Zettai Karen Children: The Unlimited Hyoubu Kyousuke – 03

Zettai Karen Children THE UNLIMITED - Hyoubu Kyousuke 003

“…and if we die, we fall into a coma!”

A few weeks into school and things are already crazy. I’ve poked and prodded at human brains in my neuroanatomy lab and I’ve sifted through enough scientific articles to go cross-eyed. Staying on top of everything is tough! Oh, so tough! I’m sure you all know how it feels to be bombarded with work. I’ll bet you’re up to neck in some project or other too, dear reader. Be it homework, or kidnapping princesses, this post is full of busy people getting down to business. To be clear, I’m not the one who advocates whisking princesses away to tiny hotel rooms. I’ll forever leave that job to our white-haired protagonist.

The one-shots continue! Hyoubu spends this week capturing a princess. That’s right, PANDRA’s not just about offing mafia bosses using the full extent of their powers. Sometimes a criminal organization has to do a couple of good deeds and save pretty ladies from getting their guts splattered all over the nice drapery. Saving Princess Sophie from being assassinated is actually Yugiri’s idea. She knew princess Sophie from her time at an orphanage, and feels like helping her out since she was nice back then. In fact, she’s still unbelievably saintly, and even offers to support her kidnappers in their endeavors. She’s either really stupid, or trusting and kind to a mystifying extent. Being nice to espers is one thing…being nice to espers who forcefully kidnap you is another kettle of fish. Still, I have to hand it to her for saving the audience time that could have been spent seeing her panic and thrash around helplessly. A damsel in distress, she ain’t.

Zettai Karen Children THE UNLIMITED - Hyoubu Kyousuke 002

“Where’s my complimentary room service?”

It’s kind of funny that she actually turns the tables around and asks her kidnappers to let her go out to eat ice cream, go shopping and generally just dick around. The entire episode is a lot more light-hearted and silly than the previous one, and just seems like a big excuse to get us to know Minamoto and Sakaki. PANDRA reuse a lot of tricks here such as hypnosis to create doubles and Fujiura’s handy eavesdropping skills. It’s almost like a repeat. To be fair, Hyoubu does seem to do a mind-reading trick by touching a soldier’s head and Yugiri unleashes her powers – but both of these are short-lived. Yugiri is telepathic and that’s all we know so far. Her super saiyan outburst just tells us she has stronger abilities hiding somewhere, but that’s still nothing any of us couldn’t have already assumed off the bat. Why else would Hyoubu keep her around if she wasn’t a dime-a-dozen telepath, right? Other than being a lolicon, that is. Just as it was explained to me last week in the comments section, Hyoubu is called a lolicon a lot more times than he defends it.

Zettai Karen Children THE UNLIMITED - Hyoubu Kyousuke 006Zettai Karen Children THE UNLIMITED - Hyoubu Kyousuke 011

The more silly nature of the episode made me enjoy the ride a little less. Everything was resolved so quickly and simply. Minamoto’s role seemed like a second thought or a last minute addition. Was he really needed? Couldn’t that last scene have ended with Hyoubu breaking the guy’s gun and revealing him as the killer? I still enjoyed seeing the little bits and pieces of Yugiri’s adorable personality as well as Hyoubu taunting his enemies at BABEL, but I prefer when this show goes the more serious route. The humour just isn’t all that funny. If Sakaki hits on another woman, I think I’m going to rip my hair out.

I will admit that Sakaki playing the video game to try and unlock the data won a few smirks from me. It reminds me of playing games with my friends whenever someone uses a character that’s not normally theirs. For example, sometimes in Smash Bros. when I use my friend’s favourite character (Falco) instead of mine (Pikachu) and die, I will yell at my friend for causing me to die because of his stupid character. It was such a pointless scene aside from showing us that Hyoubu wanted to delay their retrieval of the info, but it was pretty cute. When he’s not feeling up women, Sakaki can be pretty funny.

