Zetman - 9
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So the slowed down pace from the previous chapter wasn't just a one-off.
Zetman has now showed us that it can go at a normal pace as well as at 100 miles per hour, with yet another episode that took it's time; that being said to make up for the slowdown in the progression of the story, the episode had a lot going on.
The episode started off with more action, since it wouldn't be Zetman without at least a mini fight scene thrown in to remind us that this is still meant to be a dark superhero anime, and with the fight came a few outcomes; namely more about Haitani's powers being revealed, with the introduction of the ZET clones. The resulting death of the main scientist was somewhat shallow and felt meaningless since he was a character that was always in the background, but I was surprised even more by how pointless his death felt.
After the action scenes, the episode decided to branch out like there was no tomorrow focusing on multiple characters like Kouga, Konoha, Hanako, Jirou and of course Jin. Each of the characters had something going on, making the story a little more complex than what it has been so far but at the same time making it a little difficult to take in all that has happened but the character which ended up standing out the most for me this episode was Konoha, mainly because prior to this episode she was always appearing for a few seconds and hadn't really accomplished anything at all but in this episode she gets a little more screen time in which she's shown to be at her weakest and in more trouble than ever - right at the end when Jirou calls Kouga proclaiming that he knows where Konoha has run of to.
Other than Konoha getting more attention, deserved or undeserved is up to the view (personally I was indifferent), the other highlight in terms of plot progression was Jin's encounter with the boss of EVOL. The encounter doesn't reveal much but it keeps adding to Haitani's mystery and development as the main villain of the series, especially when the boss of EVOL goes as far as to reveal that even he can't do anything about Haitani. I've enjoyed not knowing much about the main villain of the series, since it's been a different viewing experience from Sankarea, where the main villain is not shrouded in mystery at all and hated from the beginning whilst in Zetman I was lead to believe that it was Grandpa Amagi who was the main villain until Haitani's recurring appearances in the episodes. Although, this episodes Kouga and Konoha's dad became what Grandpa Amagi was in the first few episodes.
All the other events that transpired in the episode seem to have been done in a way that they will be revisited in the future episodes, the least favourite of which was Jin and Hanako's sudden throes of romance. I say sudden but it's been a few episodes and it may be due to the insane compression of the manga content into a mere 13 episodes but this romantic development has been my least favourite element of Zetman and one I think the series could have done without.
Overall, I can't say I really enjoyed this episode of Zetman because it was a little hard to follow everything that went on, when I've grown accustomed to watching this series without paying much attention and still managing to pick up a few minor details here or there. Besides the romantic development, I am looking forward to seeing how this episode has set up the remaining episodes of the series and how the series will wrap up with its remaining 4 episodes when so much is going on.