Zettai Shonen

[Dragosmore]

Most sadly, with the big forum data loss, this thread was completely devoured, so I'm opening it a new. The series has been finished, and now everyone who wants(/ed) to watch it hopefully has been able to see it! Most things came to a close, and some things are left to the watcher, but overall I was quite pleased with the ending. Many times you'll just see stupid things like Mai HiME's ending, but this one was quite respectable. I'm curious to hear opinions~

[Proto]

Indeed, I found this ending to be highly satisfying. Although at a first glance it just seems to leave too many untied knots, when one realizes the meaning that the series tries to convey

Spoiler:

Which IMO was, among other things, more than the sense of finding your otherselve like the characters blatantly said, it was (IMO again) finding, or understanding yourself. To the point that you both accept the fachade you wear before others (which is a part of yourself at the end) and your inner being.

it leaves you highly satisfied. In fact, I think this series made it to my Top 5

[Radiosity]

Series looks interesting, am currently downloading 1-12 batch to check out since I missed it while it was being aired

[Guardian Enzo]

Spoiler:

I just watched the final three eps last night, and I would have to say I was generally satisfied with the ending. Given the way this series had played out, I really didn't expect a high-action finale that neatly tied up all the loose ends. ZS was pretty enigmatic from the beginning, leaving a lot to the interpretation of the viewer. And the ending was consistent with that.

That said, I enjoyed the Tana arc much more than the Yokohama arc. First of all, Tana itself was a character - and a great one. I also enjoyed the secondary characters much more. One problem I had with the second arc is that the more I saw of Kisa, Shigeki and Rieko, the less I liked them. By the end I truly disliked Rieko - every appearance dragged the show down for me. The only new character in the Yokohama arc that I really liked was Makki.

All in all, though, Zettai Shonen was one of my favorite series of 2005. At its best it was incredibly though-provoking and utterly Japanese in the best sense. At it's worst it was at least interesting. And Aizawa Ayumu was one of the best anime characters of the year.

[Griffith]

Overall, I enjoyed the series very much, it's probably my favorite of the year. The ending was satisfactory, and

Spoiler:

seeing Kisa in her school uniform was nice.

[suguru]

I marathoned episodes 20-26, and I'm glad I did since otherwise the suspense probably would've killed me. Overall, I liked the Tana arc better than the Yokohama arc--I just really liked the Tana cast and the atmosphere in Tana was awesome, and perfect for the story. In Yokohama it just seemed like the supernatural was out of place, and it was harder to get into the characters. Although if they were separate series the Yokohama arc would still stand up well, it's just the Tana arc I thought was really exceptional, so it was going to be nearly impossible to top. The Tana arc's probably the best series I've seen this year.

Thoughts on the ending:

Spoiler:

While they didn't come out and say exactly what was going on, this was a better ending than I expected. The exact nature of the material fairies isn't what's important anyway--Zettai is more about the characters and their growth. I'm not sure how they could have explained everything anyway, without kind of ruining the atmosphere.

Thanks to everyone at Triad for subbing this. It's been a lot of fun to watch, and with the little Japanese I know, and as much as Zettai revolves around people's conversations, there's no way in hell I'd have been able to figure out what's going on watching raws.

[tabun]

Originally Posted by suguru

I marathoned episodes 20-26, and I'm glad I did since otherwise the suspense probably would've killed me. Overall, I liked the Tana arc better than the Yokohama arc--I just really liked the Tana cast and the atmosphere in Tana was awesome, and perfect for the story. In Yokohama it just seemed like the supernatural was out of place, and it was harder to get into the characters. Although if they were separate series the Yokohama arc would still stand up well, it's just the Tana arc I thought was really exceptional, so it was going to be nearly impossible to top. The Tana arc's probably the best series I've seen this year.

May I deduce from what you said that a) Zettai Shonen up to (and including) episode 12 is something of a story of it's own and separated from 13-to-end, and that b) the complete Tama cast/characters will not appear after episode 13? I would find that rather sad, as to me the Tama arc seemed somewhat unresolved (watched the 1-12 batch from Triad over the past 2 days). Great work by Triad btw! The show itself certainly has a weird kind of attraction to it, but attraction nonetheless.

[Kaoru Chujo]

This series totally surprised me. As a Saturday morning series, I expected it to be kid stuff, but it wasn't. It had great mood, pace and characterization.

Yes, the first half of the series is set in the country, and the second half in the city, with few characters appearing in both. I, too, enjoyed the country half more than the city half, but the city half was still great, with some fascinating characters of its own.

I don't suppose they'll do another series, but they created a real world with the characters in both places, so they could. Life goes on. And the more I see of Miki and Ayumu the better. I loooved the voice of Mitsuhashi Kanako as Miki.

[tabun]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

This series totally surprised me. As a Saturday morning series, I expected it to be kid stuff, but it wasn't. It had great mood, pace and characterization.

Yes, the first half of the series is set in the country, and the second half in the city, with few characters appearing in both. I, too, enjoyed the country half more than the city half, but the city half was still great, with some fascinating characters of its own.

I don't suppose they'll do another series, but they created a real world with the characters in both places, so they could. Life goes on. And the more I see of Miki and Ayumu the better. I loooved the voice of Mitsuhashi Kanako as Miki.

So I guess Miki appears in the city arc? Good to hear ^^
And I certainly like Mitsuhashi Kanako's voice, be it in Suzuka or Zettai Shonen. Some voices you just feel attached to !

[Kaoru Chujo]

Fans of Ayumu may be interested to hear the voice actor who played him, Toyonaga Toshiyuki, as the male lead in the new series Kagihime Monogatari - Eikyuu Alice Rondo. It's a totally different anime, involving magical girls whose power is to read the stories in people's hearts. But he appears to be rising, since he is playing opposite Shimizu Ai this time.

[jpwong]

If anyone would like to format them, I did grab discussion pages 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9 off google a while back.

[martino]

This was a very nice and interesting anime I have to say. What do you think about the mobile phones, did they have any special meaning???

[Guardian Enzo]

Good to see ZS pop up on the boards again. One of the best animes of the last year.

[1982Hero]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Good to see ZS pop up on the boards again. One of the best animes of the last year.

Agreed 100%

[NoSanninWa]

Originally Posted by martino

This was a very nice and interesting anime I have to say. What do you think about the mobile phones, did they have any special meaning???

Definitely. Those mobile phones represented the emotional distance that people put between each other.

[martino]

That makes sense...

So this thread was erased, how sad. If jpwong has still got those nine pages I'll try to format them, becuase it seems like a pity.

[ZODDGUTS]

Yeah I also consider this series the best series of 2005. It's worth your time checking out. Plus it felt original compare to some of the typical cliche anime we see this days.

Plus this is the only anime series that felt a bit like The-X Files for some reason. lol

[martino]

Not to me, because I used to have nightmares after watching X-Files...but this was just really nice and sweet.

[Kaoru Chujo]

I'm not going to say this was the best show of 2005 (that would be Honey & Clover, for me), but it was definitely excellent. Knowing it was an early-Saturday-morning broadcast, at first I thought it would be kid stuff and ignored it. Fortunately, I read something good about it and started watching. The mood and feeling were just great, and there was some wonderful voice-acting (Mitsuhashi Kanako as Miki, Kobayashi Akiko as Kisa, Shimizu Ai as Shione, etc.). The relationships were handled well, too.

[Guardian Enzo]

No props for Toyonaga Toshiyuki, Kaoru? I thought he gave one of the best performances of the year.