Zettai Karen Children THE UNLIMITED - Hyoubu Kyousuke 007

All in all, this was a big one-shot episode to just familiarize us with BABEL, the state of affairs in the world with esper rights, and show us a liiiiittle more about PANDRA. It may be a criminal group hated by others such as BABEL, but they are willing to extend a helping hand sometimes. Sometimes. They’re all a lot nicer than they let on, and I think this all has a positive effect on Andy. He spends most of the episode complaining about Yugiri saving the princess on a whim, but I think he’s actually impressed at them for doing such an incredibly good deed. A dead princess would cause a giant uproar, after all. Plus, it wasn’t done for selfish reasons such as getting more esper rights, but just because a young girl wanted to help out an old acquaintance. Awwww.

Bonus Screenshots: Show ▼

Preview: Oh wow, are those the original 3 girls from Zettai Karen Children? It sure looks like it! The cameos continue with these 3 attacking PANDRA on their boat. Is this another one-shot, or will the main plot actually involve all of these old faces from before? I’m itching to learn more about Hyoubu and not some new characters, so let’s hope episode 4 does some scratchin’!

Zettai Karen Children THE UNLIMITED - Hyoubu Kyousuke 014

About

A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
Blinklist BlogMarks Delicious Digg Diigo FaceBook Google MySpace Netvibes Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Twitter

50 Responses to “Zettai Karen Children: The Unlimited Hyoubu Kyousuke – 03”

  1. BlackBriar says:

    A semi-eventful episode. P.A.N.D.R.A has a lot of nerve crashing a party and kidnapping a princess and rubbing it in the faces of the authorities. Their audacity knows no bounds. Being outlaws suits them.

    The princess’s strangely accepting attitude of her situation left me with a huge question mark in my mind even treating Kyousuke like he’s some sort of knight. She’s probably a good judge of character and the group was only doing that solely on Yugiri’s whim.

    I think Kyousuke will leave a huge impression on viewers at the end of the series with his Jack Sparrow-like personality. He only does things that are convinient for him. And how could anyone deny the fact of him being a lolicon when he always has Yugiri glued to his hip?

    • Overcooled says:

      The in-your-face way of doing it was probably to lure the assassin to find them…but it still suits their image to be badass and spraypaint “WE WERE HEEEEREE” like a rebelling teenager.

      I don’t even know how to interpret that princess. She doesn’t seem human! How can you be that calm about getting kidnapped?

      I love Kyousuke, and I will argue that he isn’t a lolicon! He just needs her powers!

      • BlackBriar says:

        I think they resort to such bold tactics to challenge their abilities out of what I think is pure boredom. Like the characters in Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? willingly travelling to another world because they were tired of their everyday routines.

  2. HannoX says:

    I can’t quite figure out why Hyoubu didn’t kill the kidnappers. He doesn’t set any value on the lives of almost any normals. Is it because Princess Sophia is a normal that he doesn’t care they wanted to assassinate her? Maybe, but it seems more likely that the anime team wants to set him up as a good bad guy.

    I hate to break it to you, Overcooled, but hitting on women is something Sakaki does constantly. We’re sure to see more of it. At least they are women–no one’s accused him of being a lolicon. As for Minamoto, in ZKC he filled the role of the regular, super-nice, overly earnest (but also genius) guy who was the butt of much of the humor in that series. Expect more of the same. But he really, REALLY cares for the 3 esper girls in his care and unlike Hyoubu he vigorously denies being the lolicon he’s often accused of being and yells at the girls when they try to make him see them as romantic objects.

    Yes, the 3 girls in your screen shot are the ones from ZKC. Going by their uniforms and apparent physical development, The Unlimited takes place after the end of ZKC when Shiho, Kaoru and Aoi (l to r) have graduated from elementry school and are in middle school. So much for my guess last week that The Unlimited might take place a few years earlier.

    Hyoubu in ZKC schemed to eventually lure Shiho, Kaoru and Aoi over to PANDRA for the war he’s convinced is coming between espers and normals. In fact, he dubbed them Empress, Queen and Goddess. Kaoru he especially focused on. So it’ll be interesting to see how they (especially Kaoru) and Yugiri react to each other. Although none of the ZKC girls regarded him romantically, might there be some jealously nevertheless? If not over Hyoubu, then perhaps over Momotarou. For a brief while he was their pet and he has had a sometimes continuing relationship with them, particularly Kaoru.

