(Warning do not read if you haven't watched through at least episode 12)
The Zetman anime even if flawed and seeming to be missing something nonetheless is still a great story with some good themes on the nature of good and evil. There are several questions asked in the story: 1)What is evil? 2)What is justice? 3)What defines a hero?
In Zetman you have two types of evil: evil for the sake of greed and evil that destroys human life. The first type is seen in the Amagi Coorporation. It starts out telling us that they created monsters in the labratory for bloody life and death games used to amuse the wealthy but these monsters called players became self aware and revolted escaping into the human world. Creating life in order to use it as entertainment is evil. This was driven by their greed. In fact the Amagi coorporation is painted as evil in the series. Kanzaki wanting ZET to have a heart and not to be a killing machine escapes from that evil and raises Jin on the street and in doing so makes him human. You even see greed motivating other charachters in the series to do horrendious deeds. For instance a man Kouga trusted ended up just being someone useing him in order to gain power in the company. The second evil is that which destroys human life. Which would be the regressed players, who contray to the organization EVOL, wants to kill humans and get revenge. These players are not only hunted by ZET and Kouga-kun but even in their organization if caught they will be terminated.
Justice is something hard to define in some ways. The series brings up lots of moral questions. For instance if your sister is held hostage and in danger and 3 high school girls will be killed who do you save. Is it possible to save everyone or do you have to pick and choose? Is it truely the needs of the one out weighs the needs of the few or do we have another choice? Kouga in the begining is only focused on catching the bad guys and destroying evil but Jin is more concerned about saveing everyones life. Does justice really need sacrifies in order to be correct? Through a series of sick games played with his mind Kouga decides to take the same route that Emiya Kirisugu in Fate/Extra does. Destroy evil and save lives no matter the cost. Kouga even goes so far as to kill his own parents becasue the Amagi corporation is the source of the evil destorying so many lives. But is this truely justice?
What is a hero? Is a hero the one who every one sings praises on every street corner? Or the one who hides in the shadows praise unsung? Is it kouga who sacrifices others to save the rest or is it Jin who looks for ways to save everyone? Kouga's sister even says at one point that it looks like Kouga only wants everyone to praise him. Is he truely a hero? In the end I think he looked more like a villian. His obsession with being a hero and being rightous lead him down the path to darkness. While Jin who wasn't even human learns about love and protecting others on his path to giving up humanity. But in the end who was really human? Jin who wanted to save everyone or Kouga who killed his own parents?
Zetman is defiently a dark series. But the questions it asks are definetly intresting. I hope that Viz licenses the manga becuse i really would like to read it. Or maybe i should take a look a kinokuniya and see if they have it. It's a great story and I want to see it in its best form.
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