Zetman - 03

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Grandpa Amagi has just become one of the best super villains ever.

I can't decide whether the episode was slower paced or seemed that way but it looks like it was the episode that has now laid the ground work for the 2 heroes to take the stage. Even though it felt like the focus of the episode was on Jin, there were a few scenes involving Kouga who is of course the other superhero of the series but has not had the opportunity to feel like one.

Kouga's character development this episode was accomplished much easier, especially with his little sister Konoha telling him that his justice is unclear and that he's only doing the superhero thing because he wants praise and attention - kind of summed up what I was feeling from the last episode and this was only brought up after Kouga had a girl with a crush on him ask for his autograph (Mayu, who is also appearing next episode) and of course the beginning of the episode where he was angry at his father for profiting from his "heroic" stunt. I think that having a statement like that from Konoha was great for Kouga's character development and even more-so since she said it when it came to the end of the episode and we see what Jin's fighting for it makes Kouga seem like the spoiled rich kid playing around even more than it did beforehand.

Jin's part of episode was riddled with developments as well and it was because of it that we see rise to a super villain only comparable to the best ones out there. The fact that he went so far to create a nightmare for Jin where he sees Akemi killed by a player and later admitting that the cause of all these players running around the city is none other than him but he also has the nerve to recruit Jin as his player bounty hunter in almost too cool, calm and collected demeanour. I really liked that his acted in this certain way because not only did he become detestable but he ended walking on the tightrope line that divides good and evil, making him an even better super villain.

Jin's character itself shines through as one of a true hero through a series of events such as: his willingness to kill himself, him severing ties with all friends and family in order to protect him and of course joining the man who killed his father to give Akemi, his mother figure a second chance at life. So far for Jin his life has been about fear of loosing others and his ability to sacrifice has made him feel like the main character of the series whether or not TMS intended it to be so or not and whether it was intended in the manga I don't know.

Overall the episode did seem like a cool down after the first two but as a transitional episode where the foundations are laid further for the Hero's to emerge it has been very good and as I mentioned has been particularly impressive and necessary on the character development front. I did notice that Mayu appears in the next episode and in the chapters of the manga she seemed to be a possible love interest for Kouga, whilst Konoha remained one for Jin so I'm interested to see how big a role she'll have to play next episode and I assume that's why she was briefly introduced here.