    • Irenesharda says:

      I’m going to guess the Hyoubu didn’t kill those terrorists, because 1) he didn’t need too, as it didn’t further his aim, 2) he had to use his psychometry to read them, and he can’t do that very well if their dead, and 3) as the princess is doing what she can for esper-kind and is willing to partner with them, he didn’t want to turn public opinion against his people in a country where it’s already tenuous. He might hate normals, be he’s not stupid.

      Also, in ZKC there were some hilarious moments where Hyoubu denied being a lolicon/pervert when several characters implied it. However, interestingly Minamoto has denied way more times, way more forcefully. And as the Bard says: “Me thinks that he hath protesteth too much.” And saying how they are always implying a romantic relationship between himself and the girls, who he is at least two times the age of, I think I can safely label him in the “lolicon” category.

      Also, while Aoi never totaly trusted Hyoubu, and Shiho never really cared one way or the other, Kaoru never really had a problem with Hyoubu and all three get along with him in a big brother/little sister sort of way.

      • Overcooled says:

        I have nothing else to compare Hyoubu to, but they might be trying to make him more good since he’s the main character. There’s a limit to the appeal of a protagonist who slaughters everyone in sight. Even if not killing people here was the sensible thing for him to do to not turn a bunch of powerful people against him, I think they’re still trying to make him not totally vicious.

        Ughhh Sakaki, please give up…Such lame flirting attempts! I don’t fancy Hyoubu or Minamoto being called lolicons either, because that isn’t something I want to be suggested at regular intervals – even if just done in jest. It’s not exactly the most clever running gag either, so I hope it ends here. Err, it might not if it was mentioned as much as you two say it is.

        Good to know the history between all of them in case they don’t explain it in the episode! Thanks. I’ll be curious to see what kind of conversation (or fight) the 4 of them have.

        • Irenesharda says:

          Well they mention it more in the other show because its a comedy and they do it for laughs. But Hyoubu has never really viewed the girls like that. He sees them more as the future of his people and like a protective parent or elder brother he continually checks on them inconspicuously. When he said he offers his heart to a queen and not a princess, he is really saying his loyalty already belongs to Kaoru. As far as I have seen, he’s never shown any real romantic feelings towards anyone.

          However, as you say, since the tone of these shows are sooo different, I hope that they do stem the lolicon thing. Yes, he cares for children, but I doubt it is in that way.

  3. HannoX says:

    Augh! Spammy ate my comment! Can someone please save it?

  4. Irenesharda says:

    I enjoyed the episode even if I didn’t like it as much as the first two. Getting introduced to the cast of the original ZKC made me go and check out the original show.

    After skimming through the show, I can see what makes it interesting and what makes Kyousuke such an interesting character. People complain about him being OP here, but when I see him in the original show I can see that he’s grown quite a bit in strength since then. Strangely enough, in the first episode of his introduction it is confirmed that no prison can hold him, whether that prison be made for espers or normals(which consequently puts the first episode in a whole new light).
    However, I can also see why the mangaka not only approves of this show but is helping in its development. After seeing both versions of our silver-haired main character, it seems as though in the very beginning of ZKC he was meant to be what he is now: an antihero. And I think that is truly how his creator meant him to be: a man who straddles the line between right and wrong in order to get things done.

    I think somehow as ZKC progressed, it came to the realization that its needed a constant villain. So Hyoubu and company were painted to be more villainous, and so they became the main antagonists. Yet, in the first few episodes of his introduction and even later on, I could tell that the Major is not all bad, nor is he particularly evil. He simply does not see the world as black and white as the first show likes to paint it, since it is simplistic and childish. He is a bitter, embittered man, with a large chip on his shoulder. But he doesn’t let that stop him from trying to make the world a better place for espers. Essentially he does the same things that BABEL is trying to do, but he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty in trying to do it. So I’m afraid that I would probably take PANDRA over BABEL any day.

