Anime Zatch Bell

[Naota 愚人クーリ]

Zatch Bell....a new anime that premieres on Toonami on Saturday. Zatch Bell is (of what I know) about a genius middle schooler Takamine Kiyomaro, that has received a present from his father called Gash Bell. Gash Bell is a small boy that was found unconscious. Gash is a demo boy sent from "the Demo World", and the rest I might not want to tell because it might spoil it for others. (Correct me if I am wrong) I am always open to see new anime.

Any thoughts.
:animesmil

[Dagger]

Wow, it's really starting this Saturday? How time flies...

I don't know much about Zatch Bell, other than the fact that it's a comedic action series (or is it?). So I'm not terribly excited about seeing the first episode, but I guess I'll watch it all the same. If I recall correctly, Zatch Bell was one of the first anime licensed directly by ShoPro, so fans of Naruto might have something of a vested interest in seeing how it turns out.

And I still find it incredibly amusing that they changed the title. :animeswea

~Dagger~

[Gravy Train]

Amazing how that Toonami voice can make anything sound coo...or not. Everytime that voice annonces the premiere of an anime, they all sound the same.
Example: "_____ will save the _____ blank, but only if the ___ don't destroy them first."

[Naota 愚人クーリ]

Yeah you got that right...they make any thing soud cool. They made D.I.C.E soud cool and then when I fianlly watched it, it was really stupid. The things that they make sound cool can some times be really cool. Like the first time I saw Dragon Ball Z was pretty tight. So it might not be all that bad.

And I think what you gave an example of was the trailer for Zatch Bell so.. yeah :animeswea

[Dagger]

Everything about the first half of episode 1--from the artwork to the dub--was depressingly awkward. I was more or less ready to turn off the TV (and the frequent commercial breaks weren't helping).

But by the time I had gotten used to the voices, it suddenly became really funny. Although the show is pretty rough around the edges, the comedy (some of it, anyway) is priceless. The rooftop sequence was what made me come away from the episode with a positive feeling--it shovelled on the drama, but did so quite skillfully, and I think that bodes well for the future. Of course, it was also around then that the humorous parts became a little sharper and more original. I ended up laughing my head off at certain gags.

As far as mindless entertainment goes, Zatch Bell pretty much hits the spot. I like Zatch's gung-ho attitude, but I also like the main character's cynicism and intelligence. It's rare for the protagonist of this kind of show to be a friendless geek, as opposed to a friendless delinquent (a la Bleach and Yu Yu Hakusho).

The anime strongly reminds me of the (slightly more refined) recent series [b]Rozen Maiden[/b]. Rozen Maiden deals with quirky dolls who must team up with a human to fight, and the lead, Jun, is incredibly similar to Zatch Bell's Kiyo.

~Dagger~

[Gravy Train]

I must say that I was greatly disappointed by the first episode. Not that I was expecting much in the first place. CN tends to kill its dubbed animes that aren't on Adult Swim. I can't remember how many similar rooftop scenes have occured in other animes and the girl in danger part only adds to the cliche. I'm not sure who Zatch's voice actor is, but it must be a character from another show I hate because I found the voice extremely annoying. Wait...wtf...is his voice the same as Jimmy Neutron's? That's just fscked.

However, the real reason that I didn't like it is because it just seems like a rip-off of the Doaists from Shaman King. If you've seen or read Shaman King then you will know what I am talking about. Also, the one girl says " the battle for Momoto King" which fully completes the ripoff where in Shaman King it's "the battle for Shaman King". If it was created by the same guy or company, then I'd let it slide.

[Dagger]

In fairness, I suspect a lot of that was intentional. I think they're deliberately playing up some of the cliches--for example, the part when Kiyo finally stood up to that big DBZ reject, only to have his *** kicked. Same goes for Zatch's cluelessness and the girl with the horrible character design; she's a total cardboard cut-out, just stupid enough to be funny.

Shaman King pre-dates Zatch Bell by a couple of years, but to me Zatch Bell's set-up looks like that of pretty much any other shounen action anime. Any plot-related similarities are probably analogous to the similarities between, say, Evangelion and RahXephon.

Speaking of the girl, does anyone know if her name was changed? "Suzy" sure doesn't sound very Japanese. There is a character called Suzume, based on what I've read, so I guess (and hope) that it might be some kind of nickname...

