Betterman 8/10

There's not alot of horror anime out there. Boogiepop Phantom, Devil Lady, Hellsing, Shuten Doji (more for how BAD it is), and others. I usually like horror anime without demons since it's usually of the weird, trippy kinda horror and Betterman falls squarely into this group.

This show aired in 1999 and is in a strange space as far a production quality goes. Its 26 episodes are widescreen which is odd for a show of it's age but it's mostly hand drawn and coloured which I would expect for 1999. I can only surmise the letterboxing was a deliberate technique by the creators to limit the audience's field of view in order to make the show scarier. The computer coloured stuff REALLY stands out since it's used very rarely and doesn't have the whole foggy look of the rest of the series. I liked the foggy filter they slapped on this series since it makes the whole thing alot creepier. The character designs were good with lots of oversized breasts but about a 50/50 split between male and female characters so it's not too distracting. I liked the spooky music and didn't mind the OP and ED. The special ED for the final episode was a little shrill for me but I really liked the intro to it so I'm kinda torn. I liked the VA's and Kaede had a really interesting voice and funny way of speaking that was amusing.

Betterman starts out introducing us to high school student Keita Aono who's kinda short and geeky. That day his childhood friend Hinoki Sai transfers to his school along with her tri-coloured hair and large rack. Her hair is brown but she has one big green bang and a red one on each side of it. This is important later so bear with me. She ignores Keita and later on his way home he ends up stuck in a new underground amusement park where people are investigating the mysterious deaths of a bunch of workers. Keita ends up running around in the dark being freaked out by various creepy things and ends up in a big robot with Hinoki. It turns out Keita has the ability to operate the mech, known as a NeuroNoid so he gets roped into joining Akamatsu Industries. They consist of Keita, Hinoki, another pair of pilots, a scientist girl, a frail psychic girl, the middle-aged mechanic that runs Akamatsu Industries, and a couple of mechanics that don't get killed with the rest every time something attacks.

There are a few strange goings on in Japan. People have been coming down with a disease named Algernon that makes them kill people and ends up making them crazy-go-nuts, then they die. There are also some strange goings on monster-wise. A couple of giant beasties and swarms of bugs and such show up during the series to attack the team at home and while they're investigating. A strange dude known as Betterman shows up to rescue them almost every time. He looks ALOT like Hinoki since his hair has the same coloured bangs (I told you it was important) and he fights by eating one of 3 seeds he carries around and transforms into a beastie with powers to save the day.

The story moves along as the team investigates the source of Algernon and the beasties. It turns out people killed by Algernon have been getting stolen by someone and their faces end up growing flowers that bear the seeds that Betterman eats. It looks as creepy as it sounds. Everything relates to when Hinoki's parents and brother died a few years earlier during some creepy experiment that was an attempt to create a new type of human.

I really liked the creepy tone of most of the episodes and the secrets surrounding Algernon and the Betterman are slowly revealed at a good pace. I realy enjoyed the ending for this series which was better than I expected and the action sequences involving the robots were really great. Also during the series, Hinoki warms up to Keita so there's a little romance thrown in amongst the unrelenting terror in dark corners. While everything isn't quite explained at the end I was very satisfied with what I could understand and I'm gonna recommend this since it's really entertaining.

Be sure to watch the messed up previews narrated by the frail psychic girl Sakura.