    As for Minamoto and Sakaki, I enjoy them even if I think Minamoto is too altruistic for my tastes. The princess was too bland for my tastes, and I kept waiting for her to turn out to be evil. Also, by the way, I think the power that you saw Hyoubu use this episode wasn’t mindreading per say, as I doubt he’s a telepath since he uses Yugiri for that. However, he does have psychometry as one of his known abilities(what power DOESN’T he have?), so perhaps he as using that.

    I liked the set up of this series, which is far superior to its predecessor, but I would like for now it to get into an actual ongoing plot. Episodic worked for ZKC, but I think The Unlimited needs more than that. I am excited for the next episode, however I doubt the Children will be fighting PANDRA. They may have been powerful in their own show, but unless they’ve upped their game, they’re too weak to be sitting at the table with the big boys just yet.

    • HannoX says:

      It is stated in ZKC that Kaoru, Shiho and Aoi are Japan’s only Level 7 espers, the highest rank. It’s not power they lack, it’s experience, which Hyoubu has in spades. And he does have more than one power. How The Children would stack up against him in a confrontation has been left open.

    • HannoX says:

      BABEL is working to have espers accepted by normal society, which would protect them. PANDRA is gearing up to win a war between espers and normals, which Hyoubu may try to bring about. There is a huge difference in the approaches. PANDRA also engages in numerous criminal activities, which only makes normals fear espers more.

      BABEL’s way is better. Let’s look at the civil rights struggle in the USA. If Dr. King’s movement had adopted violent tactics, it never would have won the general public over to its side.

      • Irenesharda says:

        First, as I said, Hyoubu is much more more powerful here than he was in the original show. And although the girls are the only level 7s in Japan, they only really have one power each. Hyoubu I believe is a level 6, and has at least 5 different powers that he can use easily in tactical combat. And as you said, he has many more years of experience than the girls, and also he’s a military genius. You combine all that together and it trumps raw power any day, especially if that power hasn’t been completely taped yet. Also, you have to admit that ZKC is one of those shows where the protagonists will always win in any situation because its a kids show. The Unlimited is not such a show, and so everything is now up in the air.

        Also, as to the part with BABEL VS PANDRA, BABEL treats the problem as if its the simplest thing in the world and that one day everyone will accept the espers. That is simplistic and unrealistic. They train “good” espers and imprison “rogue” espers so that society will not see espers as bad. However, is that really the best things for the espers themselves? This is all well and good for not gaining the fear of the normals, but how does this affect the actual lives of the espers? BABEL and other governments only care about high-level espers because they can be used as weapons. No one cares what happens to the low-levels, and what if someone didn’t what to work for the government? Do they have a choice? No, because even if the government allowed it, no one would hire them. It is for those people, that I think PANDRA is a better option than BABEL.

        I refer to the episode where Pandra was first introduced. Hyoubu is willing to help all espers no matter the background, he’s willing and a better choice to take care of the broken ones who will never trust humans because of their past abuse by normals.
        I think that nonviolence is a good route to take at times, but I also think that there are times where violence is needed. I might not agree with PANDRA starting a war, but if they are pushed, I have nothing against them fighting one.

        Also, as I said before, I don’t think PANDRA was meant to be so villainous in that they wanted to start a war and such. I think that because ZKC began to lack focus that the writer realized that the story needed a plot and a central villain, so took the only really interesting side character and made him and his group into the main villains. To me, PANDRA began as an anti-hero group made up of those espers who are ostracized from society to help and protect other espers from suffering the same fate. They are trying to do the same as BABEL in that they are protecting espers, but where BABEL is trying to protect normals from espers so that espers are not feared. PANDRA are simply trying to protect espers for the sake of the esper him/herself, against the normals that fear and abuse them. Both are doing good, and both are doing what they think best in protecting esper-kind.

