Around 1995, Japanese animation (anime) began pouring into North America, Europe and across the globe in video form. Most of these titles were unknown outside of Japan and never covered by animation journals. Whether a title is highly popular or very obscure, a high-quality theatrical feature or a cheap and unimaginative direct-to-video release, they all look the same on a store shelf. Therefore, Animation World Magazine will regularly review several new releases (including re-releases not previously covered) that have merit.

Betterman marries two stereotypical sci-fi plots. © 1999-2002 Sunrise This product is manufactured and distributed by Bandai Entertainment Inc. under the license by Sunrise, Inc. All Right Reserved.

Betterman. V.1, The Awakening. V.2, Metamorphosis. V.3, Seeds of Death. V.4, Inhuman Nature. V.5, Despair. V.6, Finality.
TV series (26 episodes), 1999. Director: Yoshitomo Yonetani. V.1-2, 5 episodes/125 minutes; v.3-6, 4 episodes/100 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.98. Distributor: Bandai Entertainment.

Betterman (inconsistently sometimes spelled Better Man) is a mix of two stereotyped dramatic anime TV s-f serial plots; the small team of scientists and action field agents who must race to identify an unknown but seemingly invincible threat before it can destroy the world, and the tragic hero who has been turned into a hideous monster, yet loyally uses his new powers to protect the humanity from which he is now estranged. The 26-episode Betterman (broadcast on Japanese TV from April 1 through September 30, 1999) presumably had a low budget since the animation is unusually limited for the Sunrise studio's standards.

"It's like we're in some cheap monster movie!" the teen protagonist screams in episode 10, summing it up nicely. Keita Aono, a 17-year-old video-game junkie, is eagerly awaiting the grand opening of the Bottom World underground amusement park when some disaster destroys it, killing more than 200. In the chaos Keita crawls for protection into what he thinks is a dummy giant robot and accidentally activates it. From inside the robot he watches the park's giant mechanical clowns try to kill people, who are saved by a frightening sharklike monster. Keita has seen things that the government is trying to keep from the public. He also has the ability to control the mechanical "neuronoid" suit by his psychic energy, which is almost unheard of. So he is drafted into Akamatsu Industries' research team, which invented the neuronoid mobile suits, originally intended for dangerous labor, but now pressed into service to fight the menace codenamed "Algernon." The first 10 episodes gradually introduce Keita (and the audience) to his varied but likeable teammates while battling individual horror-moviesque Algernon-caused disasters, most of which are stopped by Betterman. Episodes 11-14 are a four-part struggle against what seems to be the main villain, but who turns out to be only a pawn of Algernon. From episodes 15 on, the attacks focus upon Keita and his friends. The mood quickly turns from comedic parodies of horror movies to grim despair as Keita sees his new friends driven mad or killed, one by one. Clues to the secrets behind Algernon and Betterman are revealed with frustrating slowness.

The main difference between Betterman and other sci-fi anime serials using this formula is that the pseudo-scientific babble is centered around organic biochemistry rather than mechanical technology, such as amino acids, brain implants, telomeres, using pheromones to direct waves of attacking insects, controlled biological mutation, misusing cancer research into controlling cellular division to deliberately create monsters and so on. Unfortunately, the plot suffers from too many secrets within secrets, establishing an impression that the heroes are not so much intelligently advancing toward the solution as that the scriptwriters are jerking them around on phony side-adventures until it is time for the serial to reach its final episode.