This time I’m giving you my opinion on Zettai Karen Children. I’ll first review the Anime and continue with the manga (which continues the story). Due to the good sales of the OVA and the manga, a second season is expected to air sometime 2011/12, I’m looking forward to it.
While this show might appear to be childish at first sight, it does have a pretty deep story and the characters would rather fit an older audience, rather than children. While the apparent childishness was a factor that kept me from watching it for 2 months, I finally decided to get it over with (and thus move the anime into the watched folder) adn I was positively surprised.
The series centers around the conflict between Espers and normal humans. The amount of Espers being born is on a continues rise, but strong Espers are still rare. There are two major factions:
- Base of Backing ESP Laboratory (BABEL): This is were the four protagonists are. This organization has to counter any ESP criminality by using Japans only Level 7 Espers, convienetly 3 children of the same age. Kaoru probably the strongest and most important one has a personality more befitting a perverted old man, rather then a 10-year old girl . She occasionly uses her psychokinetic powers to that end. Shiho is a sadistic mind-reader with a black sense of humor, while Aoi is a teleporter and an honor student. These childrena re supervised by Minamoto, who is supposedly a genius and a researcher at BABEL.
- P.A.N.D.R.A. (I can’t seem to find out what it means): This is the major antagonist organization, consisting of Esper criminals. Their leader is always attempting to get the children (Groupname for Kaoru, Shiho and Aoi) to join them, and is always thought of a s a lolicon stalker becaus of that.
While there are other criminal organizations, not much is revealed about them in neither the anime nor the manga up until now (not finished yet). The general Idea is about changing a horrid future using the powers of the children (hope that’s not to much of a spoiler).
First of all the characters are brilliantly made, and they fit into the story perfectly. Although they are to some extent weird (an understatement), they do make the entire manga into a comedy. Also the development can be witnessed in the story itself. But that is not only for the protagonists, but also for some minor characters and the antagonists. There are many relations in between both fractions, making it more interesting.
Next comes the music. While the first opening theme somehow reminded me of animes I’ve seen when I was around seven, it is pretty nice. The endings and the other opening befit the anime, although they are not to my liking. The music that accompanies the scenes is very well made and always fits the scenes. Actually, while reading the manga I simply put the OST on random playback and it actually fit most of the time.
The animation was mediocre, but if that is important for you, you won’t get to see some really good shows. It at least depicted everything accurately and understandable. The setting on the other hand is original, and well thought through. It contains natural human reactions and prejudices as well as stereotypes towards unknown things.
The story in itself is great, both in the anime and the manga, although the anime is a little filled with fan(kaoru)-service, which is to expect from an ecchi tagged anime. The anime does not cover the supplement pages of the manga which sometimes contain very interesting information about minor characters, but it would’ve been difficult to include that without causing confusion, so I suggest to read the manga from the beginning after finishing watching the anime. The ending point for the anime was well chosen, as it not only ends an arc, but also a chapter of the characters’ lives.
This show is very good for you if you don’t want to be chained in front of your screen for hours. The light make-up of everything makes it more of a casual series, that you watch a couple of episodes at a time. I still found it to be a surprisingly good show (my expectations of comedies and ecchi animes are extremely low) and I’d reccomend it to anyone who likes ecchi series. The anime is suited for those that prefer serious dramas as well, but they’ll need to get around those typical ecchi jokes somehow.
P.S.: I’ll recommend the 720p chihiro subbed version over the category C one, because there were some inconsistencies in the resolutions of some episodes (some were stretched, which looked awful). I don’t know if this has been corrected since I downloaded this last year.
Link for recommendation: http://www.bakabt.me/159387-zettai-karen-children-absolutely-lovely-children-chihiro-720p-x264-aac.html