        • HannoX says:

          You apparently didn’t see the episode where a PANDRA team (absent Hyoubu) was willing to kill everyone aboard a passenger plane in order to kill one esper who they regarded as a danger, an esper who wasn’t much older than The Children. The only reason they didn’t was because Kaoru was working with them and refused to allow it.

          There was also an episode where Hyoubu tried to get Minamoto to kill another young esper who he regarded as a threat. The Children were able to save him and defeat his brainwashing.

          While Hyoubu likes to position himself as a savior of espers, even in ZKC he really only cares about ones in his organization or ones he hopes to recruit some day. So far all the PANDRA espers whose power has been shown have been powerful ones. So it’s questionable if he really cares about low level ones.

          PANDRA is a criminal organization and Hyoubu is willing to kill, even innocents. Sure, since ZKC is a children’s show he doesn’t kill anyone in it, but it’s made clear he has murdered in the past and is willing to do it again.

          • Irenesharda says:

            I never said that PANDRA was a “good” organization, nor is Kyousuke as “good” guy. I simply prefer them to BABEL. They are criminals yes, and not everyone in their group believes that the results don’t justify the means, what group doesn’t have people like that? Hyoubu is not afraid to kill, and I won’t fault him on that. He’s military minded and he knows there will be collateral damage, but he strives to save his people if he can.

            As for the times that Hyoubu has hypnotized Minamoto, I believe that is both a test on Hyoubu’s part, and a show of the man’s bitterness. The Major has lost faith in normals and he is convinced that Minamoto will one day betray the girls. He strives to see if he can push the man to that point to make the girls see that the normals will betray them. However, I also thinks Hyoubu is testing Minamoto to see if he is still the right person to protect the girls. He sees Kaoru as the future leader of his people and wants to make sure she is taken care of properly, so why wouldn’t he continually test the caretakers mettle to make sure the man is loyal to his charges even if it means compromising himself. I don’t think Hyoubu would have let the esper kid die, even if Minamoto tried to kill him. He wanted to see how much the man would fight the mental suggestion. It was the deed he was looking for, not the results.
            It was the same way as when he dared Minamoto to shoot him, when the man pulled his gun in front of all the esper kids. He wouldn’t have let himself be killed, but if Minamoto had actually pulled the trigger, he would have lost all credibility in both Hyoubu’s and the kids’ eyes. When he didn’t, he passed the test.

  5. Irenesharda says:

    What happened to be my comment?

    • Kyokai says:

      Refresh the page, it’s there. 🙂

      • Irenesharda says:

        Thanks, I was scared that the internet ate it. 😉

        • Kyokai says:

          For some reason, our spam monster loves to eat genuine comments. Though, no worries; we do always rescue them. 🙂

    • BlackBriar says:

      It was eaten by the legendary spam monster but got rescued in time. Everyone has run into it at least once.

    • Highway says:

      My standard advice for dealing with Spammy is that if you press Submit Comment, and the page refreshes to the banner at the top of the article, you can be certain that it got caught by the Spam filter. Someone will likely get it out for you within an hour, but if there’s still one missing (it still counts it, and the text isn’t lost) after a while, you can make another comment to let the staff know that it’s there.

      You never have to redo your entire comment, and while it’s temporarily frustrating, it’s not too awful to deal with.

      And if you have something where the page never refreshes, like it’s an internet problem, then you might have to redo your comment.

  6. Foshizzel says:

    Now I want to watch the original Zetti children! I guess we will see if they stick around? I liked this episode even though loli girl didn’t get to show off her powers.

    Along with Mondaiji the younger characters seem to be the most powerful xDD

    • Irenesharda says:

      Be prepared though that the two shows are nothing alike. I myself couldn’t really get through all the episodes and simply skimmed through it, only really watching the episodes with Kyousuke in them. (And even only watching certain episodes, you feel as if you missed nothing, so yeah, its one of those shows…)

      The girls are okay but can get boring since they are mostly only one act characters. My cousin said they remind her of the Powerpuff Girls, and to an extent she’s right. ZKC IS a kids show, so know that going in. I have seen quite a few say that after seeing this show, they tried watching the original and couldn’t get through the first episode.