~Dagger~

[Naota 愚人クーリ]

I guess there could be some character name changes. Because when I read the reviews online about Zatch Bell they named the boy Gash Bell instead of Zatch Bell. While I didn?t think it was like unbearable and I really didn?t think it was awesome. The show does take on some noticeable characters such as a girl on a roof top. The show is an upgrade from the stupid shows that were on like D.I.C.E that show is truly stupid. I in fact don?t really mind the show. What I thought was really odd was how fast they introduced the characters. They just popped up one by one each coming in the order of significance. I thought it would take longer for them to do every thing.

[Gravy Train]

At least it moves faster than some animes....like DBZ. I just don't think I can endure having to go through every episode being reminded of Jimmy Neutron everytime that little kid talks.

And yeah, you're right, what is that girl there for anyway, other than some object for the villains to fight over. Don't know what they were fighting over, I've seen some much better drawn female anime characters in the day...homely.

[Kuraineko]

I saw some of it, didn't really get into it as well as the others, but it wasn't "that bad" just not what I was really expecting from it. But I usually never judge an anime by the first episode. I like to watch like 3 or 4 then decide if I like.

[Dagger]

Just a quick note before I wander off to catch the next episode: I've been reading up on what people who have seen the Japanese version think of this adaptation, and the prognosis is looking slightly less hopeful. To answer the question I posed in an earlier post, there were indeed several (minor) name changes other than Gash becoming Zatch. Suzume became Suzy (Suzie?) and the rooftop bully's original name was [i]not[/i] Kaine. Unfortunately I can't remember enough details to comment further on that issue.

As for visual edits, they're apparently normal for a Toonami show--not much heavier than what was done to Yu Yu Hakusho, for example. Zatch was given boxers toward the beginning of the episode (and I believe a comedic shot of his penis was removed, for obvious reasons). The bathtub scene supposedly underwent a lot of cropping and zooming in order to get some more Zatch nudity out of the picture. At least so far, though, it seems like none of the cuts will have any bearing on the progression of the actual story, which is a good thing. But I sincerely hope they use the real names & restore censored footage in the DVDs (for the subtitled version, at least).

EDIT: What the...!? Okay, now I'm really pissed. :animeangr

On the one hand, the second episode is as deliciously cheesy as the first (and confirmed my suspicion that Suzume getting in danger is going to be a running joke). On the other hand, it features what is quite possibly the worst editing job I've ever seen (and no, I haven't watched the 4Kids version of One Piece, but this is really pushing things). A gun was hideously redrawn into some kind of... globular mass. Much as I want to give ShoPro the benefit of the doubt, stuff like this doesn't exactly encourage me to think positively about them.

The episode three preview looked pretty awesome, though. I'm totally loving the designs for Zatch and all the other, uh, little people.

~Dagger~

[Naota 愚人クーリ]

Well I noticed that too it looked extremely bad. Every time the man moves his gun would move in an odd shape. I known they edit things out on cartoon Network and I don?t understand why they would edit a gun, out of all things in the first place. I know they would edit out like gruesome stuff. Why would they edit out a gun, they show guns every day on Dragon ball Z.

Was it even an cartoon network edit or some on else?

[FireDemon_Hoshi]

[QUOTE=Naota 愚人クーリ]Well I noticed that too it looked extremely bad. Every time the man moves his gun would move in an odd shape. I known they edit things out on cartoon Network and I don?t understand why they would edit a gun, out of all things in the first place. I know they would edit out like gruesome stuff. Why would they edit out a gun, they show guns every day on Dragon ball Z.

Was it even an cartoon network edit or some on else?[/QUOTE]

In my opinion and I could be wrong but I think they "probably" edited out the gun seeming as Zatch Bell seems to be more of a kid show but I do agree with Dagger it's completely stupid to edit out a gun when they show more than that on other animes.
Like said...Dragon Ball series like Z and Gt shows blood, arms and legs getting blown off, and all this other violent stuff and kids watch it. So yeah...why edit out a stupid gun? We see them everyday on normal tv! ;)

[Inuyasha-Lover]

[QUOTE=Dagger]Wow, it's really starting this Saturday? How time flies...

I don't know much about Zatch Bell, other than the fact that it's a comedic action series (or is it?). So I'm not terribly excited about seeing the first episode, but I guess I'll watch it all the same. If I recall correctly, Zatch Bell was one of the first anime licensed directly by ShoPro, so fans of Naruto might have something of a vested interest in seeing how it turns out.

And I still find it incredibly amusing that they changed the title. :animeswea

~Dagger~[/QUOTE]
Zatch Bell is a great show. Even though when they put it on the air they got rid of Yu Yu Hakusho. Will they put it back on the air?

