First Impressions – Zettai Karen Children: The Unlimited Hyoubu Kyousuke

Unlimited Super Saiyan Works.

Hooray more new anime to talk about! This time we tackle Zettai Karen Children: The Unlimited, which follows a character named Hyoubu Kyousuke who looks like he belongs in season three of Phi Brain as the next lead villain thanks to his silver hair. But this is of course my first time exploring the Zettai Karen universe…so what are your original thoughts going into this Kyokai?

Hey, Fosh, why does this feel like another K tag? :3 Anyways, while reviewing this for our Winter preview, my interest was piqued. Not because of the previous hideous character designs but the current updated ones along with the seiyuu cast and Manglobe involvement. I went in without much background on the original series and with very low expectations. At least on that ground, it didn’t disappoint.

In short, we were introduced to Hyoubu, who got voluntarily captured to access a high security jail, where his favourite loli (Yugiri) was trapped. He met Andy there, who ended up supporting him in his mission to free the loli. Passing through many hurdles and a fat Hitler, they made their great prison break epicly on a submarine named Catastrophe supplied by PANDRA.

Mr. Super Saiyan for President!

// Our Anti-hero – I end up calling Hyoubu Kyousuke, HOBO, because even when it doesn’t fit his character, it fits the tongue nicely. His entrance was epic with mutilated bodies and crunched up choppers. I mean, the whole panorama of the city he was creating havoc in, just to show off his powers to get caught, was all very dramatic. I’ve come to appreciate such drama even more after regularly following JoJo and Hyoubu’s complete disregard of authority yet using them to fully get his rights (wearing a school uniform for one), was interesting. He’s a super-intelligent predator, stalking its prey before striking for his own benefit.

Rather then going with information dump on the first episode, I liked the provided glimpse of the world where normal humans and espers cohabit. However, from what Andy said and how Hyoubu reacted after fight, it’s clear that they are treated differently and mostly lower than normal humans. Seeing that Hyoubu was the main villain in main Zettai Karen Children series, we’ll most probably find out how he turned into that. Rather than a goody-two-shoes MC, I dig Hyoubu being grey, right smack in the middle of good and evil. I’m not sure if the reasoning would fall flat but for now, this is an entertaining supernatural that I’ll be following for at least two more episodes.

Now fly~

// Amazing super powers – Most of you know that I have an undying love for all things mecha, moe and comedy when it comes to anime, but I love watching lots of action anime with crazy supernatural/science fiction themes especially when you throw in several characters with amazing super powers it always seems to catch my interest. While all of that sounds just like your typical Index, Railgun and possibly Darker than black clone we haven’t really seen what types of powers that exist in this world because we have only seen Mr. Hyoubu Kyousuke using some extreme jedi like power? That and I think that the other main guy Andy Hinomiya has more than one power, his left eye near the end started to glow which reminded me of Alma’s ability to switch between weapons in Sacred Seven and what of the little girl Yuugiri that they saved from the prison? Why is she so important? Is she going to be something like Anna from K? With super powers the sky is the limit in terms of creativity and imagination! I guess that is why I love that theme so much because I always like seeing how they explore new powers.

Every Berserker comes with a cute loli

// P.A.N.D.R.A. Cast – With an anti-hero, a hero is needed and by the end of this episode, it was clear Andy is that person. His whole disguise of being captured in an esper jail, never to come out was all a setup to join Hyoubu’s PANDRA organization. He seems upstanding enough with his monochromatic eyes and an air of mystery around him for being too friendly yet up-to-something vibe. His allegiance to USEI proved the latter and now I’m curious to find out his esper power. Also, seeing the sharpness and keikaku doori (Yep, that was definitely a reference to Yagami Light), attitude of Hyoubu, I don’t think Andy is fooling anyone. Hyoubu seems to be in the mood of toying with him for his own entertainment; though, Magi (Hey, Zangetsu ojisan, is that you?!) doesn’t seem very pleased with this setup.

The action was pretty good on both counts and Hyoubu sure showed his UNLIMITED powers to end Berserker’s life and blew up the Hitler lookalike warden. Though, as this is anime, if he’s saved somehow I won’t be surprised. Like the great entrance, the escape was pretty stylish as well with a giant submarine disguised as the sky? Dude, someone give that long-haired ojisan a medal for that. The moe powers were provided by Yugiri, who shares a past with our silver-haired protagonist, while some other cool looking people just wave to the audience bidding their time for more footage next episode.

// Fun with HOBO

Aaah YEAAAAAHHH~

Andy, you are slow. Movember was two months ago…

A possibility in a parallel universe

Yugiri, “I’ll do cute things and you’ll love it~” *strikes a pose*

I have multiple recording stashed in different places

Well, that certainly was a really exciting first episode for me! It had just about everything I could want in terms of action, story and interesting characters and it kind of has me curious about possibly watching the original Zettai Karen Children. I can’t wait to see what happens next because damn they left off at an exciting moment, like who was Andy talking to at the end and what’s his purpose? I really hope he is not some kind of advance cyborg! I still like the idea of him having multiple powers instead of just one. So what did you think of this? Was this episode enough to keep you wanting more or did you find it dull and boring? I suppose I should wait and see what the next two episodes do, right? I mean we could have another case of “Whoa this looks really cool, but story is very lame” worst case but at least we can watch Yuugiri run around being cute…

This was unexpected. I wasn’t planning on liking this much but I’m curious to know what happens next. After watching so many anime, I don’t expect to see new things but rather something that would entertain me and for a first episode, Unlimited Hyoubu Kyousuke was pretty interesting with its grey line of good and bad. In the end, when you really think about it, the concept of good and evil is all about your own perception and though, Hyoubu seems to be a person who has an agenda of his own and for which he works painstakingly hard. Though, for now we don’t know what exactly they are and till now the execution has been good. In the new few episodes, we’ll find out where the story is going with the tug of war between Hyoubu, Andy and their respective organization.

The voice cast is amazing! You don’t really see Yusa Koji voicing a main protagonist but mostly as a villan, sidekick, stalker, tortured soul and small supporting character. Though, his profile is huge and same can be said about Junichi Suwabe who’s a pro at smexy voice (you should check his variation in Cuticle Inaba as a moe-wolf). There are more famous names on the cast; though, what surprised me was  Jun Takagi, the character designer who has a huge list of animation direction and key animation but only previously worked on Manyuu Hikenchou as a Character Designer. The characters are very CLAMPISH but in a good way and overall this was a good first episode.

The most hilarious moment for me was when a talking chipmunk came out of Berserker’s organic body/mutilated chunks?! I went EHHHHHHH?! Did you had any? And did you like/hate the first episode of spin-off? Should we watch the original series or let it go entirely? And if you haven’t already, go at least check it out. It is an entertainer.

// Preview:

We are not sure if we’ll regularly cover this but for now it seems Andy will have it tough with an assassination mission from Hyoubu to break him into PANDRA. Also, hopefully, on the way we’ll find out more about the characters’ past and why they fight.