      • HannoX says:

        ZKC does get tiring after a while, so it’s best to watch a few episodes until they begin to wear on you, then take a break with something else before returning to it later. It may be a few days later or longer depending upon how long a break you need from it. That’s the only way I was able to get through the whole thing.

      • Foshizzel says:

        @Ireneshara: Actually I checked out the first 5 episodes of the first series and YES it is nowhere near as cool as Unlimited in fact I kept thinking it was more of a oldschool precure series than anything, but I found myself laughing at the odd ball humor xD

        Oooh damn now that you mention that series I can totally see it now! Well ZKC is more of a comedy anime to me anyway.

        @HannoX: I just saw five episodes and honestly I wanted to jump to the final 10 just to see how things end, but I suppose I could have just watched the OVA.

        • Irenesharda says:

          The problem with OVAs is that most of the time people don’t refer to them as canon, because if so they would be called direct sequels. So I wouldn’t put trust in the OVA, especially as this series is done by a completely different team than the one that did ZKC. So visions might be different.

          Also Foshizzel, if you want to get a clearer look at how Hyoubu was show in that series, I’d start with episode 8 (as well as 9-10 if you have nothing better to do) and 20. They go into the Major himself more, as well as his philosophy and background.

          • Foshizzel says:

            Ahhh thanks for the advice on the episodes and OVA stuffs! I will check those out~

          • Overcooled says:

            The original seems to vastly different…I don’t even think I’ll try it since you guys are already saying it makes you wanna skim through it. I only wanna watch something if I really enjoy it. I’ll stick with the Unlimited, but at least if I ever get curious I know where to look without watching the entire first season lol

            • Highway says:

              Life’s too short, and there are too many worthwhile animes to spend your backlog time on something that isn’t worth watching through. 🙂

            • Kiseki says:

              I’d say read the manga instead if you’re that curious. The beginning is VERY ANNOYINGLY episodic, but once you get through it, Zettai Karen Children becomes a fairly enjoyable story.

              You really can’t miss the Lord of the Flies chapter/episode.

              Also I say manga > anime because after a certain point, chapters begin with two supplement 4koma, which occasionally introduce characters or concepts that appear in the actual story later on. They’re pretty funny most of the time too.

  7. HannoX says:

    The original ZKC is available in a legal, subtitled version as Physic Squad, which is what I have. It’s in 4 volumes and is recent enough that I doubt it is sold out.

    With The Children showing up, even if it’s for only one episode, there are some things that may need to be pointed out for those unfamiliar with ZKC. The Children have learned to combine their powers when Minamoto releases them and allows them to triple boost. Kaoru is the focus of the combination and becomes extremely powerful and has wings.

    Although she hasn’t appeared yet, there is a PANDRA girl named Mio who is a little older than The Children. She’s infatuated with Hyoubu and wants him to see her romantically, something he’s shown no sign of doing. Because of the attention he has shown towards Kaoru (though not romantic attention) she’s very jealous of her.

    Hyoubu loves to tease Minamoto, so he’ll probably do more of it. At least twice he hypnotized him into seeing The Children as adults, and very attractive young women they were. This has left him somewhat conflicted in his feelings towards them, especially now that they are starting to mature into young women. Minamoto is 10 years older than The Children, not an unreasonable gap when they get older.

    • Irenesharda says:

      That’s so weird, he seemed much older than 20 at the start of the show. I’d say at least 25 or more. I really don’t know of any 20 year-old guys who are mature enough to handle parenting three 10 year-olds, but then again, this is anime-world so anything’s possible.

      • HannoX says:

        They clearly state he’s 20 and yes, he’s mature for his age. Sakaki is also young for a doctor, but both things could (barely) happen in real life and since this is anime, they’re even more likely to happen.

      • Foshizzel says:

        Yeah I am curious to see how much “older” they are xD

        • BlackBriar says:

          I’m curious to see what methods they use to have their appearance defy their age.