[Zephyr]

[quote name='Inuyasha-Lover']Zatch Bell is a great show. Even though when they put it on the air they got rid of Yu Yu Hakusho. Will they put it back on the air?[/quote]

Count on it. Yu Yu Hakusho is one of their top animes. They probably took it off becuase they ran out of dubbed/edited episodes. When they get enough for another decent run they will toss it back up.

Back to the matter at hand, Zatch Bell (Gash Bell) is both a unique and amusing anime. The storyline seems both vaguely familiar, and completely different from other titles at the same time. The only thing I hate right now, is the dub of Zatch's voice. *Shudders.*

[Guest fireicedemon]

I couldn't agree more his voice is definitely weird and it is probably one of the most random animes I've seen in a while. But otherwise it really isn't too bad once you get past the fact that Zatch (Gash) can and will eat a whole live fish in one sitting :animeswea

[Dagger]

I was surprised that [spoiler]the concept of a "penalty" (i.e. someone vanishing/dying if one of the magic books is destroyed)[/spoiler] ended up being introduced in episode 3. Things are certainly moving along nicely, if you ask me. I just want to know more about the angry-looking blonde chick; it'd be nice if this show featured a female who actually has brains.

~Dagger~

[Naota 愚人クーリ]

Yesterday things finally caught up. In the episode they finally [spoiler]met the girl that was following Zatch and told Kiyo about the reason for Zatch's existence. We now know that it's every one hundred years they fight for king of the mamodo and 100 are sent to earth to battle. The mamodo are describe a demos in the Japanese version but in this one the really don?t call them demons. (Well the mamodo that the girl had looked like a demon.)It was odd at the end of the episode you see the dog turn into this huge thing with armor and huge teeth, you see the guy that came in the house holding the book and you figure out that it was a mamodo.[/spoiler]

I found this website too.
[url="http://www.zatch-bell.com/"]http://www.zatch-bell.com[/url]
It's not finished.

[COLOR=#503F86][SIZE=1][b]Added spoiler tags -Solo[/COLOR][/SIZE][/b]

[Dagger]

Thanks for the summary; as I had missed last week's episode, I found reading it very helpful.

I want to keep watching Zatch Bell, but the sheer sloppiness of the editing is driving me crazy. At this point I'm tempted to throw in the towel until ShoPro provides us with some information on the eventual DVD release. For me there's not much point in getting interested in a series unless the DVDs will be uncut. Although I'd like to assume the show will be available in some kind of uncensored form, I'm not feeling too optimistic at the moment.

~Dagger~

[Noside]

It's an interesting show with an interesting idea. I think as far as cliches go: they must of just had the mamodo idea and nothing else so they used cliches or they used cliches on purpose for effects.

The comedy is good, I found myself laughing a few times. When Zatch decides to attack with his little box toy I was floored, even though I knew it was coming. It was just so obvious yet funny anyway.

Something I find curious is that in every episode there's some drama going on, Kiyo watching Zatch get beaten up is one example. Another would be when Zatch is alone on the streets crying his eyes out.

Action's great, there's plenty of explosions to keep things interesting.
Oh yeah I like the song too.

I'm curious how long this anime is, the possibilities of an anime like this could drag on for a long time. Things are a bit wacky and weird, I'm curious how long they can keep going before they go stale.

[Kamuro]

I wasn't really "floored" by the show, but its alright, thats really all I can say, which leads me to believe why I even watch it, I mean, when you compare it to some of your favorite animes, does it really stand a chance? it doesn't against mine anyway, hopefully it'll get better and in this case, I'm hoping to stand corrected

[Guest doubledanger]

Okay, this has me confused (Hi btw, I'm new)

How are there Rainforests in England? On the [url]www.zatch-bell.com[/url] it says "While exploring a rainforest in England, Kiyo's archaeologist father discovers Zatch, an unconscious mamodo child."

Okay, I understand that it's an Anime, and can take artistic license, but RAINFORESTS IN ENGLAND? Very interesting.

I missed the first episode, is this accurate?

I grew up in England, and this is pretty funny =)

-DD

[Circ]

A rainforest needs not be tropical: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperate_rainforest[/url]

[Waterbender]

So I have a question to all of you. Why is your favorite Mamodo, your favorite Mamodo? And why is your favorite Partner, your favorite Partner?

[AnimeHeroX]

Well if i was ever in a mamodo fight my team member would be zatch he's not the strongest mamodo but you do want anyone more loyal on your side. and the dragon zacare attack totally rules. :animenose