an interesting dichotomy is reached. There aren't a lot of characters in this series which is a good thing because everyone introduced is given motives for their actions, and a good backstory to give insight to how the character will act.
Theme: 9
The theme of Zetman is enjoyable because it isn't really common within the "I have a monster within me" archtype of manga. Jin is moreso "I have human in me" and Kouga flat out clearly wants to be a Superhero to escape his own humanity. What drives Kouga how Jin does the right thing in opposition to his ideal workings, and what motivates Jin is simply to find out more about himself.
The main theme I guess would be about knowing oneself, and then figuring out your place in the world. Of course there is a evil organization trying to muck all this up, but the point still subtly gets across.
Originality: 10
Let's just say everything progesses in a very interesting way. It's science meets evoluton meets demons meets evil corperation all rolled up into one giant burrito of innovation. There are similar story setups to Zetman, but none have the inginuity that surrounds the series.
Overall: 9
Along with Tenjou Tenge, this is my favorite manga of the new year. It has a very interesting story and some crazy crazy scenes. I wrote this review in hopes that more people will catch on to Zetman, and then its later chapters will get scanned up to pace.
I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good Seinen-Action manga along the lines of Gantz or even Hellsing. It's worth a read and at the very least it definitely deserves more readers than it currently has.
The first Chapter can be found here as a preview http://www.onemanga.com/Zetman/1/
Great places to DL Zetman are http://stoptazmo.com/manga-series/zetman/
and http://www.mangatraders.com/manga/series/63
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