      • Kiseki says:

        Minamoto is 10 years older than the Children, who are 13 at the time of THE UNLIMITED. There’s a three year timeskip at the end of the original Zettai Karen Children. So he’s 23 now.

        • Irenesharda says:

          The question is, how long after ZKC does The Unlimited take place? I think they get the Catastrophe in the last episode, and here it seems they’ve had it for a while. So maybe next episode they’ll say how long its been.

          • Kiseki says:

            It most likely takes place around the current time of the manga where the girls are still 13. Almost 14, but still 13. Or even if it takes place a little after, it shouldn’t be much.

            By the way, it’s 2013 when they start middle school. We finally caught up to them. \o/ (…Sort of.)

            • Irenesharda says:

              Then there’s the issue of the fact that they say that other than being in the same universe, this story has nothing to do with the previous anime/manga and has a completely original story, which I am really glad about.

              Here’s my question though. The children are supposed to be 13 at the end of the anime, but they are only going to 6th grade? Pardon me if my school experience was exclusive to only my area, but when I was 13/14 I was in 8th grade about to graduate to high school. Why are they only just going to middle school?

              Anyway, I am excited about the new episode tomorrow and maybe that will answer our questions.

            • Kiseki says:

              At the end of the anime they’re actually 12 and some months, Kaoru being the eldest at 8 months, but for the most part takes place during their first year of middle school, generally rounded to 13 years.

              In Japan, elementary schools contain 1st-6th grades, middle schools have 7th-9th, and high schools are 10th-12th.

              So basically to be in 7th grade (or 1st year of middle school is how they refer it as), you have to turn 13 within the school year (April 1-March 31). It’s not by the Western calender’s year either, which is how it is in my state (but not for other states I believe).

            • Overcooled says:

              They look so much older than 12 in the preview shot. Ah well, that’s just anime for you.

              Isn’t it normal to be 12 and in grade 6? The Japanese school system sounds almost exactly like ours, so I don’t find it as strange. I know it varies from place to place though.

            • Kiseki says:

              A lot of people say that they look like they’re in high school and stuff, but I think the anime character designs are to blame. (Especially the ones in this spinoff with their broader shoulders and waists.) Shiina ages them better in the manga.

              Yeah, it is.
              It’s certainly not something I’m used to though. orz In Hawaii, your grade is determined by the year you were born in. Being a November child, I was 10 when I entered 6th grade in middle school. It took me a while to figure things out after I had someone tell me how the system works lol.

  8. Irenesharda says:

    I was wondering if anyone else noticed that Andy took off his limiter while he was working out, but it had no effect on Kyousuke who was sitting a few feet away. So is Kyousuke only affected by Andy’s powers when he’s stressed or is he now too strong to be nullified by Andy?
    And now that I’m remembering, whenever Kyousuke has used teleportation on Andy, the man had his limiter on, so it made sense. That is, except for the first episode when he was able to teleport himself, Yugiri AND Andy even while the man didn’t have limiter and the ECM was busted, after he blew up the lab. Is it that Kyousuke’s unlimited form is too powerful to be nullified?
    Now remember that later on in episode two is doesn’t work, because he just makes Andy run around everywhere, while everyone else gets teleported, so what’s going on?

    • HannoX says:

      Maybe the discrepencies you pointed out will be explained and maybe they’re the result of careless writing. If they’re never explained, it’s the latter.

    • Overcooled says:

      I think the radius of effect increases when he’s stressed, but it seems to be permanently on. I can see how Hyoubu might be able to sit just outside the effect area, but I’m not sure how he could teleport Andy if he didn’t have it on. The only way would be that he’s able to turn off his powers at will…although it doesn’t look that way since he automatically blocks almost everything thrown at him.

      I never really noticed though so as HannoX says, it might just be that they forgot about Andy’s power conveniently lol.

  9. Irenesharda says:

    OMG, new episode is out and it is glorious! The question has be settled on whether or not Hyoubu alone is more powerful than all three of The Children combined? And the answer is….

    Show ▼

    WATCH THE FREAKING EPISODE!!

Leave a Reply to Irenesharda